Traffic returns to Eccles Road (Norfolk)

[Peter Beckett]

Looking at the track and track equipment I get the feeling that is not a permanent feature.

 

Peter

[uax6]

Oh it's permanent, and the way all the modular signalling is being provided.

 

I think it probably would have been better to have it in a brick building, as the re-testing on site of the equipment may have revealed some of the faults with it all!

 

Andy G

[beast66606]

Time to catch up with events.

 

Traffic eventually resumed on 17 August 2015

 

66184 on 6Z59, 02:45, Peak Forest Up Sidings - Eccles Rd Exchange Sidings (09:59) - loaded stone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst photographing the Trowse stone the Eccles stone propelledback to the sidings

 

 

 

 

I noticed the ground staff changed the points for the loco to head towards the main line and my suspicions were aroused.

 

 

Sure enough the loco was heading for the exit

 

The Norwich bound passengers passed

 

158783 on 1L05, 06:47, Liverpool Lime Street - Norwich (12:11)

 

170201 on 1K68, 11:12, Cambridge - Norwich (12:30)

 

The loco dropped out and after the EMT service had passed it headed off ..

 

66184 on 0F60, 12:00, Eccles Rd Johnston's Sdg - Peterborough L.I.P. (14:02) - light engine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently the ground staff had run out of hours and there was no relief available so the unloading was terminated.

 

 

The loco returned the next day - 18 August 2015

66184 on 0F60, 10:00, Peterborough L.I.P. - Eccles Rd Johnston's Sdg (12:00)

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it was lunch time I spent a short time photographing the loco in the sidings

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the train got a path an hour early and so I missed the empties departing.

[trisonic]

As an aside, Dave,  and thanks for the photos - how often does the Liverpool/ Norwich train run?

 

Cheers, Pete.

[beast66606]

As an aside, Dave,  and thanks for the photos - how often does the Liverpool/ Norwich train run?

 

Cheers, Pete.

 

Hourly - but starts at Nottingham in the mornings and terminates at Man Picc and then Nottingham in the evenings - due to the journey time which is around 5.5 hours.

[beast66606]

Next time the train ran was 09 September

 

66108 on 6Z59, 22:27, Briggs Sdgs Steetley Coy - Eccles Rd Exchange Sidings (06:20) - loaded stone

an early start and the light was barely up

 

 

 

 

 

 

Due to a shortage of skills to operate the unloader (a JCB !, apparently the skills are contracted in on an as required basis) only 3 wagons were unloaded, these were shunted back into the siding and left whilst the still loaded train departed for Toton.

 

 

66108 on 6Z60, 11:43, Eccles Rd Johnston's Siding - Toton North Yard (15:38) - loaded stone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[great central]

As an aside, Dave,  and thanks for the photos - how often does the Liverpool/ Norwich train run?

 

Cheers, Pete.

 

Hope Dave doesn't mind a small thread Hi-jack.

The Liverpool-Norwich service is, as Dave says hourly through the day. That particular unit will have started from Nottingham about 04.00 as ECS to Lime St. It then returns from Norwich at 12.57 to Lime St arriving about 18.25, before forming the 18.52 back to Nottingham arriving around 21.30. I'm not sure but I think it then does another local run. These 158s cover some mileage.

The first service from Norwich is about 05.50, arriving in Liverpool at 11.30ish, it then forms the 11.52 back to Norwich arriving around 17.15, before working the 17.57(?) to Nottingham. The times vary by a few minutes depending on stopping patterns.

First service from Nottingham to Liverpool is 05.20 calling at all stops across the Hope valley, and to Norwich at 04.56, via Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford. Most of the day they run ECML from Grantham-Peterborough. 

Last one from Norwich is at 18.57 to Nottingham, there are rumours there may be a later one, whereas last from Liverpool is 21.37 to Nottingham again calling at all stations across the Hope Valley arriving around 00.40 depending on route due to engineering work. 

A few years ago EMT published a calendar with various facts on, the month of February proudly proclaiming that a 158 wheel rotates 166,153 times between Liverpool and Norwich

[drjcontroller]

Re; the failed delivery on the 9th, this was caused by the low loader that brings in the digger breaking down en route, so the crew ran out of hours. No wagons were discharged, the reason 3 wagons were left behind is that the whole train was too heavy to return to Dowlow.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Douglas

[AberdeenBill]

_{Great shots, Dave, thanks for posting.    What does the stencil below the position light display for a train heading to Peterborough?}

 

_Thanks,

_Bill 

[beast66606]

_{Great shots, Dave, thanks for posting.    What does the stencil below the position light display for a train heading to Peterborough?}

 

_Thanks,

_Bill 

 

UM

[Wayward Hayward]

What you should be a looking at is pretty much exactly the same photo as Dave's. However, due to me not leaving the house quick enough, I was stuck on the wrong side of the line due to the level crossing barriers already being down when I got to the station. My failure at least gives you all a different angle of 66184 on August the 17th with the 6Z59 0245 Peak Forest Up Sidings to Eccles Rd Exchange Sidings. 

 

66184 Eccles Road 17/08/15 by Ryan Hayward, on Flickr

[big jim]

Useful pics of the sidings there beast

[The Stationmaster]

Useful pics of the sidings there beast

Road learning courtesy RMweb  

[unclebobkt]

   And it was still only 12:30 !

