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Carriage letter order

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ASharpe

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Just found out today that Grand Central will be correcting the order of the carriage letters on the 180s for the May timetable. Hopefully fewer people will be walking all the way through the train looking for coach D.

Are there any other trains on the network where the order is wrong?

And does anybody know why the order is wrong on the GC trains?
 
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sprinterguy

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I would presume it was so that certain amenities remained located in the same carriage between both the HST (which were introduced first of course) and 180 trains, in case of one type substituting for another at short notice: As such, the carriage with the accessible toilet and wheelchair spaces on both trains is in coach D, and first class in coach F. This'd be particularly relevant for wheelchair bound passengers with reservations.
 
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causton

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The Caledonian Sleepers often have the sets not going in perfect alphabetical order;
i.e. F G H J K - A B C D E - L M N O P!

(rough example, you get the idea, not the correct number of carriages etc)
 

sprinterguy

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The Caledonian Sleepers often have the sets not going in perfect alphabetical order;
i.e. F G H J K - A B C D E - L M N O P!

(rough example, you get the idea, not the correct number of carriages etc)
That's something that's piqued my interest before: My cabin is in a carriage right at the front of a 16 carriage train, just behind the loco...and somehow it's designated Coach F or somesuch. :| I've always put it down to the vagaries of the portion working that goes on.
 

D6975

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What about 11 car pendos.
When first built, it was anticipated that a couple of extra carriages may be added later so a couple of gaps were left in the lettering, but the additions turned out to be more than expected.
so now we have A B C D E F U G H J K
IIRC
 
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table38

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so now we have A B C D E F U G H J K

Leaving an opportunity for childish photos like this :)

fu.jpg
 

alexl92

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I recently got on a TPE Scarborough - Liverpool service at Leeds. It was a pair of 185s and the rear one was locked out of use, but the front one had both ABC and DEF stickers in the windows of the carriages - so passengers with seat reservations were absolutely baffled as to whether they were on the right unit.
 

Failed Unit

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I would presume it was so that certain amenities remained located in the same carriage between both the HST (which were introduced first of course) and 180 trains, in case of one type substituting for another at short notice: As such, the carriage with the accessible toilet and wheelchair spaces on both trains is in coach D, and first class in coach F. This'd be particularly relevant for wheelchair bound passengers with reservations.

GNER got around this by having the smoking coach always B so only the HSTs had a coach A. Even now you have.

B - Quite coach
C, D & E normal
F - disabled space
G - standard hst
H - standard 91 not reservable.
J - first quite hst
K - first quite Mk4
L - disabled first
M - first.

It does help that you know instantly where quiet and coaches with large loos are, but you also often see confused passengers when the sets are swapped.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I recently got on a TPE Scarborough - Liverpool service at Leeds. It was a pair of 185s and the rear one was locked out of use, but the front one had both ABC and DEF stickers in the windows of the carriages - so passengers with seat reservations were absolutely baffled as to whether they were on the right unit.

I have seen c, b, a, f, e, d on 6 coach tpes. Always fun at Manchester.
 

306024

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Leaving an opportunity for childish photos like this :)

fu.jpg

It occurred to me that perhaps that hadn't been fully thought through when I first saw it too.

The shorter 9 car Norwich sets don't have a coach E, and none have coach A as that is effectively the DVT. Otherwise they are alphabetical apart from no coach I, and H is always the buffet.

That didn't stop someone once insisting they had a reservation in coach A. Got a quizzical look when I asked if they wanted to drive the train ;)
 

jopsuk

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I'm fairly sure I've had cycle rservations for EC HSTs that have been "coach A", indicating the guards bit of the TGS.

On EMT 158s, they have a rotating "carriage letter" indicator. Which means a 4 car train could be BACD
 

TheNewNo2

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Hm, I'd always assumed it was to ease problems concerning clarity. "C" sounding too much like "D" and all that.
 

hulabaloo

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Perhaps they could name each coach in the style of Snow White and the Dwarves?

You could have such names as Stinky, Rattly, Pukey, Noisy and Pricey!
 

scotsman

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Always fun when I was working a 350 labelled EFGH-ABCD. Spent a fair bit of time directing pax to their seats before I could even get the trolley out...happened a lot.
 

alexl92

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Always fun when I was working a 350 labelled EFGH-ABCD. Spent a fair bit of time directing pax to their seats before I could even get the trolley out...happened a lot.

At least 350s have corridor connections at the ends. If you get on the wrong 185 of a pair you're stuck!
 

D6975

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why do the MKIV sets not have a coach A?

It's to try to maintain consistency. HSTs and 91 sets are slightly different, but the carriages are lettered in such a way as to cause minimal seat reservation problems if you get a HST on a 91 diagram or vice versa.

I believe that TPX recently did some carriage relettering to minimise problems with 185/350 substitutions.
 
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ASharpe

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It's to try to maintain consistency. HSTs and 91 sets are slightly different, but the carriages are lettered in such a way as to cause minimal seat reservation problems if you get a HST on a 91 diagram or vice versa.

I believe that TPX recently did some carriage relettering to minimise problems with 185/350 substitutions.

Yes, and for the same reason there are also about 20 seats in coach B of a 91 set that can't be reserved in case it's substituted with a HST.

It always frustrates me when departing platform 6 at Leeds because quite a few people see the empty unreserved seats without noticing it's the quiet coach.
 
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