Does no-one at Exeter sign 143s?
Yes, but no crew further west do. On weekends there are units which will go to Penzance and back just using Exeter crew, hence why nearly all the 143s that have gone to Penzance recently have been on weekends. On weekdays all units that go to Cornwall will be worked by another depot at some point, preventing a 143 being used.
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Exeter men sign 143''s as they are on the Devon circuit every day,not sure about 158's.
Not sure if all the links do but at least some of the links still have 158 work in the Bristol area, Taunton-Cardiff services still have 158s on and quite a few Taunton-Cardiff services are worked by Exeter crew.
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Yes, but with the 57 having a hot box that wouldn't have been possible to do in this case would it?
No, hence why the 57 had to be put on wheelskate for further movement, a hot axle prevents any further movement usually.
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These 57's have proved unreliable since they came on line giving a less than satisfactory service. Perhaps they should start to top and tail them to improve reliability.
I guess with the franchise due then FGW won't be spending too much on them until the outcome is known.
They aren't that unreliable, it's just that nearly every single failure of a 57 is recorded because the sleepers attract more interest than most trains. A hot axle box could happen on any piece of stock, it's not a fault particularly common on 57s. Because the fleet is quite small as well even one failure often necessitates the use of the 08 or a hired in locomotive, which again gives the impression of unreliability. Having an extra locomotive would mean a requirement of only 66% availability from the fleet, which is really bad. With 4 locos you couldn't top and tail because it would require 100% availability, which isn't going to happen. Running one 57 on the back dead for 300 miles each night is probably going to cause some nice wheelflats as well, as happened to the 57s and 67s on the Taunton-Cardiff circuit.