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On 01/01/2021 at 11:27, Metr0Land said:

Feltham in the early 90's, since rebuilt somewhat.

Very somewhat. 
 

The level crossing has closed and the platforms now extend across its site to give 10-car rather than 6-car length. 
 

The road overbridge in the background has also been rebuilt in order to cope with the traffic displaced from the crossing.   Beyond the bridge the former goods yard and steam shed site is about to open as the new class 701 home depot meaning there have also been track and signalling changes. 

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On 09/01/2021 at 21:25, meld said:

The start of the transfer of the Siemens Class 707 Desiro City units from SWR to SE Trains has started.

 

707004 and 707003 arrived at Grove Park Depot from Wimbledon Park Depot in the early hours of Saturday Morning, 9th January 2021.

 

There is an Onward movement to Hitachi's Ashford Depot booked for Sunday 10th January and a couple of test runs booked from Ashford to Sevenoaks and back for Wednesday 13th and Saturday 16th January 2021.

 

Meld

 

 

Actually sorry to see them go .................................

 

Here's 001 on the blocks at Waterloo P17 late on 12-01-21

 

P5280733.JPG

Edited by Southernman46
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On 03/12/2020 at 19:19, Gwiwer said:

S15 was the spare car iirc. While it could only have been turned by crane the D-end marking might have been considered relevant if it migrated between units. 
 

Here’s an unusual moment. Not posted here until now as a gallery of spectators was not required. The electric 458 unit had derailed whilst making an empty-stock movement in Clapham Yard during Monday afternoon. On Tuesday morning a diesel 159 was coupled via an adaptor to act as tractor and brake force. The 458 was split with the derailed coach not rerailed until late in the day using the jack-and-pack method.  
 

The 159 removed four “good” coaches of the 458 before being shunted to the other end and removing the damaged coach. 

 

The red train is an up suburban working unrelated to the incident. 
 

96D7CA6C-6B96-4221-BBA2-CE48D1E34200.jpeg.4c8cc054e30966f040725a9c227edbfa.jpeg

 

Did pretty much the same back in 2005 with a 4-VEP but we used a Class 73 and a length of rope through the cab windows as the buckeye was buggered ......................

 

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On 12/10/2020 at 10:25, Chris116 said:

I thought that only one of the units was now usable. You were certainly lucky not to have a replacement bus service as there have been many days when both units have been out of service. The 438's have certainly put in tremendous service and it will be sad to see them go but the new trains should be a big improvement. 

 

I'm sure someone else has pointed this (been away from RMweb a long time) - So the D-trains being 1979 (?) vintage puts them in service on the IOW 42ish years after first introduction on the District - nice to see tradition being maintained :good_mini:

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On 26/08/2020 at 21:49, Gwiwer said:

Nearly-new class 701 unit 701005 (still without its lower fairings on the front ends) works test trip 5Q42 through Strawberry Hill on 24/08/20 in drenching rain.  

 

The name "Arterio" has been given to this class, derived from "Arterial", and first appeared at the formal launch using 701004 on 23/08/20.  It appears in bronze decals on the darker livery colour making it hard to see and harder to photograph so apologies for the reflections.  

 

Two "firsts" for what are suburban units.  They have tables at the window seats where these are in groups of four but no tray tables in the "airline" seating which makes up around 2/3 of the accommodation.  And two toilets per 10-car unit or one in the 5-car units means that in future all SWR services will feature on-board facilities.

 

Having been christened Arterio it has been suggested that the type be given the SR-style unit designation of 5-ART and 10-ART though they owe nothing to the erstwhile quint-art sets of many years ago.  

 

 

 

 

 

Personally I quite like them .......... Livery suits too ............... time to point the camera at the railway again me thinks (been prostituting myself with Red 4-rubber-tyred things mostly during these lockdowns etc ........ easier to snap on the way to work than standing exposed on a platform) 

 

Will there be a phased or en-mass(ish) introduction into service ???

Edited by Southernman46
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13 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

Will there be a phased or en-mass(ish) introduction into service ???

Phased. 
 

They will slowly be introduced from a date to be announced (but possibly early Summer) as crew, depot and platform staff are trained. 
 

Expect a one-train-for-one-train replacement of existing types starting, perhaps perversely, with the 707s which are already starting to depart for South Eastern.
 

The 455s might be the last to go as some are still receiving heavy overhauls with remanufactured / new bogies, wheelsets and other gear; all were re-tractioned by Vosslöh within the last few years so beneath the floors they are in quite good shape. 

Edited by Gwiwer
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5 hours ago, eastwestdivide said:

Some of the Jaffa Cake CEPs had a black on silver plaque/sticker with "1066 Electrics" to begin with. 

As the inset post says these were so done for the opening of the newly-electrified Tonbridge - St. Leonard's "1066 Line" as it was branded for a short time.  Off hand I cannot remember how many were treated but it was a small number and they were theoretically to stay on Hastings line duties which of course was operationally unrealistic in the extreme.  

 

Anyone who was there remembers the fiasco which was that first public day of electric trains.  Cheap fares, heavy promotion and far more people turned up than had been anticipated.  The 8-car trains were (and remain) the maximum permitted length south of Tonbridge* owing to electrical supply and platform length limitations.  There are also line capacity issues because in order to achieve the required standard of upgrade the track was singled through several of the sub-standard tight-to-gauge tunnels.  Extra trans were hastily procured from anywhere they could be found and crews somehow located to drive them.  Even running something like double the intended level of service at times crowds built up, trains were overcrowded and there were significant wait times.  But a point was made in that the electrification had been justified and was set to attract more users to rail.

