Great Western Coffee Shop

Tonight is the end of the line for 180s, with 180104 currently on its way to Worcester Shrub Hill on the 17.51 from Paddington.

Not quite going out with a bang, as after recovering a four-minute late start from Oxford by Moreton, it was held there for 15 minutes or so because the 18.47 from Worcester was delayed by trespassers.

The 20.59 return working from Shrub Hill will be the last FGW Adelante service.
 
As of Monday, the 17.51 will be booked for an HST.

northen must be laughing at us

I'd love to know how they are going to cope next week...

I predict a shambles.  ::)

Can anyone think of a bigger waste of 125 mph stock (apart from the entire XC network  with its current timetabling ;)) than Adelantes bumbling around the north of England on stopping services? What is it with Northern? First half of FGW's west local stock gravitated to them, and now they've got their paws on the Adelantes. OK, I know this situation is slightly different because FGW want to be rid of the 180s but why is Northern sucking in trains left, right and centre (and presumably receiving DfT money as part of its subsidy to enable this) whilst FGW had to scour the country to get a couple of clapped out 150s from Silverlink?

the funding for public transport in the northwest has always been very good, lets face it up there you can get anywhere you want without driving! thats how it should be

They could have been put to use Cardiff-Portsmouth ? The existing 3 car 158s are getting a bit full even during the day now, and if you are over 5' 8", not very comfortable either !

Well, of course they've all been fighting to get their hands on them up here in Yorkshire...battle between Hull Trains (who have them), Grand Central (Northern) and THAT bus company. Harrogate became a bit of a target, can't see why really, then oddly Halifax...oh and Pontefract...exotic stuff.
GC (GN) have one set. Those closer to activity will confirm the reality.
It's all about not getting in the way of THAT bus companies' inherited Inter-city 225s. and the marvellous 125s.
They inherited a damn good restaurant service (everyone conveniently forgets the BR Intercity ECML quality)...and what have they done????
Will be interested to read of locals' reactions to 180s >:(

So who's got/getting the 180s? I've lost track! Shame FTPE never got them for their Scotland services... :'(

Does this mean that EMT have their full fleet? (so Corby can start its hourly service)

I had the pleasure of seeing it tonight - was trying to get from BHI to LUD but arriva saw firt to cancel the 1909 from BHI.  Ended up - BHI - BNS - WOS - HFD - LUD

Whilst waiting the 182x  from Pad I saw the adelante - its looking very worn - lots of flaked/chipped paint about the windows

I'll miss them.

I know their reliability was dire but, from a passenger's point of view, almost uniquely amongst the "21st century" intercity DMUs they were very comfortable and spacious with plenty of legroom.

The other exception to the rule is the EMT (ex-MML) Meridians: to see what "could have been" with the Voyagers, take a trip out of St Pancras one one of the Derby semi-fasts. They have the same bodyshell and mechanics as the Vomit Comets but a totally different interior spec and actually very pleasant indeed!

As far as I can gather, in terms of firm leases, Hull Trains has five, Grand Central two, and NXEC five - of which three are on loan to Northern until late next year, when NXEC hopes to start up trains to Harrogate and Lincoln, subject to ORR approval.

Which leaves a couple for NXEC and Grand Northern - GC's sister firm which is going to run Bradford-Halifax-Wakefield Kirkgate-Doncaster-London - to fight over. It could be tricky as GN wants three sets, though apparently HT may release one after they have completed an interior refit programme.

And whoever ends up with 180102 will need to do some serious work on it - coach A has been trying very hard to shake itself to bits under acceleration every time I've ridden it in the past few weeks - a quiet coach it wasn't.

A couple of HT's 222/1s are already in service with EMT after being repainted - they are going to do work on the interiors to make them more like the rest of the EMT fleet later.

The thing I won't miss about them is the noise. It's impossible to have a conversation on a platform when one of them pulls in, if I wanted to be unable to hear someone shouting at me I'd go to a nightclub.  ;D

So you didn't like Valentas then either?

I think bemmy means the brakes! :o

(and HSTs are only noisey at each end! ;) )

Yeah it surprises me that the brakes were not altered in some way to limit that awful screeching noise - even when the brake was at its lowest setting it still made a racket! The Hydrostatic Brake system was also very rarely working, and although that would not have been used at low speeds it would certainly have helped prevent the brake pad wear which was phenomenally bad on a Class 180. Whether the new operators will try again with the Hydrostatic Braking system remains to be seen...

They could have been put to use Cardiff-Portsmouth ? The existing 3 car 158s are getting a bit full even during the day now, and if you are over 5' 8", not very comfortable either !
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I do believe that the Cardiff-Portsmouth 3 car 158's are going to be replaced with a turbo 17x series by 2011.  FGW are in process of releasing the 3 car 158's off the Pompey's

Adelantes would have been wasted on the Cardiff - Portsmouth, not a fast enough route, which is why they are all going to the ECML as 125 mph services. (Northern's current temporary use doesn't count really).