 

 

  A great day, my thanks to all concerned for tolerating a crank asking daft questions - and to Johnston Logistics for using rail.

 

Edit

 

  Some minor editing as a photo was out of sequence and a bit of text was in the wrong place for some reason.

 

      Aquestion, if I may:  in the photo. headed: 'Brake test, paperwork and the train was ready to depart.' why are a couple of chairs painted light blue?

 

     

[AberdeenBill]

So what happened to the stone in the wagons that were returned to Toton on the abortive 9 September delivery pictured above?    Was it temporarily offloaded or delivered somewhere else?

 

Thanks,

Bill

[beast66606]

   And it was still only 12:30 !

 

 

  A great day, my thanks to all concerned for tolerating a crank asking daft questions - and to Johnston Logistics for using rail.

 

Edit

 

  Some minor editing as a photo was out of sequence and a bit of text was in the wrong place for some reason.

 

      Aquestion, if I may:  in the photo. headed: 'Brake test, paperwork and the train was ready to depart.' why are a couple of chairs painted light blue?

 

     

 

The blue is clearance. As long as the wagons are behind the blue ones they aren't foul at the point.

So what happened to the stone in the wagons that were returned to Toton on the abortive 9 September delivery pictured above?    Was it temporarily offloaded or delivered somewhere else?

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

Next installment Bill

[unclebobkt]

The blue is clearance. As long as the wagons are behind the blue ones, [chairs],  they aren't foul at the point.

   

 

 

       Jeez - don't railways' personnel have eyes in their heads?  How did we ever manage before these blue painted chairs?

 

  OK. - I live o'seas. and so am not up-to-date with current procedures, but looking at all of the many photos. on the various threads of RMWeb. this is the first time that I have seen such blue painted chairs;  is this becoming a common feature of British railways nowadays?

      

Edited September 23, 2015 by unclebobkt

[big jim]

Better to be safe than sorry, even just a few inches over could result in a please explain!

 

Must admit though, never seen em blue, always been yellow where i experience them

Edited September 23, 2015 by big jim

[beast66606]

       Jeez - don't railways' personnel have eyes in their heads?  How did we ever manage before these blue painted chairs?

 

  OK. - I live o'seas. and so am not up-to-date with current procedures, but looking at all of the many photos. on the various threads of RMWeb. this is the first time that I have seen such blue painted chairs;  is this becoming a common feature of British railways nowadays?

      

 

It's difficult to judge because of the angles / terrain and the train is right up to the limit (there's also clearance issues at the opposite end of the train so precise positioning is important, get it right at this end and the other end is clear)

[jamie92208]

Interesting to see this comment about coloured chairs.  I don't know how long they've been around but I used exactly the same system in the fiddle yard of my last layout.  Yellow for the electrical break and red for the fouling point. 

 

Jamie

[drjcontroller]

So what happened to the stone in the wagons that were returned to Toton on the abortive 9 September delivery pictured above?    Was it temporarily offloaded or delivered somewhere else?

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

Delivered to another terminal (Walsall) at customers request.

 

Douglas

[Steadfast]

Better to be safe than sorry, even just a few inches over could result in a please explain!

Must admit though, never seen em blue, always been yellow where i experience them

Yup, last thing you want is the shunter to say it's in clear then another move comes down and swipes it.

Agreed, I've only seen yellow, and usually it's the sleeper too. Or at least before the yellow paint wore off it was! Some places just do the part of the sleeper outside the 4 foot, others do the entire sleeper

 

jo

[HillsideDepot]

Re the blue painted chairs there was a photo on the Class 52 Diesel Hydraulics Facebook group a while back of a marker at Botley, which appears to be a piece of slate, with

 

    III  26  III
      CLASS 52
DRIVERS CAB WINDOW

 

written on. The 26 refers to the maximum 26 wagons used on the Botley trains and this marker either meant that the rear of the train was clear of the point blades when drawing forward on the mainline before reversing into the discharge siding, or it was on the headshunt and used when unloading (comments to the photo suggest both reasons, but the photo is nearly 40 years old, and memories fade). In the subsequent comments someone added "this sort of [unofficial] sign was once prevalent".

[The Stationmaster]

Yup, last thing you want is the shunter to say it's in clear then another move comes down and swipes it.

Agreed, I've only seen yellow, and usually it's the sleeper too. Or at least before the yellow paint wore off it was! Some places just do the part of the sleeper outside the 4 foot, others do the entire sleeper

 

jo

But as any experienced Shunter will tell you there isn't really any need for such mamby-pamby fancy nonsense and you know from experience just where you need to stop a move and how many wagons etc you can get into a siding.

 

No doubt this wealth of experience was hard earned judging by the number of demolished stop blocks which could be found in some yards (e.g. the Bristol Yard at Severn Tunnel Jcn) or the number of locos running around with scrapes or bits missing along the side.

[Rivercider]

There were markings on the wall at the back of the Avon Waste terminal at Bath Westmorland showing wagon lengths of the container flats

to help indicate to the traincrew the how far to reverse into the terminal,

 

cheers