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Caledonian Sleeper Mk5 Discussion

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BRX

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They aren't even running to fort william yet.
 

aleggatta

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I can't see sewage chemicals burning away at the plastic causing the leaks, if it's burning away at plastic that would mean you would have a serious chemical easily accessible to a member of the public and I don't think a chemical strong enough to eat through plastic would ever get that close to the public. What they may have done, is used plastic pipe and rubber fittings with jubilee clips (common on other types of stock, but not knowing the mk 5's can't be for sure) and that for whatever reason they haven't been fitted properly/pipework doesnt have enough of a fall to let the products run away swiftly
 

gingerheid

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At Glasgow. Train does look stunning...

...from the outside. CAF running around trying to solve software problems, lots of people being moved to different carriages.

Whenever they switch on the displays only three carriages get a letter.

And of course the lounge closed at boarding time :(
 

trebor79

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Yep, that last paragraph is waffle. Unfortunately that then makes the rest of the info dubious in its reliability.

All three paragraphs are nonsense.
The CET tank can't overflow back into the toilets, it's on a vacuum system and totally different from house plumbing where this can happen if the sewer blocks (happened to my neighbours once, whilst they were away for 2 weeks. Essentially all of the sewage from out cul de sac ended up all over their ground floor...).
There is no "intercom" in the room, just a call button.
Chemicals eating away the piping? Nah.

Whole thing reads like the ravings of an ill-informed armchair ranter who is anti the subsidy spent on the service and new stock.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Chemicals eating away the piping? Nah.

Unless it's PVC piping and someone accidentally used industrial strength drain cleaner on it...? ( I've been told by both a plumber and a plumbing supplier to avoid using industrial strength on a blocked bathroom basin for exactly that reason - the supplier will in fact ask exactly what the intended use is before selling any of the industrial strength stuff. )
 

Bletchleyite

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All three paragraphs are nonsense.
The CET tank can't overflow back into the toilets, it's on a vacuum system and totally different from house plumbing where this can happen if the sewer blocks (happened to my neighbours once, whilst they were away for 2 weeks. Essentially all of the sewage from out cul de sac ended up all over their ground floor...).

Given that domestic waste plumbing tends to go via an inspection chamber (so it'd just leak out of there as the inspection hatch isn't sealed) I am intrigued as to how that happens.
 

trebor79

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Given that domestic waste plumbing tends to go via an inspection chamber (so it'd just leak out of there as the inspection hatch isn't sealed) I am intrigued as to how that happens.

Badly installed sewer on the development, and the neighbours house and downstairs toilet being slightly lower than the nearest inspection chamber was the verdict. Plus I seem to recall the inspection chamber lids were very tight fitting. They may have seeped a bit but certainly the majority of any blockage would need to escape elsewhere.
Basically a bit of a bodge by the builders. I remember my parents eventually persuaded them to come back and sort out the floor in our house (which wasn't flat), but it took a long time and in the meantime they had carpet laid. So the carpets then had a nice crease in them for 15 years after the floor was levelled.
Remote link to railways, the builders claimed all these problems were due to the proximity of the Leamside Line, meaning they'd had to put in funny foundations. Probably wibble.
There were all sorts of things wrong with those houses.
 

gingerheid

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Well it was lovely, for me only small niggles though I could hear discussions about other problems people were having.

Thoughts :

- En-suite door seal was slightly loose in places, letting a lot of light leak and letting the door catch rattle slightly
- there really is a shower drain problem ; needs to be a long drain around the edge of the floor
- fitting for shower head would be better in the middle of the ceiling, given that the power is understandably low
- there was a sloshing noise during the night
- something inside the ceiling above the ensuite door rattled slightly
- the sign about the charging port is on the wrong object!
- nobody would know about the table, it needs a label?
- no pencil to fill in the menu card
- nowhere to put "stuff", like the suitcase mat or the menu card
- menu doesn't say what options like "Highland breakfast" are
-lightswitch button lighting is intrusive (between that and light from toilet almost possible to read)
- I'm 5"9, and I'm thinking the limit of the bed might be 5"11, partly because the mattress is slightly shorter than it could be
- the padded wedge above the bed is unnecessarily thick and intrusive
- Th metal channel on the corridor floor seems very thick
- the cabin colour scheme looks dreadful in photos but ok in real life.
 

Mogz

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Given the old stock is now available, I wonder whether any enterprising open access operators want to trial some “Cross Country” sleeper routes eg Penzance to Aberdeen or Norwich to Barrow-in-Furness? South Coast to Liverpool/ Manchester/ Newcastle, perhaps? Maybe Wick/Thurso to South Wales?

We can but dream...

That said, it’s 2019 and we have brand new en suite rolling stock on the Caledonian sleeper!!!!

Makes you feel that anything is possible...
 

gingerheid

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I have a suspicion that in actual fact the big opportunity for sleepers to explore new ground will come when HS2 makes sleeper services to Glasgow and Edinburgh almost pointless and very unviable, and when people try to suggest other uses for the stock used on them?

I'm very happy the new stock arrived (rather than a life extension of the old stuff to see what happens with HS2), but I'm worried half of it will eventually end up going to Devon and Cornwall... from London!

(I'd prefer, obviously, that it went to Oban, Kyle and Wick...)
 

Mogz

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The Night Riviera is barely far enough for one... it sits at Taunton and Exeter for an hour each to stop it arriving too early!

Agreed. Perhaps a Cornwall-Highlands sleeper would still be justified if HS2 kills off the need for London-Scotland sleepers?
 

