Glorious NSE

Geaf2/2 on test: https://railcolornews.com/2020/06/26/ch-in-the-picture-rhatische-bahns-geaf-2-2-on-tests/

From what I can see, they must still be unloaded with pallet trucks from the swapbodies in the Valser warehouse in Untervaz, I haven't spotted any kit for unloading the swapbody from the wagon that end. Interesting comment in the thread of photos linked that the Ilanz transhipment is still in use, worth watching to see if that's a transitional thing, or in case of traffic surges? Liking the random panorama car move also.

Hadn't watched the older (April) vid from him of the run to Disentis, watched that last night and that appears to confirm the terminal is Schnaus Strada - the siding at Ilanz is literally full of stored vans! The siding at the North West corner of Ilanz is a maintainance siding with a newbuild shed over it, the NE one you could possibly do that with, but that gets used to stage wagons ready for easy pickup as part of the handover between the "road" and "switcher" work from what I saw last year.

Nice wagon load!

Yeah, doubt that is, but agree you could have enough space if you needed to. My gut feeling is they are using the existing intermodal terminal, it's a very short extra distance on a good road and it'd keep the piggy packer there busy, I'll see what I can find out... Worth watching the whole thing (and his other vids) if you have time, I found it really helpful for understanding things like signalling as he 'calls' much of the signalling and signage. One interesting thing is the use of locos - why the 4/4i? They have multiple 'spares' at present with only one panoramic train a day just restarting in the last week or so. You'd have thought the 4/4i would have all been stored again. Interresting it looked a bit like there was a 4/4iii on freight at Reichenau too.

I'd Seen a photo of one at Weisen earlier today but didn't know if it was on test of not - dropping one into the Pendelzug diagram was always going to be an easy way of getting one into traffic early on a diagram that doesn't interact with any conventionally buffered stock.

The Valser traffic appears to have migrated from vans to some smart green swapbodies - a nice cabride vid from Landquart roundhouse to Ilanz picking them up at Untervaz can be found here: Not sure whether they have modded the siding at Ilanz or whether the traffic now runs via the intermodal terminal at Schnaus Strada slightly farther west...

Sorry, not been on the site for a bit - all the usable HEA images I have are online if you follow the link quoted above.

Sorry - not been on here for a while, not a site I remember to check from home! Carl - I have a fair number of dimensioned "general arrangement" diagrams culled from dark corners of t'internet - if you PM me with your email address and some idea's of what you're into i'll send some over.

Quite so - giving the same private operator a different sort of contract to run the service is not "nationalisation". The interesting one for the medium term is with so many franchises struggling in the first place, whether any will go back to the franchising financial model. My suspicion is that most - maybe all - will stay as management contracts....?

Apparently the Exeter pacer fleet is now "self isolating", due to train formations being shortened to match lower demand.

I think you're confusing things - here's a potted Devon pacer history: A batch of 142s were delivered new to the South West in the mid 1980s - they left the region again in the late 80s as they were found not compatible with some of the branches further West. Fast forward to 1996, and the predominantly South Wales based fleet of Pacers (a mix of 142 and 143) became part of a franchise called Wales and West. W&W deployed some of their 143s to the Bristol area. In 2001 the W&W franchise was split in two, with the Welsh part of it becoming Wales and Borders and the English services becoming Wessex Trains. The 142s all stayed in the valleys, but the 143 fleet was split between the two franchises, the Wessex 143s continued to work Bristol area trains. Some early morning Bristol area commuter trains started from Exeter (and worked back there overnight) in this period - so 143s didn't work many services locally, but were seen in Exeter again regularly at this time. In 2006 Wessex Trains ended and First Great Western took over. FGW had capacity issues soon after taking over, and the only units available to them at short notice were 12x class 142 which had just been withdrawn by Northern which arrived in 2007 - they deployed all of those to Exeter to work Exmouth/Paignton/Barnstaple services. The previously Bristol based 143 also gradually moved down to Exeter, eventually concentrating all of FGWs Pacers on Exeter. By 2011 FGW had sourced additional class 150s and 153s, and all the 142s were taken off lease again, the last ones leaving in late 2011, ironically back to Northern who were also now having capacity issues! So there have not been class 142 operating in Devon for more than 9 years. The 143s however are still working Exmouth to Paignton trains for the moment, in conjunction with 150s. Hope that helps disentangle! As a bonus - here's 142028 near Polsloe Bridge on the Exmouth branch, back in 2008...

Now also showing a neat pictogram of the Scotrail formations as well. (I like how the angled 380 gangways change to connect properly when in multiple...)

There haven't been 142s in Devon for several years....

Presumably because the GEX coaching stock still ships with rapido's?

Lots of possibilities, though the capacity to do that is not going to be massive as it's only a couple of extra platforms from memory! In the (very) long term I think we could do with Moor St/Curzon St becoming a Berlin style Birmingham HbF - with New St becoming just a stop for the suburban electric services.

There's also plans to move more services from BNS to the Moor St bay platforms which will both help free up BNS capacity and improve HS2 connectivity.

Kinda surprised the HST diagrams didn't get flipped to work outwards from the Sth West at the last timetable change to be honest, rather than most originating at the North end of their runs... Suppose at least the LA base allows sets to be swapped-out in the middle of their working day. XC have 13x 2 car sets, so by my reckoning the 6x centre cars will still leave 7x 2 car sets to allow for 3 x 4 car rakes if that's critical?

Croissant of Chaos?

In a similar story to the other two outposts of paceryness, the GWR fleet has had to be kept on past the deadline due to late arrival of other stock (769s and HST trailers in GWR's case)....

Some from a rather wet Exeter Central, 20th Feb, with three of the fleet showing up in the 40mins we waited - the plan to pair them with a compliant 150 seems to be working down here...

The one we used had I think the same seat locations, but didn't have the chunky moquette cushions that SWT had, with a slightly thinner (not uncomfortable) blue vinyl finish, so I'd assumed that was their internal refresh - having been in ones previously with SWR external repaints but retaining SWT internals! It'll be a shame if they kill the advantage of the SWR route over the GWR from our perspective - it takes a bit longer but you get plenty of space and comfort! In this case, on the Up direction we continually lost time at station stops (and not at ones where we crossed an opposing service which is the usual delay cause! - 5 mins delay Crewkerne, 6 mins Sherborne etc - on a not especially busy train!) 18 late by Clapham Jcn (25% refund) - although the recovery time on the Waterloo approach means that no Waterloo passengers will get to claim. On the Down direction (Sunday 23rd) they cancelled half the booked afternoon trains from Salisbury West - ours was terminated there, we had to wait an hour for the following one, so we were 63 mins late back to Exeter (100% refund). (All trains West of Salisbury were booked to run via Westbury that day so only Exeter ones were booked to continue on...) Reason announced by the train crew for the last one was "shortage of drivers" - which is plausible but annoying for a Sunday with diversions on - however the cancellation code on RTT blamed "delays to previous service" - which strikes me as nonsense when it arrived at Salisbury more or less on time!

From my experiences last week, I wouldn't be surprised - You won't make ends meet when you give most of your ticket price back in delay repay...

I think they've been tangoed...

Yep, if SWR stays it's full term the 158/9 fleet should be running past 2024, plus presumably a minimum of a couple of years beyond that for the new incumbent to order a replacement - but 2024 isn't that far away, and SWR still running it then is not particularly certain at the moment either!