Par used to be covered in white dust..and the water like milk...even St Austell...my mum could never get her washing clean...and all our garden grass had a grey sheen over it
Hi, I am part of the team who maintain the Night Rivera. I was at Paddington the evening you where filming. You caught me briefly on your video. We are glad you enjoyed your Sleeper experience with GWR.
Hi, thank you very much for your comment and thank you for the work that you do it’s very much appreciated . It was a fantastic experience and something no doubt I will do again.
@@TheGeordieTravels - Not nearly as pricey as the First Class options on Serco Group plc's "Caledonian Sleeper" service, which GWR's "Night Riviera" is in some ways comparable to!
I enjoyed the experience which I did last March before the first lockdown. I missed the Liverpool to London sleeper service from the old BR Sectorisation era, as you saved a day by arriving early and the driver used to brake sharply on arrival to wake everybody up. 😃
Great report on an awesome trip, I've done it three times now and actually find it good value considering you're paying for a bedroom. The showers facility at both london and penzance are also excellent! For info, the loco at the start of the platform usually stay at the platform in London as its used to tow the sleeper and other loco in from the depot.
Hi, thank you for your kind comment and thank you for subscribing - I agree it’s an awesome trip, excellent experience.and value for money. I’m on the Caledonian Sleeper tomorrow night for the 1st time and keen to see how both compare.
@@TheGeordieTravels No worries chap. I've not done the "new" cally sleeper and am a bit apprehensive to try it. Did the old one twice to Edinburgh and one to Ft William in the summer, thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Had Haggis for dinner too Ft William and cheese board to Edi all washed down with a few drinks.
loved the video. I've traveled on the Caledonian Sleeper several times, but never the Night Riveria. Will definitely have to give it a go next time I'm in the UK. (BTW, only heard "jibber-jabber" regularly on 1 other channel - Star Wars Meg)
Hi, thanks for watching and appreciate your comment. The night riviera is an amazing experience and definitely worth while taking. I’m on the Caledonian Sleeper in a few weeks and looking forward to taking that.
Compare and contrast two very different approaches to running an overnight Sleeper train service by Serco Group plc's "Caledonian Sleeper" which uses new Mark 5 carriages from Spain, and GWR's "Night Riviera" which uses forty year old refurbished ex-BR Mark 3's. I know which I prefer!
Class of Travel - Standard (Plus Solo Occupancy Sleeper Supplement). Rolling Stock - Class 57 Locomotive x 1 (A second locomotive is attached or detached at Reading, because the "Night Riviera" doesn't have a Driving Van Trailer, but only the Class 57 on the front end in the direction of travel actually powers the train at any given time)
Fantastic video, I loved it! I can't wait for a ride on this next year! I would recommend Cardiff Central station for trainspotting and maybe could you do a review of the Transport for Wales class 769s? 😀👍
Hi mate, thanks for your comment - the experience was brill and you’ll have an excellent time. I plan on doing something in Wales later this year so will definitely check out Cardiff station, thanks for the recommendation.
Under current travel restrictions the bacon cob as been replaced with what I could best describe as snack which is a real disappointment from GWR. The Night Riviera outshines the Caledonian Sleeper
I wouldn't say it's the best in Europe as sleep is at a premium as it's not such a long journey.The best on this island is the London Fort William for sleep.Obviously it probably doesn't run at the moment due to the war, although I think that it went via Minsk, the longest in Europe was a Nice to Moscow service which ran about 2 nights a week and took 3 days.Here I'm basing best on the length of sleep!
Yes, the dreaded breakfast. Why is it, whether by rail or air, companies feel the need to skimp on this meal service? I would call that breakfast box embarrassing as well as disappointing. I prefer when at least they used to offer a hot bacon bap. I had BA tell me their defence was, 'it was what their customers wanted' (!). I'm sure it's defo a cost/flexibility thing.
