Great Western Coffee Shop

I travelled a short distance on one of these yesterday (one was on the Cotswold Line!), and was surprised to see that the 4 tables did not line up with the windows!! >:(

Surely if they only have 4 tables to put in, they can actually think to align them - can it be that difficult. ???

Just another example where details about the windows are not fed into the computer, during the designing stage - the prime example being the Virgin Vomiters Voyagers. ::)

Does the same apply to the high density HSTs? And while we are at it, how well aligned are the airline seats - the ones I have been in have been ok, but perhaps most are not. :-\

PS: HST handling at Worcester Foregate Street is getting much better. :)

Table alignment on HSTs is awful, hence why I always travel airline!

Perhaps those groups of four people who really want to sit round a table, so they can talk to each other, don't actually want to look out of the window?

Sorry, it was just a suggestion!   ::)

Precisely!

Or you have people who travel SC who want to

a. eat a bacon buttie whilst doing something else

b. use a laptop

The tables are only big enough for 2 laptop anyhow!!

The distance between the seats has been considerably reduced. On the unrefurbished Mk3s the legroom in SC was the same as FC as all the seats aligned with the windows. Now they are crammed together the distance between the seats has been reduced in SC so this alignment can no longer happen.

Also note they have taken the nets away from the seat backs which was great for newspapers etc.

IHMO the only thing they get right with the refurb was the image - i.e. seats with Mickey Mouse ears says it all.

Now as a member of staff I have absolulty no ideal which sets are and are not Low/High density. Prey tell me how you know, and why one would be on the Cotswold line on a Friday anyhow. Nothing to Swansea diverted was there?

High Density have 2 tables per coach, Low Density have 4. Pathetic really!

Oh no they weren't, the bays in SC were shorter than a whole window, hence why the tables didn't line up to windows in the unrefurbished sets either.

Yes they were, see this view of an unrefurb layout on Grand Central

http://www.grandcentralrail.co.uk/interior3.html
http://www.grandcentralrail.co.uk/interior5.html

Look at Wrexham and Shropshire as well, they too have the old layout.

FGW look the same.

http://anoraksia.ukgeeks.co.uk/p6932211.html

The grand central coaches are ex loco hauled stock and not former HST trailers, and if you look in your pic of the FGW one then the seats aren't lining up to the tables.

Grand Central sets are the same as built, with 64 seats per coach, FGWs recent refurb did not span a whole window like GC, GC specifically modded them to do so.

Not my picture just one I found.
Can't see how the seats can't line up to the tables but as you work for FGW you've seen more than me.
I know that the electrics are different for the HST, I'm surprised the whole coach is different.
So loco hauled Mk3s are superior I guess. :-*

And what's wrong with wanting to eat a bacon buttie and drink coffee whilst reading the paper? Blunts the pain of having to get up at 5.00am to catch an early train.

Even better in the old days when you could look out of the window on a nice spring morning and see the Malverns/Cotswolds

Hang on minute. The link you've included is the one for a Family Carriage before the refurbishment which had mostly if not all seats with tables. Is this a ploy to mis-lead us.

Find a picture of coaches ABC or D and you will find that where there are airline seats included in those carriages there are seats situated at tables that are in line with the pillars.

Vacman was right!

Room was always an issue ( at least for me ) because to get to the window of an old set with a table required climbing over the fixed arm rest in the middle. I prefer sitting in the new airline type seats which I feel are O.K

No not trying to mislead you, the only picture I could find.

It's always going to be a matter of opinion, aren't you another FGW employee? I was under the impression you are a driver although I may be wrong.

Is there a family carriage on the refurb carriages?

If you had trouble climbing over the armrest then they could just make it moveable - or you could sit at an aisle seat.

Lets not get accusing people here!

Look: it is simple, normally table seats line up with windows. I assumed that is why the windows were that size, as you can fit in a table seat conformably (NB: 153s are an exception, which have pathetic windows which are both ridiculously high, and small, so hardly any seats line up! >:( ).

Now, in this low density set (which probably should be on the Cotswold Line more often, as according to some, no-one is on after Morton), there was a pillar there, making the view even worse than in most airlines - note what D/M said!

And can someone please tell me, with dimensions if possible, which type has more legroom: refurb or unrefurb. According to some, FGW hae "squashed more seats in" and others, "there is six inches more legroom as the seats are thinner" ( ??? ).

Airline seats have more legroom, for sure. Not convinced with regard to table seats though!

It would have been very easy to have designed the layouts to avoid the table seats having the window pillars in the middle of them. The windows are bigger than the seating bays, yes, and that has always been the case as the mk3 window layout was designed such that the 1st class seats (with more legroom) aligned with the windows.

If you sit in a refurbished coach it is immediately obvious how by turning round a few sets of seats it would be possible to achieve a much better window alignment. True, this would create a small number of pairs of airline seats with not much of a view but as people have said there are many who don't look out of the window at all.

Given that the seats are attached to runners, it would surely be possible to make this small modification?