Stock Cascade Eventually?

[whole diary]

[smokey]

Chiltern operate Thames Turbos on their commuter lines. London to Aylebury, High Wycombe (even as far as Princes Risborough).

Maybe the European loading gauge helps here!

Thames Turbos are dreadful. There is also evidence of them becoming clapped out (see my post on the "reliability" thread).

Remember, when London Midland get 172s, the cascaded 150s will be pretty much clapped out- they are at the moment- they were banned from the Lickey Incline a few years ago, and they can hardly get up the Old Hill incline in B'ham at the moment!! Note: This only applies if the train stops at Old Hill when facing towards B'ham!

I would have thought they might have to be scraped! I can't see them lasting in the Wessex region, especially under FGW^▸ (First Great Western), who are incompetent, and don't service trains (only spending time and money refreshing them- often for the worse). No- I would not get your hopes up just yet.

Totally agree train servicing is pretty dire, it wasn't a clever move by the powers to be, to shut the Main  Engineering Works down and transfer all repairs to Depots.

[mada]

I would have thought they might have to be scraped! I can't see them lasting in the Wessex region, especially under FGW^▸ (First Great Western), who are incompetent, and don't service trains (only spending time and money refreshing them- often for the worse). No- I would not get your hopes up just yet.

I suppose FGW could re-engineer them same as the current refurbs i.e replace the engines. Have they considered using HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))'s on CDF^» (Cardiff - next trains) to POM to free up some 158's?

[qwerty]

Be a Cold Day in Hell before a class 166 runs into Cornwall.

The Thames Turbo unit's were built to a bigger loading gauge than most stock, which keeps them to London-Oxford-Worcester, not sure think maybe able to work Didcot to Bristol, as there was a Oxford-Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) service which I think was Thames Turbo worked.

Need meggar bucks spent to clear a class 166 to work to Penzance.

There was indeed an Oxford-Bristol TM, which was worked by Turbo's.

From Memory, (I don't have a sectional appendix in front of me) 165/166's can work to Bristol from Swindon (not sure if that is via both routes).
But are not permitted Bristol-WSM or Bristol-Westbury.

But they are permitted Westbury-Taunton-Exeter.

[Lee]

I think that now might be a good time to do a "topic recap", for the benefit of anyone reading it for the first time.

In its Strategic Business Plan, Network Rail have proposed a gauge clearance scheme for Class 165/166 units on the Portsmouth-Cardiff and Westbury-Weymouth routes. It is part of the Network Rail Discretionary Fund CP4^▸ (Control Period 4 - the five year period between 2009 and 2014) Candidate Schemes list, and has not yet been approved.

[Lee]

From Memory, (I don't have a sectional appendix in front of me) 165/166's can work to Bristol from Swindon (not sure if that is via both routes).
But are not permitted Bristol-WSM or Bristol-Westbury.

But they are permitted Westbury-Taunton-Exeter.

If true, this would be very interesting, as Jacobs Consultancy proposed running Turbos down to Weston as an extension of their Bristol-Oxford service option, which was rejected by the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) (link below.)
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/lf/CoIUTS.xls

Here is how Jacobs saw it (bearing in mind that they wrote their franchise reports in 2004) :

This option tests extension of some Oxford to Bristol services to Weston-Super-Mare, replacing the through train from Avonmouth in that hour.

This option enables the busy 0735 Weston-Super-Mare to Bristol to be operated by a 2-car class 165 unit and the 1727 return services to be operated by a 3-car class 165 formation. This offers both an increase in capacity over the 2 and 4-car class 143 respective formations employed on these trains and the opportunity to withdraw completely from one class 143 strengthening diagram. Overall the option saves one class 143 at the modest additional cost of one class 165 2-car diagram. The additional class 165 diagram is however able to be additionally utilised to operate the new morning train from Bristol to Oxford.