Seen it on Virgin a few times, when an 11-coach 390 has one coach out of use journey check describes it as a 10-coach train.
Don't believe I've ever seen that - that's more likely a double Voyager subbing for a Pendolino.
The same message can be, and is, sent in both circumstances (ie. coach locked out or change of stock).
It won't be clear which it is unless you can see the internal information (or the TOC broadcasts it to the public by accident) - or if you turn up and notice which of the two things has happened.
Might be someone's shat on a seat and it needs cleaning
Indeed. I have had several occasions where I've actually discovered someone's walked through a coach puking everywhere (or similar, or worse) and done the same in the next one as well, so more than one has had to be locked out.
It can also be that certain technical defects would need more than one coach locking out of use.
I remember reading something similar a few years ago, ISTR one Saturday night the driver of the Brighton-bound 377 arrived at London Victoria to find someone had apparately urinated in his cab and the seat was wet, he quite rightly refused to drive the train and the service was cancelled.
This happens fairly regularly. Unfortunately, passengers on the BML have developed a slightly bizarre habit of thinking that intermediate cabs on Electrostars in multiple (which, in the case of 377s/387s, have a gangway through them) are actually the toilets.
(For those not familiar, the cab doors slide across to block off the cab areas and allow anyone to walk through the middle of the attached cabs, from one unit to the next.)
This is not a cultural problem from passengers who aren't local, such as those boarding at Gatwick or the ports, and not being familiar with the trains; rather, it tends to be people who have drunk a bit too much late at night and try to open anything which looks like a door to see if it's a toilet.
The cab doors are plastered with copious "staff only" warning notices and are clearly not for public entry, let alone for use as a toilet. It's also patently obvious that the things are not toilets once you go in there. Regardless, people still try to force the doors, and occasionally succeed, if they're really violent. They then go in there and... go in there. If you see what I mean.
If they don't succeed, they don't generally tend to walk further down the train to look for the actual toilets. Instead, they tend to just go on the floor of the gangway. This also renders the cabs unusable.
When the trains then detach at a terminus, at least one driving cab is then out of order.
Fleet Control have actually developed a sort of Tetris game plan where they try to position the train so that it is adjacent to a platform on the relevant side where the cab seat has been soiled. This then allows fitters to access the cab and dismantle the seats (once basic cleaning has been carried out). They will then remove them onto the platform, where possible, to allow replacement or for the train to be driven to the depot. Sadly the fabric is fairly thin and the residue typically leaks into the cushions, which themselves are quite firmly attached to the seats.
