Rolling Stock For Sale

My thoughts (prompted by trying to think of a use for which the old Pickering LMS Sleeper might be restored when it was replaced by the Mark 3 - I wasn't just some heartless 'Bean-counter', you know!!) were that a single sleeper would be added to an existing dining train, and it would be 'novelty value' that would make it (hopefully!) sell - a package of meal and accommodation. A desire to get into such packages had been about for a while, but suitable premises were a problem. That doesn't remove the need for overnight power supply or attendant (some sleepers have attendant's accommodation precisely because it is needed in this way) but the operating requirements would be only those of the existing train.

Whether making your way to your compartment to change for diner, then going through to your seats in the dining car, and being able to reverse the process at the end of the meal would appeal as a 'package', I am not totally sure but it feels like an affordable version of the VSOE Experience!

I never actually dared discuss the idea with anyone when I first had it, so this is 'confessions of a bean-counter' time - who says NP is 'group therapy'!

Steven

 

All this talk of going to bed and waking up in the same place is hardly the point. The SVR has in the past run galas which run all night (never been to one myself; not sure if this still happens?), OK such events are very much a 'one off' but there must be scope surely to go to bed in one place and wake up in another, having trundled up and down all night. Obviously only the longer lines could do this, and if we assume that the market is rather limited then the rake of vehicles might have to tour around various different railways throughout the year.
The other option (though probably only viable for Mk.3 stock, and then you need to sort out the air-con) would be to go to sleep on one steam railway and wake up on another. You'd need some day coaches on the train to get the punters home again afterwards, though!

 

You mean like the old InterCity Land Cruises - think they would cost a bit more now but the new stock for the Scottish Sleepers could give an opportunity for creating something similar for one of the mainline TOCs.

Steven

 

Isn't the Royal Scotsman (if that's what its called??) something like this?

 

In principle, yes. In terms of cost - definitely not! That said, the InterCity Land Cruises could be I believe a loss leader to establish markers which then were abandoned when 'Special Trains' was sold. Don't know what such trains would costs today - you would need 2 sleepers for each FO, so only about 120 seats on a 11 coach train (3 x FO, 6 x sleeper, Kitchen, staff car/brake)

Steven

 

Well mk3 sleepers, FOs and catering vehicles will all be available soon, if you fancy going into business.

Sawdust.

 

As someone involved in coach restoration I wouldn't work on a sleeper coach because I just don't see that it would ever be used when finished. The only real possible use they can be put to is as a camping coach style vehicle, but then ideally you need a number together in one location to make it viable and obviously they need to be located in somewhere people want to visit.
The only other possibility would be to convert it into a normal coach, but often they have small windows etc. I think it is a non starter to run one in a train on a preserved railway, I mean who would want that ? The idea of them was on long distance journeys say London to Scotland or Cornwall, not trundling along a few miles of preserved line.

 

On the GCR we have on occasion put a TPO vehicle in a passenger rake which allows people to walk through and see an unusual vehicle; I don't see why you couldn't do this with a sleeper. Sadly it's probably a luxury most railways can't afford so it really needs someone with deep pockets to do it for the sheer hell of it.


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The WSR has a beautifully restored clerestory sleeper which is occasionally added to passenger trains, albeit I think only for photographic purposes. The only other sleeping car which is likely to be restored is the LNERCA's Gresley SLT No.1299, which has folding top bunks and normal sized windows and thus can double up as a TK.

 

Don't forget the preserved Gresley sleeping car which was (allegedly) part of Eisenhowers command train on display with the A4 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.......



Whether it ever was part of his train is a moot point, as the interior is basically as withdrawn by BR, even down to the British Railways blankets and bedsheets !
Bit of a strange livery as well................. (unless its been repainted since I photographed it in 2011, which I doubt)

 

I see they don't know how to buckeye them together!

Sawdust.

 

Do you know what has happened to the SR Ironclad?

 

We've still got it, stored off-site

 

And now confirmed that the loco has been sold to a third party, so no locomotive but they own a sleeping carriage.....

 

Has it? Is there a link to this?

 

Ah yes, just found it. I feel sorry for the group. Let's hope the loco has a bright future, though...

 

With the arrival of the T3, surely it must be worth holding on to the Ironclad now.

 

There is an article and info about the man who has bought it and his plans in this months steam railway mag