Class 180s return to the Cotswolds

[whole diary]

[Andy W]

Two diagrams covered today.  The two that aren't appear to have a 2-Car Class 165s allocated to them throughout the day.  Not acceptable FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

The trouble is, II, that it is deemed acceptable by FGW. In the words of Tom Jones " It's not unusual"

[johoare]

Two diagrams covered today.  The two that aren't appear to have a 2-Car Class 165s allocated to them throughout the day.  Not acceptable FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

The trouble is, II, that it is deemed acceptable by FGW. In the words of Tom Jones " It's not unusual"

Does anyone here have a valid FGW reason for this happening?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Erm ... cue Dan Panes, perhaps? 

[Worcester_Passenger]

Two diagrams covered today.  The two that aren't appear to have a 2-Car Class 165s allocated to them throughout the day.  Not acceptable FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

The trouble is, II, that it is deemed acceptable by FGW. In the words of Tom Jones " It's not unusual"

Does anyone here have a valid FGW reason for this happening?

Alas, probably not.

This evening the 17:22 to Hereford started from Didcot.

The 17:50 departure to Worcester was cancelled.

The 18:22 departure to Worcester and Hereford was cancelled.

The 19:22 departure to Worcester and Hereford left Paddington 43 minutes late.

DGIH I'm glad I was not travelling this evening.

[inspector_blakey]

In the spirit of this thread, this video in Youtube may be of train spotter-y interest to some:

(Network Rail - home page)=1&v=86oqnk--X_A" target="_blank">FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Class 180 Faults and Failures

Incidentally, the actor playing that driver seems to have been in more or less every railway training video made since the dawn of time, see for example here...

[Southern Stag]

Two diagrams covered today.  The two that aren't appear to have a 2-Car Class 165s allocated to them throughout the day.  Not acceptable FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

The problem from December with timetable and diagram changes is that 2 diagrams are now calling at stations with stations too short for a 3-car unit. It's been caused by moving the Shipton stop from the 1513 Hereford-London Paddington to the 1728 Worcester Foregate Street-London Paddington. So now if either the diagram with the evening halts train in, or the diagram with the 1728 Worcester-London in can't be covered with 180 trained staff they have to be a 2-car 165. I've seen the 1421 London Paddington-Worcester Foregate Street reported as a 2-car 165 a worrying number of times since December, presumably because of this issue. At least when the halts train was booked a 2-car 165 on its run up from London-Great Malvern it had a 3-car unit attached as far as Oxford. Now if a 2-car 165 is out vice 180 it seems that's normally all you get from London-Oxford.

[IndustryInsider]

That does indeed explain some of the rationale behind the decisions made, though one of the diagrams covered yesterday by a 2-car was OC504 which has no such impediment.  And there have been occasions where units have been stepped up later in the 'halts' diagram so that, at least up until that point, a 3-car has been used.  Those two reasons are what prompted my 'unacceptable FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!' statement.

[lordgoata]

DGIH I'm glad I was not travelling this evening.

Last night was a frigging joke. Stranded at Maidenhead for 78 minutes, while trains to Reading ran (albeit at bursting point), with all services to Oxford and Banbury cancelled up to 18:40, except for the 17:40, which arrived at 18:18. So you can imagine our enjoyment when the announcement that it was 2 coaches came over the PA^▸ (Public Address)....

Thankfully the vast majority got off at Maidenhead so all the passengers could actually get on, which I was very surprised about. The driver was excellent (had a chat while deciding if I should try and get on or wait), made a nice clear announcement over the PA for everyone to move well into the carriages and that they would all have plenty of time to get off at the stops, which I think helped, as usually no one wants to move more than 2 rows deep into the carriage!

No announcements to Oxford bound passengers were made in the whole 78 minutes, despite frequent announcements for the London bound passengers.

And then, yet again, this morning the 180 was replaced with 2 car turbo, which at least was slightly less crowded than yesterday. But not by much.

Just what the hell is the problem at Hayes & Harlington ? Is there really any signal kit left to replace, it seems to be faulting almost weekly if not even more frequently than that!

