European Railroad Discussion > Sleeper "lash up".

The First Great Western sleeper train runs between London and Penzance 6 nights a week. Usually hauled by an FGW class 57 they've had a few problems with loco availability and reliability recently which ended up with the up (to London) train on Monday night with an FGW 57 one end and a DRS 57 the other. As I understand it one was supplying traction and the other hotel power. To complicate matters further one of the driving cabs wasn't useable and the train had been marshalled so that cab was "inside".

Things got worse on Monday night when the up (to London) train failed at Plymouth. Late on Tuesday afternoon the train was hauled to London by a pair of back to back HST power cars resulting in a "lash up" of two class 43 power cars, one DRS class 57 the sleepers and an FGW 57. The light was fading fast but here's the train approaching Castle Cary.

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Head of the train

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And, on the rear.

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Is this anything to do with the single sleeper carriage in a siding at Swindon yesterday?

Thanks for this. I was considering using this unique service to get back to London after a photo charter in Devon. But my flight only allows about a 2.5 hour connection including Heathrow Express so I thought better of it and booked a London hotel. Thanks for the report.

cricketer8for9 Wrote:
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> Is this anything to do with the single sleeper
> carriage in a siding at Swindon yesterday?


I don't think so. The coach at Swindon is supposed to have a suspension problem!

That coach had an axle problem on the morning of the 2nd and they had to do a complecated manouver at Swindon onto the transfer sidings there. A few days ago it was shunted over to be removed by road, I'm not sure if this has been done yet. The poor condition of the 57s made this more difficult as they were having loco problems during the shunts in the middle of the night on the 2nd.

Very interesting story and photos.

It has been years but my only sleeper journey in the UK was the Fort William Sleeper.

DaleR