Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
I am doing the Sleeper Train Challenge this week; all six destinations from London on consecutive nights.
This is a very ambitious thing and it has taken a year to plan, involving a team for five senior railway managers ( one each from FGW, FScR, EC, VT and "mission control" at ATOC / RDG ). Not counting liaision with the charities and my employers as well!
Amongst the planning constraints were the need to avoid the busy school holiday periods, any bank holidays and of course to check that there were no engineering works planned that might impact on the running of any of the required services. On top of that, we had to aim for the May - September period in order to have a reasonable chance of good weather, it had to avoid any of my busier weeks at work and also any week in which my line manager is away as I have to cover for her. We also had to ensure that "mission control" was not away during the attempt either.
Taking all those factors into account, this week was literally the only week during 2014 in which we could attempt this; such is the complexity of doing this for charity with all the background support required.
Here's the timetable ( copied and pasted from the planning document, so the formatting might be a bit off ):
Charity stunt timetable
23.50 Paddington Sun 14th Sept Penzance 08.59 Mon 15th Sept
10.00 Penzance Paddington 15.24 Mon 15th Sept
21.16 Euston Mon 15th Sept Aberdeen 07.34 Tues 16th Sept
09.52 Aberdeen Kings Cross 16.51 Tues 16th Sept
23.50 Euston Tues 16th Sept Edinburgh 07.22 Weds 17th Sept
09.30 Edinburgh Kings Cross 13.48* Weds 17th Sept
21.16 Euston Weds 17th Sept Inverness 08.36 Thurs 18th Sept
09.41 Inverness Edinburgh 13.23 Thurs 18th Sept
14.30 Edinburgh Kings Cross 18.51** Thurs 18th Sept
23.50 Euston Thurs 18th Sept Glasgow Central 07.18 Fri 19th Sept
10.40 Glasgow Central Euston 15.16 Fri 19th Sept
21.16 Euston Fri 19th Sept Fort William 09.55 Sat 20th Sept
OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED
11.32 Fort William Glasgow Queen Street 15.30 Sat 20th Sept
16.40 Glasgow Central Euston 21.25 Sat 20th Sept
*Any subsequent Kings Cross train up to the 14.30 ( 18.51 arrival ) would also be practical. Use of a train later than the 09.30 would allow for some PR to be carried out in Edinburgh.
**13.30 departure would be very tight; 14.00 departure is almost caught up by the 14.30 at London; 14.30 is therefore the better choice.
Yorkie has very kindly given me permission to post the donations links, which are for two different charities. As the MyDonate system does not allow multiple charities within one page, there are two pages hence two links. The top one is for the Railway Children, which many of you will be aware of, and the second one is for the Mary Hare Schools - a specialist educational establishment for deaf children; it is also my old school; I was a pupil there from 1978 to 1984.
The links are:
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/petermugridge1
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/petermugridge2
Feel free to circulate / tweet / whatever these links - the more people who are aware, the greater the chance of raising some serious funds.
I am unable to access the internet while I am travelling, but I will certainly be doing a report when I get back ( it might take me a few days to write it! ) and no doubt those on this forum with access to TOPS / TRUST / GEMINI etc will be able to at least update the thread in the meantime with how the trains above are running.
Right... I'm off in about 90 minutes from now - going to get something to eat in London then board the Night Riviera to start the challenge...
This is a very ambitious thing and it has taken a year to plan, involving a team for five senior railway managers ( one each from FGW, FScR, EC, VT and "mission control" at ATOC / RDG ). Not counting liaision with the charities and my employers as well!
Amongst the planning constraints were the need to avoid the busy school holiday periods, any bank holidays and of course to check that there were no engineering works planned that might impact on the running of any of the required services. On top of that, we had to aim for the May - September period in order to have a reasonable chance of good weather, it had to avoid any of my busier weeks at work and also any week in which my line manager is away as I have to cover for her. We also had to ensure that "mission control" was not away during the attempt either.
Taking all those factors into account, this week was literally the only week during 2014 in which we could attempt this; such is the complexity of doing this for charity with all the background support required.
Here's the timetable ( copied and pasted from the planning document, so the formatting might be a bit off ):
Charity stunt timetable
23.50 Paddington Sun 14th Sept Penzance 08.59 Mon 15th Sept
10.00 Penzance Paddington 15.24 Mon 15th Sept
21.16 Euston Mon 15th Sept Aberdeen 07.34 Tues 16th Sept
09.52 Aberdeen Kings Cross 16.51 Tues 16th Sept
23.50 Euston Tues 16th Sept Edinburgh 07.22 Weds 17th Sept
09.30 Edinburgh Kings Cross 13.48* Weds 17th Sept
21.16 Euston Weds 17th Sept Inverness 08.36 Thurs 18th Sept
09.41 Inverness Edinburgh 13.23 Thurs 18th Sept
14.30 Edinburgh Kings Cross 18.51** Thurs 18th Sept
23.50 Euston Thurs 18th Sept Glasgow Central 07.18 Fri 19th Sept
10.40 Glasgow Central Euston 15.16 Fri 19th Sept
21.16 Euston Fri 19th Sept Fort William 09.55 Sat 20th Sept
OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED
11.32 Fort William Glasgow Queen Street 15.30 Sat 20th Sept
16.40 Glasgow Central Euston 21.25 Sat 20th Sept
*Any subsequent Kings Cross train up to the 14.30 ( 18.51 arrival ) would also be practical. Use of a train later than the 09.30 would allow for some PR to be carried out in Edinburgh.
**13.30 departure would be very tight; 14.00 departure is almost caught up by the 14.30 at London; 14.30 is therefore the better choice.
Yorkie has very kindly given me permission to post the donations links, which are for two different charities. As the MyDonate system does not allow multiple charities within one page, there are two pages hence two links. The top one is for the Railway Children, which many of you will be aware of, and the second one is for the Mary Hare Schools - a specialist educational establishment for deaf children; it is also my old school; I was a pupil there from 1978 to 1984.
The links are:
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/petermugridge1
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/petermugridge2
Feel free to circulate / tweet / whatever these links - the more people who are aware, the greater the chance of raising some serious funds.
I am unable to access the internet while I am travelling, but I will certainly be doing a report when I get back ( it might take me a few days to write it! ) and no doubt those on this forum with access to TOPS / TRUST / GEMINI etc will be able to at least update the thread in the meantime with how the trains above are running.
Right... I'm off in about 90 minutes from now - going to get something to eat in London then board the Night Riviera to start the challenge...