Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi

I was just wondering, Since Class 158s are sort of my favorite units, and I went to Newquay less than a fortnight ago and had a lovely time in the town and on my HST/Voyager there & back...

Have class 158s ever made it up to Newquay, an if so does anyone have any photographic evidence?

Thanks,
Jim.

take a quick google and plenty of results.
found this one which stood out taken in Leeds displaying destination of Newquay
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tcs-pics/5835516713/

I have to say, I took a 'quick Google' and didn't find 'plenty of results'.  :-\

Could you richwarwicker, in answer to the OPs request, link to some of these results you got?

All I found was that Northern 158 too.

Nowhere near Newquay though.

I don't think any will have been recently, they tent to keep the 158's on cardiff pompy and Cardiff Taunton, they will have been down there however there are many workings where unfortunately photos have not turned up online.... The 159s used to get as far as crediton and 158's were once pretty regular on the Barnstaple line

158s aren't cleared to Newquay so no chance of them working there. Used to be quite a few 158s on Barnstaple-Exmouth-Paignton diagrams before the 142s arrived. Still one 158 a day booked to Paignton Mondays-Fridays and one works to Exeter Saturday night, leaving again Sunday morning. Other than that an FGW 158 beyond Taunton is very rare, it's an operational nightmare nowadays due to the lack of 158 knowledge for train crew.

They ain't cleared for okehampton but have been ;-)

I've just realised none of the results are actually newquay, didnt look at the actual pics, just that there was a few hundred results on key word search for, "class 158 at newquay"  :-[

If you type in class 143 Manchester one of mine comes up but it's a unit down in Exeter with Manc pic on the blind, I would be very surprised if a 158 has never been to Newquay During their history tho but I can't find proof.... Then again being on the Internet isn't always proof.... Apparently the fastest dmu between exd and yvj recorded was a pacer :-/

If it's clearance issues that prevents them running to Newquay, rather than just not being cleared it is quite likely that they haven't run to Newquay, they might end up scraping the platforms or something if they tried. They're cleared as far as St Blazey Depot, and ran there reguarly under Wessex Trains when the units were stabled there. It would be strange for 158s not to be cleared to Newquay simply because they haven't gone through the process, as the St Ives and Falmouth lines, as well as many other branchlines in the south west were cleared for 158s.

They were passed for the St Ives branch but not allowed into the branch platform at St Erth, only know of one occasion when one has been to St Ives and that was about 7 or 8 years ago when the 150 failed, the last 3 or 4 trains were run using a 158 and it had to run in and out of Platform 2 at St Erth and also shunt back on to the branch when the last train used to sit at St Erth for 30 mins! as for the Paignton, the Cardiff-Paignton-Cardiff is now booked as a 3 car 150 but the 17xx St James' Park-Paignton and return is booked as a 2 car 150 mon-thurs. And yes, they were never allowed all the way to Newquay but for a short while the Falmouth was booked as a 158 in 2006.

Vacman thanks for the comment about Falmouth, I recall travelling on one to Falmouth but thought i'd imagined it, must of been around 2006 as I was about 17-18 years old. Recall it being in a green livery the specific one i travelled on, perhaps on hire from central trains, or cascade.

Wessex had a number of Central units in the fleet, believe they took them on when they formed the original hybrid three-car units for the Portsmouth-Cardiff route, they were the ones that went off lease and were stored at Eastleigh. 158s on the Falmouth line continued throughout the start of the FGW franchise, the TPE units were used down there when they first arrived.

158s are not cleared to pass through the platform at Roche, so no, they havn't been to Newquay. Closest they have been is St.Blazey Yard.....

Curiousity creeping in here. Roche is the only platform on the branch that sits partly on the inside of a curve, so presumably the issue is the 158 coaches scraping the platform. Yet a 153 is slightly longer (According to Angel trains data sheets) and a Mk3 is the same length.
So is it the bogies are further apart that cause the issue??

It could be - from the highly unscientific survey I have just done of looking at the odd photo on t'interweb, it *looks* as if the bogies on a 158 are a little further out on the body than those on a 153. I suppose this could theoretically lead to the bodyside scraping against the platform if it's roughly the same length as a 153 but a 153's almost at the limit of clearance already.

That said this is all based on guesswork and has absolutely no numbers to back it up, so I'm quite happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better.

Misprint I presume. 17 xx StJames Pk to Paignton read 158

sorry, meant 158! there was a short time in 2006 when 158's were booked on the Falmouth but i should have pointed out that they were infrequent visitors before then and up until about 2008 also.

