Great Western Coffee Shop

Line problem in the Taplow area. Train services between Maidenhead and Slough are being disrupted due to signalling problems in the Taplow area.
Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 25 minutes can be expected. Only London-bound train services are affected by this problem.
Stopping services towards London Paddington are unable to call at Taplow and Burnham. Customers for Taplow and Burnham are advised to circulate via Slough. Customers at Taplow and Burnham wishing to travel towards London Paddington are advised to circulate via Maidenhead.
Message Received :05/11/2010 17:06Line problem between Southampton Central and Romsey. Train services are being disrupted due to poor rail conditions between Southampton Central and Romsey.
Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 20 minutes can be expected. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:54Line problem between Reading and Gatwick Airport. Train services are being disrupted due to an earlier broken down train between Reading and Gatwick Airport.
Short notice alterations and delays of up to 30 minutes can be expected.
Southern and South West Trains are accepting First Great Western tickets between Clapham Junction and Gatwick Airport.
Message Received :05/11/2010 17:56
3 Train Cancellations
17:04 Reading to Redhill due 18:32 This train has been cancelled.
This is due to an earlier broken down train. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:09
 18:03 Gatwick Airport to Reading due 19:25 This train has been cancelled.
This is due to an earlier broken down train. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:07
 18:43 Redhill to Reading due 20:21 This train has been cancelled.
This is due to an earlier broken down train. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:09

9 Other Train Service Updates
15:00 Plymouth to London Paddington due 18:21 This train has been revised.
It will call additionally at: Ivybridge.
This is due to congestion caused by earlier delays. Message Received :05/11/2010 14:32
 16:28 Swansea to London Paddington due 19:32 This train will be terminated at Cardiff Central.
It will no longer call at: Newport South Wales, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Didcot Parkway, Reading and London Paddington.
This is due to an earlier train fault. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:45
 17:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 20:34 This train has been delayed and is now 23 minutes late from London Paddington.
This is due to a train fault. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:52
 17:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 20:48 This train will be started from Fareham.
It will no longer call at: Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Fratton and Cosham.
This is due to signalling problems. Message Received :05/11/2010 16:40
 17:25 Cardiff Central to London Paddington due 19:32 An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 17:25 Cardiff Central to London Paddington due 19:32 run on 05/11/10. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:46
 17:34 Reading to Gatwick Airport due 19:00 This train has been revised.
It will no longer call at: Wokingham, Crowthorne, Sandhurst, Blackwater, Farnborough North, North Camp and Ash.
This is due to an earlier broken down train. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:50
 17:42 Reading to London Paddington due 18:37 This train has been revised.
It will no longer call at: Taplow and Burnham.
This is due to signalling problems. Message Received :05/11/2010 17:21
 17:50 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 20:23 This train is being delayed at London Paddington.
This train has been revised.
It will call additionally at: Hanborough and Honeybourne.
This is due to a delay on a previous journey. Message Received :05/11/2010 18:17
 18:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:31 This train has been revised.
It will call additionally at: Swindon.
It will no longer call at: Oxford, Hanborough, Charlbury, Kingham, Moreton-In-Marsh, Honeybourne, Evesham and Pershore.
This is due to a delay on a previous journey. Message Received :05/11/2010 18:14

Saw an S&T tech with his head buried in a Loc between Taplow and Maidenhead at about 16:30 this afternoon as I passed on my way home.  Only the UM seemed to be affected all up's were using the UR. 

Hmmm, there was a group of orange clothed men in the Taplow/Maidenhead area as early as 11:30, although maybe pure coincidence.

Points Failure somewhere,
Cat 1 Track Defect at Southall
Multiple TCF's
And poor railhead conditions.

Are those track circuit failures (TCFs) causally linked to the poor railhead conditions, i.e. can the layer of mulch and crud on the railhead become insulating so that the TCs don't work anymore? Or was it just bad luck this evening?

The TCFs and Poor Railhead conditions did happen at the same time.

The public were being told signal failures instead of TCFs.

Thought something was up last night when I was loading the car at about 17:00 slow HST on Up Relief. When I got to Slough everything late one of the Down fast, first stop Slough HSTs stopped on the Down Relief (platform 4) instead of down main. Presumably they used SDO?

Leaf problems can cause TCF also damp weather also cause a lot of problems shorting out pads between rail and sleeper and cable terms in Locs and joints; I wonder though if the Taplow area fault last night was related to the signaling problems earlier in the year in the same area.