Mark three's.
 

A few days ago a friend of mine (no interest in railways) travelled from Bicester to B-ham Moore St. by Chiltern, she said the coaches were really comfortable with plenty of leg room smooth and quiet, not like the units that are normally used.
I think that these coaches were ex-Wrexham stock, does any one know (a) how many sets do Chiltern have? (b) how many mark 3 coaches are still out there? and (c) what m.p.h. are the coaches rated at.

Hi Keith

I have no exact knowledge of how many Mark 3 coaches Chiltern have, but I think they have 4-5 rakes of carriages. When these were bought from Wrexham and Shropshire they were all slam doors, but Chiltern have already converted some coaches to the new type doors. I think they are still converting some at WABTEC.

If you want a treat, take the 10.55 am train from Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone. Loco hauled with Mark 3 coaches.

I think Chiltern have 4 or 5 Class 67 leased locos.

Locoman 4244

Not sure on final number until Wabtec has released everything

MK3's are classed for 125 mph (they are the same coaches as HST trailers and a lot of multiple units use the MK3 bodyshell)

Chiltern have 5 67's usually working Top N Tail with one in reserve/ Thunderbird

Thanks for the info chaps, i will try to take a trip on one of these trains, my friend was very impressed, especially the leg room and smoothness, i wish the Voyagers were even half as good!

Keith

Voyager - wash your mouth out with soap for even mentioning it !!!!

Anyway, if you do take a trip, enjoy. It is even worth the supplement for first class.

Locoman4244

There is a HUGE reason why MK3's are so much better than Voyager/Meridians and that is WEIGHT and wheelsets

a MK3 weighs around 33.4 - 35 tons but a meridian coach weighs more (50 ton ish) because of the engine

a MK3 runs on BT10 bogies which are well suspended and air damped and have larger diameter wheels.
The voyager bogies are FLEXX Eco bogie from Bombardier and are light weight power bogies which suffer from wheelspin a lot which is why there have had to be a lot of re-programming of the on-board computers and quite a few Station throat re-tracking due to excessive wear