Potential use for Mark 4 coaches

[Energy]

Absolutely. See also Grand Central to Blackpool and indeed Grand Central to Sunderland back in the day (those HSTs had no other home when they brought them into service) all using spare stock which had no other home.

Grand Central to Blackpool isn't too surprising, the Intercity 225s will just need a repaint and change of colours inside. Looking at Sunderland, although it started with HSTs they got ditched when 180s became available, another case of multiple units being more popular.

 

[Nym]

Also, do the TPE 68's use the same electrical connection as the Chiltern ones....

No.

 

[hexagon789]

Chiltern have said the 68 loco hauled sets perform similarly to a DMU in terms of acceleration, however I would imagine that the time spent at stations would be longer.

68s outperform 168/170s no bother even with load six. The 67s were more similar to the 168s.

 

[mmh]

The reason why Wrexham and Shropshire got loco hauled sets was because nothing else was available and brand new carriages for open access are rare, East Coast Trains is the only one

There have been 5 open access operators, 3 of them have had brand new trains (Hull Trains, Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect) and 2 have only used existing stock (Wrexham and Shropshire, Grand Central.)

 

[Neptune]

Hull Trains started with hired in Anglia Railways class 170’s.

 

[Energy]

There have been 5 open access operators, 3 of them have had brand new trains (Hull Trains, Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect) and 2 have only used existing stock (Wrexham and Shropshire, Grand Central.)

Hull Trains origianlly used class 170s (which as someone mentioned above were hired in) which are pretty flexible in the routes they operated so if Hull Trains wasn't successful they could have been sent elsewhere easily; 4 of the trains used by Heathrow Connect were Desiro demonstrator units which were modified into 360s; Heathrow Express was planned and construction started under a partnership between Heathrow (BAA) and British Rail although BR had been privitised before it started service so BAA took it on as an open access operator as they still used a bit of National Rail and it couldn't be a franchised TOC.

 

[hexagon789]

Hull Trains origianlly used class 170s (which as someone mentioned above were hired in) which are pretty flexible in the routes they operated so if Hull Trains wasn't successful they could have been sent elsewhere easily; 4 of the trains used by Heathrow Connect were Desiro demonstrator units which were modified into 360s; Heathrow Express was planned and construction started under a partnership between Heathrow (BAA) and British Rail although BR had been privitised before it started service so BAA took it on as an open access operator as they still used a bit of National Rail and it couldn't be a franchised TOC.

The main problem with the 170s was the poor acceleration and low top speed when running on the ECML, I believe it caused pathing issues hence the shift to 125mph Pioneers and later 180s. And of course Grand Central went for 125mph stock from the start.

 

[xotGD]

Nottingham - Glasgow please.

 

[JonathanH]

Nottingham - Glasgow please.

via Appleby? That isn't going to happen. How many people get the current 6½ hour Nottingham to Carlisle service all the way to go onto Glasgow? How many more would go the whole way to Glasgow even if it had Mark 4 coaches.

 

[CBlue]

Another potential use for the Mk4 coach stock is quite straightforward. Cut them into small segmented compartments, label as appropriate then fill with your foodstuff of choice.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Another potential use for the Mk4 coach stock is quite straightforward. Cut them into small segmented compartments, label as appropriate then fill with your foodstuff of choice.

Or use them for a shave?

 

[CBlue]

Or use them for a shave?

Perhaps!

Of course, they could always be stripped and dumped offshore as a artificial reef...