Night Riviera - merged posts, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[bobm]

57603 Tintagel Castle didn't get a Sunday off either.  I saw it last weekend hauling the rear power car and coaches G and H of the previous night's 16:15 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa which had failed between Didcot Parkway and Swindon. Not sure what the problem was which meant they had to divide the train. The rear portion went through Reading at 11:00 on Sunday. Don't know what happened to the front part.

[Louis94]

57603 Tintagel Castle didn't get a Sunday off either.  I saw it last weekend hauling the rear power car and coaches G and H of the previous night's 16:15 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa which had failed between Didcot Parkway and Swindon. Not sure what the problem was which meant they had to divide the train. The rear portion went through Reading at 11:00 on Sunday. Don't know what happened to the front part.

Something to do with the brakes I believe, which affected the rear portion, that was the reason why the rear power car could not just drive the rear portion back. The front portion continued to Swindon and terminated (very late) before heading back to St Phillips Marsh. Service divided at Uffington, blocking the up main for over 3 hours.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

I was waiting at honiton at 0120 on Monday morning as they were booked west of England and when I checked online they left totnes over 2 hours late

[LiskeardRich]

attached picture is posted with permission from "sonic2009" on Railforums UK^▸ (United Kingdom)

[bobm]

Is there a reason why they use two power cars back to back, is it because they only work in multiple or is it just to keep two cars together?

[LiskeardRich]

on railforum there is mention that the only way of connecting a hst to 57 is through the front draw bar where they'd normally connect a 57 to tow a dead hst.
so the second hst is so the one attached to the 57 doesnt have to reverse all the way.

[ellendune]

Apologies for any confusion about my "sighting" at Thatcham ) certainly saw the sleeper come through Thatcham late but it was dark!

No it seems you were right. Now Anthony215 has explained all is clear.

[Super Guard]

Last week the 57 that was hauling the Sleeper out of OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)) failed and they had to send it back and swap for the '08' which then got the set into Paddington at 2245 (sleeper staff should open train at 2230).

[inspector_blakey]

on railforum there is mention that the only way of connecting a hst to 57 is through the front draw bar where they'd normally connect a 57 to tow a dead hst.
so the second hst is so the one attached to the 57 doesnt have to reverse all the way.

I would guess that the trailing weight of the sleeper vehicles plus a class 57 dead-in-tow is similar to or higher than that of 8 mark 3 trailers, which means that you'd need both class 43s as one alone would not have the necessary oomph to shift the train at a suitable pace. Bear in mind that HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) running on one power car aren't allowed to take on the steeply-graded portion of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) through south Devon unassisted.

[anthony215]

Here are some pics I have found:

http://ambsphotogallery.weebly.com/sleeper-issues.html

[JayMac]

Nice find Anthony! I'd been trawling t'interweb without success. 

[anthony215]

Thanks although I came across it by accident

[Electric train]

Is there a reason why they use two power cars back to back, is it because they only work in multiple or is it just to keep two cars together?

A single class 43 may not have the tractive effort, also the class 43 do not have a driving position at the "B end" non cab end which makes for problems if it needs detaching from the train and driven in that direction which would rule out the return as "light engine"

Also this end of the class 43 has a buckeye coupling only while they could couple to the coaches the 43's have a 415v 3 phase electric train heating supply were as the night Riviera stock requires an 850v single phase supply hence the need for the class 57 in the formation to provide ETH; the front or "A end" of the class 43 has the facility for "emergency" loco coupling (and even HST^▸ (High Speed Train) to HST coupling)

They may be other reasons like 43's alway work trains in pairs so having an odd ones at different ends of the country may not be operationally smart.

This formation would have been staff intensive as the 57 would need manning because the fire alarm would not be wired to the driving cab of the train

[devon_metro]

57603 Tintagel Castle didn't get a Sunday off either.  I saw it last weekend hauling the rear power car and coaches G and H of the previous night's 16:15 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa which had failed between Didcot Parkway and Swindon. Not sure what the problem was which meant they had to divide the train. The rear portion went through Reading at 11:00 on Sunday. Don't know what happened to the front part.

Something to do with the brakes I believe, which affected the rear portion, that was the reason why the rear power car could not just drive the rear portion back. The front portion continued to Swindon and terminated (very late) before heading back to St Phillips Marsh. Service divided at Uffington, blocking the up main for over 3 hours.

Something fell off one of the trailer units I believe, subsequently back of train was damaged. RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) are investigating...

[inspector_blakey]

Something fell off one of the trailer units I believe, subsequently back of train was damaged. RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) are investigating...

Doesn't look like the RAIB is investigating: nearly three months after the incident and there's no indication of any inquiry on their website. Quite possible that they attended and decided that there was no need for a full investigation of course.