Afroal05

I was absolutely delighted to receive my first pack (an Aberdeen pack) on Wednesday, probably one of the largest boxes I have ever had models in! No problems with DHL either. Out of the stunning box and the coaches are visually stunning. I really like the ability to chose the destinations as well. The printed detail is superb, right down to the fine writing on the solebar. The coloured interiors are great, a real improvement on other manufacturers single coloured plastic and really helped to take me back to sitting in the bar car with its distinctive jagged bar down one side. My initial set of 6 ran beautifully behind my AS 92 for 30ish minutes without incident. The wand is easy to use and the ability to turn on and off all of those lights is pretty cool. The magnetic couplings look great and the close coupling they provide is superb, surely close coupling like this has to become a new 'standard' for the industry to aspire to, so much easier to couple/uncouple than tension locks too. My rake negotiated both R2 and R3 with no noticeable issues. One of the dampers fell off but it wasn't broken so this has been easily and carefully reattached, if it drops out again I'll reaffix it with a drop of glue. The niggles - the aforementioned floating window frames and illuminated CDLs. A shame that there isnt any plastic behind the CDL 'glass' to stop the light bleed and unfortunate that the CDL lines up with an LED. I didn't know if this was a QC issue at first so thanks to Jack for raising it and Fran's response. (But see the superb printed solebar detail!) I have several coaches with light bleed from the tail lights, these lights are extremely unlikely to be on as the coaches in question are all in the middle of the rake so it's not likely to be a problem for me. A slight gripe that I haven't see mentioned is the amount of LEDs along the coaches, this creates patches of light and patches of dark, it's like there are half the LEDs required to fully illuminate the corridor. The real things are actually lit with lights in the windows, I appreciate this isn't possible (and I wouldn't expect it to be) but I think it is a shame that there are these light and dark contrasts when the real thing are incredibly bright all the way along. This is most noticeable in the seating car and the club car. Pictures below along with one from the real thing. If these were just any coaches I probably wouldn't pay too much attention, but these are the sleepers, their stomping ground is in the dark so it feels that bit more noticeable. Club car (dark spot particularly in the window at the far right hand end, the other third window from left end): Standard sleeper car: Seated car: The brightness of the real thing: Yesterday (Thursday) I received one of the Inverness portions. Largely the same, although I have a coach that is completely electrically dead so I'll drop AS support an email. After giving the 4 Inverness coaches a quick spin to check their running (all good) I thought I would try all 10 cars. Simply moving the rake with my hand the couplings were pleasingly strong and the rake showed no signs of separating. Not a problem for the AS 92 which lifted the rake away without any fuss (later testing with an older tooling Bachmann 37 proved the rake is weighty enough to cause the 37 to slip quite a bit before getting going). Unfortunately, when traversing the first R3 corner the coaches derail, every time, without fail. Specifically the rear end of coach 1 and the leading end of coach 2, I removed a coach from the rake to check it wasn't a specific vehicle and the same happened again. All I can conclude is that the weight of 10 coaches is sufficient that the path of least resistance is off sideways. 6 and 4 run perfectly fine on their own, but 10, nope. Has anyone else experienced this? I don't wish to be overly negative, as I said at the start the sleepers are visually stunning, the couplings are brilliant and there has clearly been a phenomenal effort and attention to detail gone into them. I have/had aspirations of running a full 16 coach rake (although not likely to happen on my current layout) but feel I've got a bit of a decision about whether to try and get the remaining two packs I don't have.

I caved, after reading this thread since I received my first (and originally only 92) and everyone's euphoria at their own models I started debating getting 92020. I've ordered the mk5s and made a bit of an oversight not knowing that 92038 never actually hauled the mk5s in the condition modelled. I spent two days watching the remaining stock count down and the other half telling me that I should get it (which felt like reverse psychology) only to find that late last night there was one left, I panicked, I bought it. Thanks to AS for making such a stellar model, so jaw dropping that despite absolutely not needing another, I've bought one anyway.

