Cruachan

There are a couple of photos on the webpage below of Leicester A3s at Banbury in 1954: https://www.steve-banks.org/banbury/248-banbury-light-engines They worked as far as there on the cross-country expresses from and to the Great Central.

And the main line equivalent in the region (from about 1:25 in):

The latter day Crosscountry loco-hauled sets were indeed slam door mark 2 stock (though CDL fitted as noted above, of course).

That does sound vaguely familiar now you mention it, actually.

There is of course a Pendolino currently named 'Lady Godiva', though without the accompanying vinyls.

I'm not sure about multiple times, but that name was intended to be applied to 47712 as part of the Waterman Railways fleet in March 1997.

That's correct, lamp irons for the Vitrains 37.

Actually, found the relevant photos from a post on Twitter/X - 56004/8, 020/2 in July 1992:

I can identify 56004, 008, 010, 020, 022 and 026 as still wearing BR Blue at the start of 1993. Of those, 56020 and 026 were out of use by that time. All except 56022 were still blue two years later, and by the start of 1998, 56004 (active) and 56008 (stored) were the last two remaining. I feel like I've seen said photo in one of my magazine back copies quite recently, but I haven't yet been able to track it down again. I'll share it here if I do come across it.

Indeed, introduced in early 1995 following the move to BR Train Operating Units and the return of Chris Green to Scotrail. 101695 retained the yellow cab front up to the roofline and the Strathclyde Transport map logo until at least 2001 when it was employed in the North West, and probably until withdrawal in late 2003. The livery as generally depicted is therefore appropriate for the period 1995 - 2003, although it lost the small swooshes on the cab front when it left Scotland and also had the overhead electrification warning flashes updated.

Good point there, I have seen a photo showing such during the livery transition period.

And indeed have done so each year, since the afternoon service was introduced requiring a second rake.

The 89 is TDM fitted, same as classes 90 and 91 (plus 87s and 86/2s), so will presumably be able to work push-pull with LSL's Mark 3 and DVT rake - LSL do not operate a mark 4 set. In GNER days it operated in push-pull mode with mark 4 sets, but as noted above during its initial period of BR operation it often operated conventionally with a more varied range of stock on the likes of the Peterborough commuter turn.

The Jacobite rakes have always been formed of mark 1 (or mark 2) opens, barring the brake vehicle which does offer a small quantity of bookable compartment accommodation, so I don't think compartments would need be fitted to much of any speculative replacement stock either.

Though as I understand it, Hornby have only released newly tooled GNER mark 4s in the red door, post-Mallard refurb livery, which the class 89 never worked with. Some repainting would be required. I don't think it would be possible to assemble a complete, correctly liveried, rake from the original tooled mark 4s, as Hornby never produced the TOE vehicle adjacent to the class 91 with that tooling, for example.

Back in December 1991, RAIL 163 carried a suggested contemporary plan for Salisbury station in 4mm scale that, with a good deal of compression and compromise, worked out extremely similar to your suggestions above. The plan wasn't to scale, but the text stated that it was intended to fit in a space 15' x 9', with maximum train lengths of Loco+6 coaches for Waterloo - Exeter services.

Thanks for clarifying that.

Returning to this thread because I've just unearthed the May 1996 Railway Magazine article detailing the Scottish sleeper operations, so can now answer this definitively. Two trains from London Euston each night: 21:30 to Inverness/Aberdeen/Fort William, splitting at Edinburgh Formed: 1 x SLEP - Fort William* (Split roughly 50:50 between First Class berths and Standard) 2 x SLE + 3 x SLEP - Aberdeen (2 First Class, 3 Standard) 1 x BG and 1 x Lounge car for this portion 2 x SLE + 4 x SLEP - Inverness (2 First class, 4 Standard) 1 x BG and 1 x Lounge car 1 x BG and 2 x Mk. 2E FOT (First Open with trolley space) added to the Fort William SLEP at Edinburgh: 1 x FOT as Lounge car, the other for reservation-only seating. 23:55 to Edinburgh/Glasgow, splitting at Carstairs Formed: 1 x BG, 1 x Lounge car, 2 x SLE + 4 x SLEP - Edinburgh (4 First class, 2 Standard) 1 x BG, 1 x Lounge car, 2 x SLE + 4 x SLEP - Glasgow (3 First class, 3 Standard) Total of 89 vehicles in the fleet: 12 BGs, 9 RLOs (Lounge cars), 3 FOTs, 27 SLEs and 38 SLEPs. 9 BGs, 8 RLOs, 2 FOTs and 48 sleeping cars required each night. 17 sleeping cars spare and technically stored at Inverness, though rotated through the operational pool to keep them functional. Sleeper stock based at Inverness, though only 8 vehicles maintained there each day: All vehicles rotated through Inverness on an 8 day cycle. Remaining vehicles serviced each day at: Fort William - 4 Aberdeen - 7 Polmadie - 16 Wembley - 32 *Fort William portion soon stepped up to 2 sleeping cars, with a commensurate reduction in the length of the Aberdeen portion

None of those loco classes would be able to utilise the 110mph+ 'MU' speed limits that are being introduced on the Euston - Rugby section of the WCML, which should keep the Grand Union services out of the way of the frequent Pendolinos. 22x should be able to, and are available in the right timeframe for the service startup; as perverse as it will be to reintroduce diesels under the wires working the full length of the WCML.

Those rolling stock proposals were superseded, as mark 4 stock is not available for introduction during the appropriate timescales. The Euston to Stirling service, approved today, is intended to be introduced using 22x stock, and 125mph capable "new-build bi-mode trains" are proposed for the previously approved Paddington - South Wales service.

I can't identify which specific saloon was in use that day unfortunately, but of the LMS design 50' saloons, 999503 (Built by BR to an LMS design) was the one that carried Regional Railways livery, and DM45020 was the one in Scotrail blue stripe colours. For completeness, there was also a later BR mark 1 style saloon that carried Regional Railways livery, 999509, formerly an MOD Escort vehicle.

Regional Railways North East.

I had a feeling someone would be able to note the detail differences that I couldn't spot. 🙂 Truly no two quite alike, then. Potentially a model manufacturer's minefield where the differences are comparatively minor.

I suppose the livery carried by 69003 can be considered the "standard" one for this small and varied fleet: It's the same livery as applied to 69006 and 008 (just waiting to see now what colours 69009 and 010 appear in).

The class 30/31 launch video shows that the auto uncoupler also lifts the hook of the coupling of the adjacent vehicle. How effective this will be across the various different styles of tension lock coupling remains to be seen. Auto uncouplers have also been announced as a feature on the forthcoming class 69 locos, so it does seem to be a feature that's going to be more widely applied in the future.