Caledonian Sleeper

[RGM654]

I notice the Highlander left Euston at 23:47, I wonder if it waited for passengers for the 23:45 Lowlander which started from Watford Junction at 02:54.

Something along those lines could have been a good plan but (a) the Highlander apparently ran non-stop through Watford and (b) even if it had stopped the passengers would have been left there for nearly three hours before the Lowlander ECS arrived. Anyone know what was actually done? Could they have stayed in the lounge at Euston and been sent to Watford on 2K83 at 0139?

On the general matter of reliability, how does the Cornish sleeper compare?

For many years I mainly used the sleeper for my journeys to and from Scotland. Latterly most of my trips have been for the Edinburgh Fringe, going north during the day and south on the sleeper. This year I decided it made better sense to leave Edinburgh in the early evening, losing the time for seeing only one or two more shows, and be back in my own bed that night. As it happened we were delayed by a "safety inspection", and then back in London the Metropolitan Line was up the spout but I still got home about midnight.

 

[najaB]

On the general matter of reliability, how does the Cornish sleeper compare?

I believe it's more reliable, but it's also a simpler operation. That said, it's not unknown for sleeper passengers to be "accommodated" in normal day carriages.

 

[John Bishop]

on the other hand the lowlander arrived in Euston half an hour early, so you can't say it's universally bad!

Well considering the vast majority of last nights passengers (both northbound and southbound) are arriving upwards of 2 hours late this morning, I stand by my statement of it being a bad night on the beds. The fact that one train arrived early is of little relevance to the majority who are being disrupted by events.

 

[Bald Rick]

Well considering the vast majority of last nights passengers (both northbound and southbound) are arriving upwards of 2 hours late this morning, I stand by my statement of it being a bad night on the beds. The fact that one train arrived early is of little relevance to the majority who are being disrupted by events.

On the bright side, the majority will be getting a free trip.

 

[scotlass]

One of the CS locos was sitting on the bridge at Abbeymount this morning.

 

[styles]

O the bright side, the majority will be getting a free trip.

Which is fine but I often take the sleeper for work reasons. If I got delayed by 3 hours I'm not sure a free trip on the CS would quite make up for it.

They need to sort their life out.

 

[Bald Rick]

Which is fine but I often take the sleeper for work reasons. If I got delayed by 3 hours I'm not sure a free trip on the CS would quite make up for it.

They need to sort their life out.

Oh, I quite understand. However people using the CS for work are very much the minority. For most it is a leisure journey, and for some an ‘experience’. For some people, arriving in Glasgow or Inverness a couple of hours late means a bit less time to hang around waiting for their hotel, and a full refund will be a real bonus.

Personally if I was using it to, say, Aviemore with a trip up Glen Feshie to the western Cairngorms at risk, I’d be well annoyed.

 

[najaB]

Which is fine but I often take the sleeper for work reasons. If I got delayed by 3 hours I'm not sure a free trip on the CS would quite make up for it.

They need to sort their life out.

I guess it would be "less worse" if it's the journey home that's delayed rather than missing meetings, etc.

Out of curiosity, have any of your work trips suffered significant disruption or have you been lucky to date (knock wood)?

 

[Horizon22]

I believe it's more reliable, but it's also a simpler operation. That said, it's not unknown for sleeper passengers to be "accommodated" in normal day carriages.

Yes a serious downgrade being replaced with an IET! Very rare, but as you say not unknown. It is almost never outright cancelled unless there is a unavoidable, prolonged infrastructure failure down in Cornwall/Devon.

 

[Harratt4]

Yes a serious downgrade being replaced with an IET! Very rare, but as you say not unknown. It is almost never outright cancelled unless there is a unavoidable, prolonged infrastructure failure down in Cornwall/Devon.

Am I understanding correctly, all the way to Cornwall on those awful ironing board bolt upright seats, overnight? No, gracias!

 

[Horizon22]

Am I understanding correctly, all the way to Cornwall on those awful ironing board bolt upright seats, overnight? No, gracias!

Correct. Not much fun.

 

[GordonT]

For most it is a leisure journey, and for some an ‘experience’.

Been a fair few of the latter recently.

 

[Sealink]

Coming back from Glasgow last Tuesday, there was a real jolt (which woke me and a few others up) at what I think were points just south of Wigan.

I think it was here...

LAT: 53.524474
LON: -2.611792

 

[styles]

I guess it would be "less worse" if it's the journey home that's delayed rather than missing meetings, etc.

Out of curiosity, have any of your work trips suffered significant disruption or have you been lucky to date (knock wood)?

I have taken dozens of trips on the CS, mainly for work but also some for leisure to go hiking. I have (touch wood) never even been delayed enough for a simple delay repay claim.

Now that I've jinxed it...

 

[norbitonflyer]

On the general matter of reliability, how does the Cornish sleeper compare?

gerenally good, but they were suffereing a shortage of serviceable locomotives one week recently, as a result of which there were several cancellations and extra movements to try to get locos to where they were needed. We were lucky to be on one of the few runs that week that ran to time (or at all) - and even then we had a loco attached to the rear all the way to Penzance (not just to Reading as usual) in order to rescue the stock of the up service, which was still at Penzance when we arrived.

 

[BenBracken]

I’ve taken the Highlander with the family a few times for holidays in the north of Scotland. Generally it’s been OK, worst experience was turning up at Inverness the day after Boxing Day and the carriages had frozen pipes from being stabled over the Xmas period. They offered us a hotel and tickets for the day service to London the next day, we pointed out that having young kids with us meant 9 hours on a day train wasn’t an option! We just booked for the next nights sleeper and had an extra days holiday staying with family, so not out of pocket. So yeah it can be inconvenient but compared to the stress you face quite a lot of the time getting around the UK rail network on normal services it’s not that bad!

