Great Western Coffee Shop

FGW website states:-
Due to safety checks being made, the lines between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway are closed. This is affecting trains that operate from London Paddington to Exeter St Davids, Plymouth & Penzance. These may be subject to alteration and limited services may be diverted via alternative routes.
12.56 Plymouth to Paddington first train to be diverted

My wife is on her way to Taunton from Redruth. Due to arrive at Taunton 1630. She has text me as they have announced line should reopen about 3pm so may delay her train.

Line re-opened 14.30 approx.! Must have been a minor landslip!

A member of the public reported 'rails suspended in the air' to the police, apparently from a passing car on the adjacent M5, but there were no reports from any trains of problems in the area concerned.

Light engine was taken through the section and permanent way staff carried out a walking inspection. Supposition is that the member of the public saw scrap rail next to the tracks, a bowed 120ft piece of rail in the cess.

It would appear that the member of the public had good intentions but was mistaken in what they saw.

Permanent way staff in the area have had a busy afternoon of it. There's also been a track circuit failure at Cogload Junction near Taunton and a points failure at Exmouth Junction in Exeter.

My wife's train was about 16 late into Taunton. It stopped additionally at Totnes, which seemed to lost it an extra 7 minutes. Does stopping at Totnes really take that long? It was already 6 late. It lost another couple of minutes between Newton Abbot and Tiverton.

If you add up the deceleration time down Rattery Bank for the 25mph switch to Totnes Up Platform Loop, the station dwell time, then the acceleration time to get up Dainton bank instead of hitting it full on, then stopping at Totnes can cause a significant delay.

Stopping at Totnes (for HSTs) used to be timed at 5 minutes. Assume it is still the same.

Hmm. It seems to me that it would be a good idea for Network Rail to collect up all of the disused / unused rail that is lying about, out on the infrastructure, simply to avoid such well-intentioned but erroneous reports - and to prevent the stuff from being nicked!  ::)

Trouble is its more expensive to pick up against the eventual scrap value hence.......... ::)

Sometimes I get really annoyed with NR.  When they took over the infrastructure in the West they took over a railway that had a lot of money spent on it over the previous 2 to 3 years (2000 to 2002) in recovering lineside scrap (including rail).  There used to be a Railtrack standard that mandated that only minimal spare rail was supposed to be left lineside.  I can show you photographs from 2002 where the lineside is the tidiest I have ever seen it since early BR days, but now all that investment and time has been wasted so the Tiverton incident has been brought on NR by itself..........

Cut up track has been left for so long on the Severn Beach Line just north of Narroways Junction that trees (that's trees, not bushes) have grown through it. Bags and bags of unused ballast lost in the undergrowth as well.

Hmm. I've just 'liked' my colleague's post above - but actually, I don't like the situation he describes, at all. Come on, Network Rail: sort it out!  >:(

I also thought there had been a purge for Network Rail to remove old clutter such as rails from linesides to prevent yobos putting potential obstructions such as rails across the track.

There is enough spare rail in both the Up and Down Cess to make Exeter to Taunton a 4 track railway........ :P ::)