Oxford station - facilities, improvements, parking, incidents and events - merged posts

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

PS: Sheriff? Oh please - this is Oxford, not the Wild West...

Though a Sheriff has been associated with Port Meadow for many years.  This stone plinth is located in the meadow:

[Btline]

Hmmm, ok.

But it was mainly the way the article portrayed this sheriff "riding out" to save the trees, shooting his pistol to stop the evil axemen.

Scroll down to the standard "furious residents" picture.

[Chris from Nailsea]

... from which you will note that the present Sheriff of Oxford is female.

And, strictly speaking, she didn't do the actual 'stopping' herself:

But a city council tree officer ordered the work be halted after neighbours and councillor Jean Fooks, the Sheriff of Oxford, complained.

 

[Electric train]

Groan, why didn't they check with the council before getting the chainsaws out? And agreed - trees shouldn't be axed during the nesting season. How would you like it if you went to Tesco's and came back home to find your house bulldozed?

Hopefully this can get sorted asap, so the work can be finished and the extra track laid.

Of course, if railway trees were kept cut back all year round, this wouldn't be a problem!

On operational land Network Rail do not need to seek permission from the local authority as it come under permissible rights, however it is normal practice to consult and of course NR^» (Network Rail - home page) has to abide by environmental legislation regarding nesting birds etc

PS: Sheriff? Oh please - this is Oxford, not the Wild West...

High Sheriff has been around in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) for over 1000 years http://www.highsheriffs.com/History.htm, although to day in is mainly an honorary role, its roots are in tax collection and law and order.  Sheriffs are an important part of our heritage

[inspector_blakey]

Though a Sheriff has been associated with Port Meadow for many years.  This stone plinth is located in the meadow:

I remember getting bogged down near that obelisk thingy when I was slightly too overambitious in trying to make a circuit of the meadow once. It was a very long walk retracing my steps all the way back to Walton Well Road...

[Chris from Nailsea]

Yes: it does seem to be a case of 'soggy meadow' rather than Port Meadow ... 

[paul7575]

I've wonder if there's another open space on the far side of Oxford that could be named Starboard Meadow...   

(I'll get my waterproof jacket...)

Paul

[JayMac]

...and one to the north called Bow Meadow and one to the south called Stern Meadow?

 

[Chris from Nailsea]

When I posted that original news item, I somehow didn't expect that we'd arrive at Captain Pugwash via The Lone Ranger ... 

[Electric train]

When I posted that original news item, I somehow didn't expect that we'd arrive at Captain Pugwash via The Lone Ranger ... 

Port Meadow apart from having ancient rights it is linked to a work of fiction Alice in Wonderland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Meadow,_Oxford

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

I was at Oxford yesterday, waiting for the 1307 stopper to Pangbourne.  From about 1255 a route was set up on the down main. At 1301 a loco + 1 van trundled through, slowly as it was on a yellow. When it had passed through the ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) for the 1301 fast to Padd came off the down sidings.  It left Oxford 6 late at 1307.  The shunt driver and his relief muttered to each other about the needless late start, which must have been enough to mess up its path to Padd.

This of course delayed the 1307 stopper - didn't really matter for me going to Pangbourne because of the Didcot layover. But I think it caught the following 1316 Oxford - Bournemouth XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) at Didcot North Junction as we called Radley and Culham.

I've seen this kind of thing happen many times.  Is it difficult to regulate accurately at Oxford? Do the signallers have the information they need to make the right decisions? Are they short staffed in the signalling centre (I admit I don't know where Oxford is signalled from at the moment)?

There's all these signs telling passengers that seconds matter and that doors will close 40 seconds before train time etc. but it makes you think that far more time could be saved at Oxford if regulation was improved (and there were realistic timings for ECS to move to/from the sidings).

 

[JayMac]

Things were very much up in the air today, around that time, following the fatality at Southall. Could it not be that the regulation of services through Oxford, including the 'loco + van' was done in such a way as to minimize delays to all services?

[Oxman]

Oxford is regulated by Oxford Panel, which is situated just behind platform 2, north of the footbridge. There is a window that looks out onto the platform from the panel operating room - easily visible from trains as they pass. Its a single story structure, so not very impressive!

Normal staffing is two signallers from 0700 to 1900 (one working the panel, the other doing back office duties) and one from 1900 to 0700. The control area on the down starts at about Culham and extends thru to about Heyford.

A loco and one van sounds like an MOD train, possibly for Bicester. A single yellow could mean it was routed into the down passenger loop or was to be routed towards Bicester.

Its possible that immediately behind it was the 1306 cross country service from Oxford to the north. Behind that would have been a terminating down local service, which would have to be cleared to the down sidings, and behind that would have been a Cotswolds service. So, its possible that the signaller took the decision to run the freight in order to clear the down line, as this would produce the least worst delay.


Regulation at Oxford is much more of an art than a science!

[inspector_blakey]

Movements from the down carriage sidings to platform 1 are a real pain in the backside at Oxford because they occur very frequently and block all lines through the station as they occur. Sadly as long as trains turn back at Oxford and have to switch from the down platform to the up platform there's no way of avoiding this situation: I don't know if the track layout would allow a down terminator to access the up carriage sidings, but even if it did that move would block all lines anyway.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Its possible that immediately behind it was the 1306 cross country service from Oxford to the north. Behind that would have been a terminating down local service, which would have to be cleared to the down sidings, and behind that would have been a Cotswolds service. So, its possible that the signaller took the decision to run the freight in order to clear the down line, as this would produce the least worst delay.


Regulation at Oxford is much more of an art than a science!

Yes, but that wouldn't justify the route being set up 6 minutes in advance, during which the ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) for the 1301 Oxford - Padd could have been routed across.