GWML Electification

[adanapress]

 Charging section of OHLE  - Isn't that what the DRUMM trains in Ireland had?

[Michael Woolford]

It appears that work is now progressing into Swindon more and more. Recent bridge closures taking place this year with one of the main bridges in Swindon now closed to traffic. There is/has been a new footbridge built just off of Shrivenham Road and various new signal posts appearing in the area.

 

The one thing I did notice more than anything (not that you can miss it), is the first 'big' item to be installed. A new signal gantry under construction, spanning platforms 3 and 4 to replace the current gantry. A little more than a bigger brother.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Michael Woolford

[Xerces Fobe2]

Oh dear Network Fail are doing signals again!

Edited December 15, 2014 by Xerces Fobe2

[St. Simon]

It appears that work is now progressing into Swindon more and more. Recent bridge closures taking place this year with one of the main bridges in Swindon now closed to traffic. There is/has been a new footbridge built just off of Shrivenham Road and various new signal posts appearing in the area.

 

The one thing I did notice more than anything (not that you can miss it), is the first 'big' item to be installed. A new signal gantry under construction, spanning platforms 3 and 4 to replace the current gantry. A little more than a bigger brother.

rps20141214_160756.jpg

rps20141214_162813.jpg

 

Hi,

 

The Gantry has been up for a number of weeks, it suddenly appeared over one weekend, it's awaiting the actual signals at the moment.

 

It took me a while to work out why it was so much taller than the old one, but it's that the gantry needs to clear the Overhead Line that will soon run underneath it 

 

Oh dear Network Fail are doing signals again!

 

Okay, I have now taken offence to your comments Nigel, you are now speaking about my colleagues, both in the Signalling Design Group and Network Operations who work hard and are passionate about their job and desperately try to get it right. Until you have physical experience about running the railway itself and designing signalling systems, please refrain from making those kind of comments.

 

Simon

Edited December 14, 2014 by St. Simon

[Xerces Fobe2]

Simon you have no idea of my skills or experience and therefore you are no position to make a personal attack on me and my LinkedIn profile does not detail the many areas I have worked in! My comment reflected the opinion of a quite of few of my colleagues that I was with this weekend.

 

I live in hope that at some point in the future you will be able to understand the difference between a tongue in cheek comment and harsh criticism!

 

XF

Edited December 14, 2014 by Xerces Fobe2

[St. Simon]

Simon you have no idea of my skills or experience and therefore you are no position to make a personal attack on me and my LinkedIn profile does not detail the many areas I have worked in! My comment reflected the opinion of a quite of few of my colleagues that I was with this weekend.

 

I live in hope that at some point in the future you will be able to understand the difference between a tongue in cheek comment and harsh criticism!

 

XF

I wasn't making a personal attack, I was not saying that you aren't good at your job, and at no point have I ever been on your LinkedIn profile until after your posting, so I'm not sure where that statement has come from. Once you prove to me that you have experience in running the railway, I will happily withdraw my comment.

 

Okay, it may have been tongue in cheek, but it could quite easily have been mistaken for a criticism, given the content of your previous posts on the subject of Network Rails and FGWs performance.

 

My apologises to the Moderators and other members if I have taken the thread off topic, but I feel that those comments can't go untold.

 

Simon

Edited December 14, 2014 by St. Simon

[Xerces Fobe2]

Simon please see the FT article on Network Rails poor performance which was published within the last 24 hours on the web. Unfortunately I cannot post a link to it directly as I am not subscribed to the FT website but it does give honest and impartial assessment of Network Rail performance by professionals!

 

Nigel

[Andy Y]

Oh dear Network Fail are doing signals again!

 

Nigel,

 

Unfortunately you have offended a respected forum member who has not only positively represented a new generation of modellers and worked hard to be part of the railway industry.

 

I think you will know what would be the right thing to do now.

[Downendian]

I have been watching progress on this with interest (the GWML electrification that is!). Some overbridges East of Bristol Parkway station have been demolished, to be rebuilt to take account of the OHLE, many of them were old stamping grounds in 1970s spotting days, sad to see them go but the price of progress. Another road has been closed for best part of a year, which was an excellent rat run to youngest daughter's school, again a price worth paying.

