Bad evening

[whole diary]

[willc]

From FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates:

Line problem between Moreton-In-Marsh and Evesham.
Train services are being disrupted due to signalling problems between Moreton-In-Marsh and Evesham.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 120 minutes can be expected.
Last Updated: 22/03/2011 21:47
Service incidents

18:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:31
This train has been delayed and is now 105 minutes late from Moreton-In-Marsh.This is due to signalling problems.
Last Updated: 22/03/2011 22:13

19:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 22:52
This train has been delayed and is now 70 minutes late from Moreton-In-Marsh.This is due to signalling problems.
Last Updated: 22/03/2011 22:14

National Rail website locates the problem at Evesham.

The 19.22 is currently showing on live departures as 69 late at Worcester. Spanner in works time for the tracklaying teams, as they will have lost an hour of the possession and with work around Honeybourne, the supply trains have a long trip to reach the work sites.

[eightf48544]

Interesting point Will about work trains coming a long way.

Says a lot about the amount of infrastructure that has been taken out of the railways over the years that most stations no longer have any sidings and many good loops have been taken out so it is not possible to park work trains nearer the site ready to start work. They now have to come from a central depot which could be miles away.

[willc]

I was thinking more just in terms of running time on the line to reach the work site. If they are loaded with ballast and sleepers, these are long and heavy trains, so need careful handling and take quite a while to reach their destination, so there's no realistic possibility of moving them on to the line while passenger trains are still running, due to the limitations imposed by the single line at the moment.

Even if you could weave them in, the only place on the line long enough is the refuge siding at Moreton-in-Marsh and while it is nominally operational, I'm not sure I'd like to be the person putting a heavy train in there, in case some of the old timber sleepers split and you couldn't get it out again. This is a piece of track where parts disappear under weeds and brambles most summers.

Matters will be improved by the new Honeybourne sidings, as they will have a firm new base and concrete sleepers, while the extra capacity on the line would allow you to move engineering trains there ahead of work starting.

Hinksey sidings, at Oxford, where most of the redoubling supply trains come from, isn't too far away, though if the trains come from Westbury that's a very long haul. I think that the night I went out on the line, it had left there four hours before reaching Moreton-in-Marsh.

[IndustryInsider]

This is a piece of track where parts disappear under weeds and brambles most summers.

Isn't that the case on the main running lines through Moreton too? 

[willc]

No brambles...

[stebbo]

Well at least the weeds have gone from Evesham following the relaying of the track.