InterCity Sleeper (British Rail)

InterCity Sleeper
	Intercity sleeper coach 10555, now in storage May, 2016
Overview
Main Region(s)	All
Other Region(s)	All
Stations called at	190
Parent company	British Rail
Dates of operation	1966–1994
Successors	First Great Western, Virgin CrossCountry, ScotRail

Last updated September 07, 2024

InterCity Sleeper was the collective name for overnight sleeper train services run by British Rail between London and Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, and Northern England in Great Britain. Services were not provided in Northern Ireland.

History

When the railways came into public ownership in 1948, British railways inherited a number of night train services from The Big Four. Sleeping car services were operated on the West, East coast routes and GWR mainlines to multiple destinations, that where, but not limited to London Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside, Manchester Piccadilly to Plymouth, Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston and Night Ferry sleeper from London Victoria to Brussels and Paris.

The first sleeping car train on the Great Western Railway was introduced at the end of 1877 from London Paddington to Plymouth. This had 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge carriages with two dormitories, one with seven gentlemen's berths and the other with four ladies' berths. These were later replaced in 1881 by new carriages with six individual compartments.^[1] An additional service was soon added from London to Penzance which eventually became known as the Night Riviera. Under BR sleeping cars were limited to just the Penzance service^[2] After nationalisation there were two major investments in the sleeper fleet. The first occurred between 1957 and 1964 when 380 Mark 1 sleeping car carriages were built to replace the fleets inherited from the GWR, LMS and LNER. The Southern Railway didn't operate sleeper trains but did provide access to Compagnie International des Wagon Lits (CIWL) for their Night Ferry service from London to Paris via the Dover to Dunkerque train ferry. BR introduced the Inter-City brand for long haul passenger services in 1966.^[3] This in turn put all sleepers under the Inter-city banner.^{[ citation needed ]}

In the early 1960s the list of sleeper trains operated by BR was still extensive, despite some minor changes and early withdrawal of services including the end of the Friday night sleeper service from London to Oban at 19:15, from London Euston, services to Birkenhead, Manchester to Plymouth from London. However, sleeper services declined in number during the latter half of the 20th century, with the closure of truck routes, and some larger terminus stations, these had disappeared by 1975. In 1971, British Rail had already withdrew the name Aberdonian from the early evening departure from King's Cross, then timed at 7:55 pm. The name Night Aberdonian was then used on the 10.15 King's Cross to Aberdeen sleeper service.^[4]

In 1977 operation of the Night Ferry sleeper train was taken over from CIWL by British Rail (Southern Region) under an agreement between BR, SNCF and SNCB. SNCF continued to be commercially responsible for the train as it had been since 1971 and bought the Wagon-Lits cars from CIWL. In January 1974 SNCF took over publicity of the Night Ferry sleeper service from CIWL. This ceased on the 31 October 1980 with the final departure of the Night Ferry sleeper from London, Paris and Brussels.

On 11 July 1983 the Penzance sleeper was relaunched as the Night Riviera, designed to complement the long-established daytime Cornish Riviera .^[5] The seating carriages that formed part of the train were mainly Mark 2 carriages.^[6] The train by now was again leaving London at midnight, shown in the timetables as 23:59.^[7]

Services where further cutback, when in November 1987, it was announced that the last of the sleeper services running on the East Coast routes was to be withdrawn by May 1988.^[8] At one point, InterCity was planning to remove all seating accommodation on its remaining sleeper services from May 1992. However, it instead concluded a deal with the British transport conglomerate Stagecoach that saw the Mark 2 seating carriages retailed beyond this point.^[9]^[10] This was only a temporary reprieve however, as the Stagecoach carriages were withdrawn after 12 months.^[11] On Privatisation saw the services broken up in February 1996 and the rolling stock was repainted into the new liveries.

Routes

By 1975 the BR sleeper train services included the following:

London Kings Cross to Leeds
London Kings Cross to Newcastle
London Kings Cross to Edinburgh, Fort William and Aberdeen.
London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street
London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly
London Euston to Holyhead
London Euston to Preston and Barrow
London Euston to Carlisle and Stranraer Harbour
London Euston to Glasgow and Inverness
London Paddington to Milford Haven
London Paddington to Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance
London Victoria to Paris and Brussels (The Night Ferry)
Bristol Temple Meads to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh^[12]
Nottingham to Glasgow

Rolling stock

British Railways and outside contractors built the British Railways Mark 1 sleeping car between 1957 and 1964. Three hundred and eighty cars of three different types were built, with a fourth type created later by conversion. None remain in front-line service and very few are preserved (this was due to asbestos insulation in most carriages). Three types were designed, based on the BR Mark 1 63-foot (19.20 m) underframe and profile. All featured 11 compartments with side corridor, an attendants' pantry at one end, and two toilets at the other. There was one fixed berth in first class compartments and two fixed berths in second class. Thus the Sleeper First (SLF) slept 11 and the Sleeper Second (SLSTP) 22. The Sleeper Composite (SLC) had five first class and 6 second class compartments.

