Hauled By A Diesel Locomotive To Birmingham
Since yesterday, I’ve tried to think when was the last time I was hauled around the country by a diesel Locomotive. You may get the occasional diesel multiple unit, but rakes of carriages hauled by a diesel locomotive are pretty rare, and even more so in Europe.
Except for a trip on a sleeper, it must be in the 1980s, when I was last hauled by a diesel locomotive, probably between Ipswich and London.
So yesterday on my trip North to Birmingham, I decided to go from Marylebone for a change.
It was definititely a smoother and more comfortable ride in a Mark 3 Coach hauled by a clean Class 67. Compare the engine, with the blood spattered Class 90, I got for the trip to Ipswich on Saturday.
It was also nice to see Mark 3 Coaches laid out in Standard Class how they had been designed, with a table and a window for all passengers.
If all Standard Class coaches were like this, would anybody pay the extra for First Class?
And when will we be seeing comfortable Mark 3 coaches with sliding doors on London to Norwich?
I wonder how many people, who travel between London and Birmingham on Chiltern Railways, realise that they’re sitting in a coach that dates from the 1970s or 1980s?
What this line now needs is electrification and some appropriate electric locomotives to haul the trains between the two cities and probably on to a few places beyond Birminhgham. If for no other reason, we’ll need extra capacity, if and whilst Euston is rebuilt for HS2.
Next time, I go to Birmingham, I’ll use Chiltern from Marylebone. It is slower at one hour and forty-four minutes, as against one hour twenty-six on Virgin, but it avoids Euston, the trains are more comfortable, wi-fi is free and outside of the peak, I can lay my paper out to read it properly.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] reused on some of the lines in the UK like Settle to Carlisle and Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. As Chiltern have shown, if the Mark 3 coaches are refurbished and returned to their original seat layout, they ride like […]
Pingback by Long Live The Settle And Carlisle « The Anonymous Widower | January 29, 2014 |
[…] Today most of the Mark 3 coaches on the UK rail network have been fitted with high-density seating, but on Chiltern Railways Main Line service between London and Birmingham, the coaches have been refurbished with four seats to a table by the window and automatic sliding doors. […]
Pingback by New Trains From Old « The Anonymous Widower | March 20, 2015 |
[…] refurbished to a very high standard, where every passenger can look out of the window, as shown in Hauled By A Diesel Locomotive To Birmingham. They even have sliding doors and modern toilets that meet all current and known future […]
Pingback by Have We Got Enough Trains? « The Anonymous Widower | September 21, 2015 |