Cross Country Trains 158

[Ian Hargrave]

On checking with Real-time Trains a journey I’m making later this afternoon ,the 17:19 New Street To Nottingham,....1D72...is booked for a 158 .Unaware XC leased any.Will see what turns up.The route has been the domain of the 170 for more than a decade.

[great central]

That's merely for timing purposes, XC do not have any 158s, a lot of our routes are actually timed for 156s although 158s are used.

Most likely an historical thing going back to when the 15x family were first introduced, after all the slight increase in top speed of a 170 over a 158 could be accounted for in the marginally slower acceleration of a 170, well they always seem a bit sluggish off the mark to me.

[Steadfast]

Same as a freight train may show a load of 4500t on RTT but show up with 500t in tow. It's basically a maximum load for timing purposes to calculate braking, acceleration etc.

 

Jo

[w124bob]

Just before the full Voyager fleet was rolled out there was a late evening departure from Birmingham to Piccadilly booked for a 158, the unit then went Newton Heath. l would regularly bump into ex colleagues on the shed awaiting their taxi back to Piccadilly around 23.00. There was also around this time a 90 hauled Pretenderlino working, mid afternoon from New st to Picc. The return working contiued to Derby with a 57, rumour was a couple of senior Virgin staff arranged this as the departure off New st was around 17.30(FO?). I don't know the full 158 working diagrammes but there may have been a pair leased to Virgin around 2000ish. Virgin XC  also used a mk2 set with 57 power for awhile on a midday New st Picc service and return.

[andy stroud]

Virgin ran a Swindon to Birmingham service with 158s for a short while

 

[45125]

158745-750 were at VXC for a while , their workings included Edinburgh to MIA, Liverpool - Portsmouth , New Street- Piccadilly and Swindon service.

[LBRJ]

2 hours ago, andy stroud said:

Virgin ran a Swindon to Birmingham service with 158s for a short while

 

 

They did indeed.

At the time there was talk and rumour of them taking over the northern routes of what was then still W&W (or becoming  Wessex Trains). There was even mention of Gloucester train crew depot going down.

[TravisM]

4 hours ago, 45125 said:

158745-750 were at VXC for a while , their workings included Edinburgh to MIA, Liverpool - Portsmouth , New Street- Piccadilly and Swindon service.

 

I remember seeing them at Guildford in the mid 90’s.  Did they go to Portsmouth or Brighton, I can’t remember.

[dmustu]

22 hours ago, LBRJ said:

 

They did indeed.

At the time there was talk and rumour of them taking over the northern routes of what was then still W&W (or becoming  Wessex Trains). There was even mention of Gloucester train crew depot going down.

Which was nothing more than rumour, there were never any plans to take over W&W's northern routes. VXC took over the Cheltenham - Swindon's as a precursor to running a planned Blackpool - Paddington via Swindon service with 2+5 HST's which never happened.  The HST's did a Blackpool - International service for a few years, the 158's did the Cheltenham - Swindon's, and for about a year it was a Birmingham - Swindon service. When the SRA announced it's one operator in each london terminal policy, this effectively killed off the Blackpool - Paddington service. The VXC158's lasted around a further 12 months on Cheltenham - Swindon's after the announcement, before the service being returned to W&W, and the 3 remaining 158's then left VXC for elsewhere.

[dmustu]

17 hours ago, jools1959 said:

 

I remember seeing them at Guildford in the mid 90’s.  Did they go to Portsmouth or Brighton, I can’t remember.

Portsmouth. Brighton's were always 47's and stock.

[TravisM]

7 minutes ago, dmustu said:

The VXC158's lasted around a further 12 months on Cheltenham - Swindon's after the announcement, before the service being returned to W&W, and the 3 remaining 158's then left VXC for elsewhere.

 

From what I remember when I was at Wessex Trains, all the former VXC Class 158’s went to Wessex as I seem to remember that the difference between those and the former Wales and West Units was they had snowploughs similar to the Scotrail ones.

[45125]

24 minutes ago, jools1959 said:

 

From what I remember when I was at Wessex Trains, all the former VXC Class 158’s went to Wessex as I seem to remember that the difference between those and the former Wales and West Units was they had snowploughs similar to the Scotrail ones.

some of the 158s went to Northern (or what ever they called them at the time) then on to TPE for a while.

