Xerces Fobe2

I know why I did the typo, a pair of subliminal messages entered my brain! XF

Due to the stringent H&S regulations there is a lot of bus substution for a myriad of reasons. There often appears to be very little appetite for a restricted rail service as in days gone bye. The big issue is the fragmentation even First Great Western and First Beelee/Berkshire run as totally separate entities with none of the advantages of one company providing the service! No one can fault H&S considerations however some of the operations of some of the replacement buses leave a lot to be desired. I was at High Wycombe Station a few years ago when a replacement coach moved quite a dustance with one on the lower luggage compartment doors open which nearly hit me and and few others. So why are not interlocks to stop bus moving and when you have interlocks throughout on passenger trains? It would be nice to see the railway working in a level playing field. XF

Charlie is usually on the ball but a very busy man I am sure a quick call to him ill help Good Luck

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!

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

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

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

Oh dear Network Fail are doing signals again!

How about a charging section of OHLE at the branch termini?

I remember one Merrymaker where we left Slough and and Reading there was an issue with the Class 47 heading out train within 10 minutes the our loco was replaced with the Class 47 which was the Reading station pilot and we were off on our way. When similar issues occur today with failures, the whole service grinds to a halt on many occasions - ah progress

It could be that issues with the rail services are having effect of more likely more people working from home. If like me your are in IT it quite often does not matter where you are; not great for team building though!

The moving of control boxs issue has occurred time and time again at Slough, Maidenhead and Hayes. As I stated earlier on this thread that some of people do not have skills to do to do the job. If proper change management was in place together with a backout plan in case of issues and when problems occured they could be resolved in a much shorter timescale. Three consecutive days for one issue would not be tolerated in a purely private company as heavy penalties or cancellation of the contract would be order of the day!

I have some drawings unfortunately the card kit is a not long enough as I recently checked it out. Terry Tew (Earls Court) and I are looking at ways to potential make an Oerlikon model this very earlier stages however the more people that are interested the greater chance that the project might get rolling. I will send you some outline drawings over the next couple of days Nigel

The GWML in the Thames Valley demand has grown for numerous reasons the M4 being congested, the congestion charge and the cost of parking on London add to that the increase in population which is well chronicled away from this Forum. When the first generation and loco hauled trains were replaced there were less overall coaches however the Turbos were faster on acceleration, the coaches longer and there was arguably more standing space. FGW is using HST's on the Oxford service and has added more seats however they have been unable to keep up with demand and remember Mark Hopwood was grabbing what DEMU he could such as the prototype Cl;ass 150's however the cupboard is bare at the moment until the EMU's come on stream which is still a few years away. A lot is being done to address the issues however it has been a long wait and there is a lot a catching up to do lets just hope the money does not run out again! Network Rail whilst being better than Railtrack (not difficult) is still nowhere near the halcyon days of the BRB and the West Coast electrification which was a well executed project. Underpinning a lot of the issues is the lack of school leavers going in technical jobs and therefore knowledge is being lost and staff are having to learn the skills they require from scratch and mistakes will happen and we have seen on repeatedly on the GWML

Having worked ay many well known large companies I can say that most were excellent at sorting issues out and communicating with their customers however I can think of one exception that ended up with a slot on the BBC Watchdog programme many years ago! I recently worked for a very well known Telco and still use their services and certainly are very dog in friendly loyal way however to counter that I have been are customer sun coloured Telco whose poor service continues to fill lots of webspace on daily basis!

Simon what not look it from customers/passengers/victims! perspective? Firstly I have no issue with FGW and made clear in my post as they did the best they can in circumstances beyond their control! Network Rail have been somewhat mute about the situation and left FGW and Heathrow Express face it out to their customers' The problems with signalling occur most weeks over the last few months and problems started last Saturday and now appear to have been resolved having just looked at the FGW website. Network Rail is not a fully commercial company and is funded by the taxpayer and passenger and therefore is not subject to the real commercial world, which would not tolerate this sort service and you we would replaced by another supplier that could;d do the job by now! When in the real World and you plan any project you allow for incidents problems have disaster recovery plans which include communication plans to all your Stakeholders to ensure you have process to manage situations as when they occur. Network Rail appears not have this in place with the GWML Electrification Project which is also running late. As your career progress Simon you may well find that you will work in a fully commercial organisation and experience at first hand how major issues are managed and how the end user/customer is King. How annoyed would you feel if your mobile phone did not 5 days across a wide geographical area and this would be a very rare occurrence. So please feel free to have a pop at me but also at any team meetings that you may attend at Network Rail please speak out and try and make a difference!

