Third-Rail EMU Photos

[EmporiaSub]

Some third-rail variation on the West Coastway......

377701 working a Brighton to West Worthing service last Saturday.

[Gwiwer]

Some third-rail variation on the West Coastway......

377701 working a Brighton to West Worthing service last Saturday.

 

That would have been interesting at the halts.  And Lancing.  All of which are 4-car platforms.  As the 377/7s no longer have any AC work they are being freely mixed with 377/6s but neither is normal on the coast because of the short platforms as much as anything.

[Darius43]

That would have been interesting at the halts.  And Lancing.  All of which are 4-car platforms.  As the 377/7s no longer have any AC work they are being freely mixed with 377/6s but neither is normal on the coast because of the short platforms as much as anything.

8-12 coach trains to and from London work the west coastway during peak hours. At the short platform stations there are announcements that the doors will only open on the front 4 or 6 coaches - with the occasional panic-stricken passenger hurtling down the train at Lancing.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Gwiwer]

Portslade and Lancing commuters are well used to the need to be in the front part of the train.  Likewise those who use the London trains west of Worthing where all stations except Littlehampton have platforms shorter than an 8-car train.  The only London service booked to call at East Worthing is a 4-car duty and nearly all other trains serving the halts are 3-car 313s.  So I daresay a few people might have been caught out through being unfamiliar with a 5-car unit.

[Darius43]

Portslade and Lancing commuters are well used to the need to be in the front part of the train.  Likewise those who use the London trains west of Worthing where all stations except Littlehampton have platforms shorter than an 8-car train.  The only London service booked to call at East Worthing is a 4-car duty and nearly all other trains serving the halts are 3-car 313s.  So I daresay a few people might have been caught out through being unfamiliar with a 5-car unit.

Apart from the poor souls that ask if we are near Eastbourne yet, as the train is pulling in to Worthing...

 

Darius

[Gwiwer]

Apart from the poor souls that ask if we are near Eastbourne yet, as the train is pulling in to Worthing...

 

Darius

 

There's always one.  Ore waiting room used to be left open for the final arrival at around 2am.  There was always one who dozed off on the way back to Worthing but was in the wrong half.  They would end up on the first Up back to Brighton next morning!

[John M Upton]

One passenger was seen in a panic riding his bicycle through a Class 700 from the rear to the front on approach to Lancing a few months back!!  The five car was laid on as it was Brighton Pride and some extra capacity was desperately needed.

Edited August 9, 2018 by John M Upton

[73c]

Think I remember that Strawberry Hill 455 when it was at Eastleigh getting it's warp engine fitted 

[Gwiwer]

One passenger was seen in a panic riding his bicycle through a Class 700 from the rear to the front on approach to Lancing a few months back!!  The five car was laid on as it was Brighton Pride and some extra capacity was desperately needed.

Interesting that the /7 was provided to assisst with Pride. Some 67,000 people are said to have attended. There have been many reports and critical comments stating that Brighton station was closed “to alleviate crowding” while those coralled outside could see empty trains departing. Many allege they were stranded including a group of around 30 under-16s unable to get home and stuck at Worthing because they were denied entry to Brighton station in time to catch their last trains home.

 

The problems reported probably need to be addressed by the event organiser and the police rather than TSGN as the rail operator but they are copping some of the fallout.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Interesting move at Fulwell a couple of days ago around 7.15am. ECS terminates in the down platform from Strawberry Hill, then departs (with passengers aboard) via a little

used trailing crossover for Waterloo via Twickenham.

 

First time I've ever seen that.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Peter Kazmierczak

[Gwiwer]

Interesting move at Fulwell a couple of days ago around 7.15am. ECS terminates in the down platform from Strawberry Hill, then departs (with passengers aboard) via a little

used trailing crossover for Waterloo via Twickenham.

 

First time I've ever seen that.

 

It is a fully-signalled move otherwise passengers would not have been permitted aboard.  It isn't common but can be used to assist service recovery following disruption.  This sounds like an occasion when the e.c.s. was delayed coming down from Wimbledon or Clapham Yard to work what should have been the 07.00 Shepperton - Waterloo, one of the handful of peak-hour "via Twickenham" services.

 

The crossover is also used at times when the branch service is terminated at Fulwell due to a problem farther down or due to planned engineering works.

[EmporiaSub]

That would have been interesting at the halts.  And Lancing.  All of which are 4-car platforms.  As the 377/7s no longer have any AC work they are being freely mixed with 377/6s but neither is normal on the coast because of the short platforms as much as anything.

