Claus Thomas
Regarding your asking about the Taunton fire. The sleeping car stock at the time was based on the Mk1 coaches from the 1950's. I do not know the cause of the fire but I believe that the fire was spread through the forced ventillation system. To add to the problems, it was found that many doors were locked and passengers could not escape. This was because of low manning levels in the sleeping cars, ie 1 attendant serving 2 or more cars, and problems with non sleeping car passengers gaining access to the cars. There may have been previous cases of vandalism which also caused this action.
As a result, the Mk1 stock was withdrawn and new stock based on the Mk3 was commissionned.I have an idea that the sleeping car service may have been withdrawn until the Mk3 were available. No sooner than these were brought into service, than the sleeing car service suffered a downturn. Some cars were leased to DSB and repainted in the dark blue Moon and Stars livery. They looked minute in a rake of DSB standard stock in Copenhagen station. These have been returned to UK and many are redundant finding their way on to preservation
railways as sleeping accomodation for staff. There was some talk of their being converted to conventional coaches but again I am not sure if that ever took place.
Re the UK sleeping car service, I am not sure of how many operate if any. There was controvesy over withdrawal of the Inverness sleeper. I am not sure if that went ahead. Air travel, especially the cheap airlines, has somewhat taken the need for overnight sleepers in the UK.
Hope that helps
Paul Kidger