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Annual Posting Night Riviera 1A40 Penzance To Paddington Class 57 Statistics


Co-tr-Paul
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Its that bit between Christmas and New Year when nobody is quite sure what day it is so now is the time this gets posted !

Yet furthur proof for those class 57 doubters that they can be reliable, there were just 2 failiures to run in 2017 from Penzance along with 2 failiures en route to London so not bad at all. Indeed, the down oinly had one partial too. 

With two locos now at Long Rock now we are respoinable for them, reliability this end should improve further.

So without further ado, the totals are :

602  89 trips

603  71

604  66

605  81 incl partial fail

310  3

306  4

HST planned 1

HST sub 2

All timtabled trips ran. Totals include TnT/double headed.

 

Happy 2018 !

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Its that bit between Christmas and New Year when nobody is quite sure what day it is so now is the time this gets posted !

Yet furthur proof for those class 57 doubters that they can be reliable, there were just 2 failiures to run in 2017 from Penzance along with 2 failiures en route to London so not bad at all. Indeed, the down oinly had one partial too. 

With two locos now at Long Rock now we are respoinable for them, reliability this end should improve further.

So without further ado, the totals are :

602  89 trips

603  71

604  66

605  81 incl partial fail

310  3

306  4

HST planned 1

HST sub 2

All timtabled trips ran. Totals include TnT/double headed.

 

Happy 2018 !

Nice to see someone proud of his job. Not so common these days.

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Good to see some sort of focus put into the arena where too often the feeling is that the 57s are unreliable and the service not to be trusted.  

 

The biggest problem I have is actually getting aboard.  It's no secret to those who know that GWR are desperately in need of more rolling stock for this service, both seated and sleeping cars.  There is often room "on the cushions" but the sleepers are frequently booked out at least a week or so in advance.  While that's good news for the business it suggests demand exceeds capacity on at least most weekends and sometimes on a week night.  

 

One extra sitter and two extra sleepers in each rake to boost them to load 10 maximum, 9 on the quieter nights, should be enough and should not affect the already-generous schedules.  But where do they come from?  And longer trains will mean even more coaches remain locked at the many short platforms in Cornwall requiring a walk-through.

 

Another thing.  SWMBO required a return from Paddington to Lostwithiel recently going both ways overnight.  She was told by the Paddington ticket office that this could not be issued as the up sleeper doesn't stop there.  She booked online and was charged for a return to St. Austell with the return leg being a back-track down hop to connect into the up.  Upon boarding the sleeping car at Paddington the host was more than a little surprised that she requested Lostwithiel and was rather abrupt in telling her that the sleeping car portion didn't stop in the platform there.  In other words she would be woken before Plymouth and have to make her way forward to the seats.  She opted to alight at St. Austell instead and booked a taxi back to Lostwithiel.

 

The platforms at many Cornish stations do not accommodate the full train but why can the on-board staff not be a little more flexible and perhaps accept that people do wish to go to Lostwithiel from the sleeping cars, which are at the back on the down run, just as they do when I myself use the train to reach Hayle.  And why can the up train not call at Hayle and Lostwithiel?  It did very briefly.  It should not affect timekeeping.  It might help with loadings which I gather are sometimes lighter on the up due to the very early arrival in London being unsuitable for seated passengers.

Edited by Gwiwer
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Once the refurb is complete, plan is to increase loadings of SLEPs by 1. Part of the reason for the unpopular new seating in A and B is to increase seating capacity esp on the down as it serves as a commuter train. Hence different stopping pattern. May change after Dec 2018 but unsure.

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 on the down as it serves as a commuter train.

And would do so to a greater extent if it ran on Monday mornings to the same times it does on other days.  There is a down XC Voyager which runs on Mondays but is about 30 minutes earlier and just a piskie's hair too early for the Penzance workers and most schoolkids.  

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To cover for engineering work over the weekend. My wish is for it to run on a Saturday night too enabling a Saturday in London for everything from theatre to railtours !

 

Talking of pride in work, the train presentation team which should number 6 has been just 3 for nearly all year and well jbto next. Bear in mind, a Max of 90 beds, a daily requirement for 3 plus another for heavy clean mean problems when rest days, leave and sickness occur. The Max of 13 day stints and cancellation of leave is common to enable the train to go out above the required spec for our customers.

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I’ve never taken the Night Riviera but it sounds as though it suffers from the same problems as the Scottish ones - inflexible booking and lack of short-term capacity due to high demand, and doesn’t fit the intermediate stations.

 

I do like travelling by sleeper but it’s not an easy thing to do, these days

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I do like travelling by sleeper but it’s not an easy thing to do, these days

 

Same here.  :offtopic:  We used to take a TENS from Paris or Brussels (can't remember which!) in the 70s and wake up somewhere in Austria to the muffled sound of wheels through the snow. All this with many big bags and skis! I don't think that they run anymore in Europe to the mountains. Couldn't take that much stuff on a plane!

 

The best and most civilized way to travel!

Edited by Re6/6
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Good to see some sort of focus put into the arena where too often the feeling is that the 57s are unreliable and the service not to be trusted.  

 

 

It has to be said that, prior to receiving the "full treatment" a couple of years back, the poor reputation of the FGW 57s was fully earned.

 

Nice to hear they have finally been sorted out properly, but a good name will be harder to win than it was to lose.

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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  • 3 months later...

Hello,

I caught the sleeper last night, and it was great to see 604 in resplendent full GWR livery. The Old Oak Common RIP badge was so well done, but the whole loco showed the pride and effort of those who maintain these.

605 looked good in new GWR livery and the LONGROCK TMD badge was brilliant. Kernow bys vyken!

 

Sorry, not great photos need to rotate the TMD logos later

Andy

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Edited by AndyH
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