Neil

[multiprinter]

Nigel,

 

Unfortunately you have offended a respected forum member who has not only positively represented a new generation of modellers and worked hard to be part of the railway industry.

 

I think you will know what would be the right thing to do now.

 

Are you suggesting that Nigel isn't a respected forum member and therefore not entitled to express an opinion (shared by others) with which an NR employee disagrees?

[Andy Y]

Not when he insults an organisation that several fellow forum members work for, no.

 

I could turn it around and ask why you think it is acceptable to make casual insults, mind you at least you've posted rather than clicking on the disagree button as you usually do.

[96701]

Are you suggesting that Nigel isn't a respected forum member and therefore not entitled to express an opinion (shared by others) with which an NR employee disagrees?

I would suggest that Nigel made a derogatory comment about a company that many of us are happy and proud to work for and take such blanket comments as a personal slight. An opinion would have been differently handled.

[Michael Woolford]

Are you suggesting that Nigel isn't a respected forum member and therefore not entitled to express an opinion (shared by others) with which an NR employee disagrees?

Do you really think Andy of all people would suggest such a thing? He was clearly making a point and a fair one at that. If the comment had not been made in such a manner then there would have been no issue but it is clearly personal to Simon and myself likewise, both being NR employees.

 

Michael

[multiprinter]

Oh such thin skins. You should have spent a career working for British Rail then you really would know what it was like to be on the receiving end of derogatory comments on a daily basis.

[Michael Woolford]

I'd also like to add that even if intended as such, the way that it comes across is more of a statement that an opinion, hence the upset caused.

 

Michael

[96701]

Oh such thin skins. You should have spent a career working for British Rail then you really would know what it was like to be on the receiving end of derogatory comments on a daily basis.

Are you purposefully stoking the fire? I started on the railway in ~August 1973. Trust me, I have a thick skin but Nigel's comment was beyond the pale.

[multiprinter]

Not when he insults an organisation that several fellow forum members work for, no.

 

I could turn it around and ask why you think it is acceptable to make casual insults, mind you at least you've posted rather than clicking on the disagree button as you usually do.

 

Casual insult?  Calling that organisation Network Fail is hardly casual given that it is in common usage both within and outside the railway - such 'nicknames' don't appear without good cause.

 

"mind you at least you've posted rather than clicking on the disagree button as you usually do" 

Another case of a personal slight on someone who dares to disagree with your views? You are very good at this tactic which has succeeded in driving away, or expelling, several members(or ex members as they are now) whose knowledge is thus no longer available to RMweb members.

[Andy Y]

Thus indicating that you do have an agenda; thank you. You offer little of substance to give any balance but sit there clicking on the disagree button quite often so don't expect me to be warm and cuddly.

 

I don't deem it acceptable to refer to them as Network Fail; there's a lot of hard workers in there (many of whom have done a lot of good around here and in the modelling community too) and you should be able to see that it has annoyed several people now. To ensure that you don't post anything else likely to inflame an issue which you are not part of I'll check your posts before release.

[The Stationmaster]

I am rather puzzled by what has gone on here - beginning from the beginning of this sorry tale of disagreement because I can't for the life of me work out what it was originally about.  A couple of pics were posted of a new gantry at Swindon and yet it gets a seemingly unrelated, derogatory, comment about NR 'doing signals again'.  Well yes, they have done signals again, they've erected yet another new signal structure in connection with electrification work - something they've been doing for around the past 2-3 years on the GWML and seemingly without any problems (or none that I have heard of) through the whole of that time.

 

Now personally I'm rather sorry to see the old Reading designed structures going - especially as I watched most of them emerging as new rather a long time ago and they're as typically Western as Reading's semaphore signal designs; but where does the 'fail' bit come in please?  Notwithstanding some considerable messing about during the Reading works (and almost certainly not of their making I reckon) the S&T folk seem to have been more on top of things - for various reasons - than any other dept during the GWML works.  And it would seem they have had to deal with the fallout of others cutting their cables while at the same time keeping 50+ year old kit going interfaced to fancy new control systems pending further stageworks.

 

Now - as post 377 above shows - I'm not backwards in coming forwards when I think there are inadequacies and inefficiencies, but erecting a new signal gantry = fail, that really is somewhat on the silly side to say the very least.

