Mitchell Hurd
On Moderation
- Joined
- 28 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 1,763
Personally the Quiet Coach experience on the 16:03 from Birmingham New Street to Leeds on the 04/04/19 (7-car HST) was that fantastic, especially sitting in number seat G05, that I'll be hoping to reserve this seat when (or if) I make my first trip to Scotland (Edinburgh) next year. Basically as long as I have a medium suitcase that's similar dimensions to those accepted as cabin baggage by EasyJet, I can fit it in the overhead racks on the HST's and Voyagers (I asked XC on Twitter about the suitcase situation yesterday evening).
The reasons this end of the Quiet Coach I (and will now, especially for Edinburgh) enjoy sitting most on XC HST's...
1. You can hear the power car.
2. You can knock on the train managers door if necessary (I have 2 HST books which is how I know of it's existence basically).
3. Before you leave one of the scheduled calling stations, you can hear a fairly quiet beep go off twice which means all the doors (where you board and alight the train) are locked.
4. Likely to be quieter at the power car end of the passenger area in Coach G than at the vestibule end where people potentially talk on the phone. Any calls I'll need to make I'll do at the start of Coach F.
5. If the disabled toilet in Coach F is out of use (I prefer using bigger toilets than the smaller ones), I can use the one in Coach G anyway.
6. Even though a few HST's are yet to be fitted with electric doors, I believe a slam door will exist where bikes can be taken onboard XC HST's in Coach G, in which case the famous 'slam' sound will still exist. So the HST experience hasn't quite been reduced!
Even with the slam doors, you don't feel the draft as much, plus you can't hear the drafts as well if that makes sense.
Seat G05 on the 04/04/19 was forward facing which made it extra enjoyable as it was like sitting at the front of a long bus. Plus the MTU engine in the front power car could easily be heard going from 750rpm to 1000rpm
!
The reasons this end of the Quiet Coach I (and will now, especially for Edinburgh) enjoy sitting most on XC HST's...
1. You can hear the power car.
2. You can knock on the train managers door if necessary (I have 2 HST books which is how I know of it's existence basically).
3. Before you leave one of the scheduled calling stations, you can hear a fairly quiet beep go off twice which means all the doors (where you board and alight the train) are locked.
4. Likely to be quieter at the power car end of the passenger area in Coach G than at the vestibule end where people potentially talk on the phone. Any calls I'll need to make I'll do at the start of Coach F.
5. If the disabled toilet in Coach F is out of use (I prefer using bigger toilets than the smaller ones), I can use the one in Coach G anyway.
6. Even though a few HST's are yet to be fitted with electric doors, I believe a slam door will exist where bikes can be taken onboard XC HST's in Coach G, in which case the famous 'slam' sound will still exist. So the HST experience hasn't quite been reduced!
Even with the slam doors, you don't feel the draft as much, plus you can't hear the drafts as well if that makes sense.
Seat G05 on the 04/04/19 was forward facing which made it extra enjoyable as it was like sitting at the front of a long bus. Plus the MTU engine in the front power car could easily be heard going from 750rpm to 1000rpm
!
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