This brings back memories! For three summers from 1957, we holidayed on St Martins in the Isles of Scilly, and travelled from Paddington to Penzance on the overnight sleeper train. For me the excitement started a few days before departure, as families travelled with a lot of luggage in those days, so BR ran a "Luggage in Advance" service, and one evening I'd go in the car with Dad to Padddington to dispatch our cases. Perhaps Paddington was a bit more grimy in those days of steam, but there was an amazing hustle and bustle. Post Office vans came speeding in to deliver mail bags for the overnight trains to the West Country, South Wales, and the West Midlands, while passengers sought their trains at the platforms. It was all steam in those days, not even a "Blue Pullman", and Prairie tanks arrived and departed with Thames Valley commuter trains of compartment stock, while Pannier tanks bustled in and out with empty stock, and the mighty ex-GWR express engines let off steam at the buffer stops. I could of stayed all evening but we had only a restricted parking slot, and had to hurry away. The same scene was enacted on the evening of our departure. The "Penzance Sleeper" left at 9:55 p.m. from Platform 1( no 24-hour clock then!), and first we had to see our family dog settled down in the guard's brake van (how different it all is today!) before we found our sleeping berths in what were then four bunk compartments and no washing facilities. I believe that ex_GWR stock was still in use, to their more generous loading gauge as the corridors were wider than on today's Mk3 sleepers. Just as well, as I made an excited nuisance of myself trying to see as much of what was going on as I could before we left. I was allowed to stand in the corridor and watch the trains for the first hour of the journey to Reading, before I had to turn in on my top bunk, though I was too excited to sleep much. At one of the stops along the line - and there seemed to be a lot of long waits back then, perhaps as parcels traffic was loaded aboard and other portions were added to the train, Dad would get up and take Nicky for a "comfort break", and refresh his water bowl, while I slipped down from my bunk and watched the station activity from the edge of the window blind. Early in the morning the attendant came round with tea made with condensed milk in thick BR china cups, and a plate of shortbread biscuits, perhaps more palatable than the cardboard and plastic offering of today!.We'd get up and watch the Cornish countryside slip by, with many more stops than there are today, until we rounded Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount out to sea, and drew to a halt in Penzance Station. That was the end of the railway journey, but we still had the crossing to the Scillies. We retrieved out "luggage in advance" and took a taxi to the quayside to register it with the "Scillonian II" which would ferry us across to the "paradise islands", then went into the Town to a cafe near the harbour for a breakfast before sailing. The crossing is notorious for heavy seas and on each occasion I'm afraid my "full English" was feeding the fishes before we arrived in port at St Mary's. We couldn't use the air service provided by BEA's pre-War Dragon Rapide biplane aircraft, as we had our dog with us and livestock wasn't permitted aboard. After a glorious fortnight, the journey would take place in reverse order, but it wasn't the same - apart from the rough crossing back to the mainland!- and as our train neared London through the western suburbs and passed the A.E.C. Works at Southall, I used to feel a distinct anti-climax. OK there were weeks of school holiday still ahead with my mates, cricket and train-spotting the "Golden Arrow" at Petts Wood Junction to look forward to, but the Isles of Scilly is "somewhere else". Now I'm retired, perhaps I'll book a berth on the "Night Riviera". and see if my sea-legs are any better on the "Scillonian III" just one more time.
How lovely, I really like reading these memories and hearing about other peoples experiences and I have indeed my own from my child hood catching the sleeper from London to the south of France in the late 70’s / early 80’s. Thank you for sharing. .
@@TheGeordieTravels I remember the the SNCF "Couchettes" from travelling overnight to Switzerland in 1960, and on School exchange visits to a family in Toulouse in 1963 and 64. My worst Sleeper experience was on return from a visit with friends to Jura in 1989. After the peace and solitude of the Hebrides, we returned to Glasgow, and I took the sleeper down to London. We were rudely awoken early in the morning (no tea and biscuits!) to be told we'd be dumped at Watford Junction because the wires were down between there and Euston, and half awake early on a Sunday morning had to finish my journey bumping down to London on the Bakerloo Line.
Great little travellog. Pity there was no real breakfast provided. Probably due to Covid. Normally there's at least a hot bacon roll to get you on your way
Paddington Station like all Railtrack properties alas suffers from being made to emulate a shopping centre to an extent. That extent unfortunately means that the trains now have to stop half outside the station as the former platform spaces have been pulled up to make way for the "franchises". So everyone now has to walk twice as far to get to the bloody trains compared to the old sensible distance. Everything is about raking in the money and to hell with the public
@@Rossosbattlefield - Correct! Slam-door carriages with droplight windows which can be lowered to enjoy the spectacular views as the "Night Riviera" Sleeper trundles slowly over the floodlit Royal Albert Bridge from England into Cornwall.