Early examples were fitted with BR1 bogies which were later replaced with B5 bogies. Later examples were fitted with Commonwealth bogies from new. The cars weighed 39 to 42 tonnes, with the First-class cars weighing one tonne less than the others, and cars with the fabricated B5 bogies also weighing one tonne less than those with the heavy cast steel Commonwealth bogies.

By 1978, the Mark 1 sleeping car, seen in late 1950s, as an improvement compared to vehicles built during the grouping era were seen as less than luxurious and revenue generated by sleeper trains decline. As a result, the second major build of new sleeping cars under British Rail came about in the early 1980s when 208 New Mark 3 air-conditioned sleeping cars vehicles were built at Derby. These included the Nightcap Bar carriage, which also appeared on Pullman services.^[13] These new cars introduced many safety features that had been lacking in the Mark 1 sleeping car.^[6]

Modifications

In order to overcome the lack of flexibility in the fleet of sleeping cars, Wolverton works modified some of the SLSTP cars with a stowable top berth. The resulting Sleeper Either class with Pantry (SLEP) cars could then be used to better accommodate the fluctuations in passenger demand. The SLEPs were renumbered in the 2800-series.

Replacement

The Mark 1 sleeping cars fleet continued to serve British Rail for many years. With no Mark 2 sleeping car design, the Mark 1s continued until the British Rail Mark 3 sleeping cars entered service in the early 1980s.

Incidents

On 6 June 1975 the 23:30 sleeper from London Euston to Glasgow derailed after entering a temporary speed restriction at 4 times the speed limit. Six people (four passengers and two staff) died and 38 were injured. In the subsequent inquiry, the crash was deemed to have been caused by driver error, partially due to the failure of gas lit lamps that illuminated the lineside signage warning of the speed restriction.^[14]

On 5 July 1978 the up train left Penzance at 21:30 bound for London Waterloo station but never reached London. Approaching Taunton early the following morning the emergency brake was activated and it came to a standstill, just short of the station with one of the carriages on fire. This had been caused by dirty linen that had been placed near a heater, which had been a standard and safe practice before the recent change from steam to electric heating. Twelve people died and thirteen were injured.^[15]^[16]

InterCity Sleeper 'Swallow' logo on a Caledonian Sleeper in 2012

Related Research Articles

The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car.

Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-city services along the Great Western Main Line to and from the West of England and South Wales, inter-city services from London to the West Country via the Reading–Taunton line, and the Night Riviera sleeper service between London and Penzance. It provides outer-suburban services in West London; commuter services from its London terminus at London Paddington to the Thames Valley region, including parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire; and regional services throughout the West of England and South Wales to the South coast of England. Great Western Railway also operates the Heathrow Express service.

InterCity was a brand name introduced by British Rail in 1966 for its long-haul express passenger services.

British Rail Mark 1 is the family designation for the first standardised designs of railway carriages built by British Railways (BR) from 1951 until 1974, now used only for charter services on the main lines or on preserved railways.

The British Rail Mark 3 is a type of passenger carriage developed in response to growing competition from airlines and the car in the 1970s. A variant of the Mark 3 became the rolling stock for the High Speed Train (HST).

The British Rail Mark 4 is a class of passenger carriages built for use in InterCity 225 sets on the East Coast Main Line between King's Cross, Leeds and Edinburgh. Withdrawals began in 2019, with some being sold for further use with Transport for Wales between Cardiff and Holyhead.

In the early hours of 6 July 1978, a fire broke out in a sleeping car train near Taunton, Somerset, England. Twelve people were killed and 15 were injured. The fire was caused by an electric heater that had been obstructed by sacks of dirty bed linen, causing it to overheat. Most deaths were due to smoke inhalation.

Motorail was the brand name for British Rail's long-distance services that carried passengers and their cars. During its latter years of operation, it was grouped under the wider InterCity sector.

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits is a Belgian-founded French company known for providing and operating luxury trains with sleepers and dining cars during the late 19th and the 20th centuries, most notably the Orient Express. Founded by Georges Nagelmackers in 1872, CIWL developed an international network of trains beginning in Europe, and later expanding to Asia and Africa. The trains provided luxury and comfort at a time when travelling was still rough and dangerous. The Armistice with Germany was signed in a CIWL train carriage, the Compiègne Wagon, on November 11, 1918.

