What are the worst rolling stock subsitutions you've experienced?

[yorksrob]

Especially as the Voyagers had already been introduced so we're talking 2002 here. Voyagers and Mk2s only lived side-by-side for under a year on Virgin.

Ooh, so it might have been a lovely rake of main line mk3's ? I must admit, I'd moved away from the WCML by then, so I don't know how reliable they were by then !

 

[Richard Scott]

Going back to loco hauled days, obviously when your favoured form of traction was substituted by something else.

If a 47 turned up instead of a 50 - ruined your day! 45 or 50 vice 47 though, absolute winner!

 

[py_megapixel]

IET (any number of cars) replacing class 57 and mark 3 sleepers.
Yes GWR I'm looking at you...

IETs on the Sleeper? Has that ever actually happened?

 

[Tackleberry]

IETs on the Sleeper? Has that ever actually happened?

Not sure but I’ve seen a HST on it before!!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Going back to loco hauled days, obviously when your favoured form of traction was substituted by something else.

Best one I saw for that was when the morning 47 on the S&C on a Saturday was replaced with a single 2-car 101. I'll bet the driver had to get out and push it through Blea Moor.

 

[Richard Scott]

Going the other way (i.e. best substitution) when I travelled from Derby to Crewe on mark 1s with a pair of 20s instead of a 150! Didn't last long as think they found some old heritage units!

 

[CW2]

Going the other way (i.e. best substitution) when I travelled from Derby to Crewe on mark 1s with a pair of 20s instead of a 150! Didn't last long as think they found some old heritage units!

That probably deserves a thread of its own.

 

[py_megapixel]

Not sure but I’ve seen a HST on it before!!

Was it just tough luck if you bought a berth ticket then? Can't imagine Paddington-Penzance on a HST being an amazing experience to be honest in middle of the night.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

IETs on the Sleeper? Has that ever actually happened?

Oh it has - I've seen it reported on Twitter I think twice. I can imagine the person in charge of sending trains out thinking like "Oh dear - well, it's an IET or delay passengers further".

I'll be honest, that's the only time I'd be disappointed at an IET vs a ride-behind-a-57 experience, especially as I would have given up a night for a night of fun. Haven't done the sleeper yet.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

Was it just tough luck if you bought a berth ticket then? Can't imagine Paddington-Penzance on a HST being an amazing experience to be honest in middle of the night.

Sorry again, but yes passengers had been entitled to a compensation or part compensation for the lack of beds according to what I read on Twitter ages ago about an IET in place of a sleeper.

 

[Halish Railway]

That probably deserves a thread of its own.

Here you go - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/trivia-best-rolling-stock-subsitutions.206696/

 

[Owen31]

Class 455 on the Haslemere stopper as oppose to a 444

 

[Parallel]

143s have substituted for 8 carriage HSTs on GWR a couple of times. One made it from Paignton to Swindon, and more recently, one started at Westbury on a service to Cornwall to cover for a cancelled HST (might have even been an IET but I can’t remember for sure).

I’m sure 14x have part covered for 175s on routes in Wales before, especially Cardiff to Pembrokeshire.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I had no sleeping car from Amsterdam to Dresden a few years ago and had to sit all night in a CD carriage. I asked for a full refund at Dresden in the morning using my fluent German but sadly the compensation amounted to only around 40%

 

[hexagon789]

I had no sleeping car from Amsterdam to Dresden a few years ago and had to sit all night in a CD carriage. I asked for a full refund at Dresden in the morning using my fluent German but sadly the compensation amounted to only around 40%

They probably argued - "well, we did get you there". Even if not in comfort.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

There was mention in another thread of a 141 running from Leeds to Doncaster calling at Wakefield only to connect with a Southbound ECML express after a Leeds service was cancelled. Apparently a refreshments trolley was provided!

Back in Northern Spirit/Arriva Trains Northern days, it wasn't unheard of for Trans-pennine Express services to be subbed with a spare Pacer. I do remember having to squeeze onto a 5-car 142/144 combo to get back to Huddersfield from Leeds once.

