Alanko
Member
Because half asleep, possibly drunk men on a train moving about the place may have a tendency to, er, distribute their waste product all over the seat and floor?
Not just men... ask anybody who has ever worked in a pub.
Because half asleep, possibly drunk men on a train moving about the place may have a tendency to, er, distribute their waste product all over the seat and floor?
Up until this weekend there were only 4 Units accepted and in service (a "Unit" = 8 coaches, so two full rakes). These have been working the Lowlander from the outset. If they had the ones ready for the Highlander it probably wouldn't have been delayed...!!Surely, since they had, at least in public, been planning to switch over the Highlander last week, they must have had the two sets for that. Indeed the press release announcing the delay seemed to imply that these sets would be used on alternate nights on the Lowlander, so that each set would have 36 hours time for snagging between duties. Only once the glitches had been ironed out would they introduced on the Highlander.
The Mk2s don't work, mostly. The odd, seemingly unique heating system[1] definitely doesn't. That said, if only Euston had a slightly longer platform they'd have been swapped for Mk3s years ago.
[1] I've long wondered why they have a unique blown-air heating system - is it because they're paranoid of having electric radiators in night trains after the Westcountry fire that caused the end of the Mk1 sleepers?
May I add my thanks to mk2bfk for coming in on the discussion with such a detailed an informative response.
The gangways have been replaced as part of the rectification program at Brodies. They now have conventional bi-folding doors rather than the odd roller blind arrangement.
The gangways have been replaced as part of the rectification program at Brodies. They now have conventional bi-folding doors rather than the odd roller blind arrangement.
The inability to remove the bunk bed ladder is extremely dissapointing, as this severely constricts the space available in the bottom bunk, and makes it feel much more cramped and uncomfortable - especially when waking up in the middle of the night all groggy and then bumping into (as others have told me). The fact that it is fixed created much more problems with screws causing rattling, as outlined. I much prefer the way GWR have inovated their ladder design. As we all know, on the Mk3s the ladder rattles constantly when hung on spare coathangers, unless the top bunk is unoccupied which is where I normally store it. But retaining it when the top bunk is set reduces the space in the bottom bunk to move about - however this is more prominant on the Mk5s due to the Mk5 ladder being completely verticle and fixed onto the bottom bunk's underframe, whereas on the Mk3s, they were angled, which allowed for more room in the bottom bunk. GWR's design on their refurbished sleeping carriages of having the ladder fold into the wall for use as needed, is an extremely efficient and useful piece of inovative design. It's little things like this which go a long way to improving passenger experience. Unfortunatley, the general trend on the Mk5s is that every improvement over the Mk3s has a trade off, or the improvements are overshadowed by aspects of design and provision that were present on the Mk3s but completely bypassed for the design on the Mk5s.
It's a half-rake (Unit 7) there for training/testing.(Please move to the main Sleeper forum if this isn't the correct forum )
There's set of Mk5's stabled in the far reaches of Inverness yard!
I take it that these are there for crew training purposes, didn't see a loco so, static training only then!
The 67 used on the current stock is unable to couple to the Mk5's so I just wondered quite what the training would consist of?
Would there be a shore supply for everything electric? Is that shore supply able to replicate every thing a loco could offer?
I know that some shore supplies only give enough power to run essential services - so wonder if the crews would have thorough training - or the same 'serco' training that the crews already using the Mk5's got!
Arrived late Fri pm and in Inverness for a few days for operational testing / training then due to head to Aberdeen.I see there's still a pair of 73's with some mk5s at Inverness, are they likely to be leaving soon? I've not managed to spot them on RTT
Found a photo of the new bi-folding doors - in fact it looks like they've replaced the entire gangway assembly, see 2nd photo on this page:
http://www.revolutiontrains.com/sleepers-to-scotland-with-revolution/
I've found this on many night train trips recently (was it ever any different?) - the style of driving doesn't seem to take into account the type of train and its sleeping passengers. It's not just aggressive braking to reduce from high speed (does more modern stock make this possible and more noticeable than before?) but that final stop when the train comes to a halt - not carried out gently at all but with a violent lurch.(although this was on the Basel-Berlin route which seems to involve more higher speed sections, and correspondingly aggressive stops....).
I've found this on many night train trips recently (was it ever any different?) - the style of driving doesn't seem to take into account the type of train and its sleeping passengers. It's not just aggressive braking to reduce from high speed (does more modern stock make this possible and more noticeable than before?) but that final stop when the train comes to a halt - not carried out gently at all but with a violent lurch.
Yes I do remember that being the case on regular German day trains when they were still all older loco hauled stock... Especially those silver coaches you used to get on local trains - there would always be a rather noisy and screeching arrival at stations.That's my experience of European night trains too, and no, it was never any different. Certainly German train driving practice is "positive braking" - i.e. whack it all in down to a very precise but sharp stop, even in bay platforms. Indeed, modern stock is a bit better because disc brakes aren't as noisy - on older coaches it would make an almighty racket as well as being rough.
I swear it was much better when I took a non-nightjet sleeper from Switzerland to Prague - although even that train is tagged on the back of a Nightjet through Austria for most of the night. That train seems to go much slower in general, but the stops also seemed gentler (but I was also sleeping much better so I wasn't awake to judge the stops). Does sound like it could be a German-train-driver thing.I've found this on many night train trips recently (was it ever any different?) - the style of driving doesn't seem to take into account the type of train and its sleeping passengers. It's not just aggressive braking to reduce from high speed (does more modern stock make this possible and more noticeable than before?) but that final stop when the train comes to a halt - not carried out gently at all but with a violent lurch.
Or Austrian-driver-thing in that case.I swear it was much better when I took a non-nightjet sleeper from Switzerland to Prague - although even that train is tagged on the back of a Nightjet through Austria for most of the night. That train seems to go much slower in general, but the stops also seemed gentler (but I was also sleeping much better so I wasn't awake to judge the stops). Does sound like it could be a German-train-driver thing.
Not been following the CS reliability issues for the past year, but had they managed to get things more or less under control come the lockdown? I still see the odd tweet from CS announcing a late departure out of Euston, but have they got the issues with leaking bathrooms, check in and the like under control? I'm considering another trip on it when the situation returns to normal.
I've been taking the sleeper throughout the easing of lockdown for work quite regularly and its been in time every time with no issues. Didn't know any any check in issues? My rooms for the last couple weeks have been filthy though. With the amenty kits half used.
Didn't know any any check in issues?
They just check your ticket number and take your name then direct you to the correct carriage. How could that possibly be difficult?When I took it a year ago, the check-in process on the platform was like Fawlty Towers.