It will be interesting to see if Roger Ford's 11 x 4 car for Cardiff - Portsmouth comes to fruition - although it could well be a turbostar variant if Bombardier win, there are other rolling stock manufacturers...   :) 

Anyway, I think 'FGW are in process of releasing...' is a tad premature at this stage?

Paul

I had a chat with Malcolm Chapman, who is a route director for the western region of FGW, and a personal friend of mine, and the Cardiff - Portsmouth topic came up in our conversation.

FGW are planning to bring in 4 car class 17x turbo trains for this route, and also to Brighton.  This is planned to commence in 2011.  You are correct in saying the the Adelante's are inadequate for this route.  Many factors attribute to this including linespeeds which do not exceed 90mph and track circuit problems on the Up and Down Netley lines.

Apparentley FGW are using Bombardier to build these units, which will be commencing shortly.  The 3 car 158 units will then be reverted back to 2 car 158 units and used for the Gloucester/Great Malvern runs and the Weymouth runs along with the odd BTM-Penzance runs FGW have.

This is from a FGW director, not from me, so please don't taunt me if any of this info will appear to be incorrect now, or in the future!!!  ;) :P

I suppose they may have been tipped off, the announcement of the selected builder is due sometime this month according to the ITT, and there are only two working days left... :)

Paul

i have also heard FGW are to get 11x4 cars for pompey route although as yet the winning bidder has not been announced,this decision is up to the government and not FGW as they are the ones placing the order.
having said that bombardier is the obvious choice as they are making turbostars already so no retraining/retooling will be required just adding on to the existing production line,also it would keep british workers in jobs.

Of course the LM/LO/CH 172s are being held up, so don't hold your breath for the next order being completed by 2011! ;)

What happened to the fire damaged unit? Was this repaired,or is this still awaiting action?

it was repaired and in use with fgw recently think it was 105

Well, we did get our promised HST on the 17.51 tonight.

Now maybe they can turn their attention to reinstating one on the 08.52 from Malvern, which today was a lovely draughty three-car 165 - not exactly the inter-city quality and comfort FGW promised us in 2004.

I am afraid that this is booked to be a 166 (noted your comment about 165 today)  until the may timetable change.  What happens after that I dont know

Have the last 3 units definitely been returned off-lease as of this week?

Presumably then the only debate now is which livery of NXEC, HT, GC, GN etc they'll next appear in... :-\

Paul

You're dead right, the high-speed mobile barbecue was 105, remember seeing pictures of it looking sorry for itself in the railway press. Can anyone remember which bouncy castle it was that spontaneously combusted near Nailsea a few years back?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3754902.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3754902.stm)

Did that ever return to traffic or was it a write-off because all the plastic melted?  :D

I was on the first off peak train of the day to London today and it was a turbo. >:(

This is a disgrace. First they move the first off peak train to run half an hour later (perhaps unavoidable), then they give us a Turbo!

Do they want leisure travellers? Their website did not warn people, and the PISs at Worcester said it was an HST. Due to the slack, we only arrived a few minutes late - but this is unacceptable.

FGW need the 180s unless HST availability improves. Which bright spark thought that a single HST could cover for 3 180s?  :o

Not difficult, as one set was a spare and the others did one or two runs coupled together between Oxford and London, then a couple of trips out to Malvern or Worcester separately. Last few weeks I think FGW only had 102 and 109 available anyway.

In fact, I don't think the 54th HST set is due back from overhaul by Brush at Loughborough and Kilmarnock until May anyway.

Turbo on the 8.52 from Malvern was discussed a month back in Lots of train failures/short formed trains.

The CLPG has had a meeting with FGW about it but got no indication of any change of stance - what they were told was that some off-peak Honeybourne and Pershore HSTs stops may get cut from May to save money by cutting the fuel bills.

that would be bendy bus number 613 since been scrapped,the other one that it was coupled to at the time (621 if memory serves)was saved by the driver who split them before that had a chance to go up.

First Hull Trains repainted set is in traffic, see http://andrew-chambers.fotopic.net/p57396837.html (http://andrew-chambers.fotopic.net/p57396837.html)

Not sure of the extent of the work on the interiors.

Unfortunately, reliability problems continue to dog the 180s, with Hull Trains cancelling a number of services in recent days, with only two sets fit for traffic at times.

It isn't yet in service. I believe it has seats similar to FGW HSTs.

looks better than when they were down this way,bet the reliability is no better though

What a shame First has slapped dynamic lines on that 180!

It looks dreadful in that livery!

Each to their own. I think it looks great in Dynamic Lines, much better than the old 'quality street' livery...

agreed,it would also be nice to see what interior looks like because in my opinion how they were at fgw was rubbish in comparison to how the fgw fleet is now.

I really like the dynamic lines on the 180 as well - in fact I haven't seen any stock that it doesn't suit yet. Can't go wrong with a nice deep blue base, it will always look smart as a transport livery.

The old "barbie" livery both on the HSTs and the Adelantes looked cheap and nasty from the moment it was applied, and as soon as the vinyls picked up a bit of dirt so you could see the joins it looked terrible!

the end doors should be pink aswell

They aren't for passengers though, so it would only be confusing.