Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2018

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Due to an object being caught on the overhead electric wires at Slough some lines are closed.
Impact: Train services running through this station may be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 17:30 06/03.

Suicidal pigeon or Tesco carrier bag? 

[broadgage]

No reports of exploding pigeon, so probably just a plastic bag.

[TaplowGreen]

........every little helps 😩

[Interceptor]

Back the day, I was on my first cab ride as part of my training to see what the railway was all about, in a class 86 from Carlisle to Preston. All going well and suddenly felt an unusual jolt and a lamp illuminated on the driver's console, no power being taken. So free wheeled for a good few miles and came to a halt. Driver got down. Looked up. A large black crow or remains of was wrapped around the pantograph. Raised and lowered the pantograph again a couple of times and it fell off and we were on our way again. I dare say that current monitoring/safety systems may not allow this perhaps but this was 1979.

[IndustryInsider]

No reports of exploding pigeon, so probably just a plastic bag.

Was a bit of rope apparently.  OverHead-Line Equipment (OHLE) staff delayed getting to the site by an accident on the M4.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[broadgage]

Back the day, I was on my first cab ride as part of my training to see what the railway was all about, in a class 86 from Carlisle to Preston. All going well and suddenly felt an unusual jolt and a lamp illuminated on the driver's console, no power being taken. So free wheeled for a good few miles and came to a halt. Driver got down. Looked up. A large black crow or remains of was wrapped around the pantograph. Raised and lowered the pantograph again a couple of times and it fell off and we were on our way again. I dare say that current monitoring/safety systems may not allow this perhaps but this was 1979.

As you were soon on your way again, I presume that it was the crow or remains thereof that fell off, and not the pantograph !

[CyclingSid]

A bit of rope! In South Reading the local "lads" found that the most efficient way to disconnect some houses with an overhead supply was a length of dog chain (dog not attached, so couldn't be removed the same way as crows).

[TaplowGreen]

........so to recap.....the Infrastructure upon which the railways have spent billions of £ of taxpayers money and is (apparently) the future, can be brought to a screeching halt by.......a carrier bag, a dead pigeon........and/or a "bit of rope"......thank God the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) can run on diesel.....🙈

[IndustryInsider]

That is indeed a big benefit of the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)’s.

[Jason]

That is indeed a big benefit of the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)’s.

"Intermediate Electric Trains" ?

[Worcester_Passenger]

Surely "Intermittent Electric Trains"?

[broadgage]

........so to recap.....the Infrastructure upon which the railways have spent billions of £ of taxpayers money and is (apparently) the future, can be brought to a screeching halt by.......a carrier bag, a dead pigeon........and/or a "bit of rope"......thank God the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) can run on diesel.....🙈

Indeed, and whilst overhead line equipment is by its very nature always somewhat vulnerable to such items, I have a cynical suspicion that there is something about UK^▸ (United Kingdom) electrification equipment or operating procedures that renders it particularly vulnerable.
After all, European railways are largely electrified and don't seem to suffer from these incidents as often as we do.

A bit like the annual leaves on the line fiasco, Overseas railways suffer the odd delay caused by leaves, whilst ours degenerates into chaos.

My now famous crystal ball forecast declining reliability due to electrification. In particular I forecast that ever growing safety rules and procedures would result in large areas of OHLE being isolated for relatively minor problems.

And whilst the new IET can run on diesel, the new suburban units are pure electric. An IET can still be held behind an all electric suburban unit, each time an incident occurs.

[ChrisB]

And if they need access to the OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) equipment (such as to remove offending objects), that will still delay anything running on diesel too....

[charles_uk]

And as a diversion from the chaos arising from lack of drivers:

Delays to services between London Paddington and Slough

Due to a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Slough the line towards Slough is disrupted.

Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed by up to 30 minutes. Disruption is expected until 20:00 11/03.

Last Updated:11/03/2018 17:21

[stuving]

...
After all, European railways are largely electrified and don't seem to suffer from these incidents as often as we do.

A bit like the annual leaves on the line fiasco, Overseas railways suffer the odd delay caused by leaves, whilst ours degenerates into chaos.
...

Once again, I feel that the point has to be made that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. What seems not to happen may be happening after all, it's just that no-one's told you.

With respect to leaves, SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) put out very similar explanations to Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) (including leaflets) for the frequent delays and even cancellations due to leaf fall. For 2015 they published a figure of 1173 hours of delays, which doesn't sound huge but I've no idea what kind of delay attribution process recorded it. It's not hard to find twitter complaints saying things like "France - the country where you're trapped in a train because of dead leaves" as if it's one of their particularities.

SNCF talk about putting repair shops up from two to three shifts to deal with wheel flats, and admit they are behind their neighbours in dealing with the issue. They have been buying more RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) trains, fitting ABS/WSP (not easy as a retro-fit), and trialling things like the adhesion gel used by Network Rail (NR). they claim to have largely solved the problem of "déshuntage" - loss of detection by track circuits - but that was not only due to leaves (the solution being to stop running single-car trains).

On 10th November 2017 they even closed two lines - from Guéret to Montlucon and the branch to Felletin - for over two weeks (as announced) due to leaves. That was subject to "or until we get an RHT train in",  which I suspect happened sooner. Not that either is much of a service anyway: four a day each way to Montlucon, and two to Felletin. But even so, other trains have been stuck for hours on gradients on these minor lines.

I suspect the same is true of OverHead-Line Equipment (OHLE), noting that many other European networks are far more reliant on it than we are.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronyms