GWML Electification

[2mmMark]

Could this be the first time a company has been caught with its pants up?

[Geoff Endacott]

It is, but there are still quite a few headspans about, although I can't remember just where.

 

But not quite as many as there were before yesterday evening.

 

Geoff Endacott

[Coryton]

That's fair enough, but if you choose not to, you can't subsequently complain that you haven't been informed about the content.

 

Obviously checking the trains as part of the morning routine is not something everyone has time for, but the fact that it isn't usually necessary is testament to the fact that almost all the time the service is reliable enough.

 

GWR (and other TOCs) could offer a text alert service, or an email alert service, but as you say they'd need the data to reach the recipients. For it to be truly useful they'd need to collect more than just that, as users would quickly unsubscribe if they were standing at Taplow and getting a load of texts about delays near Truro.

 

I'm sure the technology exists, but a meltdown like today is the kind of thing that rarely happens more than once a year, and that is important context.

 

Bit off topic, but when I used to commute on Southern more than 5 years ago I signed up for emails when there was disruption on my commute. Worked very nicely. I had my phone look for emails from that address and give me an alert.

[jim.snowdon]

Wonder when/if 800s will be cleared to run into Waterloo. They've been to Eastleigh, so con rail isn't a problem in itself.

Or indeed Marylebone. Not that either would be that helpful in an emergency situation like this as they're both pretty busy with their own services.

It would be one thing for them to be gauge and signalling cleared for running to Waterloo, quite another to have sufficient drivers with the route knowledge to get there, as well as doing it frequently enough to retain it.

The same problem was afflicting the freight operators this morning. Finding drivers who know the route from Willesden to Reading via Staines is a problem. There are some, but not many and the fragmented nature of today's railway does not make it any easier to maintain route knowledge of the less common diversionary routes.

 

Jim

[bimble]

though in 2015 they did have GWR (or First Great Western) HSTs running into Waterloo from the South West on weekends when Reading was totally closed, so with some preparation it is feasible.

[woodenhead]

Impressive. Didn't think an 800 on diesel could reach line speed

They can't, it was an 802 and that extra 2 whatever makes a big difference as it is a GWR Turbo Nutter version with go faster engines for the Devon Banks.

[Banger Blue]

Sources indicate that the driver raised the Pan at or very near to Line Speed in an area where it shouldn’t have been raised (it should be already up or kept down)

BBC TV news seem to suggest that the "wrong" part of the pantograph had made contact with the OH pulling it all down.

 

Keith

From what I’m hearing from various sources, it’s more the state of the Pan that’s at fault rather than the driver raising it!

[david.hill64]

The Times this morning reports that it was a test train testing a new design of pantograph that caused the problem.

 

Does anyone know what was being tested?

[jamie92208]

Tony Miles of Modern railways has just been on BBC Breakfast that the Pantograph wobbled about when it was raised and CCTV has confirmed this. Apparently during the 200 miles of fault free running sequence prior to acceptance. I thought that he explained it very well and also dealt with inane questions from Ms Munchetti very well.

 

Jamie

[Wickham Green]

It would be one thing for them to be gauge and signalling cleared for running to Waterloo, quite another to have sufficient drivers with the route knowledge to get there, as well as doing it frequently enough to retain it.

The same problem was afflicting the freight operators this morning. Finding drivers who know the route from Willesden to Reading via Staines is a problem. There are some, but not many and the fragmented nature of today's railway does not make it any easier to maintain route knowledge of the less common diversionary routes.

 

Jim

....... never mind the drivers ..... are the guards on strike yet ?

[Banger Blue]

A couple of actions are involved in the Hanwell dewirement incident:

 

1) The pantograph was raised in a location not authorised for high speed changeover. It is unclear whether the raising of the pantograph was activated by the driver or mechanical failure.

 

2) When the pantograph did raise, it didn’t do so normally. The head of the pantograph remained stowed but the elbow came up further and impacted the contact wire. There was no pantograph “wobble”.

 

There is a suggestion that the Pan had been tied down for its transit to the UK from Italy and had not been untied.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Banger Blue

[Banger Blue]

A crop from a random pic on Flickr which shows a Pan in normal operation. The elbow of the Pan circled in red was the part that appears to have made contact with the wire. Posted just in case some readers aren’t familiar with the 80x pantographs.

 

[Richard E]

And apparently the set was doing 80mph when the pan was raised if reports I have read are true.

 

At least it didn't make as much of a mess as some in Germany do:

 

[EddieK]

In the early days of Class 319 units, a relay had vibrated into the "wrong" position, so when the driver pressed the Reset button on his desk, the pantograph also went up. Unfortunately the unit was passing through Thornton Heath at the time. Obviously no overhead line, and I think the "overheight" function on the pan brought it down again. Of course an overbridge may have had the same effect...

[talisman56]

In the early days of Class 319 units, a relay had vibrated into the "wrong" position, so when the driver pressed the Reset button on his desk, the pantograph also went up. Unfortunately the unit was passing through Thornton Heath at the time. Obviously no overhead line, and I think the "overheight" function on the pan brought it down again. Of course an overbridge may have had the same effect...

