RMweb Premium Kris Posted March 23, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 23, 2011 Something that also came out today was that the single line between Kemble and Swindon is to be doubled BBC story here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 96701 Posted March 23, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 23, 2011 Good. Here's hoping there are going to be more through trains. Changing from an HST to a Sprinter is pretty bad, but sometimes we end up on a single car dogbox. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Also in the budget and related announcements, the new curve linking Manchester Picc-Vic to go ahead, extension to the Nottingham trams, and a bit of funding for more study on the Sheffield tram-train extension to Rotherham. Anything else? There was a cryptic "£200m for regional rail projects" on the BBC, but can't find any breakdown of that figure into the above-mentioned projects or any others. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted March 24, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 24, 2011 That is good news. Swindon to Kemble isn't part of my 'patch' any more, so I'm not likely to get involved in the same amount of detail as I am with the OWW scheme, but it's clearly the right move. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 24, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 24, 2011 Good. Here's hoping there are going to be more through trains. Changing from an HST to a Sprinter is pretty bad, but sometimes we end up on a single car dogbox. Must admit I've only ever done it in the down direction and by HST. Morning meeting in Swindon, afternoon meeting in Derby - change at Cheltenham and BNS. Mind you, that was 15 years ago, 4-weekly over 18 months. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 26, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 26, 2011 Good - another genuinely useful bit of expenditure as opposed to a 'political sop' of the sort we have seen in the past. Perhaps we can also hope for at least one intermediate signal section in order to make far better use of the capacity which is being restored - and ideally electrification of it (and of course through to STJ via Gloucester) in order to restore a truly viable alternative route when the Severn Tunnel is blocked for either planned or unplanned reasons. And if electrification isn't on (well I can dream) maybe we might also see re-signalling throughout from Swindon to Standish Junction in order to restore some of the line capacity which was lost when the line was resignalled and partially singled - although that would also no doubt end teh pleasure of standing on Swindon station listening to the block bell in the panel box Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tomparryharry Posted April 1, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 1, 2011 Good - another genuinely useful bit of expenditure as opposed to a 'political sop' of the sort we have seen in the past. Perhaps we can also hope for at least one intermediate signal section in order to make far better use of the capacity which is being restored - and ideally electrification of it (and of course through to STJ via Gloucester) in order to restore a truly viable alternative route when the Severn Tunnel is blocked for either planned or unplanned reasons. And if electrification isn't on (well I can dream) maybe we might also see re-signalling throughout from Swindon to Standish Junction in order to restore some of the line capacity which was lost when the line was resignalled and partially singled - although that would also no doubt end teh pleasure of standing on Swindon station listening to the block bell in the panel box Block Bells? Are signalmen still taught 3-1, or 1-4?, or even, 2-1? (Local Pass, unfitted freight, and train out of section)? Regards, Ian PS. There used to be a cartoon of a manual frame in a power 'box behind a glass screen.... The cartoon said "In case of emergency, break glass". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linesman Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Great news! However, the BBC have chosen to use a crude and clearly unprotypical Peco point to illustrate the article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-12832259 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugsley Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 PS. There used to be a cartoon of a manual frame in a power 'box behind a glass screen.... The cartoon said "In case of emergency, break glass". In a similar vein, the Carlsberg brewery in Northampton used to have a homebrew lager kit behind a glass panel in the control room, with the same instructions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach bogie Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 I didn't think the service was intense enough to warrant Swindon - Kemble doubling. Current timetable shows 1 train an hour in each direction. The cynic in me thinks the announcement of the wires through the Severn Tunnel has more to do with the doubling for diversionary needs rather than for the existing services. Mike Wiltshire Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted April 4, 2011 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 4, 2011 I didn't think the service was intense enough to warrant Swindon - Kemble doubling. Current timetable shows 1 train an hour in each direction. Much of that lack of service is down to the single track section. The time taken to clear this prevents a better service. From observing the line during closures of the Seven tunnel route the occupancy does not rise significantly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 How so if it also carries a Cardiff train at least every hour (half the normal service)? Are the normal Swindon-Gloucester trains cancelled when diversions take place? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted April 5, 2011 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 5, 2011 Are the normal Swindon-Gloucester trains cancelled when diversions take place? They appear to have been cancelled at times, I guess extra stops are added to the diverted trains to replace them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 The Kemble-Swindon timings over the single track are of the order of 15 mins, so currently even a half-hourly service each way would be highly susceptible to disruption. That's assuming you can't "flight" them, two in one direction, then two in the other, both occupying the single track section. Anyone know if there are intermediate signals? Even then it would be a bit of a compromise to the ideal of a regular interval timetable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted April 5, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 5, 2011 The Kemble-Swindon timings over the single track are of the order of 15 mins, so currently even a half-hourly service each way would be highly susceptible to disruption. That's assuming you can't "flight" them, two in one direction, then two in the other, both occupying the single track section. Anyone know if there are intermediate signals? Even then it would be a bit of a compromise to the ideal of a regular interval timetable. One of the big problems with the current arrangement is that the section extends from Loco Yard (more or less) at Swindon where there is the double to single connection right through to the other connection at the Swindon end of Kemble station - 12miles and 19chains which effectively imposes a headway of around 14 minutes. The theoretical capacity is probably just about 4 trains per hour but that would give potentially poor reliability and depend on a high standard of timekeeping. Even with double line the headway will remain at around 14 minutes but will at least then be available in both directions at the same time so the doubling basically doubles route capacity on this section (I'm not sure without a bit of digging what the capacity is from Kemble to Standish Junction but it isn't wonderful so possibly the whole route might be resgnalled although I think that very unlikely). No doubt at all in my mind that the work will be justified largely by the need for diversionary capacity when the Badminton/Severn Tunnel routes are undergoing electrification etc works and especially when potentially 60 hour blockades might be needed for bridgeworks in various places plus the work in the tunnels. I would be surprised to see existing 'local' service frequencies increase significantly once the line is doubled although there has been past pressure for new intermediate stations to be provided on that side of Swindon with Purton being the most frequently mentioned over the years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I'm not sure without a bit of digging what the capacity is from Kemble to Standish Junction but it isn't wonderful Timed as AB with "block posts" at St Mary's crossing and Standish. By the wonders of the NR website, this fact is in the public domain but the information you need to make sense of it (the working timetable) isn't! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bricky89 Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 PS. There used to be a cartoon of a manual frame in a power 'box behind a glass screen.... The cartoon said "In case of emergency, break glass". You mean this one? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted April 6, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 6, 2011 Timed as AB with "block posts" at St Mary's crossing and Standish. By the wonders of the NR website, this fact is in the public domain but the information you need to make sense of it (the working timetable) isn't! That sounds very odd Edwin - there are auto signals that side of Sapperton and St Mary's Crossing has no control over any 'block' type signals at all (unless things have been greatly altered). For some reason I'm finding ROTP totally inaccessible beyond the front page! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 It is noted as TCB but to be timed as AB. I guess it doesn't matter much at present, as the single line dictates the frequency, but the doubling may trigger a review of timing rules on the rest of the route. The RoTP front page took a while to load last night. It seems to be several megabytes, much bigger than the regional documents holding the actual information, despite being no more than a simple menu as far as I can tell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tomparryharry Posted April 7, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 7, 2011 You mean this one? Thats the one! haven't seen that for years! Thank you for posting it, that must be about 35 years old now! Regards, Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bricky89 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Thats the one! haven't seen that for years! Thank you for posting it, that must be about 35 years old now! Regards, Ian No problems. I believe there was a series of them issued internally among the railways, I also have another one in similar vein, As luck would happen I only found it in the loft last weekend. I don't know how old it is, Although I know it dates from when my grandad was a signalling instructor at Webb House Crewe - again dates I cannot remember. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 No problems. I believe there was a series of them issued internally among the railways, I also have another one in similar vein, As luck would happen I only found it in the loft last weekend. I don't know how old it is, Although I know it dates from when my grandad was a signalling instructor at Webb House Crewe - again dates I cannot remember. Paul Ward was the cartoonist for Railnews, the BR paper, for some years. He certainly seemed to know his railways, and had a good eye for detail. I also remember seeing a signalling based cartoon at Webb House, in 1978 or 1982 was it a Heath Robinson? 'How they train the Young Signalmen', or similar? cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bricky89 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Ward was the cartoonist for Railnews, the BR paper, for some years. He certainly seemed to know his railways, and had a good eye for detail. I also remember seeing a signalling based cartoon at Webb House, in 1978 or 1982 was it a Heath Robinson? 'How they train the Young Signalmen', or similar? cheers I'm not aware of that one, the other I have is a group of S&T (i'm guessing) trying to repair computer with a rather dashing lady holding a letter, got the quote "Well let's see if it works if you take of your knickers!" on the bottom. Sadly my grandad is not around now to ask on the one you mention - on consulting my dad we think he was at Crewe from about 83-87. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Another brilliant cartoon, in a similar vein, was a Signalman, having experienced a complete failure of his Panel, telling a Driver over the phone 'I don't know what's wrong, my Panel's lit up like a Christmas tree', which was exactly the shape formed by his Panel indications ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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