Recent content by Bletchleyite

I don't mind rock hard seats*, original ironing boards never bothered me and the very hard seats in the 730s are fine too, just not the stingy legroom. I do mind seats that have too *soft* a cushion so I end up being sat on the framework. * I could fall asleep on a concrete slab and have done...

I don't remember it being particularly noteworthy. I find all 8xx seem to ride a bit like a 350 or 444 but slightly jigglier.

The service operates as it does because there is a higher demand from Glossop to/from Manchester than smaller and poorer Hadfield. Thus Glossop has the shorter journey time. There is enough slack in the diagrams to do this, though if 350s get introduced this could well change. The slight...

That's different because it's never been sited in Warwick. Edge Hill was founded in Edge Hill and later moved.

802s are least worst as they are newer. I also find the seats in the middle of the coach to be less badly collapsed than those at the ends.

I think from a technical point of view they are singlespeed, but from a legal (licensing) point of view they count as automatic.

196s and 397s have this sort of tubes-and-spots arrangement and it does work well, though not reading lights.

Even in dim mode it was truly horrid. You're the first person who has ever said anything good about it that I can remember. Restful it certainly was not.

The 730s have harder seats and a higher density layout than the 350s, but that does mean about 20% more seats in a 240m train. However they do still seem to be quite popular despite the theoretically lower comfort, and they do have some upsides such as huge windows.

Supposedly, though I can't remember where I read it, Siemens were quite taken aback when TransPennine Express specced a budget regional seat in the Class 185. The irony is that they are probably one of the most comfortable units on the network - people only really disliked them because they...

It is of course possible that that is precisely why they are proposing that structure!

Was it also in a pleasant pinkish shade from those rose tinted spectacles? The refurbished HSTs used a stark almost blue daylight colour of lighting which was absolutely horrid. Even before that in BR days they used excessively bright (though warm coloured) tubes and were only in dim mode if...

I would expect the /0s to stay in West Midlands livery, there were dedicated PTE liveries in BR days too.

Doubt it, I don't think 230s use the Fainsa Compin seat, they use a similarly shaped one from a different manufacturer.

They were traditionally covered in oil and other gunk and thus very slippery.