Holy moly! What a sublime model. My first AS loco and I am simply stunned. From the moment you lift it out of the box and feel the weight, the crispness of the finish, the details... Once it was set up in the controller I must have spent five minutes just raising and lower the pantographs at one end and then the other (and then both up/down using the 'test' function). The cab details, the desk lighting, the headlighting - don't stare point blank at the toplight, it's very bright (obviously) 🤪 When I finally stopped mucking around with pans it was time to press F1 and hear the 'Accurathrash'. Again, speechless. I thought it sounds excellent and seamlessly glided round my layout. There was a slight altercation with the Hornby mk3 (with big D ring coupling) and then Dapol KTA/KQA that I tested it with, I fully believe this is down to my trackwork where I have a set of reverse curves that I think might be too tight (R3 LH, two inches of straight and R3 RH), the couplings seem to lock and pull the leading bogie of the coach/wagon off the track. The track might also have a slight twist so I'm not convinced it's the loco at all - for reference the other stock I've had issues with on this section have been a new Hornby 91 (the motor bogie derails) and Hornby Pullmans (that seems to lock and pull themselves off). The solution will be to relay the section with a much looser curve. I was impressed by the movement possible in the bogies both laterally and vertically which should dampen some bumps on imperfect trackwork. Tiny frustration aside, the loco is staggeringly beautiful and wonderfully engineered. I never thought a 92 would be the model I love the most but I cannot wait to get home and simply send it round and round light engine again. Roll on the mk5s and the 37s and hats off to Accurascale, wowza!

I think it's a combination of coincidence and the diagrams. If we look at the LTP diagrams for (say) Wednesday of the week just gone: 12x 802/9 diagrams of which 5x started at locations outside of the WoE, of these only 2x ended up finishing the day in the WoE. Thus there are then 7x starting in the WoE with only 2 leaving each day. You can imagine from this that cycling the units around can be a bit of a challenge. Then you take into account which diagrams have Pullman services on them, one of these is a Laira - Laira diagram, one is a Laira - Bristol Parkway diagram (the other two WoE Pullmans are on 10 car diagrams). So that now leaves 5x usable diagrams in the WoE, but only 3x starting at Laira. Then there's the small matter that (due to fleet availability) 9 cars are covering both 800 and 802 diagrams all over the shop. If we take a look back at what '106 has done the last week: Fri 25/11: SGI-SGI (with 8hr layover at LNP) covering 800/9 diagram, North Cots to finish the day. Sat 26/11: Unused at SGI (ASLEF Strike day) Sun 27/11: Unused at SGI Mon 28/11: SGI-MAL covering 800/9 diagram, Taunton, Bristol, several South Wales. Tue 29/11: MAL-SGI covering 800/9 diagram, South Wales work with a Weston to finish. Wed 30/11: SGI-SGI covering 800/9 diagram, Bristols. Thu 01/12: SGI-SGI covering 800/9 diagram, Bristols. Fri 2/12: SGI-LNP, swapped onto LNP early doors as 2x GUs were isolated and the diagram would have taken it to Penzance and back. Sat 3/12: LNP-LNP a trip to Penzance and back! But then swapped back onto North Pole as 2x GUs are still isolated. If we factor in 800/9 diagrams on a daily basis there are then potentially another 17 diagrams that '106 could cover! So I suspect it's just coincidence that it hasn't been west in a while - although whilst it has 2x GUs isolated I don't think anyone will be sending it that way unless it's the last unit standing. I know my answer is overkill but I hope it perhaps is an insightful view to others. Al

Unfortunately not the case. Hitachi manage the IET allocations and pass these on to GWR Control overnight, GWR can change these by request but this is usually only to help deliver an exam requirement (for which they are fairly sympathetically allocated anyway). From personal experience I wouldn't describe any of the Hitachi Controllers as neds! '106 has done a lot of work in the West of England since the vinyls have been applied (it's actually worked all over the place). I can assure you, with decent authority, that it is currently listed as 'last resort' on Pullmans and those at Hitachi who plan the allocations have been briefed the same. All other GWR stock, I agree, can have an element of fudgery to them (although that is still quite difficult with current availability levels). HSTs used to have a dedicated planner in the Control centre who was very enthusiastic and did manage the allocations accordingly!

