Great Western Coffee Shop

Details of services operating over Easter when work takes place in the Bristol Temple Meads area:
https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/bristol2018

Also first two Sundays in January when buses replace trains between Bristol and Bath.

What work is being carried out?

Bristol Area resignalling - Stage 3 Bristol station area re-control to TVSC.

Bristol Area resignalling - Stage 3 Bristol station area re-control to TVSC.
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All the way down to Brizzle?  That's a long way for Swindon (?).  Is that as far as is planned, or are they empire building and going 'way down West'?
Curious as to how many centres are planned, or just the TVSC for the whole network.

TVSC is at Didcot (located behind the Foxhall car park).

Someone more knowledgeable than me will correct me, but I think that TVSC is ultimately intended to cover from Paddington to the Severn Tunnel (English side) and down to Exeter, if not beyond. The South Wales Signalling Centre will cover west of the Severn Tunnel and I'm not sure what's planned for Devon and Cornwall.

The National plan is for ROC's (Regional Operation Centres) these have not only signallers and will include ECR (the ECR is located away from signallers and Ops staff) , also both TOC and NR operations teams  :o co located  :o

Didcot was not one of the original ROC it has in effect grown into almost a ROC

Probably still arm signals and oil lamps

You forget the runner with the red flag  :D

Many a true word said in jest.......  Devon and Cornwall has been put back into the long grass (CP6 and beyond).  The only work going on is described in a separate thread here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17426.0

Exeter panel is likely to be one of the last but there are rumours that TVSC is full and that Exeter panel will stay as a mini-ROC and will control all of Devon and Cornwall and possibly a large part of Somerset.

TVSC has morphed into a pseudo ROC, I can understand why there are rumors its full, it was only designed for the Thames Valley to allow for Reading Station redevelopment and Crossrail.   There are rumours that even TBROC (Three Bridges ROC) will need replacing in CP 7/8 due to capacity ::)

The trend recently is to move ROC's into "Campuses"   Basingstoke and York are examples of Campus these contain all the ROC functions plus most of the infrastructure management, train planning etc as well as training facilities for both NR and TOC.


Back to Bristol ................... I don't think much has been done in the way of track layout and signalling since the move away from engine and coaches type trains to multiple unit type so is long over due 

The track layout is not changing and the number of shunting movements stays as per the original 1970s layout.  Remember its a recontrol not a resignalling....... :P

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/tvscpad.jpg)

This was TVSC in May 2014.  The Paddington workstation is to the right.  At that stage the long term plan was the network would all be controlled from here with the workstations being arranged in a large horseshoe with the Penzance workstation being adjacent to the Paddington one.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/tvscpad2.jpg)

Oxford area goes into the TVSC in July as well.  There was once an idea to extend it by building another floor on stilts over the existing building.

Surely they can save a lot of space by just giving each signaller an iPad and let them control the trains from home?   :D

...and then as the iPad batteries get older the trains will all run slower...