Siggie in the east

It's not changed since its last few days doing RHTTs on the GE out of Stowmarket. It passed Colchester PSB one day with so much "weathering" on it, we couldn't tell what the livery was. Happy new year! Thanks

As far as I know, 3cars are for sudbury, felixstowe and sheringham services. 4car for yarmouth, lowestoft, cambridge- ipswich,Peterborough, esk, nor-stanstead and 2x4car for the lowestoft-liv st. Thanks

Quite possibly for the early days as tankers can access both the sudbury dock and platform 1 at ipswich. After that, a static unit of some sort may well be installed at colchester. Ipswich, well if GA get their way, when Freighliner move out of the carriage sidings/table road over to the upper yard, the facilities maybe taken over by GA for their units and and extra platform or 2 will go in on the downside. Thanks

Fuelling will be done at Crown Point (obviously) colchester platform 6/ sudbury dock (once risk assessments and training have been done) and Ipswich platform 1 (again pending risk assessment, training and once a hole is cut in the fence ). Thanks

Yep I can help! 7day T3 Possession at Colchester replacing 4 pairs of points at the London end of the station. It's on until 2nd January, I think, but I'm on Colchester W/s in the morning so can update that if people would like me to. Thanks

May also have been the unit that found the land slip between westerfield and woodbridge as quite a bit of mud was in the 4ft and cess. Thanks

I'm the same. When the 755/3 was testing on the sudbury a few nights back I got a photo of it from the psb and all I could think was, I need to add another carriage or my OCD is going to kick off!

5Q46 Ips-Peterboro 755407 test trip to Posh and back, currently 59 late.

Not sure of the set number but 1 is being stored on the MNR, they posted a video of it on the FB page being delivered by 37600 about a month ago

I agree. I have no idea which way the sand "spout" faces but maybe the could just turn it to face the other way If that is the way to fix this, and without starting another massive row online, I wonder who is at fault for the way it has been made? Was the spec sent to Stadler from GA with the sanders required to apply to the non-driving wheel or did Stadler build them all with them in the wrong place? Interesting to see what happens. Thanks

Last bit of info from me for now. As a compromise from NR, over the weekend, treadles are being fitted to crossings on the sheringham/cromer branches to help with train detection so that services to Sheringham can begin to run again safely and reliably. This is NOT an admission of guilt on NRs part but a way of compromise and working together with GA to get the passengers the train service they deserve Thanks

News regarding the incident at the crossing on the cromer branch. S&T have investigated the issue and have found that it could be down to the stadlers. They have found that the location of the TCAs under the trains are too close to where the units sanders are and when the driver dispenses the sand, it comes out and interrupts the contact between the TCAs and the wheels, causing an interruption in the signal between the train and the track. That, coupled with leaf fall contamination and drivers using the sanders alot to keep traction has resulted in the issue we have seen with the train "dissappearing". Hope this makes sense. Thanks Edit- have heard it from a manager now that the Sanders are located in the wrong position. They are feeding the non- driving wheels when they should be feeding the driving wheels. The TCAs are linked with the non-driving wheels so we may have an answer to why it's not communicating with the infrastructure.

Breaking news, but still to be 100% confirmed, 2S23 disappeared on its return journey to Norwich from Cromer earlier. Its next journey as 2J86 has been cancelled pending a unit examination.

As I watch a 156 leave colchester yard it appears that it is forming 2E70 to Peterborough!! So much for this major signalling disruption if a GA train is running to the city. What might be more plausible is that there are enough units, old and new, now circulating that an old one is spare to run the 2Exx service today.

The good ol' days

As Promised, 755332 in Plt3 colchester. Note, no pan up even though these are cutting edge, transformative trains with wifi and usb chargers which are better for the environment. Thanks

Also, the problem with the site was that it's on a flood plain. Every time the developers tested it for pilings to support the structures that would've gone in, they sunk into the ground or flooded. That also meant that when P-way would have gone in to lay the tracks, their trackbeds would have flooded once they dug down to lay the sub-bed and membrane, let alone anything else. Thats before they would've laid the first course of ballast, the sleepers, rails and final layers of ballast. Typically, its dug down around 4-5 foot, then you lay all those layers until you have a finished trackbed.

