British Rail Sleeper Either Class | |
---|---|
In service | 1982– |
Manufacturer | British Rail Engineering Limited |
Built at | Derby Litchurch Lane Works |
Family name | British Rail Mark 3 |
Constructed | 1981–1984 |
Number built | 208 (120 SLEP, 88 SLE) |
Fleet numbers | SLEP: 10500–10619, SLE: 10646–10733 |
Capacity | SLEP: 12–24 beds (12 compartments), SLE: 13–26 beds (13 compartments) |
Operators | Great Western Railway |
Specifications | |
Car length | 75 ft 0 in (22.86 m) |
Maximum speed | 125 mph (200 km/h) |
Weight | 43 t (42 long tons; 47 short tons) |
HVAC | Electric heating (ETH index SLEP: 7, SLE: 6), air conditioned, electric cooking |
Bogies | BT10 |
Braking system(s) | Air |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
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. [1]
A total of 208 vehicles were built at Derby Litchurch Lane Works by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1982–1984 to the British Rail Mark 3A profile for British Rail. They were introduced to replace an ageing fleet of Mark 1 sleeper cars built to various designs and which dated from the late 1950s to early 1960s. The order consisted of 88 SLE variants, numbered 10646–10733, were constructed with thirteen bedrooms each, and 120 SLEP variants, numbered 10500–10619 constructed with twelve bedrooms with the last compartment used for an attendant. The Mark 3 air-conditioned sleeping cars were introduced including many additional safety features that had been lacking in the Mark 1 carriages that had caught fire at Taunton. [2] The Night Riviera stock was the first on the route fitted with controlled emission toilets. [3]
As of October 2019 [update] , the only mainline operator of this type of carriages are Great Western Railway on the Night Riviera , whose fleet was refurbished in 2017. [4]
With the decline of overnight sleeper services in the United Kingdom shortly after their introduction at the end of the 1980s, [5] many of the carriages later were moved to heritage railways to provide sleeping accommodation for heritage staff and volunteers.
Mk3 sleeper vehicles remain in use on the Great Western Railway's Night Riviera from London Paddington to Penzance in Cornwall. All Night Riviera sleeper carriages have been refurbished, and feature keycard locks, new lighting, a wardrobe and under-bed storage. SLED vehicles, with disabled-accessible berth and toilet, were also added. [6]
The various Scottish services continue to depart from London Euston for final destinations at Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley, Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William, but the Caledonian Sleeper Mark 3 sleeper sets were withdrawn in October 2019.
Between 1988 and 1998, ten SLE carriages were leased to Danish State Railways (DSB) for use in Denmark. This lease came to an end following the opening of the Great Belt Fixed Link combined bridge and tunnel. During this time, the vehicles were classified as WLABr and each carried a UIC number. [7]
Following the withdrawal of many overnight sleeper services in the late-1980s, many Mark 3 SLEP sleeper carriages were obtained by heritage railways in order to provide sleeping accommodation for heritage staff and volunteers. [8] In 2019, some of the former Caledonian Sleeper carriages were preserved. [9] [10] [11]
As of 2020 [update] there were 1 SLED, 15 SLEs and 33 SLEPs in preservation at heritage railways. Since 2016, a sleeper repatriated from Denmark has been operated as a static hostel for members of the public by the Telford Steam Railway. [12]
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).
St Austell station is a Grade II listed station which serves the town of St Austell, Cornwall, England. It is 286 miles 26 chains from the zero point at London Paddington measured via Box and Plymouth Millbay. The station is operated by Great Western Railway.
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.
Carstairs railway station serves the village of Carstairs in South Lanarkshire, Scotland and is a major junction station on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), situated close to the point at which the lines from London Euston and Edinburgh to Glasgow Central merge. Constructed originally by the Caledonian Railway, the station is managed today by ScotRail who also operate most services which serve the station; it is also served by one TransPennine Express service per day between Manchester Airport and Glasgow Central and one Caledonian Sleeper service each way per day between Glasgow Central and London Euston. All other services by TransPennine Express and services operated by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and London North Eastern Railway pass the station, but do not stop.
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.
The Nightstar was a proposed overnight sleeper train service from various parts of the United Kingdom to destinations in mainland Europe, via the Channel Tunnel, in the mid 1990s. To run alongside the Eurostar, and north of London day-time Regional Eurostar services which were never operational, the Nightstar was the last part in a proposed round-the-clock passenger train utilisation of the Channel Tunnel.
The Sydney–Melbourne Express was an overnight intercapital passenger train service that operated between Australia's largest two cities, Sydney and Melbourne, between August 1986 and November 1993. Operated jointly by State Rail Authority and V/Line the name depended on the direction of travel, with the train nicknamed the 'Sex' or 'Mex'.
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 Mid-Norfolk Railway has a large collection of heritage rolling stock, mostly relating to the post-war British Railways-era, from the 1950s to 1990s. The line holds several rolling-stock accomplishments:
This article is intended as a catalogue of sleeping carriages used by the Victorian Railways and successors.
The British Rail Mark 5 is the designation given to locomotive-hauled rail carriages built by Spanish manufacturer CAF for operation with Caledonian Sleeper.
Nightjet is a brand name given by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to its overnight passenger train services.
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.
{{cite book}}
: |work=
ignored (help)