Night Riviera - merged posts, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[super tm]

I think many of us will be long since gone from this earth by the time HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) gets to anywhere in Scotland - if it ever does!

HST are a daily occurance in scotland.  I think you mean HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) 

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

Yes - typing error.

[anthony215]

read a information document  i received  from CSRE on their polaris high speed train, it said they could do trailer's for ^0.93 million.

 might be a good idea if they need replacement carriages if they can do a loco hauled trailer,It would  be even better if they can base them on the currently MK3 stock but with better safety standards

[JayMac]

1C99 left PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) 145 mins late (!) at 0210.

Lets see how much of that is 'recovered' by Penzance.....

[Worcester_Passenger]

At 02:56:

[Ollie]

Last reported at 03:04 through Newbury. 130 late.

[JayMac]

Opened the taps a bit since then. Now just 98 late through Bruton. 42 minutes to cover the 52.65 miles from Newbury. I make that an average speed of 75.1 mph. Not bad for a loco that has a top speed of 95 mph. That stretch is normally timetabled to take 71 minutes by the Down Night Riviera.

Gonna keep and eye on this one. Who needs sleep? It'll be interesting to see the start to stop average from Reading to Taunton.

Go 1C99!! Go!!!

Oh, and well done to the bobbies for keeping the sticks off!

[Worcester_Passenger]

Live departures at 04:06:

[JayMac]

Reading to Taunton via Westbury avoiding line is a distance of 107.69 miles. Time taken by 1C99 this morning was 76 minutes. That's just 2 minutes slower than the best HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) timing for Reading - Taunton non-stop.

That's a start to stop average of 85.01mph. Wow!

Soaking up the dwell times at Taunton, Exeter, and Plymouth, plus some speedy despatching in Cornwall could see an on time arrival in Penzance.

[inspector_blakey]

Looks like a bit of a tour de force from the driver, don't suppose they get a chance to "run 'em" like this very often! I suspect it's fairly easy for the siggies to keep the boards off given that I doubt there's too much other traffic around at this time in the morning!

There's usually 30 mins or so station dwell time at both Taunton and Plymouth (crew changes?); I guess there may be the opportunity to get back a significant amount of time by curtailing those stops as well.

By the way, I have a five-hour time difference on my side so I'm watching this at a much more civilized 2320! And I don't wish to out-pedant the resident pedant, but it's 1C99...

[JayMac]

Blame the late (early?) hour for the headcode error. You are of course correct with 1C99.

I've gone back and edited my posts to show the correct headcode. Was getting my 1A40s and 1C99s mixed up. 

[JayMac]

For comparison, the Up Night Riviera (1A40), routed via Melksham took 118 minutes to travel from Taunton - Reading, a distance of 121.9 miles.

A much more leisurely start to stop average of 61.5 mph.

Probably a bit more comfortable to sleep through as well.

[inspector_blakey]

Off NTA^» (Newton Abbott - next trains) 44 down.

My money's on a right-time arrival at PNZ, especially given the 30 min dwell scheduled for PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains)...

[ChrisB]

But not much sleep was had, I suspect!

[Lee]

Not quite made a right-time arrival, I'm afraid. Last report is from St Erth, 16 down.

Lots of time saved at Plymouth, as predicted by blakey, but little since then. Still a good effort, though, and not just by the crew! Even my wife was (almost) enthused after reading the running commentary