 

[Covkid]

On 15/10/2019 at 22:06, dmustu said:

 VXC took over the Cheltenham - Swindon's as a precursor to running a planned Blackpool - Paddington via Swindon service with 2+5 HST's which never happened.  The HST's did a Blackpool - International service for a few years, the 158's did the Cheltenham - Swindon's, and for about a year it was a Birmingham - Swindon service. When the SRA announced it's one operator in each london terminal policy, this effectively killed off the Blackpool - Paddington service. The VXC158's lasted around a further 12 months on Cheltenham - Swindon's after the announcement, before the service being returned to W&W, and the 3 remaining 158's then left VXC for elsewhere.

 

XC recruited a lot of new "millennium" drivers at that period who were initially only allowed to sign one route and one traction.  For them it was Tyseley - Swindon and class 158. The first two crews took the units down to Cheltenham then operated the service, relief travelled to Cheltenham, and the final crews brought the units back to Tyseley.

 

158747's Control nickname was "Dumbo".

 

When the "Golden Valley" work was lost the drivers were sent to route learn Liverpool, passed out, then lost that in another SRA / DfT move of goalposts.  The Millennials then learnt Manchester Piccadilly !!!!   

[Supaned]

On 14/10/2019 at 17:59, w124bob said:

 There was also around this time a 90 hauled Pretenderlino working, mid afternoon from New st to Picc. The return working contiued to Derby with a 57, rumour was a couple of senior Virgin staff arranged this as the departure off New st was around 17.30(FO?). I don't know the full 158 working diagrammes but there may have been a pair leased to Virgin around 2000ish. Virgin XC  also used a mk2 set with 57 power for awhile on a midday New st Picc service and return.

 

Bob,

 

The class 90 and DVT set was a hire-in to cover for a 221 that hit a car on a crossing near York and was out of traffic for a long period awaiting repair,

 

The diagram was ECS from Crewe CS to New St, then Manchester and back , round the houses ECS via Aston , Manchester and back , round the houses ECS via Aston , Manchester and back then ECS to Crewe CS.

 

There was a single occasion where the set was used on a Newcastle turn with a 57/3 as Derby men had also learnt them , this job came back to New St then went ECS to Crewe CS with the 57 light back to New St.

 

Occasionally a 57 got turned out if  there was an issue with the 90 or DVT , the regular DVT had a poor set of batteries and used to de-configure the TDM quite frequently.

 

As far as 158s go, I thought Virgin had 158747-158751? They started on the Edinburgh- Liverpool/Manchester-Birmingham-Portsmouth circuit as stated , but later on ended up on the Swindons.

[Covkid]

17 hours ago, Supaned said:

As far as 158s go, I thought Virgin had 158747-158751? They started on the Edinburgh- Liverpool/Manchester-Birmingham-Portsmouth circuit as stated , but later on ended up on the Swindons.

 

I thought it was 158747-751 but wasn't sure

[dmustu]

17 hours ago, Supaned said:

 

As far as 158s go, I thought Virgin had 158747-158751? They started on the Edinburgh- Liverpool/Manchester-Birmingham-Portsmouth circuit as stated , but later on ended up on the Swindons.

1 minute ago, Covkid said:

 

I thought it was 158747-751 but wasn't sure

Yes, they has 747 to 751. Pretty sure they has 746 as well, but I think that one went as soon as the first voyagers were introduced. In the final 12 months of the Cheltenham - Swindon's, they had 747, 749 and 751 to run the service. Despite only having only 3 sets, the odd one made it down to Reading on occasion!

 

[Supaned]

5 hours ago, dmustu said:

Yes, they has 747 to 751. Pretty sure they has 746 as well, but I think that one went as soon as the first voyagers were introduced. In the final 12 months of the Cheltenham - Swindon's, they had 747, 749 and 751 to run the service. Despite only having only 3 sets, the odd one made it down to Reading on occasion!

 

The odd one still went through to Portsmouth, I can remember one turning up vice Voyager one afternoon,