That's not going to be an issue for many tours, since we don't get that much genuinely hot weather and it seems to come in short spells so the odds of two tours hitting the same hot spell are small since the rail tours themselves are quite spread out.
Assuming the air conditioning is actually functional, which is not a given on Riviera Coaches, so having the option to open the windows as a back-up seems sensible.
Wouldn't travelling in almost unbearable heat during hot weather make the experience a bit more like that on the footplate of a steam loco and therefore popular with enthusiasts?
If they are going to do that they should make all the windows hopper types. Just half of them will not give the required ventilation and looks awful (not that I think all this H&S over kill is actually required anyway).
How long till that is banned ?
Scotsman had a bloody good go at getting it banned just the other month!
The electric buses in Cardiff are still running around with the windows open but the air con still keeps the inside cool. Let's be honest the air con on the likes of 158s, 166s and the former Virgin mark 2 stock has not worked for 20 years.
The window hoppers look remarkably similar to the Class 317 design.
Or perhaps to mainland European coaches.
Quite a few railways have them, I travelled on one at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey railway earlier this year.
The question I have is: will they be locked under normal conditions, or is it a precursor to full-rake fitment to allow non-air-conditioned operation?
WNXX reporting a probable seasonal hire from WCRC as happened last year.
I did too; it was one that's usually used on Jacobite services. The water tank was leaking through the roof in the end vestibule quite badly
That's quite a frequent fault with Mk1 coaches due to the design of the pipework. It's not always an easy fix either.
So where are the Mk1 BSK (Nos. 99723 and 99312?) carriages, presumably not fitted with CDL, which were used in the filming of Harry Potter now?
I wonder if it's permitted to have all the doors locked out of use (for fire/general evacuation purposes) in coaches where passengers can pass through but are not allowed to sit (then the lack of CDL in these coaches wouldn't be an issue)?
The Jacobite sets have been reformed with the five CDL MkII's in the middle of the none fitted MkI's to resolve those issues, as per the ORR letter extended track access rights for another five years.
Didn't they make studio mockups for the interiors though?
www.therailwayhub.co.uk
Yes, they did
And that depends on whether the Jacobite service is being sold as a Harry Potter / Hogwarts product or not. It is a bit like the InterCity Pullman brand from the late 1980s and 1990s. If you turned up at Piccadilly to catch the Manchester Pullman to London - was it a Pullman service as you would interpret a Pullman service ? In my view I would expect a Harry Potter / Hogwarts experience to be maroon Mk1 coaches with varnished wood compartments. An InterCity style air conditioned Mk2, albeit in maroon would not cut it for me.
I think that depends whether the owners of WCR want to fit CDL to the Mk1s. They have survived the 2024 season without having to, even though ORR delivered their verdict in late 2023.