Especially as the 377/7 fitted in the Down platform at Lancing, and the barriers went up, behind the train whilst it was stationary in the platform, but the passengers could not alight from the rear coach!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Time for some more 3rd rail stuff.

 

Gatwick Express stock; then and now...…..

 

 

[John M Upton]

Time this evening for a couple of arty sunset shots at Littlehampton starring 313202:

Southern Class 313/2 313202 Littlehampton 12/9/18 by John Upton, on Flickr

Southern Class 313/2 313202 Littlehampton 12/9/18 by John Upton, on Flickr

 

[Northmoor]

A Winter Sunday afternoon at Brookwood (think I was there to photograph diverted HSTs):

Edited September 27, 2018 by Northmoor

[Southernman46]

Did you check out the former Necropolis railway connection visible at the back of the station and the little section of track we put there a few years ago ??

[Northmoor]

I commute from Brookwood daily.  Unfortunately the last time I looked your nice display had got really overgrown.  I suspect in the not too distant future, the station will have to be made more wheelchair-friendly and the easiest way (once the ramps have been built through the subway) will be ramp behind the down platform building, but that shouldn't stop the display being moved a short way.

[Gwiwer]

707004 working 5R03 departs Strawberry Hill depot at 06.01 e.c.s. for Twickenham where it will reverse in platform 4 and take up service as 2R03 06.17 to London Waterloo via the Hounslow loop.  This is the only diagrammed 5-car duty for the entire morning peak; all others are either 8 or 10-car according to stock type.  The tracks curving sharply to th right beneath the front two coaches are the route to Shepperton which is normally served at peak-times and in the direction of peak traffic only.

 

[Darius43]

Shoreham by Sea 8.08am today

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Southernman46]

I commute from Brookwood daily.  Unfortunately the last time I looked your nice display had got really overgrown.  I suspect in the not too distant future, the station will have to be made more wheelchair-friendly and the easiest way (once the ramps have been built through the subway) will be ramp behind the down platform building, but that shouldn't stop the display being moved a short way.

That kind of mimic's how Woking Delivery Unit (or Wessex Inner & Outer) as I think they've split the patch in two again in some mis-guided cost saving exercise are looking after the track ............... never have I seen so many wet-beds or experienced such poor track quality ..................... the Up Slow between Basing & Winchfield feels positively dangerous ............... they have really lost control of it all in the last 5 years. Heart-breaking after we had got it so good ..................... still - not my Circus , not my Monkeys anymore .......just hope I'm not on the derailed train they are slowly heading for .............................................. still - let's have some Worting action (loved looking after that iconic (IMHO) junction ....................................

Edited October 2, 2018 by Southernman46

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Apologies for the less than amazing quality, the light wasn't great, but I have included these in view of the comparative rarity of the event. Gatwick Express sets at Horsham on Saturday. The Brighton Main Line was closed for engineering works, so Brighton trains were diverted via Littlehampton and the Arun Valley.

 

387219 arrives at Horsham with a north-bound train

 

387227 on a south-bound service

Edited October 7, 2018 by Claude_Dreyfus

[Siberian Snooper]

Looks like a change in the signalling and a new bridge installed since my last visit to Horsham.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Not sure when it was installed, but the bridge is private and used to link the RSA office with their car park.

[Gwiwer]

Apologies for the less than amazing quality, the light wasn't great, but I have included these in view of the comparative rarity of the event. Gatwick Express sets at Horsham on Saturday. The Brighton Main Line was closed for engineering works, so Brighton trains were diverted via Littlehampton and the Arun Valley.

 

IMG_6160.JPG

377219 arrives at Horsham with a north-bound train

 

IMG_6162.JPG

377227 on a south-bound service

  

 

 

Looks like a change in the signalling and a new bridge installed since my last visit to Horsham.

GatEx units are class 387/2 not 377/2 which are in Southern livery and normally used on the East Croydon - Milton Keynes service.

 

The Horsham area was resignalled a couple of years back as part of the wider Arun Valley scheme. That project saw the end of semaphores on that route plus the closure of the historic Billingshurst, Pulborough and Amberley signalboxes. That at Amberley was on the platform and integral with the booking office.

 

The new bridge at Horsham is of about the same age.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

You're right - silly typo on my part. Definitely not the 377/2s (they only went up to 377215)

 

Certainly the Arun valley was resignalled - there is a thread about this somewhere on here - but I am not 100% sure if Horsham itself was done at the same time.