Going overseas, my southbound trip on the sleeper to Latour de Carol (where I was booked in the seated coach) had an extra couchette vehicle in place of the LdC seated car, so I got a private compartment I didn't need to pay for!

 

[PHILIPE]

In the days when Motorails ran one had failed at Lockerbie and our train south was stuck behind so they laid on a Class 101 to run from Carlisle to Crewe. We just under an hour late on arrival at Crewe

 

[Ianno87]

I remember one bank holiday in 2014 when the southern WCML was shut.

The heavily loaded Liverpool-Rugby 11 car Pendolino I was on was directed by the Train Manager onto a 3 car XC 170 at Nuneaton to travel to London via Leicester, rather than the huge 10 car Voyager waiting at Rugby to head via the Chiltern route...

 

[Richard Scott]

They probably argued - "well, we did get you there". Even if not in comfort.

Customer service and Deutsche Bahn in the same sentence, really?

 

[Jamesrob637]

They probably argued - "well, we did get you there". Even if not in comfort.

That was the exact words they used, and trying to argue a case in the former DDR is allegedly even harder than in the former West Germany.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

In the days when Motorails ran one had failed at Lockerbie and our train south was stuck behind so they laid on a Class 101 to run from Carlisle to Crewe. We just under an hour late on arrival at Crewe

That must have been an experience and a half !

Then again I believe a first generation DMU could always be relied on to get you somewhere.

 

[Dai Corner]

It must have been the early 1980s when the Leyland railbus was being trialled in the Bristol area and did an evening Temple Meads-Weston stopper vice a delayed ex-Paddington HST.

My companion and I remarked that if we'd wanted to get the bus home we'd have gone to the bus station (and not stopped in all the pubs on Victoria Street on the way to TM!).

 

[hexagon789]

That was the exact words they used, and trying to argue a case in the former DDR is allegedly even harder than in the former West Germany.

Hadn't realised it was East Germany, I suppose a 40% rebate isn't too bad

 

[hexagon789]

Customer service and Deutsche Bahn in the same sentence, really?

Well these days...

In the past perhaps.

 

[vlad]

Not sure but I’ve seen a HST on it before!!

I had a ticket to travel on the sleeper from Penzance to London during the 2016 Paddington derailment. Naturally it couldn't run as all the sleeper carriages were in London, so GWR had to improvise. We were either offered a seat on an HST that would run to the same timetable as the sleeper, or a room in a hotel in Penzance and then an HST the following morning. I chose the latter as I wanted to sleep and I wasn't in a hurry but a lot of people took the overnight option.

 

[GtNortherner]

Back in the days of the Channel boat trains to/from Folkestone Harbour, I was distinctly unimpressed to see that after a particularly awful crossing back from France on a SeaCat, the traction for my onward travel back to Victoria was a single 4-VEP...

 

[milkinc13]

One time coming back from Wolves to B'stoke, instead of a voyager, a 170 appeared. Something to do with a faulty unit but we were swapped at New St to normal

 

[Jamesrob637]

One time coming back from Wolves to B'stoke, instead of a voyager, a 170 appeared. Something to do with a faulty unit but we were swapped at New St to normal

A pair of 170s have made it to Manchester a few times pre-COVID last year and very early this year. Swapped at Birmingham as you say.

 

[Halish Railway]

A pair of 170s have made it to Manchester a few times pre-COVID last year and very early this year. Swapped at Birmingham as you say.

On a more positive note, don’t forget the HST that made it to Piccadilly from Bristol - It even kept to the Voyager’s timings! I’m a bit disappointed that the example of a 170 standing in made it on to this thread as I’d take a 170 any day over a Voyager as long as I had a seat, even though the earlier Turbostars aren’t as comfortable as the later ScotRail/Northern examples.

 

[yorksrob]

Back in the days of the Channel boat trains to/from Folkestone Harbour, I was distinctly unimpressed to see that after a particularly awful crossing back from France on a SeaCat, the traction for my onward travel back to Victoria was a single 4-VEP...

I wouldn't have minded that. Was it crowded ?