<i>Caledonian Sleeper</i> Overnight sleeper trains between London and Scotland

Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two currently operating sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom – the other being the Night Riviera, which runs between London and Penzance.

The Night Ferry was an international boat train from London Victoria to Paris Gare du Nord that crossed the English Channel on a train ferry. It ran from 1936 until 1939 when it ceased due to the onset of World War II. It resumed in 1947, ceasing in 1980. It was operated by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits until 1977 and then British Rail.

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) is a private luxury train service from London to Venice and other European cities. It is currently owned by Belmond.

The Night Riviera is a sleeper train operated by Great Western Railway (GWR). It is one of only two sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom. The Night Riviera runs six nights a week (Sunday–Friday) between London Paddington and Penzance with one train in each direction.

Old Oak Common TMD was a traction maintenance depot located west of London Paddington, in Old Oak Common. The depot codes were OC for the diesel depot and OO for the carriage shed. In steam days the shed code was 81A.

Penzance TMD, also known as Long Rock TMD, is a railway traction maintenance depot situated in the village of Long Rock east of Penzance, Cornwall, England, and is the most westerly and southerly rail depot in the country. The depot operator is Great Western Railway. The depot code is PZ.

A Sleeper Either class (SLE) and Sleeper Either class with Pantry (SLEP) are a type of railway sleeping car used in Great Britain. Some units were later modified for better wheelchair access as Sleeper Either class Disabled (SLED). A smaller number reused in Denmark were classified as WLABr.

The Calais-Mediterranée Express was a French luxury night express train which operated from 1886 to 2003. It gained international fame as the preferred train of wealthy and famous passengers between Calais and the French Riviera during the interwar period. It was colloquially referred to as Le Train Bleu in French and the Blue Train in English because of its dark-blue sleeping cars.

The NZR 56-foot carriage is a class of 56 ft (17 m) long railway passenger carriage formerly used on almost all long-distance passenger rail transport in New Zealand. 88 carriages have been preserved.

The passenger coaches of the Great Western Railway (GWR) were many and varied, ranging from four and six-wheeled vehicles for the original broad gauge line of 1838, through to bogie coaches up to 70 feet (21 m) long which were in service through to 1947. Vacuum brakes, bogies and through-corridors all came into use during the nineteenth century, and in 1900 the first electrically lit coaches were put into service. The 1920s saw some vehicles fitted with automatic couplings and steel bodies.

The New South Wales stainless steel carriage stock was a type of passenger carriage operated by the New South Wales Government Railways from 1961 until 1993.

References

↑ MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. 2 (1863–1921) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
↑ Western Region Timetable. London: British Railways. 14 June 1965.
↑ Gardner, Nicky; Kries, Susanne (5 August 2013). "Defining the Inter-City Brand". Europe By Rail. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
↑ "Big Boost for Sleeper Services" . Aberdeen Evening Express. Scotland. 26 April 1971. Retrieved 16 December 2017– via British Newspaper Archive.
↑ "30 years of the Night Riviera". Rail . No. 728. 7 August 2013. p. 21.
1 2 "Night Riviera cuts sleeper travel costs". Modern Railways. No. 420. Ian Allan Publishing. 1983. p. 454. ISSN 0026-8356.
↑ British Rail Passenger Timetable. London: British Railways. 29 September 1986.
↑ Slater, John, ed. (November 1987). "No sleepers on ECML". News & Notes. The Railway Magazine . Vol. 133, no. 1039. Cheam: Prospect Magazines. p. 690. ISSN 0033-8923.
↑ "Stagecoach, InterCity Launch Trend-setting Marketing Deal". The Railway Magazine. No. 1093. May 1992. p. 6.
↑ "Stagecoach Rail Livery Unveiled". The Railway Magazine. No. 1094. June 1992. p. 10.
↑ "The Stagecoach Story". Rail . No. 286. 28 August 1996. pp. 34–37.
↑ Great Britain Time Table, May 1976, tables 26 and 65.
↑ "Golden Arrow Pullman Cars – Railway Correspondence & Travel Society". RCTS. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
↑ Department of Transport (27 September 1976). "Railway Accident - Report on the Derailment that occurred on 6th June 1975 at Nuneaton" (PDF). Railways Archive. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
↑ "Sleeping car blaze". Railway Magazine. No. 929. September 1978. p. 459.
↑ Vaughan, Adrian (2003) [2000]. Tracks to Disaster. Hersham: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2985-7.

InterCity Sleeper (British Rail)

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