Funny you should mention that. It is to be used 'as a last resort' apparently... Feels like a bit of a knee jerk/over sensitive reaction really. Are people actually going to refuse to partake in Pullman dining because of an advertising livery?!

For those who haven't seen it, 802106's promotional wrap (taken the same day St. Simon posted it here, 19th Nov). Vinyls applied to the first class driving vehicle, base colour is a dark blue. A nice vibrant splash of colour to see out and about. An oddity about the vinyl appear to be that the last number (802106) appears to be in a different font and colour, like it was an afterthought! It'll be interesting to see the level of mess (if any) the vinyls leave behind when they are stripped.

Further to what @St. Simon said, I believe the current phraseology of 'Would XX make the next IC call' is because this way it ensures both persons involved in the call are by the handset and ready to take/make it. I seem to remember when the stock was fairly new you could hear people trying to make these calls (which contrary to St. Simon I remember it being quite a loud beep heard throughout the saloon!) without such an announcement and it could call/beep for some time before it was answered. Last time I was able to cab ride an IET I found this beeping comes out in the cab too when an IC call is made, the beeping does sound rather like some kind of an error warning and I think the current phraseology not only serves to warn the driver this irritation is about to happen but also reduces the amount of time the beeping goes on for.

How long? No indication of this yet but GWR were told that once things get up and running the plan will be to have units cycling to/from Eastleigh at a beat rate of one a week. I don't know how many units you'd need down at Eastleigh to churn one back out every week. We shall see about that! Both 800026 & 802003 have now been down there some quite considerable time. If my data sources are correct (and I can't find an easy way to verify them right now) 800026 went down to Eastleigh 28th July and 802003 went down there 29th June. There was some discussion earlier as to mileages accumulated and that kind of thing. Again if the data is correct 800023 has accumulated 591429 miles, 802003 has accumulated 640947 miles. Initially GWR were expecting one of them back at the end of October, there is now no estimate that I have heard (although someone in here said December a few pages ago). Taking today as a fairly average example of most of this year's diagrams. There are 76 service diagrams accruing miles with a contractual requirement to provide 80 units. (From December that becomes 80 service diagrams with 0 spares, I think that is going to prove quite a challenge based on currently fleet availability - but that isn't really related to cracking issues). Please excuse the somewhat rough and ready way of presenting the data! NP diagrams are designed for 800s (NP001-017 for 9 cars, NP101-132 for 5 cars) IW diagrams are designed for 802s (IW910-921 for 9 cars, IW951-970 for 5 cars) EDIT: There are usually 74 diagrams during the SX, NP124/127 are short diagrams as they are positioning sets ahead of the TVSC strikes tomorrow. In theory you'd cycle your unit from diagram 1-17 (for an 800/9) however it really doesn't work out like this at all because of the way Hitachi manage the fleet and create their fleet plans and because of failures, set swaps, late running etc on the day. My opinion is that in HST days sets would follow the plan a lot more closely than IETs do, it is not very often at all you find an IET working the sequential diagram when it comes back in to service the following day! (The ones usually guaranteed to are units that outstable, but even then they often get swapped out on layover). This means some units have clocked up a lot more miles than others - this is also the case where some have been stopped long term. With HSTs you used to know how many miles it had until a specific exam, with the Hitachi exam plan it seems to be calculated more on days (a 30, 60, 90, 120 day exam) and as there is no visibility of the inner workings of the Hitachi exam plan amongst GWR staff I can't ascertain if mileage is really a big factor in it. I might have mentioned it before (apologies if I have) but it baffles me that IETs have so much tech - the mileages I quoted earlier are actually calculated to 4 decimal places - and you can at any given time see almost everything and anything the IET is 'thinking' or doing, there is data for everything. For example, there is a estimated loadings feature which tries to count people coming on and off through the doorways - this can be fooled if you entered one vehicle and left through another, as is evidenced by a unit I once observed on depot that claimed it had 1008 people in one vehicle! On the other than hand (the bit that actually bothers me about this) is that the unit cannot actually accurately tell you how much fuel is in it. The fuel ranges are simply specified as >95%, 95-75%, 75-50%, 50-20%, 20-5%, 5%> - what?! It can be observed (if you have the access, only Hitachi do) when the fuel readings cross from one level to another but there is no live reading to say 34% or 415 miles range (for example). Our cars have given predictions (even if sometime they're a little ropey) for a while now and airliners have been able to calculate fuel and fuel burn in real-time for years and years. As a result GWR are using largely made up fuel ranges with even more made up calculations for what you do when a GU if shut down or locked out of use which can lead to unnecessary set swaps, service delays or simply controllers panicking unduly! Okay, I'll get off my soap box (sorry). To very quickly continue the off topic toilet talk with a general IET overview. IETs are fitted with two universal access toilets, one in each driving car, this is because thats how the bodyshells are made. On a 5 car unit this means you have a UAT that isn't actually accessible to a wheelchair bound person as there's nowhere for them to go other than the vestibule and the toilet - the wheelchair space being in the first class vehicle. On a 9 car the UAT is at each end matches up with both standard and first class wheelchair areas. UATs have an open and a close button but a handle on the inside wall to lock/unlock - the handle controlling an electric lock rather than being a mechanical handle lock. There is also an announcement when the doors slides shut 'Now lock the door!' and 'The door is locked!'. A small light next to the handle illuminates red when locked. I do like the handle contraption as button locks mean there are a lot of buttons on the go (and to get wrong). Standard class toilets on GWR IETs, as many will have encountered, are tiny airline type box affairs with twist locks on the door (and poor sink designs that mean the floor is always pooled with water). **** Back to cracking issues and sets do still fail from time to time with cracks when undergoing their daily inspection, these are moved to North Pole for temporary welding. At the moment it's a rare occurrence, I'm assuming that is because by this point the whole fleet has been temporarily welded. Al

