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Cross Country Voyager lettering

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voyagerdude220

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13 Oct 2005
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3,264
Hi all,

A very random thing I've noticed recently:

When Cross Country have 2 220/221 coupled together, depending on which way around the sets are, they often have "mixed up" lettering:

e.g.

(front) G I J L + A C D F (rear)

What I mean by this in this example, where both trains have First Class leading or both trains have First Class at the rear-

Why not have them lettered A C D F + G I J L so they're in alphabetical order?

Do train crew have the ability to dictate as such what the coaches are lettered? (assuming the train doesn't lose a Voyager en route)
 
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swt_passenger

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There’s no possibility they’ll all stay the same way round because of reversals en route. So all four permutations are equally likely. Is it just that the first unit to be powered up of two takes the A-F, whether it’s going to end up front or back?

Would be different if they were permanently paired up and never ran singly of course.
 

221129

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The leading set into its destination should be A-F.

Obviously if it drops a set enroute then that set will be G-L.

Do train crew have the ability to dictate as such what the coaches are lettered?
To an extent. If it is running as a double throughout then there are 2 trip codes for the TMS. One will be set up for A-F and the other for G-L.
 

voyagerdude220

Established Member
Joined
13 Oct 2005
Messages
3,264
The leading set into its destination should be A-F.

Obviously if it drops a set enroute then that set will be G-L.


To an extent. If it is running as a double throughout then there are 2 trip codes for the TMS. One will be set up for A-F and the other for G-L.

Thanks 221129.

I often keep an eye on Tyrell and have noticed on Cross Country the formations frequently seem to not be in order, even when the service is 2x220/221s throughout e.g.

F D C A + L J I G could instead be L J I G + F D C A so it's in order.
 

PupCuff

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Joined
27 Feb 2020
Messages
498
Location
Nottingham
Hi all,

A very random thing I've noticed recently:

When Cross Country have 2 220/221 coupled together, depending on which way around the sets are, they often have "mixed up" lettering:

e.g.

(front) G I J L + A C D F (rear)

What I mean by this in this example, where both trains have First Class leading or both trains have First Class at the rear-

Why not have them lettered A C D F + G I J L so they're in alphabetical order?

Do train crew have the ability to dictate as such what the coaches are lettered? (assuming the train doesn't lose a Voyager en route)
22x's do have the ability to allow you to choose which unit gets which set of letters (ie A-F, G-L etc). The nature of XC's operation compared to other 22x operators means that there's a lot more reversals, dropping of units, locking out of sets or individual carriages etc which means that the traincrews have to be conscious of things like which of each set the reservations are set up in (eg if 2 sets are going north along the ECML but the front set comes off at Newcastle, you can't have all the reservations for Edinburgh allocated into that set, they need to be in the back portion). Likewise if it is a double 22x and it's been set up so all reservations are only in one unit, but the rear set gets a coach locked out of use due to the train being longer than the platform somewhere, you don't want to have that train allocated A-F as whoever is reserved in coach F or A as appropriate won't be able to access their reserved seat.
 
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