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Journey by Journey / London to Reading / Re: Stinking Southall
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on: June 28, 2018, 11:09:17
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That site used to be part of a massive Coal Gas works site whereby coal from S.Wales was bought down and distilled in huge retorts. My Dad remembers it working in the 70's before the likes of North Sea gas rendered it uneconomic. I expect that 100 years worth of tar, creosote and naptha, that has been disturbed, is the stink that you can smell!  |
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9
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Journey by Journey / London to Swindon and Bristol / Re: Class 387 coming to Thames Valley - ongoing discussion
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on: June 01, 2017, 14:56:10
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I just missed the 07.33 MAI▸ to PAD» and so was on the 07.42 this morning, on the same EMU▸ . I thought the seats were quite hard and upright, perhaps with a few more bums on seats they may soften....  . Wouldn't like to come in from Didcot on one though, my arms got numb on the hand-rests. Acceleration and braking were good, despite having to crawl along following a stopper. Trouble with the build quality though, one of the panels on the toilet was oscillating really badly and certainly didn't contribute to the passenger experience, making a heck of a noise for a new vehicle. How something like this left the works is puzzling, perhaps they weren't tested on the gwml and somewhere rather smoother..  W.E |
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Journey by Journey / London to Swindon and Bristol / Re: Class 387 coming to Thames Valley - ongoing discussion
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on: March 22, 2017, 09:37:25
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I thought it'd be useful to provide a summary of the trains due to be formed by Class 387s coming from further afield than Hayes & Harlington from 22nd May onwards:
Services towards London Paddington:
2P14, 06:56 Maidenhead to Paddington, calling Taplow (06:59), Burnham (07:02), Slough (07:07), Langley (07:11), Iver (07:14), West Drayton (07:18), Hayes & Harlington (07:23), Southall (07:27), Ealing Broadway (07:33) and London Paddington (07:46).
1P93, 07:33 Maidenhead to Paddington, non-stop to London Paddington (08:04).
1P94, 07:42 Maidenhead to Paddington, calling Taplow (07:45), Slough (07:51) and London Paddington (08:21).
2P25, 08:29 Slough to Paddington, calling Langley (08:32), West Drayton (08:39), Hayes & Harlington (08:43), Southall (08:47), Ealing Broadway (08:53) and London Paddington (09:04).
1P97, 08:42 Maidenhead to Paddington, calling Taplow (08:46), Slough (08:51), Southall (09:01) and London Paddington (09:22).
2P32, 09:07 Maidenhead to Paddington, calling Slough (09:14), West Drayton (09:21), Hayes & Harlington (09:28), Southall (09:32), Ealing Broadway (09:38) and London Paddington (09:49).
1P98, 09:43 Slough to Paddington, non-stop to London Paddington (10:13).
2P73, 18:18 Maidenhead to Paddington, calling Slough (18:25), Langley (18:29), Iver (18:32), West Drayton (18:37), Hayes & Harlington (18:41), Ealing Broadway (18:48) and London Paddington (18:59).
Services from London Paddington:
2S80, 09:09 Paddington to Slough, non-stop to Slough (09:34).
1N40, 16:09 Paddington to Maidenhead, calling Slough (16:34) and Maidenhead (16:42).
1N42, 16:42 Paddington to Maidenhead, non-stop to Maidenhead (17:13).
2D55, 17:14 Paddington to Maidenhead, calling Ealing Broadway (17:23), Hayes & Harlington (17:29), West Drayton (17:34), Langley (17:41), Slough (17:46), Burnham (17:51), and Maidenhead (18:05).
1N44, 17:42 Paddington to Maidenhead, calling Slough (18:04), and Maidenhead (18:13).
1N52, 18:42 Paddington to Maidenhead, calling Slough (19:04), and Maidenhead (19:14).
1N62, 19:36 Paddington to Maidenhead, non-stop to Maidenhead (20:00).
A fairly mixed bag of calling patterns and timings, three calling at Taplow in the up direction but none in the down for example. Some are trains that run now, and some are new or amended from the current timetable, and there's quite a lot of empty stock movements to get the stock in position which will be a test of the track capacity.
All services are formed by three different diagrams (all hopefully 8-car), though one of the evening ones swaps about with one of the Paddington-Hayes EMU▸ diagrams, so that's a total of five EMU diagrams required per day for all of the 387 diagrams.
Good news is that it looks like another, new , fast train to and from Maidenhead in the Peaks.  Bad news is that it takes just as long as an old smoky diesel... Q: Can't they put the eleccy's on the mains? A: Probably no pathways  |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture Overseas / Re: New Zealand Delectrification
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on: January 27, 2017, 15:21:13
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Talking to some drivers on the route they are not going to be too happy they love the Brush EF B0-Bo-Bo elctrics describng them as Rolls Royces. They hate the Chinese DL Co Co diesels
Interesting point. Presume the Brush (=English) are older than the Chinese ones? Therefore more worn in?! Does the BoBoBo arrangement give better ride/ grip than a Co Co? W.E |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2017
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on: January 11, 2017, 16:37:37
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Waterloo is 4 lines when you get out past Clapham Junction and Paddington is likewise 4 lines when you get beyond Old Oak Junction. In the days that there were more than 5 trains a week from Paddington to and beyond Ruislip (services to places like Pwhelli and Birkenhead) it would have 'felt' much more like the Waterloo arrangement. And I'm pretty sure that the Hot and Cold line use to be the Hammersmith Branch of the old GWR▸ , with perhaps another 2 tracks?
I have an old map somewhere of the PAD» arrangement, I think it mentions up and down city lines, (the electric service (when connected to BR▸ )) and up and down carriage lines, when empty stock had to be taken out to OOC▸ to be cleaned etc. It looked much more complicated than todays layout. |
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Journey by Journey / London to Reading / Re: Names of the lines
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on: January 11, 2017, 16:19:53
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From another thread ... slow lines at Acton Main Line, Network Rail engineers have had to close the Reading-bound slow line to effect a repair.
They should know better W.E As far as the passenger is concerned, what is the right name? Should we still be using "main" and "relief" - they're hardly relief lines any more to me, as that term indicates they're the lines that will be used for the same trains as are running on the other ("main") lines but when those main lines don't have the capacity / availability. So - what do you think should the lines be called? Historic, or reflecting current or future use? The O.P was very firmly tongue in cheek..... |
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Journey by Journey / London to Reading / Re: Names of the lines
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on: January 11, 2017, 16:18:17
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I have been told that the reason they are called Main and Relief by the original GWR▸ was that the line speeds on the Reliefs were higher than other companies Slow line speeds.
It's now 90 most of the way from Padd to Didcot on the Reliefs.
It would be wrong to call the Relief lines Crossrail or Lizze lines as it might give TFL▸ ideas above their station and think they've got exclusive use of them at expense of GWR and Rail friieght operators. To my mind giving exclusive use of 2 lines to one operator is very bad practice,
Besides which Crossrail are geared up to use the Main lines eg platform extension on the Main lines at West Drayton and Hayes.
Plus when necessary even being able, with he recent realignment and changes to signalling, terminate and turnround a train on the Up Main (Platform 2) at Maidenhead. Similarly GWR and Railfreight will need to use the Relief lines on occasions.
So will go with Bignosemac and vote Main and Relief.
Or could it be when originally built, it was a two line railway, hence 'Main', and when doubled up (in the 1890' ish , about broad gauge abolition time ??) the doubled lines were the 'Relief'. If you stand under the sounding arch at Maidenhead, the original bridge is seen which is much wider than the doubling extension part. W.E |
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