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Caledonian Sleeper

BRX

BRX

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Perhaps some suitably strong hallucinatory drugs could be used to convince the passengers that they had already been to the Highlands and come back again, when in fact they had never left Euston station. Perhaps the giant advertising board could be used to help induce the illusion. This would save a lot of diesel not just for the train but for replacement coaches too.
 
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RailUK Forums

D6130

D6130

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BRX said:
Perhaps some suitably strong hallucinatory drugs could be used to convince the passengers that they had already been to the Highlands and come back again, when in fact they had never left Euston station. Perhaps the giant advertising board could be used to help induce the illusion. This would save a lot of diesel not just for the train but for replacement coaches too.
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Shades of that excellent German comedy film "Goodbye Lenin"!
 
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K

Krokodil

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BRX said:
Perhaps some suitably strong hallucinatory drugs could be used to convince the passengers that they had already been to the Highlands and come back again, when in fact they had never left Euston station. Perhaps the giant advertising board could be used to help induce the illusion. This would save a lot of diesel not just for the train but for replacement coaches too.
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Just run it to Watford Junction and send them to the Harry Potter attraction.
 
Cowley

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I think it might be worth me mentioning that we seem to have strayed just a tiny bit off topic here…
 
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Gonzoiku

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Peter Sarf said:
I am assuming LNER and Scotrail priority was to terminate their trains at a main station.

For CS an extra priority is giving people a chance to sleep - it is a key point of the service. It would have possibly looked easier to terminate the CS at Perth and then wake and de-train the passengers at say 9am. Then the coaches to Inverness might still arrive at midday. On the other hand getting the sleeper train further North would have satisfied any customers requiring stops beyond Perth to Blair Atholl.

Would the road coaches be earlier meeting the train at Blair Atholl than if they had started loaded from Perth at 05:45 ?.
Or 09:00 ?.
Would the road coaches have been a slower journey if carrying passengers from Perth ?.
- I wonder if the road coaches might have actually left Perth a lot earlier OR perhaps come down from Inverness so Perth was pointless.
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Detrain at Perth at 0900? What about train crew hours?

I have in the past been decanted into a taxi at Waverley at about 0400 and into a minicoach at Perth at 0630. On both cases there was significant hanging around waiting for the road vehicle which was tedious. The taxi was direct to Inverness - a pleasant run for four of us, strangers. The minicoach had minimal legroom, even with two seats per passenger - and to add insult to injury it proceeded north duplicating all the intermediate calls! It's quite a trek off the A9 to Dalwhinnie, Kingussie, Newtonmore, Aviemore, Carrbridge. But CS did provide a carry out breakfast. Muffins and Orange Juice.

The 100% refund was welcome, but still...

Careful what you wish for!

GZ

PS in pre Mark 5 days
 
185143

185143

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Gonzoiku said:
Detrain at Perth at 0900? What about train crew hours?

I have in the past been decanted into a taxi at Waverley at about 0400 and into a minicoach at Perth at 0630. On both cases there was significant hanging around waiting for the road vehicle which was tedious. The taxi was direct to Inverness - a pleasant run for four of us, strangers. The minicoach had minimal legroom, even with two seats per passenger - and to add insult to injury it proceeded north duplicating all the intermediate calls! It's quite a trek off the A9 to Dalwhinnie, Kingussie, Newtonmore, Aviemore, Carrbridge. But CS did provide a carry out breakfast. Muffins and Orange Juice.

The 100% refund was welcome, but still...

Careful what you wish for!

GZ

PS in pre Mark 5 days
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I've had a taxi from CS, to give them credit they were very sensible with it.

A standard black cab for 4 of us, Edinburgh to Fort William, luggage either in the front or under the tip down seats. There was a group of 3 and they asked for anyone travelling alone. So I hopped in.

Driver must have been loving it, dropped me off right outside 'Spoons as opposed to turning round and going back to the station, gave him a deserved tip. The other three passengers were paying him cash in hand to go to their final destination. Cheaper than the metered fare they would have paid no doubt, and all 5 of us were more than happy.

We got no breakfast, I was in the seats but the other passengers had been in rooms and got nothing either! Full refund through delay repay as our arrival at Edinburgh was 320L!
 
D6130

D6130

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185143 said:
I've had a taxi from CS, to give them credit they were very sensible with it.

A standard black cab for 4 of us, Edinburgh to Fort William, luggage either in the front or under the tip down seats. There was a group of 3 and they asked for anyone travelling alone. So I hopped in.