Clansman

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I sincerely doubt the future of Caledonian Sleeper services between London and Glasgow & Edinburgh solely rests on whether people can get to Glasgow or Edinburgh 45 minutes quicker during the day than what they do now. It will take a lot more than HS2 to kill it off.
 

JonathanH

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I have a suspicion that in actual fact the big opportunity for sleepers to explore new ground will come when HS2 makes sleeper services to Glasgow and Edinburgh almost pointless and very unviable, and when people try to suggest other uses for the stock used on them

The sleeper allows a departure just before midnight from London or Glasgow / Edinburgh and an arrival in London or Glasgow / Edinburgh at 7.30am (London earlier) without having to be awake in the middle of the night.

Even if the running time via HS2 is 3 hours a similar departure time means arriving at 3am and a similar arrival time means travelling at 4am - neither as desirable as being on the sleeper.
 

Bletchleyite

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Do many people use it between London to Taunton , Exter and Plymouth?

Out of the about 5-6 people in the seated coaches last night (Tuesday night in term time is I imagine probably as quiet as it's going to get!), I think one alighted at Taunton and one at Exeter, though at least one of those was traincrew (was chatting with the driver during one of those layovers and definitely sounded like they knew each other well).

I suspect it's probably relatively low - the times are highly antisocial - a bit like I'd imagine southbound CS use (hooray, back on topic!) to Preston is I suspect probably also very low due to the 04whatever arrival.
 

trebor79

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The sleeper allows a departure just before midnight from London or Glasgow / Edinburgh and an arrival in London or Glasgow / Edinburgh at 7.30am (London earlier) without having to be awake in the middle of the night.

That's debatable :D
 

Bletchleyite

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The sleeper allows a departure just before midnight from London or Glasgow / Edinburgh and an arrival in London or Glasgow / Edinburgh at 7.30am (London earlier) without having to be awake in the middle of the night.

Even if the running time via HS2 is 3 hours a similar departure time means arriving at 3am and a similar arrival time means travelling at 4am - neither as desirable as being on the sleeper.

Depends how well you sleep on one. I'd be more effective in work the next day with 4 hours' sleep in a proper bed (dark, horizontal and quiet) than with a broken night's sleep in the Sleeper.
 

gingerheid

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It won't be all about arrival and departure time for everyone, or indeed for most people about any single factor. An extra hour during the quality, useful bit of the day may for many people balance out the extra cost and the inconvenience of hanging around in the evening. For other people the evening may be the vital bit (though if it is then the train probably leaves too early?).

I get about three hours sleep in them if I'm lucky (I was disappointed by the ride quality of the Mk5s, I'm sure it's at least as not smooth and not quiet as the Mk3s?). I wish Euston had platform space for them to be able to let you sleep a couple more hours.
 

mark-h

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The sewage system is basically overworked because of the amount of toilets in each carriage. Before obviously it was just one set in each carriage and 3 in the "accessible" one because of accessible toilet. Because of the multiple toilets now for the berths with en suites, at some points the staff have had to reshuffle passengers to another berth a few times because the sewage system has been overloaded, and a "sloshing noise" can sometime be heard when they train has been particularly rocky. A few times the blue sewage water has been leaking literally into the berths because of the overflow issue h,moving passengers. Apparently it's been found out the reason for this is because they have been essentially using plastic (or some similar material) piping, and obviously with the sewage chemicals, it's been burning away at the plastic and hence the leakage, because that piping is trying to support sewage/chemical water from multiple toilets.

Although there are lots of toilets they will have less total use compared with a daytime train as the sleeper has a lot fewer passengers per carriage.

The showers will increase the water usage- do these get used much before the morning?
 

Bletchleyite

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Although there are lots of toilets they will have less total use compared with a daytime train as the sleeper has a lot fewer passengers per carriage.

It depends on the usage. I'd imagine that on a day train the plumbing will mostly be handling, er, #1, whereas the Sleeper will have to handle peoples' morning #2s as well.
 

aleggatta

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It depends on the usage. I'd imagine that on a day train the plumbing will mostly be handling, er, #1, whereas the Sleeper will have to handle peoples' morning #2s as well.
having dealt with blockages on 'day trains', #2's during the day will outweigh #2s on a morning sleeper, a morning sleeper might only see 4 hours of 'action' tops, whereas a full 18ish hour day train will see many more passengers!
 

Bletchleyite

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having dealt with blockages on 'day trains', #2's during the day will outweigh #2s on a morning sleeper, a morning sleeper might only see 4 hours of 'action' tops, whereas a full 18ish hour day train will see many more passengers!

True, but most blokes do tend to have #2 first thing only (unless they have some sort of medical issue causing higher frequency), and everyone on a sleeper is on it first thing! :)
 

kingqueen

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Traveling on the Highlander on Tuesday night, a manager independently commented to my companion that there are issues with the waste plumbing pipes on the Mk5s was not coping with the strength of the chemicals being used, causing problems...
 

JModulo

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Traveling on the Highlander on Tuesday night, a manager independently commented to my companion that there are issues with the waste plumbing pipes on the Mk5s was not coping with the strength of the chemicals being used, causing problems...

What a load of proverbial...
 

Highlandspring

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It might be of interest to note on this thread that there’s a rake of mk5s undergoing commissioning on the Highland Main Line between Inverness and Perth every day this week.
 

TimboM

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It might be of interest to note on this thread that there’s a rake of mk5s undergoing commissioning on the Highland Main Line between Inverness and Perth every day this week.
"Unit 3" nonetheless for fans of Mk5 Unit numbers ;)
 
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