Sleeper driver/crew change

[Lawman]

Folks,
Anyone know what the working arrangements are for the Fort William to London sleeper.Does the one driver do the whole route or is one driver with him at the start gets a wee nap then takes over.What about the crew.l was wondering if the same crew travel all the way south,sleep then do the return leg.

 

[142094]

I assume there is a driver changeover at Crewe on the way down, seems like a decent half way point. Might be Carlisle, but someone will know.

 

[First class]

AFAIK one does Fort William to Waverley on the diesel 67 then some shunting duties. A Class 90 driver takes over then, possibly to Crewe IRRC.

Two crews, one Scottish, one in London. They are put in hotels.

 

[Greenback]

It is too long a journey for one driver. I would have thought there would be a couple of changes along the way.

I believe the other crew do the whole trip, lodge and work back, but I don't know the details.

 

[156450]

The Fort William Sleeper crewing arrangement is as follows.

Fort William Driver & Conductor work the train to Rannoch where they are relieved by a Glasgow Queen Street crew , the Fort William crew return on the last sprinter of the day. The Queen Street crew take it to Dalmuir where the Nightshift Driver & Conductor take it through to Edinburgh and await the next run back. They return with the Northbound train and usually change crews at Springburn (depending on routing) or Ashfield. Northbound Crew changes are again done at Rannoch.

Aberdeen & Inverness portions of that service have a DBS Driver south with First Scotrail supplying Conductors , no change of crew except Edinburgh.

Southbound workings from Edinburgh use DBS Drivers/FSR Conductors throughout with a driver change at Preston.

That's all I can remember for now.

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah , and it's exclusively Class 67's on the portions north of Edinburgh with a DBS Class 90 doing the honours south of Edinburgh

 

[scotsman]

The Fort William Sleeper crewing arrangement is as follows.

Fort William Driver & Conductor work the train to Rannoch where they are relieved by a Glasgow Queen Street crew , the Fort William crew return on the last sprinter of the day. The Queen Street crew take it to Dalmuir where the Nightshift Driver & Conductor take it through to Edinburgh and await the next run back. They return with the Northbound train and usually change crews at Springburn (depending on routing) or Ashfield. Northbound Crew changes are again done at Rannoch.

Aberdeen & Inverness portions of that service have a DBS Driver south with First Scotrail supplying Conductors , no change of crew except Edinburgh.

Southbound workings from Edinburgh use DBS Drivers/FSR Conductors throughout with a driver change at Preston.

That's all I can remember for now.

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah , and it's exclusively Class 67's on the portions north of Edinburgh with a DBS Class 90 doing the honours south of Edinburgh

Not quite, the Fort Bill crew change at Bridge of Orchy on a Sunday and they change at Westerton in the mornings

 

[driver9000]

There is a crew change at Preston too.

 

[First class]

So a Scotrail driver drives a 67 from Fort William to Rannoch?

Only thought Fort William crews would sign Class 156/158/170.

 

[driver9000]

It's ScotRail crews to Edinburgh from Rannoch aswell. Queen Street sign 67s too.

 

[First class]

It's ScotRail crews to Edinburgh from Rannoch aswell. Queen Street sign 67s too.

Would it not make sense for Scotrail to get their own fleet of 67s, say 7-8 of them? Must be some spare. Thunderbird duties during the day (even snowplow probably) and sleeper work of a night?

Must cost a bit having to "hire" them from DBS and not having full control of the stock...

 

[CarterUSM]

Does Fort Wililam have drivers/guards? I thought they were Mallaig based? They only sign 67's and 156's.

 

[scotsman]

So a Scotrail driver drives a 67 from Fort William to Rannoch?

Only thought Fort William crews would sign Class 156/158/170.

Why would Fort Bill crews sign 158s or 170s when the furthest south most of them go is Crianlarich?
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Does Fort Wililam have drivers/guards? I thought they were Mallaig based? They only sign 67's and 156's.

