The last two I have been on, only appear to have the new livery on a driving car.

The bonus, for most people, is a bar/shop which is possibly old. But it means the bike spaces, four, have been relegated to a gloomy little area backing one of the driving compartments. Don't know what the situation is with the large luggage area that used to be next to the bike spaces.

Yours unimpressed of Reading

 

It was very much a crossover time.  Like with the entertainment carriage on Class 180s the spec was designed in the latter part of the last century when to listen to music on the move you basically took your Discman, complete with 3.5mm headphone jack socket.  Portable MP3 players were just starting to be introduced, but were very niche until the iPod came along in 2001, and it was of course long before smart phones were around.

Also, reservation displays were a very new thing.  Were the Voyager fleet the first?  And that has quickly been refined into much better displays with the excellent IET/Azuma 'traffic light' system the most fundemental change.  It will be a shame if XC haven't upgraded them with some of those developments, even if their less-than-ideal positioning would be tricky to change due to the carriage design.

{Quote altered to remove the 'Mark' - we can see it's you!}

 
Returning through Bristol on Saturday, and alongside a platform there, a refreshed set. I didn't have the chance to look at the interior, and Geoff Marshall's video from the launch event involves a train with temporary lighting in the carriages.

There's a rumour that the reservations displays haven't been renewed, but that cannot be the case as the originals have pretty well faded into obscurity in the way that those magic eye valves from 1950's radios did. OK that was a long time back but, looking it up, I was surprised to read that the Voyagers were introduced as late as 2001 - something that makes the built in and fragrant little headphone sockets even more surprising, but I suppose that that idea was being borrowed from aviation. (The 3.5mm jack socket and plug has been around from the 1950s I read, so it does thoroughly overlap with the mainstream existence of the magic eye indicator valves that the designers didn't specify for the Voyager seat reservation displays...)

Mark

 
There's... curious aspects... to that event. Not least that work to the carriage interiors is not complete.

Mark

 
CrossCountry's publicity mentions "Improved bike spaces" but this appears to comprise just adding wheel channels to the same terrible hanging spaces. I think 3/10 is possibly generous.

 
Geoff Marshall has just released a YouTube vlog on the refurbished Class 220s.

 

If look at a photo, also appears the reading lights overhead, and the seat reserved indicators don't line up either.

My guess is seats have been moved, but no one bothered to alter the above window figments that apply to each pair of seats.  Sort of 3/10 score, looks nice, but basic errors and mistakes.

 

Close....the trolley operator will get crushed knuckles if they aren't careful when passing down the train. The trolley fits however, just the knuckles that lack clearance.

 
Having had a measured read of the article the thing that struck me most was that none of the "4 man" tables in First Class seem to line up with the windows.  Extra charge for a proper window seat ?

 
Yesterday I read an article on another railway forum which suggested that the lovely new grab handles will actually prevent the refreshment trolleys being moved along the train! Fake news?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3wlpz8vj4po

 

And most welcome they are too.

 

Yes, this is a well-known issue with glass that's metallised (or has a film applied) to improved its thermal performance. Trains and cars can be like greenhouses, cooking those inside, and so can buildings since the current architectural fashion for glazing, glazing, and more glazing started.

It affects higher radio frequencies more than lower ones (as do other losses in building materials), so in general it's worse for higher G-numbers. Other ways of treating glass to reduce solar gain and sunburn on exposed skin are available, and while in general they don't work as well, that mainly affects buildings. When the effect was first noticed, it was seen by some businesses as an advantage because it prevented EM leakage from computers that might be intercepted outside.

When Voyagers were built, no-one was specifying that mobile phone signals ought to be allowed in. Now you might do so, though I note that the IEP spec. says nothing about the windows' electromagnetic performance other than the need for sunshades (which really address the different issue on sun getting peoples' eyes).

 

Probably nothing quite that devious..........some tinted glass has a very thin metallic film on it to reflect the heat - will also reflect 'phone signals to some extent.

 
I find this a regular experience on Cross country trains, I'm probably paranoid but I am convinced they have some way of blocking the usual wifi signals so to make people purchase their onboard wifi.

When I travel between Weston and Temple Meads on Cross country I really struggle to get any signal in between stations, but on a GWR service I can get a signal all the way (except in the Flax Bourton area)

 
The HST was on the 0911 Leeds - Plymouth today with a couple of Wabtec engineers on board sorting out some teething problems with the doors.

 
The only remaining gauge clearance issue for 165/166 on the route is some ground signals outside Portsmouth Harbour station and it is planned for rectification by the end of this year.

Paul

 

Which are the reasons I heard for the option being ruled out.

Portsmouth - Cardiff needs higher capacity than the 3 car 158s in use at present.  There was a fleet of 12 x 172 (?) on order or just about, but that was cancelled because of the forthcoming elecrification from Paddington to places like Oxford, Swansea and Bristol Temple Meads.

Suggestions of using HSTs / cut down ones are ruled out as you say by the Hamble Bridge, and also by an uncertainly as to whether or not enough short swing link carriages would have been available.

Ironically, class 165 and 166 can't yet run into Portsmouth;  there is some doubt as to whether they're really suited for the whole regional journey, but at least they're longer.  At present, it's 158s or 150s - the latter being such prize specimens as 150126 the other day (2 carriages for the 17:23 off Portsmouth) ...

It seems that the Portsmouth to Cardiff line gets third class treatment sometimes ...

 
Excepting of course that HST power cars can't run on the line between St Denys and Fareham. And that the Long Swing Link type of Mark 3 carriage cannot run over 3rd rail.

 

We could have got used to them PDQ on Cardiff/Portsmouth !

 
Am on 1V46 0645 York to Plymouth this morning.  Not sure I like the HST refurb - underfloor engine noise in all 4 coaches, baking vestibules smelling of wee, minimal mobile signal and no GPS behind the shielded windows.
Oh wait, it's a class 221.  Boo hiss.
On the bright side - it's only as far as Derby (for me).  Here's praying that on Friday, when Mrs rower40, the two littl'uns (aged 5 & 3) and I travel Derby to Plymouth, that there'll be an HST forming the 1V44.

 
Saw GW01 in the 'flesh' for the first time last Friday (14/09/2018).  Takes some getting used to seeing two power cars on four coaches

 

GW02 (the second castle set) is ready for service nearly.
GW03 scheduled for December.

 
CrossCountry's first modified set, XC03, apparently didn't come out to play today.

It's now around 21 months since the XC Mk3s went off to Wabtec. You can see why GWR only have one 'Castle' set in service.

What with ScotRail being at the front of the queue it's going to be some time before CrossCountry and GWR get their entire modified fleets.

The folly of relying on modifying life expired rolling stock. 

 
thanks BNM...most useful

 
Will be on the 0544 this Saturday to view electrification progress between Newport and Patchway and also to see the train. Will get some pictures and for those interested I will try and see how the door operation is managed.

 
The first CrossCountry set of modified Mk3s - powered doors and retention toilets - is scheduled to enter passenger service on Monday 17th September 2018. The following diagrams are due to be worked by the set.

MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. FRIDAY.
07.00 Edinburgh to Exeter St David’s
16.24 Exeter St David’s to York

TUESDAY. THURSDAY. SATURDAY.
05.44 Leeds to Exeter St David’s
12.24 Exeter St David’s to Edinburgh

Those diagrams will change when Bristol Parkway reopens. The services would usually run to and from Plymouth. Stopping short at Exeter to retain their return path north.