Grand Central mark 3 with mostly airline seating?

[sprinterguy]

A couple of weeks ago I was travelling with Grand Central again, but upon settling myself in one seat of a roomy airline pair, I was surprised to realise that the vast majority of the seats in the carriage were arranged in an “airline” configuration.

A brief count of the seats in the carriage revealed that this carriage still seated a total of 64, the same as the majority of Grand Central’s standard class vehicles, so arranging them in this way offered no capacity benefit to GC (Although it did mean that the leg room was second to none), but my previous journeys with Grand Central had always involved mark 3 TSOs with the seats arranged mostly around tables in bays of 4.

So, is this a one off, or is this Grand Central’s new policy as regards its’ seating arrangements? The carriage in question was 42404, if that helps.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

Only the TSO(D) is all table seats, the TSOs are a mix of table and airline.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Could be one of the LHCS conversions. May have retained the sating layout and was simply reupholstered.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

well unless they have completely stripped out the coaches and redone them in the 2 years since I worked for them... only the Disabled coach had all seats with a table. (FC of course, they all had tables)

 

[sprinterguy]

Could be one of the LHCS conversions. May have retained the sating layout and was simply reupholstered.

All of Grand Central's standard class vehicles are loco-hauled conversions, as are the first class vehicles. No mark 3 TSOs seated only 64 prior to GC getting hold of them, so I believe that sir_clagalot is correct.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

IIRC there were only about 3 TSOs that had the full 64 seats, most were 62 as they had a wheelchair space, if not a disabled toilet. Was handy for buggies etc!
And yes, all except the catering vehicles were ex WC LHCS. The buffets came from the XC HSTs