I'm reliably informed there's 5 Fort Bill based drivers, 4 from Mallaig and 4 from Oban

 

[CarterUSM]

Why would Fort Bill crews sign 158s or 170s when the furthest south most of them go is Crianlarich?
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I'm reliably informed they're all Fort Bill based

Really? That is honestly news to me! I was almost positive they were Mallaig based! I knew Oban had a small depot though.

 

[scotsman]

Really? That is honestly news to me! I was almost positive they were Mallaig based! I knew Oban had a small depot though.

See the edit, 5 Fort Bill, 4 Mallaig, 4 Oban

 

[Flying Snail]

Would it not make sense for Scotrail to get their own fleet of 67s, say 7-8 of them? Must be some spare. Thunderbird duties during the day (even snowplow probably) and sleeper work of a night?

Must cost a bit having to "hire" them from DBS and not having full control of the stock...

And where would they get them from? DBS own all 67s and they would be doing themselves out of a lucrative captive contract by selling them to Scotrail for the sleeper work.

 

[150222]

Sorry to go off topic but what is the maximum distance that 1 driver can sign without being route conducted?

 

[scotsman]

Sorry to go off topic but what is the maximum distance that 1 driver can sign without being route conducted?

As far as they sign!

In this case, the longest section is Euston - Preston

 

[CarterUSM]

See the edit, 5 Fort Bill, 4 Mallaig, 4 Oban

Cool my man.

 

[A-driver]

Sorry to go off topic but what is the maximum distance that 1 driver can sign without being route conducted?

Not sure which passenger TOCs sign the longest end to end journey but I believe Newcastle EC sign kings x to Aberdeen and Inverness. Obviously don't do the entire route in a single turn. Not sure if any depots sign more than that-FOCs have some big road cards to.

 

[driver9000]

Virgin Trains' Preston depot sign Glasgow Central-London Euston and quite a bit in between (such as Manchester, GSW, S&C, Birmingham, Northampton loop etc). Naturally they don't work end to end in one sitting.

 

[Legzr1]

Sorry to go off topic but what is the maximum distance that 1 driver can sign without being route conducted?

Distance isn't the problem - time is

 

[rail-britain]

Virgin Trains' Preston depot sign Glasgow Central-London Euston and quite a bit in between (such as Manchester, GSW, S&C, Birmingham, Northampton loop etc). Naturally they don't work end to end in one sitting.

Almost similar such long single sections along the ECML now (like there used to be many years ago)

There were proposals many years ago (both by InterCity and more recently Virgin Trains) to operate non-stop Glasgow - Euston services
A few did operate under InterCity, but this included a brief unadvertised station stop to allow for a very quick crew change
Virgin Trains proposed the crew change taking place whilst the train was in motion, but I understand that was rejected as both crews would be aboard the train, hence why the fastest services make the mandatory stop at Preston

 

[33056]

Sorry to go off topic but what is the maximum distance that 1 driver can sign without being route conducted?

I know at least one driver who used to sign all the way from Euston to well across the border into Scotland. Didn't do it all in one go, though could manage a one-way trip with a break in the middle, and also spent a fair bit of time lodging.

 

[scotsman]

Virgin Trains proposed the crew change taking place whilst the train was in motion, but I understand that was rejected as both crews would be aboard the train, hence why the fastest services make the mandatory stop at Preston

Without doing a merry jig at the controls or disabling the DSD - how would an in-motion crew change work?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I know at least one driver who used to sign all the way from Euston to well across the border into Scotland. Didn't do it all in one go, though could manage a one-way trip with a break in the middle, and also spent a fair bit of time lodging.

I believe "well across the border" is known as Glasgow

 

[OuterDistant]

Without doing a merry jig at the controls or disabling the DSD - how would an in-motion crew change work?

Most locos have a "holdover button" for this, I think. Not sure about MUs.