Pre-Covid I got a hot bacon roll with a pot of tea and two shortbread biscuits plus a muffin served to my cabin in the morning - not bad considering that the "Night Riviera" is a Standard Class product throughout. Sleeper passengers even get to use the First Class customer lounge at London Paddington!
If missing ‘t’ is really the only thing you can have a gripe at, I ain’t gonna stress too much over you comment. Most people have little typo’s even the bigger guns of RUclips’s!?
1:24 The Circle line from that platform is for trains to and from Edgware Road via High Street Kensington
Thank you! I will be traveling from London to Cornwall next year via the Night Riviera!
Thank you for watching - for me, it’s now the only way to get to Cornwall, it’s a fantastic experience.
Par used to be covered in white dust..and the water like milk...even St Austell...my mum could never get her washing clean...and all our garden grass had a grey sheen over it
Hi, I am part of the team who maintain the Night Rivera. I was at Paddington the evening you where filming. You caught me briefly on your video. We are glad you enjoyed your Sleeper experience with GWR.
Hi, thank you very much for your comment and thank you for the work that you do it’s very much appreciated . It was a fantastic experience and something no doubt I will do again.
I’d love to do it at some point.
@@adamleeding2023 I’d highly recommended it my friend, it is on the pricey side but it’s well worth the experience.
@@TheGeordieTravels - Not nearly as pricey as the First Class options on Serco Group plc's "Caledonian Sleeper" service, which GWR's "Night Riviera" is in some ways comparable to!
I enjoyed the experience which I did last March before the first lockdown.
I missed the Liverpool to London sleeper service from the old BR Sectorisation era, as you saved a day by arriving early and the driver used to brake sharply on arrival to wake everybody up. 😃
I really enjoyed the experience, first time being on a sleeper train since I was a kid
That was a great trip report! Thank you for sharing it with us...:):):)
Hi, thanks for your comment and thanks for watching.
Great report on an awesome trip, I've done it three times now and actually find it good value considering you're paying for a bedroom. The showers facility at both london and penzance are also excellent!
For info, the loco at the start of the platform usually stay at the platform in London as its used to tow the sleeper and other loco in from the depot.
Hi, thank you for your kind comment and thank you for subscribing - I agree it’s an awesome trip, excellent experience.and value for money. I’m on the Caledonian Sleeper tomorrow night for the 1st time and keen to see how both compare.
@@TheGeordieTravels No worries chap. I've not done the "new" cally sleeper and am a bit apprehensive to try it. Did the old one twice to Edinburgh and one to Ft William in the summer, thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Had Haggis for dinner too Ft William and cheese board to Edi all washed down with a few drinks.
loved the video. I've traveled on the Caledonian Sleeper several times, but never the Night Riveria. Will definitely have to give it a go next time I'm in the UK. (BTW, only heard "jibber-jabber" regularly on 1 other channel - Star Wars Meg)
Hi, thanks for watching and appreciate your comment. The night riviera is an amazing experience and definitely worth while taking. I’m on the Caledonian Sleeper in a few weeks and looking forward to taking that.
Compare and contrast two very different approaches to running an overnight Sleeper train service by Serco Group plc's "Caledonian Sleeper" which uses new Mark 5 carriages from Spain, and GWR's "Night Riviera" which uses forty year old refurbished ex-BR Mark 3's. I know which I prefer!
Class of Travel - Standard (Plus Solo Occupancy Sleeper Supplement). Rolling Stock - Class 57 Locomotive x 1 (A second locomotive is attached or detached at Reading, because the "Night Riviera" doesn't have a Driving Van Trailer, but only the Class 57 on the front end in the direction of travel actually powers the train at any given time)
Fantastic video, I loved it! I can't wait for a ride on this next year! I would recommend Cardiff Central station for trainspotting and maybe could you do a review of the Transport for Wales class 769s? 😀👍
Hi mate, thanks for your comment - the experience was brill and you’ll have an excellent time. I plan on doing something in Wales later this year so will definitely check out Cardiff station, thanks for the recommendation.
