Anyone taken their V8V on the car train to Livorno
Discussion
W1111AM said:
Many thanks Kevin for the great advice. We are doing exactly as you recommended - taking a cool bag with yummy goodies and maybe a little alcoholic beverage! Maybe even take a live chicken so we can cause distraction to the guards by letting it lose in the train - we can then have a glass of wine 
Like your thinking William, have a great time, reaction to the Vantage and the TVR T350 we travelled with was great where ever we went.Neil1300r said:
Thanks for the write up. Was considering it, but based on your feedback will give it a miss
I shall give you my feedback after the trip with my car on both Autoslaap and DB Bahn trains on this trip. I have to confess being a bit nervous about the car bring damaged. Here we go...tomorrow the trip starts 
W1111AM said:
I shall give you my feedback after the trip with my car on both Autoslaap and DB Bahn trains on this trip. I have to confess being a bit nervous about the car bring damaged. Here we go...tomorrow the trip starts
Hope you enjoy and the car doesn't get damaged - not even a kerbed wheelOk team, just driven up from Alessandria (same train route as Livorno), arrived in Verbier, beautiful!
Autoslaap, actually a really great experience, amazing views going parallel with the River Rhein, so many castles. Then to bed after some dinner, beds all fairly comfortable, goods nights kip! Woke around 6am and looked out of the window to see the Swiss Alps as the train carved through the meandering valleys.
That 75% good news, the bad news is that two of my new track wheels are lightly curbed. Here's what happened:
Loading at Den Bosch, myself and a Maserati were put on the lower section:
At loading, a very very careful and helpful train assistant worked me on foot by foot, no damage - phew!!
This was my rear wheel clearance either side (about an inch):
We boarded the train, the hooked up our car carriage to the back of the main run of car carriages already joined to the main train (making around 8 carriages of cars). Disaster when we got to Alexandria today the train of car carriages had been turned around via a train stop midway and my car was the very last car. This meant I had to unload nearly 9 carriages (as Kevin said, not in a straight line due to the shape of the track). I asked the to separate our carriage out from the rest so that the Maserati and I would not damage our wheels but they said no. I got one of the staff to again guide me one foot at a time through each carriage and off the train. I parked up after avoiding scraping my carbon front splitter on the last part of the concrete dispatch ramp into the car park. Thought I had made a clean effort (considering I took around 15mins just to get the car off), no N/S/F rim edge stripped of lacquer and paint, O/S/R small damage to paint
. Honestly all I can say is pants! It is a good job I wanted to change the colour of my track wheels to dark grey anyway, so repainting is now a must.
What I have learnt from the train crew is that the DB carriages have a wider gantry for the wheels. The carriage I was on was one of them. The other 8 in front were Dutch and old style carriages.
In short, Autoslaap, you need old wheels or don't use it. I am not sure any Gaydon Astons will not survive the wheel grind.
So, next Monday night I get the DB Bahn from Innsbruck to Dusseldorf, I shall report on my findings then...
Autoslaap, actually a really great experience, amazing views going parallel with the River Rhein, so many castles. Then to bed after some dinner, beds all fairly comfortable, goods nights kip! Woke around 6am and looked out of the window to see the Swiss Alps as the train carved through the meandering valleys.
That 75% good news, the bad news is that two of my new track wheels are lightly curbed. Here's what happened:
Loading at Den Bosch, myself and a Maserati were put on the lower section:
At loading, a very very careful and helpful train assistant worked me on foot by foot, no damage - phew!!
This was my rear wheel clearance either side (about an inch):
We boarded the train, the hooked up our car carriage to the back of the main run of car carriages already joined to the main train (making around 8 carriages of cars). Disaster when we got to Alexandria today the train of car carriages had been turned around via a train stop midway and my car was the very last car. This meant I had to unload nearly 9 carriages (as Kevin said, not in a straight line due to the shape of the track). I asked the to separate our carriage out from the rest so that the Maserati and I would not damage our wheels but they said no. I got one of the staff to again guide me one foot at a time through each carriage and off the train. I parked up after avoiding scraping my carbon front splitter on the last part of the concrete dispatch ramp into the car park. Thought I had made a clean effort (considering I took around 15mins just to get the car off), no N/S/F rim edge stripped of lacquer and paint, O/S/R small damage to paint
. Honestly all I can say is pants! It is a good job I wanted to change the colour of my track wheels to dark grey anyway, so repainting is now a must.What I have learnt from the train crew is that the DB carriages have a wider gantry for the wheels. The carriage I was on was one of them. The other 8 in front were Dutch and old style carriages.
In short, Autoslaap, you need old wheels or don't use it. I am not sure any Gaydon Astons will not survive the wheel grind.
So, next Monday night I get the DB Bahn from Innsbruck to Dusseldorf, I shall report on my findings then...
Edited by W1111AM on Saturday 26th July 17:31
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