[Xerces Fobe2]

Andy,

 

So a fairly new employee to Network Rail decides to take a generic tongue in cheek comment using a comically but surprisingly offensive commonly banded about play on words, which is their prerogative. There have been horrendous issues on the FGW (Great Eastern .... etc)  over many months due to Network Rail issues, with First Great Western happily informing it's customer that there is an issue with Network Rail on quite a few days last week and offering refunds via their website and Facebook site!

 

On the use of offensive names others may find the following "  Late Never Early  Railway",  "Great Way Round"," L of a Mess Railway" so would you apply the same logic to these as some elderly former hardworking members of staff from these companies as they may well take umbrage?

 I note that the Daily Mail  had this headline a while ago "Network Fail! Rail chiefs miss all their punctuality targets" more proof that this  just a play on words for company which has issues and and would be called "fair comment" in court of law I think you will find!

 

Now for some context below is the just published annual return by Network Rail if anyone care downloads this pdf and go to Table 1 and there are the figures for all to see Network Rails performance is missing targets  and worse than last year date  and dare I say again failing!

 

www.networkrail.co.uk/publications/annual-return-2014.pdf

 

So my apologies to Simon for any distress or upset I have caused him and his colleagues at Network Rail. Having recently worked for a company (which I have a lot of time for myself) which has some very big issues to deal with, my colleagues and I were  all mature enough to face truth, work hard and not take any leg pulling/negative comments that we would hear to heart but instead do our best where could to improve things on what will be a very long haul! I guess the some of us old  B's are more battled hardened than some!  For the avoidance of doubt (B's =Boys!)

 

Nigel

Edited December 15, 2014 by Xerces Fobe2

[Re6/6]

Please gents, this thread is supposed to be about the very interesting developments on this project, one that I never thought would ever come to pass.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Here's one of the new structures at Steventon, with the older gantry as a comparison.

 

Doubtless the new one will blend in more when the OHLE is erected.

[Xerces Fobe2]

Please gents, this thread is supposed to be about the very interesting developments on this project, one that I never thought would ever come to pass.

Fair comment the irony is look who started this thread! It interesting note that the name I used which has caused such contstinationihas been used on RMweb quite a few times before, going back a few years with the e replaced with an O In Network without any upset or sanction!

Edited December 15, 2014 by Xerces Fobe2

[jonhall]

 

Is the Thames Valley less populous than other commuter routes or does its relative affluence mean that the area had higher levels of car ownership back when modern service plans were being formed? If so, rising fuel prices over the last 10 years may have made the trains more appealing relatively speaking and driven increased usage.

 

I was very struck by the same sort of question when after the steam railmotor on the Brentford branch I went and did all the other ex-GW branches in the area a few months ago.

 

I think there are 2 or 3 factors in play here, first is the relatively inconvenient location of Paddington 'outside' the city.

 

I think the second might be related to the relatively good Underground service at least as far as Ealing Broadway.

 

The other factor is the proximity of Heathrow, the employment draw of the airport is obvious, so that places like Southall which on the face of things is a similar distance from central London as Surbiton, in fact have Heathrow (and related) as their primary employment 'zone' rather than central London. Most people that I know who work on the airport tend to be in Hounslow/Feltham/Ashford or Southall/Hayes/Slough and I think that's partly the presence of the Thames and the relatively difficult 'pinch points' that the bridges cause quite a blockage from anywhere further South.

 

The difference in service provision from Hounslow/Feltham/Ashford compared to that of Southall/Hayes/Slough suggests to me that its Waterloo (for Central London) not Paddington that people want to travel to, and that with the coming of Crossrail there may well be a huge swing of people who suddenly discover that central London access becomes a lot easier from the GW suburban.

 

Jon

[brian daniels]

Had a good bustitution journey on Saturday morning at Reading. As there was an occupation from Reading to Reading West they were running busses from the new north entrance to Reading West and onto Newbury. As I was going to Basingstoke I got on the bus to connect into a turbo that was running from Reading West to Basingstoke. Driver pulls out of the station and turns left under the railway and then turns left again up to the front of the station and then proudly proclaims "Reading West"! We had only just gone from one side of Reading Stn to the other!Thankfully there were some local people who knew how to get there once he had reversed back out of the drop down/taxi turning circle that he found out was not meant for coaches to turn in. I do worry how he got on finding the local stations to Newbury.