Favourite station probably battersby (Whitby)
Under current travel restrictions the bacon cob as been replaced with what I could best describe as snack which is a real disappointment from GWR. The Night Riviera outshines the Caledonian Sleeper
Paddington Station used to look very dark before it's refurbishment in 2015
Come on Geordie! Favourite has got to be Newcastle Central!
😂 😂 I was trying not to be biased?!
@@TheGeordieTravels Fair enough!
Hiya, loved the video, btw 03.24 gwr’s class 800 series aren’t called Azumas, LNER just nicknamed their new trains that, but loved the video.
Hi thanks, yeah I know - slight oversight on my part, I know they’re IET’s.
I wouldn't say it's the best in Europe as sleep is at a premium as it's not such a long journey.The best on this island is the London Fort William for sleep.Obviously it probably doesn't run at the moment due to the war, although I think that it went via Minsk, the longest in Europe was a Nice to Moscow service which ran about 2 nights a week and took 3 days.Here I'm basing best on the length of sleep!
Yes, the dreaded breakfast. Why is it, whether by rail or air, companies feel the need to skimp on this meal service? I would call that breakfast box embarrassing as well as disappointing. I prefer when at least they used to offer a hot bacon bap. I had BA tell me their defence was, 'it was what their customers wanted' (!). I'm sure it's defo a cost/flexibility thing.
This brings back memories!
For three summers from 1957, we holidayed on St Martins in the Isles of Scilly, and travelled from Paddington to Penzance on the overnight sleeper train.
For me the excitement started a few days before departure, as families travelled with a lot of luggage in those days, so BR ran a "Luggage in Advance" service, and one evening I'd go in the car with Dad to Padddington to dispatch our cases. Perhaps Paddington was a bit more grimy in those days of steam, but there was an amazing hustle and bustle. Post Office vans came speeding in to deliver mail bags for the overnight trains to the West Country, South Wales, and the West Midlands, while passengers sought their trains at the platforms. It was all steam in those days, not even a "Blue Pullman", and Prairie tanks arrived and departed with Thames Valley commuter trains of compartment stock, while Pannier tanks bustled in and out with empty stock, and the mighty ex-GWR express engines let off steam at the buffer stops. I could of stayed all evening but we had only a restricted parking slot, and had to hurry away.
The same scene was enacted on the evening of our departure. The "Penzance Sleeper" left at 9:55 p.m. from Platform 1( no 24-hour clock then!), and first we had to see our family dog settled down in the guard's brake van (how different it all is today!) before we found our sleeping berths in what were then four bunk compartments and no washing facilities. I believe that ex_GWR stock was still in use, to their more generous loading gauge as the corridors were wider than on today's Mk3 sleepers. Just as well, as I made an excited nuisance of myself trying to see as much of what was going on as I could before we left. I was allowed to stand in the corridor and watch the trains for the first hour of the journey to Reading, before I had to turn in on my top bunk, though I was too excited to sleep much.
At one of the stops along the line - and there seemed to be a lot of long waits back then, perhaps as parcels traffic was loaded aboard and other portions were added to the train, Dad would get up and take Nicky for a "comfort break", and refresh his water bowl, while I slipped down from my bunk and watched the station activity from the edge of the window blind.
Early in the morning the attendant came round with tea made with condensed milk in thick BR china cups, and a plate of shortbread biscuits, perhaps more palatable than the cardboard and plastic offering of today!.We'd get up and watch the Cornish countryside slip by, with many more stops than there are today, until we rounded Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount out to sea, and drew to a halt in Penzance Station.
That was the end of the railway journey, but we still had the crossing to the Scillies. We retrieved out "luggage in advance" and took a taxi to the quayside to register it with the "Scillonian II" which would ferry us across to the "paradise islands", then went into the Town to a cafe near the harbour for a breakfast before sailing. The crossing is notorious for heavy seas and on each occasion I'm afraid my "full English" was feeding the fishes before we arrived in port at St Mary's. We couldn't use the air service provided by BEA's pre-War Dragon Rapide biplane aircraft, as we had our dog with us and livestock wasn't permitted aboard.