 

As there is a rather substantial overbridge at Thornton Heath, if it came down via the overheight function they were very lucky...

[jim.snowdon]

And apparently the set was doing 80mph when the pan was raised if reports I have read are true.

 

At least it didn't make as much of a mess as some in Germany do:

 

It may have brought down a structure, but not, apparently, any of the headspans, which contain nothing like the amount of ironwork that the BR/NR ones do.

 

Jim

[Edwin_m]

At least one wheelset is visibly derailed and judging by the alignment of the wagons others may be too, which is probably what brought the structure down.  Not really comparable with a dewirement. 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Edwin_m

[Northroader]

Talking today to someone in the know, I gather the overhead is now live to Swindon. Another job I haven’t picked up on as mentioned anywhere, but I’m told that Oxford station is now a thing of beauty and joy, new layout, signalling, and electrified. Must find an excuse to have a snoop up there.

[dibber25]

Talking today to someone in the know, I gather the overhead is now live to Swindon. Another job I haven’t picked up on as mentioned anywhere, but I’m told that Oxford station is now a thing of beauty and joy, new layout, signalling, and electrified. Must find an excuse to have a snoop up there.

 

'a thing of beauty'? Oxford? Have they bulldozed it? It would take a bit more than a new track layout and a cat's cradle of overhead lines to improve Oxford station. The awful cheap BR buildings are too small for the passenger numbers and haven't seen a lick of paint in years. True, there's a 'new' footbridge but when I last saw it there was temporary plywood boarding where, presumably, there should have been glass. Lets' not get carried away with the idea that electrification can make a silk purse out of anything. (CJL)

[Banger Blue]

Talking today to someone in the know, I gather the overhead is now live to Swindon. Another job I haven’t picked up on as mentioned anywhere, but I’m told that Oxford station is now a thing of beauty and joy, new layout, signalling, and electrified. Must find an excuse to have a snoop up there.

Oxford: New layout & resignalled, same station and definitely no electrification! Wires aren’t even up.

 

Wires have been live to Wootton Bassett Jn for a while now but OLE hasn’t been authorised for Passenger use yet. It requires testing and signing off by ORR.

 

In fact by now the Wires are live to Bristol Parkway & Stoke Gifford including the IET Depot. Also the wires should now be live down to Newbury.

 

(EDIT: OLE Live down to Southcote Jn, OLE down to Newbury should go live early tomorrow morning)

 

Sign off & passenger use is expected for Mid December.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Banger Blue

[caradoc]

To be fair, while Oxford station is undoubtedly a dump, and electrification seems as far away now as when I started spotting there (1971), the new signalling has provided great operational flexibility. For example, one morning a couple of weeks ago, an Up train  from the Worcester line was late, so the next Up train (which came from the Down Carriage Sidings) was replatformed to 4 and departed almost simultaneously with the Worcester. And yesterday, a Didcot shuttle was late so was replatformed to 3 for its return working, instead of having to shunt via the Carriage Sidings. 

[Mike Storey]

Bit off topic, but when I used to commute on Southern more than 5 years ago I signed up for emails when there was disruption on my commute. Worked very nicely. I had my phone look for emails from that address and give me an alert.

 

Agree - I did the same when commuting from Peterborough as a "normal" over six years ago. The messages were reliable, but I was not. I usually didn't remember to look at them until I had arrived at the station. Doh.....

[Mike Storey]

To be fair, while Oxford station is undoubtedly a dump, and electrification seems as far away now as when I started spotting there (1971), the new signalling has provided great operational flexibility. For example, one morning a couple of weeks ago, an Up train  from the Worcester line was late, so the next Up train (which came from the Down Carriage Sidings) was replatformed to 4 and departed almost simultaneously with the Worcester. And yesterday, a Didcot shuttle was late so was replatformed to 3 for its return working, instead of having to shunt via the Carriage Sidings. 

 

Very good to hear. But we could do that at Ramsgate (not for Worcester or Didcot admittedly), nearly 40 years ago. The latest, East Kent, re-signalling makes it even more flexible there, I gather. How come it took so long for the Western?

[dibber25]

Very good to hear. But we could do that at Ramsgate (not for Worcester or Didcot admittedly), nearly 40 years ago. The latest, East Kent, re-signalling makes it even more flexible there, I gather. How come it took so long for the Western?

 

Oxford is a restricted-width site, with only two through platforms and no bays for trains terminating from the south. It's platforms are narrow and facilities inadequate. I am sure that whatever has been done with track layout and signalling will be more flexible and useful. As to the station itself, which is what the passenger experiences, it was built with 'temporary' wooden buildings which lasted until the 1960s and were replaced by new 'temporary' buildings which have more recently been modernised with (I think) a new booking hall. Nevertheless, for a city of Oxford's standing, with large numbers of international visitors, it's station still falls far short of being satisfactory, in my view. (CJL)

[Peter Kazmierczak]

As the country is going backwards (others views are available),

perhaps the citizens of that city want to retain the Ye Olde English feel to the place.....