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Sitting on a 150 coming home from Truro I started thinking what would the prize be for the most unusual journey in terms of stock over the last few years on FGW. Not that we have to many types of rolling stock but I am sure thre most be some examples of odd workings. I have heard of HST power cars on the sleeper but what gets the prize for the oddest working ?

 I would be also interested to know how far West an Adelante has got (Penzance ? Newquay ?)

Plymouth I belive.

I have seen a pretty weird working.
When engineering works blocked the line between Plymouth and Exeter St Davids the sleeper stock worked the 10:36 Penzance-Plymouth.

Funnily enough this question came up recently in one of the railway magazines.

It appears to be a detached HST power car on the Newquay branch.

Can't remember exact details but unit failed and one of the power cars was detached and the passengers ferried to ?

There was a picture of it standing with passengers milling round I think at St Dennis or one of the other intermediate stations. 

However, in general terms I still think single 153s on the mainline between Exeter and Plymouth are a complete waste of  valuable train paths.

That would be the Ivybridge solution then.....

Personally, I liked Gordon Edwards proposal of calling the CrossCountry services there (as did many others) but the DfT rejected it.

By the way, if you want an insight into how the DfT reached the decision it did regarding Ivybridge, click on the link below.
http://www.raildocuments.org.uk/gw/ivybridge.pdf

Yes, but in all fairness, XC Country operate fast express services.

They do not want to slow down their trains (although the amount of slack is....... >:( ).

And Ivybridge is hardly a big place (Totnes is bigger)!

No- the solution is to stop most/all local services on the Exeter to Plymouth and beyond line.

BUT IF IVYBRIDGE IS PUT IN A SITUATION OF XC OR THE AXE THEN XC/HSTs SHOULD STOP.

I have to say that Ivybridge's cuts have been awful- why were they done? The passangers were there..... Or did it get TranWilts Syndrome?

See earlier quote :

Have/are SWT service gone/going soon?

Did they pick the FGW option in the end?

The official line is "Services will run west of Exeter (to Plymouth and Paignton) as today, to be reviewed when the hourly Waterloo - Exeter service commences."


Yes they did.

Believe a lone powercar did an all halts for some reason!

Hang on. How can a single power car run a service? Were the passengers in the cycle store?

Interested to see in Railway Magazine this month a report of power cars 43134 and 43146 coming to rescue of failed HST set resulting in triple headed class 43 on the 19.05 Paddington-Penzance on 5th Feb.

This is when an HST derailed near Luxulyan, as the location is on a high embankment, it was unsafe to detrain people, so they used the power car that hadn't derailed to ferry the passengers to (I think) Luxulyan station, as for 153's between Plymouth and Exeter, if they didn't run then Ivybridge wouldn't have a train service!

See quote below :


Quote from one of the options contained in the above 2006 DfT document link :

I have no wish to deprive Ivybridge of its train service.  In fact it's just the sort of station whose use should be encouraged to help reduce local road congestion around a major regional center in this case Plymouth.

Regarding the 153 I was basically commenting on the ludicrous situation the railways are in regarding lack of stock that the only units available to serve Ivybridge are 153s and the presumably SWT don't have enough 159s to run hourly Exeter to Waterloo and do fill in runs from Exeter to Plymouth.

Another odd journey yesterday - the 13.00pm Paddington Penzance HST had coach C replaced with a first class saloon. It caused all sorts of confusion as although definitely coach C it retained first class stripe and of course first class seating. Passengers were confused many standing in the corridor until reassurred that it was a standrad class coach.

Yhe this is a permanent feature of one coach. It is weird as it was the same pre refurb but they didn't make it standard class hence solving the confusion.

What, you mean that there is a permament declassified 1st class coach on an HST out there? :o

Some tables for people!  ;D ;D ;D

Yep!

Its not 'permenant', simply needs reshuffling.

But I first saw it Summer 2006. So it is fairly permanent.

Are you sure it's the same one though?

No, it won't be. It hasn't been consistantly formed with an extra first. Simply boosting the carriage numbers so its not 4v5 in standard!

Last time I travelled on a set like this I happened to be in Penzance, which was nice!

The 05.42 London to Worcester and 08.37 return today had a TF as coach D, and, according to a Charlbury blog post, the 08.51 from London to Hereford was even more of an muddle - "Train had only 3 standard class carriages, but 4 first class ones!"

I remember about 1988 a HST from Penzance had problems with a dead rear powercar that was removed at Plymouth, the Train worked forward with out a Rear power car, mighty strange to see a TGS at the Rear of a HST.

Also when a Cornish Barnch had problems and the unit couldn't get through to the end of the line the PW gang turned up in the PW crew bus to sort out the track problem and the few passengers were taken on by road in the PW crew lorry.

As a note when BR was sold off the BR Crew Lorries for PW departments these Road lorries COULDN'T be sold as they operated on a Government licence for vehicles that DIDN'T comply with the Road traffic Act.