92010 at the head of 1S25 on the evening of 23rd August. Whilst not the clearest shot of the loco the sky/sunset was stunning with some interesting colours on the OLE.

73969 at Aberdeen on 24th August having brought in 1A25 from Edinburgh. A drab, grey morning in the granite city.

43301 on the rear of an XC service during an extended stop at Cheltenham (09/09/22). The set sat here for some time as there was a trespasser between Cheltenham and Bristol Parkway. I like the raised angle for this photo but would have preferred it if there wasn't that pillar in the way! 43290 looking very tatty (09/09/22) at Crewe on a test train underneath broody skies. A monsoon was about 15 minutes away! 43299 on the other end of the above test train.

Some photos from the Blue Pullman tour from Crewe to Aviemore on 23rd July. 43049 during the leg stretch at Perth: 43046 trailing: The set sat for the duration of the time in Aviemore and all of the Scotrail services were replatformed around it. Despite having paid quite a lot for the trip on the Pullman, the friend I went with was desperate to get a service train back as far as Pitlochry. Apparently he 'needed' the miles from one of the powercars! Journeys end, back in Crewe: Rigged to the front of 43046 was a GoPro and charging pack. There was filming throughout the tour, including a crew onboard, as there is a documentary coming out next year. I think the documentary looks at the wider LSL operation, not just the Blue Pullman.

A jolly out on the chiltern on 22nd July. Both '011 and '008 pictured at Birmingham.

A pair or railtour related shots. 57309 stabled at Crewe as LSL's Blue Pullman 'Highland Clansman Pullman' to Aviemore waits to depart on 23rd July '22. On 3rd September, Pathfinder ran a part steam hauled tour from Bristol - Carlisle via Lune Gorge and back via the S&C with Tangmere hauling from Carnforth - Carlisle - Preston. Either side of this the tour was in the hands of 57s. 57313 did the Bristol - Carnforth leg before attaching to the back and giving assistance up the banks. Recently outshopped 57010 & 57012 brought the train back from Preston. Unfortunately the phone had died by this point so no pictures of the /0s. '313 on the rear at Carlisle ahead of the return leg.