Great Western Coffee Shop

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Slough

Owing to an obstruction on the line between London Paddington and Slough Reading bound main lines are blocked.

Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 mins or suspended between London Paddington and Greenford. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

Customer Advice:
A crane has collapsed near to the line at Ealing Broadway. The Greenford branch line has been suspended until further notice. London Underground and London buses including the 140 bus between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow Central Bus Station are accepting First Great Western tickets over reasonable routes. Ticket acceptance will remain in place until further notice.

Oh dear,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25433742 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25433742)

Crane on building site Longfield Avenue which is between Ealing Broadway and West Ealing

By a strange coincidence it was 40 years ago tomorrow (19th December 1973) that a train derailed at the crossover which used to be at Longfield Avenue.  I remember it well as the father of a school classmate was on-board the train and although injured, survived.

Thankfully today's incident was nowhere near as serious.

1007 Western Talisman, had spent the previous night at Old Oak Common depot and had had its batteries recharged. A door on the battery box had been left unlocked and fell open shortly into the journey. It hit the platform at Ealing Broadway, breaking the arms supporting it and allowing it to swing down and hit a point operating machine. The points moved under the locomotive, throwing it onto its side and derailing the coaches, which came to rest across the tracks.