Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm having a discussion on another forum about the age of rolling stock and was wondering if anyone knows whether FGW are still due to get brand new Turbostars for Cardiff-Portsmouth?

The discussion has found that as Island Line is now a brand of SWT opposed to a seperate franchise that Merseyrail are the only operator with an average train age of over 30 years, while FCC, FGW, East Coast, NXEA and Northern all come in to the 20-25 year old average catergory.  Out of those Northern seem to be the only operator where older stock is due to replace newer stock (142s replacing 180s and 150s replacing 156s), while the others (including Merseyrail) are all due to get new stock in the next few years but the question is whether the government stops it.

No, the possible order was cancelled with the GWML electrification announcement, but as that has also now been put up for review in the autumn who knows whether such an order might resurface in the event of that being cancelled!

unlikely in my opinion,the current west sets will be around for some time yet but with some additions from LM and LO.understand one of them is coming in next few weeks 150124 i heard anyone confirm???
also expect the HST fleet to get another refresh as recent refresh was designed to get them through til 2013.

Also those 172's that have been built have run into trouble with restricted exhaust limiting their top speed. It is likely an extensive mod to take the exhaust up through the passenger compartment. This will involve losing seats.

what a crap design,during the design stage surely someone looked in to all the problems that could be potentially encountered.it is not like bombardier have not made turbostars before.
how rediculous they have got so far down the line before discovering the fault.
i can see the 150/1's running round midlands for a couple of years yet,pacers in devon for a couple more years also me thinks??

There are (usually reliable) posters elsewhere suggesting LOROL have decided to take on their 172s pending exhaust modification at a later date, because they are a low speed route. Also more recently it has been suggested that the first two will be in passenger service on the GOBLIN next week. 

So all things considered, FGW may get their first six cascaded 150s  fairly soon...

I only hope they've factored in the massive revenue loss when all those LHCS bashers stop visiting from all over the country...   ;D

Paul

FGW may get their first six fairly soon?  What sort of timeframe could we be looking at?

It will be a refreshing change to get some new or different DMU's on these services instead of the "same old same old 158's".   

Timeframe - months

That would be their first six 150/1s cascaded from LM, not 172s!

can we have 156's insted please

 ::) Been back to the earlier post and clarified that - don't want people getting too disappointed when a few Silverlink liveried 150s show up...

Paul

Oh I thought it was too good to be true.   It sounded like London Overground were delaying getting the 172's, so FGW could get a few within the coming months.    But thanks for clarifying that.   Some old 150's(which have been a common sight in this region for many years now), is not as interesting as some brand new and very different looking 172's.  Not very interesting lol.

Oh well, the wait goes on I guess.   If we don't get any 172's in the next several years, perhaps some old Class 165's when/if the GWML electrification project gets completed.  Some 165's in this region again would be great.

you like 165s?

purlease

Yes I like the 165's.   Far far prefferable to the 158's in my opinion.  And with the added bonus of openable carriage windows too.  Will be travelling on them on Sunday, looking forward to it.

You aren't seriously saying you like travelling at 90mph in a force 10 gale, are you? These are trains we're talking about, not a ship out in a storm in the middle of the Atlantic.

It's bad enough when someone opens a window on a 166, where there are fewer of them to start with, never mind what that then does to the air con. For goodness' sake, the window ventilators on 1950s DMUs were a better design - allowing some degree of control over air flow - than those bloody mile-long hopper windows in 165s.

Oh good, I do hope the leather seat coverings in first are replaced by cloth ones when they do refresh them. Not a good move in the last refresh IMHO.

 :o

Personally, I think the First Class is simply excellent! Each to their own I suppose.

I like the first class in FGW HSTs, just not so keen on the leather seating thats all.

also a lot easier to clean if some drunken fool pukes up on them,not like in standard or on west sets it is a nightmare to get rid of stain let alone the smell.

unlikely in my opinion,the current west sets will be around for some time yet but with some additions from LM and LO.understand one of them is coming in next few weeks 150124 i heard anyone confirm???
also expect the HST fleet to get another refresh as recent refresh was designed to get them through til 2013.

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150125 entered service with FGW at beginning of this week