[Richard Fairhurst]

I know it shouldn't happen, but I have on very rare occasions been on a 3-car Turbo that's stopped at Finstock and Combe. Don't tell HSE^▸ (Health and Safety Executive).

More pragmatically, AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) it's accepted practice that when 15xs stop at stations with very short platforms, passengers are asked to use (under supervision) the door in the rear cab. (Info from a uk.railway posting by a Central Trains conductor back in 2003.) Given the tiny number of passengers at the Oxfordshire halts, would it be possible to do that on a 3-car 16x, or are the rules different from 15xs?

[IndustryInsider]

More pragmatically, AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) it's accepted practice that when 15xs stop at stations with very short platforms, passengers are asked to use (under supervision) the door in the rear cab.

The layout is different.  The Class 150 cab door is separate to the actual cab, whereas on a Turbo passengers would have to clamber all over the drivers seat to get out!  I've said before though, that I don't see why the operating instructions can't be altered so that the Guard exits the rear cab and locally operates one of the doors at the rear of the train using one of the outer butterfly handles.

[Steve Bray]

To be honest, it does seem daft that a 2 car turbo has to operate due to the Shipton situation. Is a record kept of passengers alighting/boarding this train? I am sure the numbers will be miniscule, and therefore the majority of passengers are suffering overcrowding for the benefit of very few Shiptonians. Ascott down the line has a shiny new underused platform.

[CLPGMS]

I know it shouldn't happen, but I have on very rare occasions been on a 3-car Turbo that's stopped at Finstock and Combe.

Here is a photo of one occasion when it did happen at Finstock.



This was on Saturday 11th June 1994, when the Cotswold Line Promotion Group organised a ramble which ended at Finstock.  Unfortunately, the booked Class 150 never ran from Tyseley to Oxford to form the evening stopper service, so a special stop was arranged in the following 3-car Turbo to collect the rambling party.  The method outlined by II was used to allow passengers to board.

Unfortunately, train operators seem to regard this procedure as "unsafe" as all the train doors may inadvertently be opened by mistake.

[Andy W]

In the spirit of this thread, this video in Youtube may be of train spotter-y interest to some:

(Network Rail - home page)=1&v=86oqnk--X_A" target="_blank">FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Class 180 Faults and Failures

Incidentally, the actor playing that driver seems to have been in more or less every railway training video made since the dawn of time, see for example here...

Thanks for posting this - very interesting not least because the video is 10 years old. You would have hoped that lessons would have been learned in the intervening years but alas not it would appear.

To be honest, it does seem daft that a 2 car turbo has to operate due to the Shipton situation. Is a record kept of passengers alighting/boarding this train? I am sure the numbers will be miniscule, and therefore the majority of passengers are suffering overcrowding for the benefit of very few Shiptonians. Ascott down the line has a shiny new underused platform.

You would have thought that if a solution to opening the doors could not be implemented (I'm sure II has identified a solution) then a mini bus could be put on for those wishing to travel to / from Shipston.

[Southern Stag]

More pragmatically, AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) it's accepted practice that when 15xs stop at stations with very short platforms, passengers are asked to use (under supervision) the door in the rear cab.

The layout is different.  The Class 150 cab door is separate to the actual cab, whereas on a Turbo passengers would have to clamber all over the drivers seat to get out!  I've said before though, that I don't see why the operating instructions can't be altered so that the Guard exits the rear cab and locally operates one of the doors at the rear of the train using one of the outer butterfly handles.

That's usually what's done on the 150/1s with the slam cab door, at least it was before they had intermediate door controls fitted.

[grahame]

Is a record kept of passengers alighting/boarding this train? [at Shipton]

Shipton's annual figures are shown in http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/smr/SIP.html (you have to be logged in to see them).  Remember to divide by 2 for the number of arrivals and the number of departures (I don't suppose there's a significant difference), then divide by around 300 to give a number for a typical day, then see how you think they would split between the various trains.

The local council map also have specific survey figures, and they may provide extra data like the journeys being made by the people who get on and off; we've found such data highly enlightening on the TransWilts (and not what we expected) and the council will give you their data (FOI^▸ (Freedom of Information)) whereas the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) probably won't (Commercial data)