After a glorious fortnight, the journey would take place in reverse order, but it wasn't the same - apart from the rough crossing back to the mainland!- and as our train neared London through the western suburbs and passed the A.E.C. Works at Southall, I used to feel a distinct anti-climax. OK there were weeks of school holiday still ahead with my mates, cricket and train-spotting the "Golden Arrow" at Petts Wood Junction to look forward to, but the Isles of Scilly is "somewhere else". Now I'm retired, perhaps I'll book a berth on the "Night Riviera". and see if my sea-legs are any better on the "Scillonian III" just one more time.
How lovely, I really like reading these memories and hearing about other peoples experiences and I have indeed my own from my child hood catching the sleeper from London to the south of France in the late 70’s / early 80’s. Thank you for sharing. .
@@TheGeordieTravels I remember the the SNCF "Couchettes" from travelling overnight to Switzerland in 1960, and on School exchange visits to a family in Toulouse in 1963 and 64. My worst Sleeper experience was on return from a visit with friends to Jura in 1989. After the peace and solitude of the Hebrides, we returned to Glasgow, and I took the sleeper down to London. We were rudely awoken early in the morning (no tea and biscuits!) to be told we'd be dumped at Watford Junction because the wires were down between there and Euston, and half awake early on a Sunday morning had to finish my journey bumping down to London on the Bakerloo Line.
Great little travellog. Pity there was no real breakfast provided. Probably due to Covid. Normally there's at least a hot bacon roll to get you on your way
Appreciated- thanks for watching.
They are not 'Azuma' on GWR. That is just a name LNER have given their 80x class trains.
IET's on GWR! Same train though!
@@DaveSuperThomas Granted, but it is a bit like calling a Vauxhall Frontera, an Isuzu Mu. Different country / region, different name.
As you have done Class 802. Have you done the Class 800.
Superb 🌹🌹🌹🌹
Cheers mate, appreciated and thank you for watching.
I am a new subscriber. And very much enjoyed my first video
Thank you for viewing and subscribing - much appreciated.
Did they not serve a breakfast or bacon roll in the restaurant carraige? That breakfast box did not look very appetizing.
Hi mate, thanks for watching. Not a proper breakfast, no - I think this was because we'd just really come out of lockdown.
Bit confused - you say that if solo you may have to share and then later you say you will auto get solo occupancy ?
Paddington Station like all Railtrack properties alas suffers from being made to emulate a shopping centre to an extent. That extent unfortunately means that the trains now have to stop half outside the station as the former platform spaces have been pulled up to make way for the "franchises". So everyone now has to walk twice as far to get to the bloody trains compared to the old sensible distance. Everything is about raking in the money and to hell with the public
100% agree with that.
what date did u record this on i went on the sleeper on 14/05/21
I travelled a couple of days later - 18.05.2021, fantastic experience.
@@TheGeordieTravels they still use the slam doors on these stets?
@@Rossosbattlefield - Correct! Slam-door carriages with droplight windows which can be lowered to enjoy the spectacular views as the "Night Riviera" Sleeper trundles slowly over the floodlit Royal Albert Bridge from England into Cornwall.
York and Inverness
York is a lovely station - not been to Inverness yet but should be up there in a month or 2.
I forgot to say Aberdeen
That's not an azuma
Hi mate, yeah I know - a very early days mistake.
@@TheGeordieTravels its ok
My favorite station is Leeds because of the many platforms
Weymes Bay is the best station in the UK
That’s one certainly to add to the list
🐻
Lol for the money u pay 🤣that's not a breakfast
Honestly it wouldn’t have filled a mouse never mind me..... it was laughable!?
Pre-Covid I got a hot bacon roll with a pot of tea and two shortbread biscuits plus a muffin served to my cabin in the morning - not bad considering that the "Night Riviera" is a Standard Class product throughout. Sleeper passengers even get to use the First Class customer lounge at London Paddington!
Look, if you're going to post stuff, get it right. The sleeper is not hauled by two locos. And It's depot not depo!!!
If missing ‘t’ is really the only thing you can have a gripe at, I ain’t gonna stress too much over you comment. Most people have little typo’s even the bigger guns of RUclips’s!?
47 were built in the 60s not the 57s
Apologies if I’m incorrect, however from reading and research
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_57