Service meltdown westbound tonight

[whole diary]

[willc]

17:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 20:34
This train has been delayed and is now 52 minutes late from Oxford.This is due to a train fault.
Last Updated: 05/11/2010 19:11

I was on this one - regret to say the conductor made no attempt at an apology or explanation for the delay anywhere between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh, nor offered any updates on progress of the train, estimates of when it might reach Worcester or points further west, indeed nothing other than announcing what coaches to use to get off at each station. Customer care? I don't think so. Though I can think of a number of Worcester and Bristol conductors who would have done all of those things mentioned, and have done in similar situations in the past.

17:50 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 20:23
This train has been delayed and is now 36 minutes late.This train has been revised.It will call additionally at: Hanborough and Honeybourne.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.
Last Updated: 05/11/2010 18:32

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.
Last Updated: 05/11/2010 18:14

That should be fun, presume the Swindon stop was to turf out passengers for the Cotswolds. A coach home along the A361 via Burford, what fun!

[Fish]

Unfortunately services were pretty poor to most destinations last night.  The 1822 was diverted because it was right behind the 1750 (which was running on the time of the 1822) and it was likely to be further delayed along the single line up the Cotswolds.  It left Reading lightly loaded, but was a better prospect for Worcester and Hereford passengers than travelling on the stopping service through the Cotswolds.
Cross Country services were very badly delayed all day, the turbos were suffering from poor rail conditions and had to brake more gently (causing  delays) and the Gatwick service was affected by the incident near Guildford where a SWT^▸ (South West Trains) train was hit by a lorry. 
There were a couple of train failures around the patch and all in all a very bad evening.

[willc]

A bad evening indeed - and that's why I was less than impressed by the conductor's efforts at a time of the week when many of those on the trains are not regulars and would like to know what's going on and when they might get to their destination. Thanks to many years' experience, I knew all too well what was going on and roughly when I would get home!

[Don]

Something like 20% of this autumn's leaf fall, fell that day and in 50% has fallen in the last week.

With modern disc braked trains our railway can be really badly affected.  One wonders why Network Rail does not cut down more trees to mitigate against this and why train manufacturers don't fit some clasp brakes.  There is a precedent, I remember the old 4-wheel 26ton coal hoppers of the 1970s used on the merry-go-round trains - 2 wheels disc braked, & 2 wheels clasp braked. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Something like 20% of this autumn's leaf fall, fell that day and in 50% has fallen in the last week.

Agreed, Don: due to recent sharp frosts, after a hitherto mild autumn, almost all of the leaves on one tree in my front garden fell, over just two nights. That simple factor, applied on a far greater scale over the whole network, must cause horrendous problems for Network Rail.

One wonders why Network Rail does not cut down more trees to mitigate against this ...

Local opposition, sometimes:

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Residents protest over rail tree-felling

Workmen trying to cut trees down along a railway were stopped dead in their tracks.

The men were confronted by protestors who say the felling, in the Montpelier and St Werburghs areas of Bristol, is unnecessary and should stop.

Network Rail says the work must go on because it is the only way to cure an age-old problem - leaves on the line, which causes the trains to skid dangerously on the tracks.

On Wednesday morning, many protestors were willing to trespass on the railway lines to make their point, prompting the contractors to move further down the line.

One protestor said: "It's all that we have in the city and it's being taken out for no reason that I understand at all. My daughter and I walked up here yesterday and when we saw it, we were utterly horrified and devastated at what they had done."

Another added: "They are cutting trees down that are 30 or 40 ft down the bank and they're saying it's for safety, but trees don't fall uphill. I feel sad. I have watched these trees grow from saplings, these people may own the land by they are answerable to us all."

Despite the protests, a spokesman for Network Rail said the work would continue - so trains were not delayed and passenger safety was ensured.

[willc]

The odd thing is that British Rail seemed to give up on keeping vegetation in check just as more and more disc-braked stock began to appear, not as some seem to think, with the end of steam. Here's another of Martin Loader's early 1980s pictures of the Cotswold Line, in this case Hanborough, a view you couldn't take today due to trees http://www.hondawanderer.com/50007_Hanborough_1982.htm and compare this view of the western approach to Charlbury station taken by one of my colleagues in 2004 http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/pictures/oxfordshire_galleries/cotswoldline2009/view/gallery_105411.Cotswold_Line_redoubling/ with how it looks now, from a position slightly to the left on the road bridge, after the tree-felling campaign in 2008-9 http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/5110586674/

[stebbo]

And Friday evening on the Cotswold line (and generally out of Paddington) not clever. My daughter was due in to Evesham at 1950 but I ended up driving to Kingham and picking her up at about 2025.

Apparently there was a signal failure around Slough affecting up trains, yobs throwing stones at trains generally and, of course, leaves on the line.

As someone else says, there's a case for clasp brakes. And now for a bit of nostalgia whilst I spend a minute remembering the class 50s.....

[Tim]

Looking on the bright side.  If all the leaves fall at once, the season will be finished before long.

[stebbo]

And then it'll snow......

[SDS]

Don't forget the OHLE icing up and then failing!

Saying that I cant remember the last time the Overheads failed (i.e. actually snapped) on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line). Sure someone will remind me!

[Electric train]

Don't forget the OHLE icing up and then failing!

Saying that I cant remember the last time the Overheads failed (i.e. actually snapped) on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line). Sure someone will remind me!

Really there is an insufficient number of trains to cause the wear that weakens certain parts of the OHLE, also there is a dedicated team, all be it a small team, that look after the 12 route miles