Chy Mengrowyn Paul

Night Riviera stock in green as of today: SLEP: 10532,10594,10601 BFO: 17173,17175 RFMB: 10210,10225 Blue: SLEP: 10534,10563,10589,10590,10612,10616,10584 BFO: 17174 RFMB: 10232 TFOD: 12100,12161. The 2 "new" vehicles, a SLEP and a TFOD are now in green, not Brown and will be the first with new interiors. Due so long ago we have forgotten their numbers !

The latest info I have is Par around 1600 but strongly suggest checking Realtime Trains website or similar. Liable to change if staff not available !

Time for brass nameplate.... ! Thanks to engineering works, the passing of the Night Riviera sets in daylight will be happening at Old Oak. The Friday night down will now be going up ecs Saturday morning and the Sunday up will come down Sunday ecs to start the Night up at Plymouth. Confused.... . It's messed up the maintenance schedules big time what with the swapping and shunting. No sign of the first west unit in green yet.

Ahh Britannia. CME Dec 1994..... fine memories. Great shot.

Believe Saturday but keep eye on sites such as Realtime. Engineering work in Cornwall Sunday. Franchise launch is 20 September.

Also an ecs down for the SLEP as sets are being swapped this weekend. Something about wrong colour...... !

To get sets in the right place for the franchise launch, sometime this weekend both Night Riviera sets are being swapped ecs. This presents the rare opportunity to photograph both sets passing each other in daylight. Keep an eye on Realtime trains..... . One set will be all green apart from b coach.

Hah !

With me onboard ! The auxiliary electrics also cut out on the loco and despite resetting, the bells continued. No Par to Exeter,return for obvious reasons. Train reliability for the summer Saturday was 100% until today. Full survey for this season will have its own thread in a day or so. It's mostly 303 ! Nice shot. 43163, 43030.

Laughable.

I know, I look after the NR. Who's idea was that..... ?!

I bet Hornby will still get the livery wrong..... !

Interior design has been finalised for the refurbished buffet car for the Night Riviera Sleeper and released today. Unable to show on here due to wrong devices but on my photostream on www.Flickr.com "Cornish triangle Paul" or search night Riviera and recent.

The doors on the SLEP are definitely silver ! Can't say how long for... . Definitely the "blue" set for Saturday thanks to previous ind.act. swapping sets. This may have messed things up for the launch of the franchise.... !

Have done a bit of working out and this season's last 57/LHCS Saturday Par - Exeter, return should only have 1 dynamic lines coach in the rake. Last time for this train in this Colour.

I always said the yellow of "Sand Castle" suited. Along with the slightly deeper engine tones of a 57/3. Incidentally, when eventually the TSODs are undergoing repaint, there should be 4 day coaches in the set to make up for the loss of seating.

The shunter shouldn't forget to disconnect the pipe a second time..... !

And let's not go down the 67 route either, DBS wanting their own drivers stopped that.... . Next Saturday is this season's last 57 Saturday LHCS Par - Exeter, return. Should it run next year, then this trip will be the last in dynamic lines livery so get your shots ! Not running today, no staff.... !!

Wait until the new 2019/20 franchise requirements are published is all I will/can say regarding new sleeper fleet... . The HST sleeper has been done to death several times on rmweb so I won't repeat it again.

Going off topic but totally agree. Modern coaches are rubbish ! I have seen the impressions of the new interiors of our sleeper day coaches. I won't want to travel in one overnight. Enjoy the inter city 70 seat while you can.... .

What should have been tonight's up has 4 out of 7 not including the Sunday extra. With 602.

Getting back on topic...... , big shunts today to get most of one Night Riviera set at Long Rock green in readyness for the September launch but I doubt if a B coach TSOD will be ready.

It does not help that 603 is off for repaint. Most problems since last summer have also been with the DRS replacements. Prior to that, for some 2 years, the up only failed to reach London some 4 times, 1 of those due to weather. Figures were all recorded by myself in the old CT thread, 605 was by far the most used and most reliable. Must get round to doing a more recent survey..... . By January 2017, we are supposed to take over allocation and maintenance of the 57s at Long Rock so we can really get a grip on things in a similar style to the coach maintenance.

You have had a free tea bag too !

Regardless of colour, a toilet will still get dirty 5 minutes into the first trip of the day and people will still complain !