Driver must have been loving it, dropped me off right outside 'Spoons as opposed to turning round and going back to the station, gave him a deserved tip. The other three passengers were paying him cash in hand to go to their final destination. Cheaper than the metered fare they would have paid no doubt, and all 5 of us were more than happy.

We got no breakfast, I was in the seats but the other passengers had been in rooms and got nothing either! Full refund through delay repay as our arrival at Edinburgh was 320L!
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I was on the same train that night - in fact I had a drink with @185143 in the Euston Tap before departure. I had booked a single club room to Fort William, whence I had intended to travel to Mallaig and back, then take the teatime bus to Inverness, where I had booked a hotel for the following night.

Arriving in Edinburgh shortly after 09 00, I decided that I didn't fancy a taxi ride all the way to Fort William, so I negotiated with the train manager of the Inverness portion to ride in the club car directly to Inverness. There was no breakfast available - just tea or coffee - but it was worth it for the wonderful daytime trip on the Highland Main Line in bright sunshine with a pair of 73/9s rumbling away up front. Eventual arrival in the Highland Capital was at about 13 30.

In fairness to CS, none of this was their fault as it was the night of Storm Daniel in September 2023 and there had been widespread signalling and overhead line disruption on the West Coast Main Line. It was my first - and so far only experience of the Caledonian Sleeper - and to their credit - the London-based crew were fine, the dinner was tasty - if expensive - and everything in my compartment worked, including the shower. However, I found the bed too narrow and too hard for a comfortable night's sleep and I was right on top of an extremely lively bogie.
 
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Scotrail84

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12LDA28C said:
Ah, fair enough. Heaters not working then? -7 isn't even that cold for the Highlands.
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Theres a lot of snow between Aviemore and Culloden which hasn't helped as well, also access for maintenance teams is tricky due to the remoteness and of course the elements.
 
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MadMac

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Scotrail84 said:
Theres a lot of snow between Aviemore and Culloden which hasn't helped as well, also access for maintenance teams is tricky due to the remoteness and of course the elements.
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When Slochd loop was being commissioned, one of the guys had a new-fangled LCD watch which froze. That was June 1979.
 
Scotrail314209

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Done the northbound Lowlander for the first time on Wednesday night in a Classic cabin and I have to say it was stellar.

The bed was narrow but very comfy, the noise and ride quality wasn’t as bad as I expected, the crew were friendly and the food was decent (didn’t go to the club car but ordered room service).

I managed to get about five hours of broken sleep after dozing off near Northampton. Got woken as we flew through Rugby, then again when we randomly stopped at Crewe, Wigan and somewhere just outside Penrith (but managed to fall asleep pretty quickly after it). Woke up again at Carstairs and stayed awake.

The only real issue I noticed was the ride quality over junctions was rather harsh, and the driver was quite enthusiastic with the brakes. Another issue was the temperature control wasn’t doing very much, I like a cool room to sleep in but it was pretty boiling most of the way.
 
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MrJeeves

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Scotrail314209 said:
The only real issue I noticed was the ride quality over junctions was rather harsh, and the driver was quite enthusiastic with the brakes. Another issue was the temperature control wasn’t doing very much, I like a cool room to sleep in but it was pretty boiling most of the way.
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I did notice this with my journey, too. I remember last year waking up quite cold on the sleeper, which I like, but this time I was rather uncomfortably hot throughout my journey.
 
Scotrail314209

Scotrail314209

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MrJeeves said:
I did notice this with my journey, too. I remember last year waking up quite cold on the sleeper, which I like, but this time I was rather uncomfortably hot throughout my journey.
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Flying through Rugby startled me, it was that rough that the water bottles went flying and I thought we were going to come off.

Was a slightly rough awakening.
 
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jagardner1984

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11 May 2008
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This discussion on ride quality has me thinking, and is CS relevant I think. Obviously there are line speeds and the 92s have their acceleration / deceleration profile, which I imagine through route learning the drivers understand the braking distance to stop at Crewe, Preston, Carlisle etc.

Obviously the sleeper may go at higher speed than timetabled to make up late running etc. Long dwells at various places as often highlighted here.

But is it written down somewhere, X Section at Rugby, the line speed is 40 (no idea, making it up) but you should take it at 20 (no idea, making it up) for the comfort of the 400 people sleeping behind ? Eg you are permitted to travel at the former, but the latter is preferred.

An interesting point of difference as presumably in most daytime passenger trains, you drive according to the stock limitations and any other safety restrictions, but otherwise get from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible and permitted.

Apologies for any poor terminology - genuine question.
 
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