Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2020

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Damaged dropper, which that train's pantograph hit causing pan to drop and section to trip.  All fine with minimal damage after that dropper was removed with normal working resumed at 17:42, but heavy traffic delayed repair staff so trains routed through the up relief platform whilst waiting for them.  I would imagine proper repairs will take place overnight?

https://66.media.tumblr.com/ee8ba40fda563d662d31c48e65d4e288/tumblr_inline_pfvxb1EaGt1srob4n_1280.png 

I imagine that sort of thing have required a full isolation on the older style 'headspan' OHLE and trains would have been stopped for ages, instead of regaining 75% of capacity within a few minutes?

It is good that the effect on rail services wasn't the degree of total and catastrophic that we have become used to, but is it worrying that the failure of such a small part caused such disruption?

That's really just the nature of the system, being a network. Big interconnected systems tend to have this "every little bit's gotta work" principle, though railways do have it more than some others. It does make it harder work getting resilience up to a worthwhile level - this was one of the main reasons why buses took over from trams and trolleybuses, after all. 

Maybe we need one of those Cummings-approved oddballs to bring the ideas behind IP routeing into railways? Obviously it would be possible if you rebuilt all those parallel lines Beeching closed, and then built a load more ... just as long as you don't mind having no idea which route you'll be travelling on, or how long it will take.

I remember learning about how Arpanet, later known as the Internet, works. I had not long read the Beeching report, which was all about identifying and removing any redundancy from the rail network. Imagine my surprise to learn that, given the brief of designing a resilient network, one of the fundamental precepts ARPA applied was seamless invisible multiple redundancy.

I think it is fair to assume that resilience was not part of Beeching's brief.

[broadgage]

DO NOT TRY THIS. VERY DANGEROUS - extra warning added by Grahame as members have expressed concern.  Better say "Don't do this" even three times than risk anyone missing the message

Live conductors may be touched with impunity provided that the person doing the touching is sufficiently insulated from earth, such that no current can pass through the person.

Observe for example that birds perch on high voltage wires without harm, there is no path via the bird to earth. If however the bird comes too close to anything earthed then it will be killed.

It is in theory perfectly safe to stand upon an energised conductor rail, provided that no part of you is in contact with earth.DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT ACTUALLY TRYING THIS. THE SLIGHTEST TRIP OR STUMBLE COULD KILL YOU

[Red Squirrel]

Live conductors may be touched with impunity provided that the person doing the touching is sufficiently insulated from earth, such that no current can pass through the person.

Observe for example that birds perch on high voltage wires without harm, there is no path via the bird to earth. If however the bird comes too close to anything earthed then it will be killed.

It is in theory perfectly safe to stand upon an energised conductor rail, provided that no part of you is in contact with earth.DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT ACTUALLY TRYING THIS. THE SLIGHTEST TRIP OR STUMBLE COULD KILL YOU

Quite so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NEAEGeFIw

[TaplowGreen]

Delays to services between London Paddington and Slough
Due to a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Slough the London Paddington bound high speed line is blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed by up to 15 minutes. Disruption is expected until 07:00 24/01.

[TaplowGreen]

Alterations to services between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway
Due to a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 22:00 05/02.

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between Maidenhead and London Paddington

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Maidenhead and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run on all lines.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed.

Disruption is expected until 16:00 09/02.

[charles_uk]

Not sure if this has been caused by Storm Dennis or not - for the record:

Cancellations to services between Didcot Parkway and Reading

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Didcot Parkway and Reading some lines are blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 15:00 17/02.

Customer Advice
Replacement road transport has been arranged to operate in both directions between Reading and Didcot Parkway.

Last Updated:17/02/2020 14:36

Hard to tell how much disruption it's causing with all the other things going on but, certainly,  causing some ripples up towards the Cotswolds.

[Marlburian]

Today a friend was coming to Tilehurst from the Bedford area, a journey that she's made a dozen times. For some or no reason or other, she opted for an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) stopper from Paddington and became confused about when it was due at Tilehurst, thinking she would be there for 1357.

