Recent content by MrEd

From my own experience using the sleeper in recent years, crews will not delay breakfast service in case of a weather-related timetable alteration in case the train actually arrives at or near the normal time. I think breakfasts in the club car have to be served at the booked time slots because...

I seem to recall the Carrbridge stop northbound was introduced in May 2013, but I could be wrong. Certainly the sleeper was calling there in the last couple of years of being operated by Scotrail. Its scheduled arrival time in Inverness changed from 08:31 to 08:39 at the same time (passing the...

Depends which line as to whether it’s used much by locals. Locals from Kyle, Plockton, Lochcarron, south Skye etc definitely do use the Kyle line (my local line) for shopping trips etc to Inverness, particularly as it’s cheaper and more comfortable than the Citylink bus, which does not serve...

This hasn’t happened since (I think) 2017, when the old sleeper stock (Mk3s with Mk2 buffet and brake) was still in use. I’m not sure that the new Mk5 stock is cleared for the Oban line. I suspect that the sleeper guards’ route knowledge has lapsed by now, and possibly the drivers’ too as I...

I wouldn’t have thought so, as the Aberdeen portion was worked north by 73966 this morning, reaching Aberdeen on time, and the Fort William and Aberdeen sections also ran as normal with 66+73 pairings. Unless one of these locos also fails, the Sunday night services should be as normal.

I was watching a video of a cab ride filmed in about 1995 or 1996, in the cab of a Class 37 on the West Highland Line between Crianlarich and Fort William. On the down side of the down loop at Spean Bridge, I noticed an old-style cut-out sign suggesting that the line speed was 60mph for the...

Before the Fort William sleeper was diverted to run via Airdrie and Glasgow Queen St Low Level in 2014, one route that 1Y11 often took was via Falkirk Grahamston and then via Cumbernauld and Stepps past Springburn to Cowlairs, then via Ashfield to Westerton to join the North Clyde Line. The...

Similarly with Inverness taxis sometimes refusing trips to Wick and Kyle for Scotrail - with almost no prospect of a return fare, these time-consuming runs on often slow (esp. in tourist season) single-carriageway A roads are not commercially viable for a taxi driver working off a meter. A...

I find it very surprising that a guard would have said that, bearing in mind that there are very few stations left on the Greater Anglia network without any ticket issuing facilities at all. Most Greater Anglia services run within or into areas in which penalty fares apply and most major...

Many thanks for clearing this up - much appreciated.

Many thanks! Does this apply to sleeper services arriving in Inverness on a weekday morning as well as those arriving on a Saturday, given that the arrival time is 08:45 and technically still in the ‘morning peak’ on a weekday? Or does the fact that you started the journey at 21:15 the previous...

Are there any Caledonian Sleeper staff on here (or those with an understanding of its fare structure) who can answer this: I have a berth supplement for a standard class berth (or ‘classic’ as the current sleeper operator calls it) on the 21:15 Euston to Inverness departing Wednesday 22 January...

Interestingly, 67004/007/009/011/030 were all fitted with RETB for working the Fort William route, and were assigned to the WABN pool (as was), but 030 never had the cast-iron brake blocks fitted. The rationale was that 004/007/009/011 were the dedicated locos and could work that section for...

I don’t think the Fort William would ever go over to 67s, as none of the crews who currently work that leg have ever signed them, I don’t think (when 67s worked the Fort William train they had Scotrail drivers, not GBRf as now). Also, 023 & 027 don’t have RETB equipment and are subject to severe...

But bizarrely, in the pictures of the Taunton fire, there is a BG between the class 47 and the first sleeping car of the Plymouth portion (where the linen was stacked which caught fire). How on earth did no-one think to put the linen in this BG? Perhaps the BG was not actually part of the...