Class 158s to Newquay

[whole diary]

[159jim]

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^▸ (High Speed Train)/Voyager there & back...

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

Thanks,
Jim.

[LiskeardRich]

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/

[JayMac]

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

Could you richwarwicker, in answer to the OPs^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter) request, link to some of these results you got?

All I found was that Northern 158 too.

Nowhere near Newquay though.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

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

[Southern Stag]

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^▸ (First Great Western) 158 beyond Taunton is very rare, it's an operational nightmare nowadays due to the lack of 158 knowledge for train crew.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

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

[LiskeardRich]

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

Could you richwarwicker, in answer to the OPs^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter) request, link to some of these results you got?

All I found was that Northern 158 too.

Nowhere near Newquay though.

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" 

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

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 :-/

[Southern Stag]

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.

[vacman]

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.

[LiskeardRich]

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.

[Southern Stag]

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^▸ (First Great Western) franchise, the TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) units were used down there when they first arrived.

[slippy]

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.....

[molinnis]

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??

[inspector_blakey]

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.