Sleeper Mk 5s
First five Caledonian Sleeper Mk 5s leave Spain for testing in the Czech Republic ahead of UK arrival in November.
THE first five of 75 Caledonian Sleeper Mk 5 coaches have moved to the Velim test track in the Czech Republic for testing.
Built by CAF in Beasain (northern Spain), the vehicles were taken by road to Hendaye in France, from where they were transported by rail across Europe. The coaches are two seat coaches, two Sleepers and a club car.
Caledonian Sleeper Production and Safety Director David Simpson told RAIL on August 22 that the dynamic testing to be carried out at the Czech track will use a continental locomotive, rather than a CS Class 73/9 as originally planned.
Static testing of a rake will take place in Beasain, and Simpson said that interface testing with the locomotives will now be carried out by taking coaches to Brush Traction at Loughborough, where Wabtec is fitting Class 73s and ‘92s’ with Dellner couplings so they can haul the stock (see page 30).
The first five Mk 5s for CS will be those moved from Velim - they will arrive in the UK in November, by rail via the Channel Tunnel.
Simpson said that the next few coaches will arrive by ship at Teesport. He also confirmed that the plan was for the first rake of Mk 5s to enter traffic on CS trains in April.
The vehicles are numbered 15001-15011 for seated cars, 15101-15110 for club cars, 15201-15214 for the Persons with Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability (PRM-TSI) Sleeper cars and 1530115340 for the standard Sleeper vehicles.
The Mk 5s were ordered by Caledonian Sleeper owner Serco, when it was awarded the franchise in 2015 ( RAIL 750). They are funded by Lombard Leasing and will replace the existing fleet of Mk 2 and Mk 3 coaches, the latter of which are leased from Porterbrook.
Meanwhile, Simpson told RAIL that current performance on CS was “excellent” with a recordbreaking performance in Period 5 (July 23-August 22), with Right Time performance at 93.6% and Public Performance Measurement (PPM) at 97.5%.
These were the best ever results for the Sleeper, he said, adding that these figures demonstrated that the ‘73s’ and ‘92s’ supplied from GB Railfreight “are now performing very well after the work to improve reliability”.