Hows the trains in your bit doing?

[Chameleon]

Up here in Edinburgh, the Ed-Glasgow shuttles are on half service. The nice new junction they put in at Newbridge dosen't have working point heaters (well done!) so the Bathgate line has been shut all week. Trains are failing all over the shop.

Things aren't improving. With Aberdeen the only possible route at the moment, signs were up in Edinburgh last night, saying "If you are travelling to Inverness, don't bother." Think the Aberdeen-Inverness line was screwed again.

[Bernard Lamb]

I managed to get to Edinburgh on the ECML on Thursday. East Coast trains running with a little delay but the First Capital Connect service was terrible with a period of over three hours without any trains going north of Welwyn. Carstairs area was apparently impassable and nothing was moving north of Perth. Glasgow train terminated at Waverley but the local line was operating a normal service.FCC hadn,t a clue what was going on. East Coast people were excellent in updating information re the situation.

Bernard

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Well Chiltern Railways having been running a full timetable with only minor delays

 

Although engineering works are going to take place on Sunday between Birmingham Snow hill, Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick parkway

 

Simon

[Craig Watson]

Up here in Edinburgh, the Ed-Glasgow shuttles are on half service. The nice new junction they put in at Newbridge dosen't have working point heaters (well done!) so the Bathgate line has been shut all week. Trains are failing all over the shop.

Things aren't improving. With Aberdeen the only possible route at the moment, signs were up in Edinburgh last night, saying "If you are travelling to Inverness, don't bother." Think the Aberdeen-Inverness line was screwed again.

 

Not 100% correct, they do have working point heaters, there have been problems with various sets of points, in particular the new HPSS ones which don't seem to be very good at keeping the snow out, which is playing havoc with the detection when they're thrown, we have a few sets in our area which are having the same problems as Newbridge and the points heaters work on those too.

 

The heaters only keep the blades, stock rails and slide chairs clear which is fine when we get our "usual" level of snow, the problem this time is that there has been a prolonged period without any sort of thaw where the snow has frozen and become powder like, this has gotten in around the mechanism of the points including the detection and once there it's froze again.

 

Having been out using a blowtorch, spades and kilfrost on various sets of points all week I can comment!

 

We'd go out to a failed set of points, the heaters were working keeping the blades and slide chairs clear, the problem was with the cranks, rodding and frozen ballast so we'd dig it out, melt the ice and snow and get the points working again, then a few trains would come through blowing snow everywhere and it was clear that it wasn't going to be long before we were back.

 

On Thursday dayshift 06:00-18:00 (or 05:00 to 20:30 leaving home to getting home) We had four S&T squads, 2 MOM's and pway snowmen (including hired in contractors) at most major junctions in the Motherwell area and I can tell you we didn't stop all day, as soon as we cleared one set, another would fail.

 

A well known phrase about urinating on a blustery day was used a few times but we just got on with it.

 

The biggest problem with using a blowtorch is that as soon as you turn it off everything just freezes again, I had to use my mini one on a point machine padlock, you defrost it, take it off and lay it on a sleeper, when you go to put it back on you need to use to blowtorch again as the padlock is stuck solid to the sleeper.

 

Thankfully I'm now off until Tuesday:)

 

Cheers

Craig

[phil-b259]

Not 100% correct, they do have working point heaters, there have been problems with various sets of points, in particular the new HPSS ones which don't seem to be very good at keeping the snow out, which is playing havoc with the detection when they're thrown, we have a few sets in our area which are having the same problems as Newbridge and the points heaters work on those too.

 

 

 

How many LDVTs did you have to change? We had one total mullered by non working point heaters (ironically just before the snow arived).

[Craig Watson]

How many LDVTs did you have to change? We had one total mullered by non working point heaters (ironically just before the snow arived).

 

Not sure as I'm just the MOM

 

You'll recognise the scenario in the pics below though!

 

The normal scene on arriving at a set of HW's at the moment is this,

In the above pic, I have to free the padlock and try to get the small door open to insert a crank handle, then clear away enough snow and frozen ballast to turn the handle, great fun!

 

You get quite a bit of satisfaction when you get a set working again, then after a few hours of the below happening its back to square one!

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Gary H]

Not 100% correct, they do have working point heaters, there have been problems with various sets of points, in particular the new HPSS ones which don't seem to be very good at keeping the snow out, which is playing havoc with the detection when they're thrown, we have a few sets in our area which are having the same problems as Newbridge and the points heaters work on those too.

 

The heaters only keep the blades, stock rails and slide chairs clear which is fine when we get our "usual" level of snow, the problem this time is that there has been a prolonged period without any sort of thaw where the snow has frozen and become powder like, this has gotten in around the mechanism of the points including the detection and once there it's froze again.

 

Having been out using a blowtorch, spades and kilfrost on various sets of points all week I can comment!

 

We'd go out to a failed set of points, the heaters were working keeping the blades and slide chairs clear, the problem was with the cranks, rodding and frozen ballast so we'd dig it out, melt the ice and snow and get the points working again, then a few trains would come through blowing snow everywhere and it was clear that it wasn't going to be long before we were back.

 

On Thursday dayshift 06:00-18:00 (or 05:00 to 20:30 leaving home to getting home) We had four S&T squads, 2 MOM's and pway snowmen (including hired in contractors) at most major junctions in the Motherwell area and I can tell you we didn't stop all day, as soon as we cleared one set, another would fail.

 

A well known phrase about urinating on a blustery day was used a few times but we just got on with it.

 

The biggest problem with using a blowtorch is that as soon as you turn it off everything just freezes again, I had to use my mini one on a point machine padlock, you defrost it, take it off and lay it on a sleeper, when you go to put it back on you need to use to blowtorch again as the padlock is stuck solid to the sleeper.

 

Thankfully I'm now off until Tuesday:)

 

Cheers

Craig

 

Been there, done that, you guys up there have my sympathy! We've had it easy down in Cornwall and east Devon so far. We dont have any HPSS machines here, far to modern and expensive for this neck of the woods but obviously plenty of HW's and other more or less antique museum pieces that will fail from that dam white stuff! Im guessing the perforamnce figures have now taken a realy big hit last couple of weeks. (Not been anywhere near Connect as Ive been on leave )

[samkiller42]

Trains have been travelling well recently, some cancellations, and slight alterations, but all in all, pretty well.

 

Sam

[Chameleon]

Craig, I bow to your greater knowledge and experience "On the ground" as it were. I only see the points from my nice cosy train cab but I can appreciate the fun you must be having with blowing/drifting snow and the sense of inevitability in fixing these things.

One thing I did wonder about, How the hell do you sort the damaged points at Carrbridge after the derailment when they are under about 2 feet of snow?