Back to a normal post for once as this has descended into chaos on here since the introduction of the GA fanboy. 5Q45 755332, currently en route to colchester, will be the first 755 to venture onto the sudbury branch tonight for test purposes. Currently running 45mins late due to GA staff incompetence at Crown "Faulty Towers" Point. Also, not running on OHL. Will post a photo when it gets to us. Thanks

Right. This is confirmed info regarding the 755s and their OHL compatability as we, the signaller, need to know this so that we dont have another elmswell incident. Half of the fleet are currently banned from using their pans and half are permitted to use them. They are ONLY using them on routes that are electric from start to finish. So they are NOT, for example running on OHL from Ipswich to stowmarket, dropping the pan and then turning left at haughley, or running on OHL from platform 1 at ipswich to East Suffolk Jn and dropping on the move. That's horsecr*p. The only exception to this is the nor-stanstead which is on diesel from Norwich to cambridge and then OHL from there to the airport. The reason for this is that the OHL cannot support the draw of power from all the trains plus the 755 so its banned until cambridge. This has led to the trains being cancelled at times due to lack of fuel or being swapped with another unit at norwich and being delayed due to the swap. Now you can argue all you darn well like on this post but I know FIRST hand that it's TRUE because I have had to deal with it this week!

The doubling of the line was done I believe around 97/98 as I remember watching it when mum drove me to/from school in Risborough when we lived in Thame. I didnt realise it was now BiDi signalling as well. Maybe I need to take a trip down there next time I visit my Dad, or see what google maps can show me! Cheers Jim

Yeah transformational.... one transformed elmswell overbridge with its pan and one nearly transformed a Ford focus into something else. These trains have been nothing but a headache and stress for us. They haven't been tested properly enough and because something has fallen apart with the cascading of stock/arrival of stock/storage of stock it's all been rushed into service far too soon because GA have had no choice. They haven't done the necessary mileage and I know this because we have been told they havent. Also, as I forgot to mention earlier, there IS NOT a signalling issue on the Peterborough route. The reason there arent any services is because there isnt enough stock to cover all the other routes and the 755s havent had enough testing over that route to deem they fit for purpose. Since the crossing issue, they've been banned from running along there until something is resolved. On top of that, they're too long to serve Manea and Whittlesea anyway as the units cant isolate doors independently still, which is backed up by the fact that the units being used on the felixstowe are the same ones each day and have had specific doors locked out of use.

That's the comment of the week! I couldn't agree more. Obviously mr Rail Way here is Jamie Burles in disguise or his fan boy as he is believing the Q&A pages of a company who are obviously going to deny/defend their rolling stock because the reality of the truth is going to cost them a FORTUNE to sort out. Yes the truth will out eventually but given that there are people who signal trains (me included), work on the infrastructure(I have previously) also drive the trains in this region, work for S&T AND all are exposed to the facts of what goes on on a day to day basis, you seem to think that we are nothing but theorists and rumour spreading novices! I cant seem to understand why you think that the press office at GA, who are TOLD what to publish, are more believable than people that are working on the front line on a day to day basis.

Youre correct there. The signalling system is an american system fitted back in 2000 according to the S&T tech who looks after Colchester PSB. It's a complicated system I have to admit but works completely differently to say the TCB system used in the Up/Down main to London. The system on the Brundall and Lowestoft workstations is another different system that I believe is working g with axel counters just like the ESK. I'll check that when I get in later as the technicians are working on it at the moment from our end.

It was a suicidal female at a footbridge near TB3. Police negotiators had to attend the incident, hence why it went on fir so long. Seemed she was very determined.

I moved out of Risborough back in 2001 and the stations there and at Kimble haven't changed much if at all. Always good to see photos of places around the chiltern line, many thanks Jim.