 

[godfreycomplex]

Coming back from Glasgow last Tuesday, there was a real jolt (which woke me and a few others up) at what I think were points just south of Wigan.

I think it was here...

LAT: 53.524474
LON: -2.611792

View attachment 209981

Might be worth reporting to the Network Rail helpline

 

[najaB]

Might be worth reporting to the Network Rail helpline

Indeed. I mean, it's probably nothing, and anyway someone else has probably reported it - said everyone.

 

[styles]

I’ve taken the Highlander with the family a few times for holidays in the north of Scotland. Generally it’s been OK, worst experience was turning up at Inverness the day after Boxing Day and the carriages had frozen pipes from being stabled over the Xmas period. They offered us a hotel and tickets for the day service to London the next day, we pointed out that having young kids with us meant 9 hours on a day train wasn’t an option! We just booked for the next nights sleeper and had an extra days holiday staying with family, so not out of pocket. So yeah it can be inconvenient but compared to the stress you face quite a lot of the time getting around the UK rail network on normal services it’s not that bad!

I'm surprised that such a long-standing operations as the Caledonian Sleeper were naive enough to let the pipes freeze on their trains.

I'm a lowly homeowner nowhere far north as Inverness and even I know to have the heating come on a couple of times a day to prevent this.

 

[Krokodil]

I'm surprised that such a long-standing operations as the Caledonian Sleeper were naive enough to let the pipes freeze on their trains.

I'm a lowly homeowner nowhere far north as Inverness and even I know to have the heating come on a couple of times a day to prevent this.

TOCs operating diesel trains will have a handful of drivers on duty over Christmas to warm units through to prevent frost damage.

 

[styles]

TOCs operating diesel trains will have a handful of drivers on duty over Christmas to warm units through to prevent frost damage.

Sounds like a good gig actually. Escape your racist uncle for a few hours sat in the cab not even having to drive anywhere.

 

[Struner]

Sounds like a good gig actually. Escape your racist uncle for a few hours sat in the cab not even having to drive anywhere.

I know the feeling. speaking from experience?

 

[styles]

I know the feeling. speaking from experience?

My uncle was actually a pervert who sent anonymous sexually-toned text messages to a close family member. I can't remember if he was racist or not, but yeah, unfortunately speaking from experience. I'd much prefer a sandwich on my todd on an empty train than share a table with him!

In a less depressing anecdote, I used to do IT support for my university when I was a student. We had a Muslim chap in the team and he loved working Christmas Day - he doesn't celebrate it anyway, no support tickets tend to come in because the staff and students are away, he gets an empty office to put music on and do what he likes, and he got paid something like 4x overtime for the privilege.

 

[Bill57p9]

I remember the Inverness frozen pipes incident. Recent enough to have been on the mk5s. The real irony is that Inverness has shore ETS available however it is not used by CS.

 

[najaB]

In a less depressing anecdote, I used to do IT support for my university when I was a student. We had a Muslim chap in the team and he loved working Christmas Day - he doesn't celebrate it anyway, no support tickets tend to come in because the staff and students are away, he gets an empty office to put music on and do what he likes, and he got paid something like 4x overtime for the privilege.

At risk of derailing the thread, when I worked doing tech support for BT Business there was a fight to get shifts over the Christmas holidays as there were usually very few calls coming in but the desk had to be staffed 24/7. One Christmas Eve there were (IIRC) nine of us on shift and we got seven calls in eight hours. And, thanks to how breaks worked out, one guy managed to get two of them!

 

[johnr57]

Back to our own reliability experiences - up until a couple of years ago I lived in Edinburgh and over a period of 18 months regularly did about 3 - 5 trips a month south on the lowlander and only once was delayed though that was about 5 hours late into Euston - I lost that sale …….

 

[styles]

Back to our own reliability experiences - up until a couple of years ago I lived in Edinburgh and over a period of 18 months regularly did about 3 - 5 trips a month south on the lowlander and only once was delayed though that was about 5 hours late into Euston - I lost that sale …….

Was it a significant sale? I assume so, given the cost of the sleeper.

 

[MoominAndChips]

I remember the Inverness frozen pipes incident. Recent enough to have been on the mk5s. The real irony is that Inverness has shore ETS available however it is not used by CS.

My then-girlfriend was on one of the Finnish sleepers the night that happened, and they'd managed to do the same thing in Turku. No burst pipes - Finnish coaches are clearly built of sterner stuff - but everyone was crowded into the restaurant coach for a couple of hours while they got the sleeper coaches thawed out and habitable!

 

[fgwrich]

I remember the Inverness frozen pipes incident. Recent enough to have been on the mk5s. The real irony is that Inverness has shore ETS available however it is not used by CS.

I’m not sure what the situation was last Christmas, however the work around for a couple of winters was a former Nightstar Mk3 Gen Van hired from Eastern Rail Services and located at Inverness. Indeed it was even painted into Midnight Teal and given Generator Car with a giant plug on the side. It since went onto be the Gen Van for the Rail200 train, but has laterally gone on hire to Chiltern now to fulfil a similar role at Stourbridge (best not to wake the neighbours up with those 68s on ETS)…

 

[styles]

Last time I was delayed overnight on a train I set up my hammock between the two overhead luggage racks. I slept like a log.