I honestly don't know, could be, as the reason they are banned from Gunnislake is Calstock Platform, which is the same situation. Funny how a Voyager can fit through Roche platform though, and there was never a trial, one just went on through in passenger service!

Yes it is strange how HST's and Voyagers and just about everything is allowed to Newquay except 158's! (and 159's)

HST's (MK III) trailers have worked the Cornish Mainline since late 70's but when the Class 158 were introduced (early 90's) trimming of the platform edges at several stations took place in cornwall, I was at Par whilst this work was done.

So QED MK III's and Class 158-9 MUST have different body profile.

With reference to Class 158's there was (in Wessex days, possibly W&W days) a weekday service from Bristol? (might have been further afield) to Plymouth that on FRIDAY only extended to Falmouth and returned as a Late FO (about 23:15) Falmouth to Par train that was booked to be a 158.

Had forgot about that working smokey, however, it was a service to Par that was extended to Fal on a friday night, i think it was the 20:57 from Exeter St David's.

You just have to look at the front of a 158/9 the body shape is unusual and quite unique

That being said I searched for photos of 158's coupled to other units and found a hybrid 158/156 and the 156 looked wider there just seems to be one component sticking out just behind the doors under the body I'm guessing this is the issue

Summer 2001 TT I found has a 20:30 Exeter St Davids-Par, extended to Falmouth Docks Fridays only. Returned as the 2333 Falmouth Docks to Par.

This video made me think about the 158s on the Newquay branch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0raVNF4gjNQ

On hire ATW 158 as far as Par most likely. Possibly an ex Wales and Borders set. Briefly see the Royal Albert Bridge.

Standard Wales and West interior so could have been a Wessex, ATW or FGW service. Uploaded in 2007 so likely to have been an FGW service with a still unrefurbished Wessex 158. Back then they were used regularly on Plymouth to Penzance services.

All unrefurbished 158s where like that inside. I remember one weekend during an engineering block the Falmouth unit failed and a ATW 158 which should of just stabled on Long rock all weekend was used, but FGW tried to do it without telling ATW but they got busted!!

158714 was used on test in the early 90s for testing the branches - here it is at Carbis Bay.

Why does that look so much more 'at home' on a cornish branch than the 150 ?

I think they look more "at home" "anywhere".

Isn't interesting that after all the speculation a photo of a 158 on the Newquay branch appears.

I wonder how many thousands/millions of pictures of unusual trains in unusual places there must be in peoples collections? 

The picture is on the St Ives line!

 :-[ oops

The good ol class 158, used to enjoy catching one of those on a direct connection all the way from weston down to st. erth on my way to st. Ives back in the late 90s, even as late as 2002, wessex trains I think it was back then.

Actually speaking of the Class 158, considering fgw still use them I'm wondering why they're not used very much on the Bristol to Penzanze route & instead they tend to use class 150's & a 150 is not a comfortable train to be sat on for 4+ hours, the 158 is much better suited for long journeys like that.

They are better used on the regular Portsmouth - Cardiff services rather than the 2 Bristol to Penzance services per day.

One of my favourite units as well. I used to go from Bath to Manchester quite a bit and there was a direct service (it actually came from Waterloo) via Newport and the Welsh Marches. Sometimes got a bit noisy but was comfortable and got me there & back on time.

FGW can't use them in the West of England simply because they don't have enough to cover everything.  Thank the DFT in 2006/7 for transferring them to Northern.

As a member of Traincrew, we did indeed worked a 158 on Fridays through to Falmouth Docks from Plymouth, with the unit returning back to Par, then on to St.Blazey for cleaning and prep for the next day. Usually the 158 would run as the 06.10 Par to Penzance, then 07.xx Penzance to Portsmouth, can't remember the exact timings though.

Also I'm aware of one occasion that a 158 did make Newquay, there was a problem with units and the 158 was sent out vice a 150. It wasn't until it arrived back at Par, when it was realised that they were barred from the branch. Needless to say this was several years ago.

I totally agree with other comments regarding the loss of 158 units on West services, particularly those from Bristol to Penzance. A 150/1 for a 4 hour journey isn't the most desirable unit, particularly as there isn't any tables and the old 3+2 mis-fitting seating. A 150/2 is only moderately better though, shame the Dft thought Northern should benefit more with the 158's than FGW.

Thanks for posting that very interesting information, Cornubian - and a warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!  :)