 

* 12-car DEMU trains operated at times under existing rights though with tracks realigned through platforms upon electrification and with the tunnels both ends of the stations at St. Leonards Warrior Square and Tunbridge Wells causing slam-doors of 12-car trains without central locking to be stopped inside tunnels or, at some stations, off platforms this situation was not allowed to continue.  

 

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16 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

* 12-car DEMU trains operated at times under existing rights though with tracks realigned through platforms upon electrification and with the tunnels both ends of the stations at St. Leonards Warrior Square and Tunbridge Wells causing slam-doors of 12-car trains without central locking to be stopped inside tunnels or, at some stations, off platforms this situation was not allowed to continue.  

 

I remember the Jaffa Cake livery and the 1066 line flash but I stopped commuting to and from Tonbridge when I finished school in 85. What prompted me to reply was the memory of clambering into the 9th car of the 12 car train at Paddock Wood so that we could walk down and be at the back of the train at Tonbridge. This was before the platforms at Paddock Wood were extended (which I believe happened as part of the Channel Tunnel work) so was done from the slope of the platform. We could have of course got on the 8th car and walked through but this was somehow quicker!

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16 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Anyone who was there remembers the fiasco which was that first public day of electric trains.  Cheap fares, heavy promotion and far more people turned up than had been anticipated.  The 8-car trains were (and remain) the maximum permitted length south of Tonbridge* owing to electrical supply and platform length limitations.  There are also line capacity issues because in order to achieve the required standard of upgrade the track was singled through several of the sub-standard tight-to-gauge tunnels.  Extra trans were hastily procured from anywhere they could be found and crews somehow located to drive them.  Even running something like double the intended level of service at times crowds built up, trains were overcrowded and there were significant wait times.  But a point was made in that the electrification had been justified and was set to attract more users to rail.

Having had my trip to Hastings and back, I alit at Tonbridge and bumped into Gordon Pettitt. We agreed the day was a stonking success, but I pointed out that despite the unprecedentedly intensive service, no power-supply problems had emerged. It implied a bit of gold-plating - euphemistically defined as resilience, no doubt - in the spec. The Regional Power Supply Engineer was not amused, although much of the spec would have been done under his predecessor....

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50 minutes ago, Metr0Land said:

a regular Saturday morning working which arrived at Hastings around midday

I'd guess to cater for seaside daytrippers. There were at various times other odd trains to the Kent seaside that didn't fit the usual pattern.

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I suspect tnat this catered for the holidaymakers.

We lived opposite the Bo-peep pub and I remenber numbers of people trailing down West Hill Road from West St Leonards lugging suitcases to catch the bus along to Combe Haven Caravan Park every Saturday.

 

Is it time for a Demu thread?

 

 

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6 hours ago, Metr0Land said:

I assume the 12-car Hastings sets were normally M-F peaks?

Mostly yes.  Some  trains split at Tonbridge with a fast half followed down by a slow half but others ran complete to and from Hastings.  12-car workings at other times may have been for stock balancing purposes and (as others have said) a notional offer of capacity to seaside trippers.  At least they got main-line stock; their fellows bound for the Kentish resorts often got spare suburban EPB (or HAP at best) stock all the way from Holborn Viaduct / Blackfriars / Charing Cross to Margate / Ramsgate though often with a decent non-stop run over the main part of the route on the summer extras.  But no toilets.  Unless you were in a HAP trailer car.

 

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10 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

no power-supply problems had emerged. It implied a bit of gold-plating - euphemistically defined as resilience, no doubt - in the spec. The Regional Power Supply Engineer was not amused, although much of the spec would have been done under his predecessor....

 

If you believe the Hastings Line electrification was "gold plated", you are quite wide of the mark.

 

Anyway, it had (may still have) a very "thin" high voltage supply, with a tapped transformer mid-way to compensate for voltage drop in the event of the need to feed to whole line from one end, and the substation spacings are only just about on the 'OK' side of the fine line that separates a reliable service from a constant embarrassment. It was designed to tolerate the failure or planned outage of one HV feeder at a time, and I think (going from old memories here) could run the off-peak, but not the peak, service with any single rectifier out for maintenance. I could check details with the designer, because he is still providing consultancy services on a very part time basis with the firm that I work with, many years post-retirement, or the then Chief Electrical, who is still a bright spark well into his nineties.

 

If you recall the opening "free travel" day on the Grinstead Electrification, that nearly went horribly wrong because an "above design" service was put on, and breaker trippings started to occur early in the day. A colleague of mine was scrambled to site to "wind the protection up out of the way" (equivalent of putting a bigger fuse in the plug) to save the day, then to wind it back down at close of traffic - it was just about a safe thing to do, because the CR was not yet worn, whereas the design calculations assumed that it was worn to I think 75% of allowable.

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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421708 is seen approaching Clapham Junction on March 14th 2003. This unit had just under 2 years of working life left at the time. Originally 7335 from 1966, it was cut up during 2005 at Caerwent in South Wales. 

 

 

2021-01-24-0001.jpg.660147ea37870408d2b8a54e9f8c3cc5.jpg

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1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

Headcode 16 - Down Victoria to Portsmouth Harbour (Front 4) and Bognor Regis (Rear 4) via Redhill and Horsham.  Split at Barnham in those days.

Being of a certain age I still think of it as Victoria - Quarry Line - Hove - Littlehampton. That became 2 when 16 (and many other headcodes) were reassigned. 

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