I duly arrived to meet her, but she didn't get off the train. Turned out that her train was the one due at 1427, so I hung around. (I couldn't eke out reading Metro beyond eight minutes.) Around 1421, the station info display announced that the 1427 was cancelled (terminated at Reading), though the news wasn't imparted to the passengers until it was arriving in Reading.

Luckily the 1426 to Reading was running 16 minutes late, so I had time to move my car from the station forecourt to a side road (where parking isn't allowed until 1500, but ...) and meet my friend in town for a meal.

Our train back to Tilehurst was cancelled, so I paid for a taxi 

There were several cancellations on the evening trains from Tilehurst to Reading, but the 1854 diesel was running some 14 minutes late. Whilst we waited, several express trains and a freight came along the up relief.

Being the school holidays, there were a dozen or so youngsters on my train into Reading - they may had to hang around for a service back home.

[TaplowGreen]

2nd day of this.....

Cancellations to services between Didcot Parkway and Reading
Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Didcot Parkway and Reading some lines are blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 23:00 18/02.
Customer Advice
Following damage to overhead electric wires between Didcot Parkway and Reading, we are expecting some changes to services on Tuesday 18 February.
Some lines will remain blocked to trains throughout the day as work to repair the damage continues.
While we will still be able to run the majority of services, fewer trains will run to avoid congestion and delays through the area.
Customers planning to travel on services between South Wales and Bristol and London, or between Reading and London, should check before travelling

[Timmer]

Some trains diverted via the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury).

[lbraine]

Having got caught up in the problems between Reading and Didcot last night - resulting in a bus journey from Reading, I struggled to see what the actual issue was.

Certainly the 165/166 services were running up to Banbury ( although no good for me -can someone provide an explanation why the 17:02 ex Reading runs fast to Goring !)
There seems to be a healthy number of IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) going on both up main and up relief.

Checking open train maps there seemed to be trains on each line running ?

So what is the issue exactly ?

[eightonedee]

Stopping trains particularly badly affected.

Only 4 out of 11 trains calling at Goring & Streatley after 7-45 running.

Most (but not all) trains running on the relief lines.  Exception being an XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) just gone through.

[ray951]

Stopping trains particularly badly affected.

Only 4 out of 11 trains calling at Goring & Streatley after 7-45 running.

Most (but not all) trains running on the relief lines.  Exception being an XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) just gone through.

Also impacting Didcot - Oxford services, between 0700 and 0900 4 of the 6 services cancelled.
I also got caught up last night with my journey home cancelled.
It's ironic that diesel trains to Oxford get cancelled by problems with overhead wires! And I don't understand why GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) couldn't at least operate a half hourly service between Oxford and Didcot.
I gave up and took the car, thankfully it is half-term so little traffic.

[lbraine]

Stopping trains particularly badly affected.

Only 4 out of 11 trains calling at Goring & Streatley after 7-45 running.

Most (but not all) trains running on the relief lines.  Exception being an XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) just gone through.

Also impacting Didcot - Oxford services, between 0700 and 0900 4 of the 6 services cancelled.
I also got caught up last night with my journey home cancelled.
It's ironic that diesel trains to Oxford get cancelled by problems with overhead wires! And I don't understand why GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) couldn't at least operate a half hourly service between Oxford and Didcot.
I gave up and took the car, thankfully it is half-term so little traffic.

It is odd that not ALL trains are effected - just the majority. And the relief lines do seem to be getting a lot of fast (Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea) services running over them.

Do I suspect that relief services are being culled for the ability to run mains?

And is this really a ‘lines down’ event (which would surely necessitate full line closure while repairs are carried out) or is this really some other kind of electric fault - which may be a few days more before all is right (time for fault tracing and cause, new replacement parts orders and delivered and required and then actual fitting) ?

[ray951]

I am a bit confused about where this event happened as the hashtag used by Network Rail for this incident was #Culham. See http://m.nationalrail.co.uk/pj/disruption/details/538A652F9AC14A8EA3CD1A03139AA0C7
I assume this was a mistake unless NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are trolling us about the cancellation of the electrification to Oxford.

I note that the Didcot - Oxford service is now running half-hourly, presumably because in the off-peak these trains don't continue to Reading.