Acton! Acton! Acton! Over the last 3 days Acton appears to have become mini disaster zone in railway terms with two separate issues have occurred with signalling one at Acton Town impacting the Piccadilly and District line and the more serve one on the other at Acton Mainline on the GWML which has resulted in only the 2 fast lines being available for use causing massive chaos and delays . The problem for travellers is compounded with the Global run radio stations LBC, Magic etc getting and still getting the station mixed up with Acton Town being used in travel bulletins relating to the GWML service and the confusion compounded when the Heathrow Connect and Express services and the Underground service being mentioned in the same sentence! This issue is the latest in the almost continual problems with signalling during the GWML electrification works and followed on from the problems over last weekend. First Great Western services have been a nightmare with the Greenford service suspended and the suburban services on Monday running in what can only be described as an adhoc manner as FGW grapple with issues beyond their control. I travelled to London on Monday with at least 50% of the suburban services cancelled or run with short formations, gross overcrowding and calling at all stations. The FGW staff at Paddington was very helpful but having to split a four car Turbo into 2 services was all they could do between 15:15 and 16:10 in order to provide a service fast to Reading and then a stopper to Radley (Oxford stopper! FGW World!) So I spent 4.5 travelling between Maidenhead and Paddington and return however for once I do have gripe with FGW as they did their best. Looking at the bigger picture at it appears that something is going very wrong with the GWML Electrification project. Why is work being carried from Oxford to Hayes with catenary posts erected west of Reading with none as yet south Sonning Cutting? Surely focusing effort on this section would have more resources in one area to manage issues more effectively and then enable services between Reading and Paddington to at least partially run by electric traction using a handful of Class 319”s which would add some relief to grossly overcrowded suburban services. If the current situation is not improved I can potentially see this whole project put on hold and whilst review is carried as to what needs to be done. The Radio Stations also need to get their act together and provider correct information too. If I had been travelling to Heathrow on Monday I would totally if I was a visitor as their reports had effectively merged al Heathrow service into one and run via Action Town!

Many found memories of trips from Slough to Leeds , Manchester and Sheffield to name a few, My Sheffield trip was the first where at the age of 13 without ever being to Sheffield before I went by bus to Tinsley Depot and it was well with . Often on on the trip remembering reversing and running wrong line because of engineering works rather than busitutions and line closures which experience these days but the railways were run by railwayman and the over zealous H&E regulations. On route passing depots like Bescot, Westhouses and the like the joy of seeing lots diesels in green and blue livery. Great days that can never be repeated!

Addison Road is a amazing and thew Oerlikon looks fantastic. XF

Class 313 034 ran as a 2 car EMU in the late 1980's on the Croxley Green branch. The centre trailer pantograph car was used in the Class 316/457 3 phase test unit along with former Class 210 cars

A 2 car 313 for Croxley WRD maybe!

MTK & Model Shop 33 Stoke Road Slough - Colin Massingham's lair in the 1970's - Talc and metal filings everywhere! Crownline in Maidenhead at 2 locations in the 1980's Dave King with Colin Massingham too!

Dave. You have an impressive and ever increasing order book for new models from various sources which and it is truly amazing what you have achieved so far. My question is how are you going to avoid the supply issues that have plagued Hornby and other manufactures over the last few years? Wishing you every success for the future Nigel

Confusion! Title on thread Class 115 on Kernow website pictures off Class 116 as well as drawings of a Class 117. The 116 and 117 are very similar apart from the cab ends however a Class 115 is very different ! Some clarification would be appreciated Great news though and I wish Davy all the best with this I just hope there are enough hours in the day for him to do all these models. I think we are seeing a major c change in model railway manufacturing where the monoliths of those a crumbling and the tech savy pioneers of the future are emerging! XF

At Warley this weekend tell everyone that you have a Hornby R3115 Exeter a R3285TTS Railroad A4 Gadwall and R3103 A4 Bittern with double tender and you purchased them all from the Hornby website shop!