St Erth points failure

[whole diary]

[GBM]

Noticed over the last few days there is no connection for the St Ives branch from Penzance.
Journey Check keeps saying points failure.
Does this mean the branch unit is being refuelled at St Erth, and train crews taxi to/from Penzance at the end of/start of their shift?

[bobm]

Not sure of the arrangements but the unit is certainly stranded on the branch, in the same way the Windsor & Eton branch unit has been operating for the last few weeks.

[LiskeardRich]

The short branch means a unit can work about a week without refuelling from a full tank,

[GBM]

It takes up to a week to fix a set of points? Surely not.
A few hours overnight should sort it, especially as we are talking about only a few overnight traffic movements there.

[bobm]

Depends what the fault is.  The ones affecting the Windsor branch could not be repaired and are having to be replaced.  It seems they are not a standard design and it takes up to three months to manufacture bespoke ones.  In the meantime a similar set have been found in Scotland and are being modified to effect a temporary repair later this month.

[martyjon]

Depends what the fault is.  The ones affecting the Windsor branch could not be repaired and are having to be replaced.  It seems they are not a standard design and it takes up to three months to manufacture bespoke ones.  In the meantime a similar set have been found in Scotland and are being modified to effect a temporary repair later this month.

Reminds me of a presentation I attended a few years ago when an S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) Engineer told the audience that there were over 30 types of points motor in use on Britains' Railway System.

[phile]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter have told a punter this morning that it may take 8 weeks to rectify the problem.   Will be interesting to see what happens with the units.   Sounds like part to be manufactured specially.

[TaplowGreen]

Months to repair a bit of kit on what must be that branches busiest time of the year. Another great advert for the railway & more cars on the road as a result 

[IndustryInsider]

Months to repair a bit of kit on what must be that branches busiest time of the year. Another great advert for the railway & more cars on the road as a result 

Unless I'm missing something, it's hardy causing massive disruption to the service? 

Four trains affected per day, largely outside of tourist travel times:

06:58 Penzance to St. Ives, starts at St. Erth (passengers from Penzance travel 11 minutes earlier and take the 06:47 instead, and change at St. Erth)
08:10 St. Ives to Penzance, terminates at St. Erth (passengers for Penzance change at St. Erth and take the 09:01 instead if no replacement road transport offered).
08:44 Penzance to St. Ives, starts at St. Erth (passengers from Penzance travel 7 minutes earlier and take the 08:37 instead, and change at St. Erth)
22:31 St. Ives to Penzance, terminates at St. Erth (if there is anyone for Penzance on board then quite a wait until 00:31, unless road transport offered).

All other trains running normally.

[grahame]

Months to repair a bit of kit on what must be that branches busiest time of the year. Another great advert for the railway & more cars on the road as a result 

Unless I'm missing something, it's hardy causing massive disruption to the service? 

Four trains affected per day, largely outside of tourist travel times: [snip]

It may have been a Saturday or Sunday thing ... I thought I saw an extra stop at St Erth added to a mainline train at one point (and, curious, doesn't everything call there anyway!)

Side topic
... Long time to fix Slough
... Long time to fix St Erth
... Wasn't there an issue at Wokingham that wasn't quick

Don't remember these long closures / problems until quite recently.   Has the stock of spares been run down to the extent that there aren't any, or has the rail industry moved to "every part bespoke" which causes an issue whenever one breaks?

[phile]

The item has now disappeared from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journey Check, Line Updates.    I'm going to Tweet GWR.   

[GBM]

Still showing on the map & journeycheck still saying no access (well, sort of!)

[grahame]

It may have been a Saturday or Sunday thing ... I thought I saw an extra stop at St Erth added to a mainline train at one point (and, curious, doesn't everything call there anyway!)

Gotcha!   Sensible extra call

18:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 23:13
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 23:13 will call additionally at St Erth.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

sorts out

22:31 St. Ives to Penzance, terminates at St. Erth (if there is anyone for Penzance on board then quite a wait until 00:31, unless road transport offered).

[Red Squirrel]

Months to repair a bit of kit on what must be that branches busiest time of the year. Another great advert for the railway & more cars on the road as a result 

It's not just NR^» (Network Rail - home page). The GWSR have a bent set of points at Broadway after someone apparently drove a very heavy kettle through them in the wrong direction. They plan to install plain track and send the broken bits away for specialist repair, which suggests a similar timescale; meanwhile everything going into Broadway has to be topped and tailed...