Where’s 87002 royal sovereign?

[brushman47544]

On a sort of related note, will the Night Riviera continue to be diesel hauled throughout when GW electrification is finished? I was assuming it would as Penzance was never going to go electric but it would be interesting to know.

As Flapland said, the ACLG Class 86s and the 87 that GBRf hire are not being fitted with the Dellner couplings, so as of next month, they cannot work the Euston-Glasgow trains or the ECS at either end.  Their use with GBRf will finish next Spring when the Highlander sleeper goes over to Mk5 sleepers.  What happens to them after that is publicly unknown, although I am hearing suggestions there are plans afoot, although not with GBRf.

 

Linking these two posts, perhaps the 86s and/or 87s could be used for the London - Bristol legs of the Night Riviera, with 57/6s continuing between Penzance and Bristol...

[GordonC]

Is it not meant to be quite a while before the full route to Bristol is electrified? Is there not a problem section around there. If the electrics can't get that far they probably wouldn't be a lot of use

[Steadfast]

Then there's also the nights it's routed via Westbury, either from the B and H or Melksham

 

Jo

[TravisM]

Linking these two posts, perhaps the 86s and/or 87s could be used for the London - Bristol legs of the Night Riviera, with 57/6s continuing between Penzance and Bristol...

Why bother? Not only do you have the faff of changing loco’s and all the issues that go with that. Then you have drivers traction and route knowledge and then what happens when the Night Riviera is routed via the B&H?

[ess1uk]

Hello,

Does anyone know what’s happened to 87002 and if it will ever run again as I have lost track as to where it is at the moment?

Best regards, Matthew

Parked at Wembley today by the IECC

[matt-b]

Just out of interest, how many people actually use the two different sleeper services to and from London.

 

Are figures on the up? Personally I don't get the idea.. with how cheap hotels and flights are.

 

Thanks.

[MJI]

Seems a bit silly using different couplings and incompatable ETH.

 

What is wrong with buckeyes?

 

As to West of England sleepers they had ideal traction in the 80s.

 

I am sure that a fully overhauled pair of 50s would manage fine.

[TravisM]

Are figures on the up? Personally I don't get the idea.. with how cheap hotels and flights are.

Thanks.

That’s because the sleeper goes to places that aren’t served by airports or the flights are quite expensive, such as Truro, Penzance, Perth, Dundee, Fort William and a few others. Edited October 24, 2018 by jools1959

[Zomboid]

They do also serve Edinburgh and Glasgow. The offering is slightly different to flying & hotels - unless you get up for the flight at 4am, the sleeper gets you to the centre of London/ Edinburgh/ Glasgow much earlier than any flight will, and I think the idea is that it's much more civilised than a super early start at the airport. The train *is* the hotel, but you could most likely put the kids to bed before catching it.

It's not a huge market though, only one train serving both cities.