The seats (not the brake compartment / bike compartment) should always be adjacent to the lounge car. So that means the brake is always at the south end of each formation at Euston. All trains except the one to Glasgow reverse at some point in their journey, so it depends which bit of the journey you want you want to face forward on as well.
Thanks that makes sense. So effectively the bike compartment is at the very southernmost end of the train on the core England to Scotland section before any splits etc occur.
Still in the dark as to what went on at Edinburgh, but we're getting put on a bus from Crianlarich.
Platforms 2 and 19 are contiguous and the sleeper occupies both of them during the splitting/joining process. So effectively the Fort William portion always leaves from platform 2 (unless they are using the equivalent double-length platform on the other side of the station).
In theory but it's not unknown for the seats and/or the lounge car to be the wrong way around.
No problem, I just wanted a fair idea with the usual provisos!
No sleeper stock or 73s in Aberdeen when I left there just now.
That'll be because they're at Polmadie.
Yup, the consensus is that they're technically over complicated and badly built leading to (especially plumbing) faults all over the place, were given an interior design specified by people with no idea of onboard catering or luggage storage, and put on rackety running gear woefully unsuited to overnight services. Other than that they're great.
Failed at Carnoustie,
The sleeper failed at Carnoustie, the engine of the 6A34 was detached from the tanks at Dundee and sent to assist and brought the sleeper back to the yard in Dundee. The engine then reattached to the tanks and continued on its merry way to Aberdeen.
Prices are demand driven, so increase for the same accommodation as the rooms book up. The Highlander prices to the end of September are "transitional" - i.e. based on the assumption it'll still be old stock.
Conversely I just booked an advance solo from Paddington to Penzance for £59
Is distance really a big factor in the equation for ticket prices on sleepers?
It's a factor in so much as Paddington-Penzance is about 5.5 hours on a day train, which is just about palatable. London to Inverness is something like 8 hours and London to Fort Bill is in excess of 10 hours (incl a walk across Glasgow). That'd be pretty tedious on a day train and thus makes the Sleeper option for those sorts of distances a much more attractive alternative. Thus higher demand and higher prices.
