Saturday-only GN 365s

[Fuzzytop]

Last Saturday I ended up finding a pair of 365s at Cambridge - they seemed to be working the 1035 out of King's Cross towards Ely.

I left towards London on a Thameslink service, and I'm almost certain I saw another pair speeding through Ashwell. Just like old times eh

Does anyone know whether the 365 workings were because of driver knowledge or unavailability of other stock? Or indeed whether they might be more 'regular' fixtures on the Saturday interim timetable..?

 

[Cletus]

For information

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/X13079/2018/09/22

0816 Kings Cross - Peterborough
Yesterday this service was single 35 - 365524

 

[bramling]

Last Saturday I ended up finding a pair of 365s at Cambridge - they seemed to be working the 1035 out of King's Cross towards Ely.

I left towards London on a Thameslink service, and I'm almost certain I saw another pair speeding through Ashwell. Just like old times eh

Does anyone know whether the 365 workings were because of driver knowledge or unavailability of other stock? Or indeed whether they might be more 'regular' fixtures on the Saturday interim timetable..?

The current weekend emergency timetable has plenty of booked 365 activity. The semi-fast Ely and Peterborough services are both a mix of 700/0, 2x365 and 2x387.

 

[jon0844]

The current weekend emergency timetable has plenty of booked 365 activity. The semi-fast Ely and Peterborough services are both a mix of 700/0, 2x365 and 2x387.

There's a lot of 700 driver training going on, but I think at the moment there are still enough drivers unable to sign a 700 that when those are the ones working weekends (especially Sunday rest day working) the use of 365s becomes a necessity. And 4 cars are needed on the Cambridge stoppers, just as they always were.

I guess that as the stock swap is late in the day (sometimes even on the day if control didn't realise a driver couldn't sign a 700) there's no way it would split and join at any point as it wouldn't be in the workings.

 

[bramling]

There's a lot of 700 driver training going on, but I think at the moment there are still enough drivers unable to sign a 700 that when those are the ones working weekends (especially Sunday rest day working) the use of 365s becomes a necessity. And 4 cars are needed on the Cambridge stoppers, just as they always were.

I guess that as the stock swap is late in the day (sometimes even on the day if control didn't realise a driver couldn't sign a 700) there's no way it would split and join at any point as it wouldn't be in the workings.

I suppose an extra issue is that 365s nowadays are only booked to stable at Peterborough and Letchworth, plus of course spares at Hornsey. So any diagram they work can’t start or finish at Cambridge, and can’t (shouldn’t!) leave Letchworth or Peterborough short for Monday morning. That in itself must be a pain in the arse - especially when there probably aren’t spare drivers sitting around to do stock moves.