You need space to split a set right up to do a No 7, which OOC certainly had. Otherwise you tended to have to do each coach in turn. I suspect Euston Downside didn’t have enough space and they just let that job go.
The Kings Lynn sets were in very good condition below the solebar. That’s the kind of thing I was referring to. The IC80 seats went with them into preservation. IC woke up to their existence about 3 months after I flogged the last one, otherwise they would had all the seats removed for spares.
The Kings Lynn sets had Mk 1 RMB’s but we never were offered them - IC hoovered them up. Mind you, we had previously seen one, 1842 iirc, which CA sent us for a (poor) riding investigation and possible repair. It caused quite a stir.
I was walking through the doors of the OOC lift shop one day when I saw it right in front of me being put back down on its bogies and it then settled noticeably to the right hand side. I put both my arms up & shouted to the Supervisor, Martin Enright, “this coach is on the pxxs”. So he came to where I was standing and we did the lift again. He saw what I saw and I said, “what it is this?” He told me it was a buffet that Cambridge had sent us for rough riding. So we went down the “low” side to see if we could find anything.
I went down the side of the coach and called out all the equipment after I passed each one and then said, “M.A set” and walked on. I stopped and then, looking back in total disbelief, said, “Hang about, M.A. set - what the f is that thing doing here on a Mk1?!” He explained that it was now all electrical kit up there in the buffet. I told him that was the issue - the weight of the M.A.set (just about a ton) had unbalanced the loading. We then shimmed up the suspension on one side to try and throw the weight back - it was all a bit crude but the best we could think of in the circumstances.
