Rode a Mk3 yesterday

corktina

Lovely it was,nice and smooth and quiet and comfy....IC125 Reading to Charlbury, collecting my new 1987 camper.

Heres a few pics for you...the views are of my home town, Caversham, other side of the Thames...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151371022702161.1073741868.630552160&type=1&l=deb484dae9


(pics of the Camper in the Classic Car section :-)

PS Reading station is being rebuilt as you might notice, now has 15 platforms and many more through lines than it had....I was there 2 hours, there was always a train in sight and not one of them was late!

Captain Chaos

And you managed to capture 3 59s and a 59 double header, that must have been a very heavy freight.

Victor

corktina wrote: »

PS Reading station is being rebuilt as you might notice, now has 15 platforms and many more through lines than it had.

Part of the works associated with Cross Rail.

corktina

well, interestingly, no, Crossrail was designed to terminate in Maidenhead origianally and the re-building of Reading is a seperate project (see this months Railway Magazine for a good article) designed to get rid of the bottleneck. The station is fantastic, although I miss the old one already... since then electrification had been approved for the GWML and other associated lines and the three projects have all seemed to merge. One fantastic railway they have over there, even if the trains a bit bland (not including class 59s in that as they are a bit rare)

GBOA

Could I describe my recent trip on the Gatwick 5WES sets as a Mk3 trip? Apart from the DTS stuck on each end, they're near identical visually, right down to the plug doors.

A very smooth ride and plenty of room too.

The_Wanderer

GBOA wrote: »

Could I describe my recent trip on the Gatwick 5WES sets as a Mk3 trip? Apart from the DTS stuck on each end, they're near identical visually, right down to the plug doors.

A very smooth ride and plenty of room too.

You certainly could.

A little known fact is the Motor Buffet Luggage Standard (MBLS) as built, now Motor Luggage Composite design was based on the IE MKIII Generator Vans.

The vehicles, as built, did have luggage space either side of the guards compartment. Shortly after being built one of the luggage areas was converted to the famous Snug Area ( http://smu.gs/17wfQaV ) and the 2nd Luggage Area was converted to additional standard class seating when South West Trains overhauled the class in the late 1990's.

This video from December 1990 shows the vehicle with one luggage area. http://youtu.be/zCIKaLUxezk go to the 16 minute mark.

Of course now the vehicles have lost the snug and buffet since their bland refurbishment and transfer to Southern for Gatwick Express and Brighton Express services.

More 5WES pictures: http://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/keyword/wes#!i=2172010632&k=XfJSLn7

The Wanderer.

GBOA

Bland certainly describes them well. Despite the coloured seats, an inspiring mix of light grey, dark grey and brown seems to draw the eye. It's almost like a trip back to the 80s when primary colours were only just being invented and although comfortable and spacious, there's a very spartan feel to them.

Even though, I still like them. It's an enjoyable little blast from the past.