The 3 x mk3 BFOs were built for the Clansman - Euston to/from Inverness.
They never ran as the Inverness portion rather the Glasgow portion, and they were not built especially for it. In 1986, for one timetable period The Clansman ran as a 110mph Glasgow service direct and not via Birmingham, as The Clansman traditionally went, with an Inverness portion detached at Carstairs. The Glasgow portion had a FO and a BFO, the Inverness an FO only.
The mk3b FOs were built for the Manchester Pullman.
Again, not specifically. Certainly when new they did not run in the Pullman sets. They were built as 125mph brakes for the HST-E project, 3 Mk3B FOs on order were changed to BFO specifically for this purpose.
There appears to be previous debate about it. I certainly read that the point of the BFOs was to allow the Manchester Pullman to be fully formed of Mark 3 vehicles, before the DVTs were built.
Not quite, they were built for the HST-E project. They however found themselves in a variety of uses, one of which was in the Manchester Pullman sets but that was a few years after they entered service (some 16 months late as I recall).
This post suggests that in 1986 the BFO was being used on the Glasgow portion of the Clansman.
Correct, but only for that year. From 1987 The Clansman reverted to Mk2 stock, ran via Birmingham again and now ran to Edinburgh from Carstairs before then going to Inverness.
Didn't the Mk3 sleeper formations have Mk 1 BGs at one time?
Yes, ScotRail even had one as a spare to the BuO conversions until about 2005 or 2006.
Hi all,
Got a question that's been going round and round in my head, it's as follows:
Is it possible to couple a BR MK1 Coach to a MK3 coach?
Tom
You can couple any of Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 they all have drophead buckeyes.a
Mk4 and Mk5s are not nominally compatible with either each other or older types, but you could theoretically couple a Mk4 to a Mk1-Mk3 at the outer end of a set as the Mk4s have a buckeye at the outer end of the TSOE but it would never happen in service.