Northern 158 on SWT rails

reliable trains those were, I hate our new 185's

at least until they come up for works attention and repaint!

Same when Connext started running things [into the ground, perhaps], they chose a livery, but it wasn't painted... it was stick-on transfers! Was OK until the trains went through the acid wash!

They definitely have some CT units lurking about, I saw one at Stroud a few months back.

The service it was operating would likely be a standard FGW (ex-Wessex) Portsmouth Harbour to/from Cardiff Central service. The usual stopping pattern on these trains is:
Cardiff Central - Newport - Severn Tunnel Junction (some) - Filton Abbey Wood (most) - Bristol Temple Meads - Bath Spa - Bradford on Avon - Trowbridge - Westbury (Wilts) - Warminster - Salisbury - Romsey - Southampton Central - Fareham - Cosham (?) - Fratton - Portsmouth and Southsea - Portsmouth Harbour

I beleive the units came down to the southwest under their own power as an empty coaching stock train, certainly that is the way the First ScotRail liveried unit arrvied and departed.

Travelling from Portsmouth to Cardiff yesterday, there was at least one ex-TPE 158 running between Cardiff and Fareham (we passed it heading southbound somewhere west of Salisbury) - the stock on that line has been going all over the place since FGW took over the franchise. They also seem to be removing all the 158-and-a-half units that WT put in place - I believe it's called progress

-jdp

Quite - I lived in Bath shortly before WT existed (iirc), and I used to visit my girlfriend in Portsmouth pretty much every weekend. I was standing from Bath to Cosham/Fratton most trips, and on one memorable trip the train got to Bath, a few people got off, and the train pulled out because it was already too full...
Call me old-fashioned, but I remember the days when the service was run using a cl.33 and a rake of mkI compartment stock. OK, so the heating didn't always work, but otherwise they were damn comfortable and never too crowded that people were sitting in luggage racks, on other peoples laps, in the aisles, and in the rear cab (on a few trips - they were fun). Where, exactly, are the improvements?

Apropos to the above - is it me, or are FGW turning into a dumping ground for everyone else's old and half-dead stock, whilst shedding their new stuff? I've noticed that all the First-liveried 185s through Cardiff now have ATW stickers in the centre of the carriages (odd combination, although I can't wait to see a 185 in ATW colours), they've apparently shifted some of their 158s over to SWT for the London-Salisbury-Weymouth route to suppliment the 159s, which explains why PMH-CDF services are now universally 2-car sets (although there was a 150 on that route on the 23rd), and I'm told that all the branch lines in Devon and Cornwall are 142s and 143s (because somewhere Futher North has sold theirs) - which is precisely where BR decided they were completely unfit to run due to their fixed wheelbases.
I guess the up-side is that HSTs are old enough that no-one else wants them, which is just fine with me - I like HSTs

/rant

-jdp

I used to occasionally catch the Class 33 + six? Mk1s from Netley to Southampton at around 7.30, as against the usual DEMUs. On trips to Bristol I have been on SR DEMUs and also WR Cross-Country DMUs. I gather that it may be horrible in the late afternoon/early evening as service from Southampton - Salisbury via Romsey have been cut down and are now just two-car units and not the three as before. RAIL blamed the DfT over this.

Yeah ... meanwhile the customers decide that, with overcrowded and invariably late trains that rarely seem to be cleaned running through not entirely pleasant areas of the world (thinking CDF-PMH again here), trains really aren't worth bothering with, and they're better off driving or taking the coach. It's one way of dealing with overcrowding, I guess

... and the idea of First in charge of the GNER franchise really scares me - we need more competition, not monopolies.

-jdp

Phil - other way around. FGW are now paying the premium. They will have to pay less, but they can't, because it's in a contract.

If we were in a dictionary:

See GNER