175007 out in public use today on 2C49 12.42 Plymouth - Penzance and 2P24 15.15 Penzance - Plymouth

 
On Underground signalling we had a thing called route locking (same as approach locking) which may have happened here preventing platform 2 being used. It prevented a signal operator changing points under a train that had been given the green signal. Track locking also came into play when the train was passing over the points stopping the signal operator moving the points.

So I expect your right in that the platform was somehow kept in play for short trains.

 

Or the same, quite likely. Have you ever seen "safety inspection of the OHLE"....or similar. I suspect they include OHLE in 'track' for this purpose.

 
2026 really off to a great start............ Image not available to guests

Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a safety inspection of the track between Reading and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

(TfL are blaming an OLHE problem, could quite conceivably be both I guess given the state of the infrastructure)

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 11:30 17/01.

 

It is South of the Level Crossing but, at a guess, the train may have been initially (or still) under protection arrangements which falls within the platform area limiting train lengths.

Again, that restriction might have only been in place until Network Rail disconnected the track circuits.

 
If it's south of Sands Road level crossing then it should not affect the length of train to four cars. Except for GWR IET's most trains including Cross Country use  a shunt move via the north crossover to get from platform 1 to 2.

If is a problem for 9 car trains they would probably be diverted to Plymouth to reverse or kept at Newton Abbot for a an hour and half. Been done before.

 

The re-railing team should have been on site at 20:00, won't take long to get it back on the rails.

The train won't be out of service for very long either, a wheel set change at most. 

The infrastructure, that's hard to say, A repair could take a day or two but getting resources and materials might mean a few weeks.  Upto 4-cars can still run into Paignton so not significant disruption.

 
The motion tabled by Councillor Mark Weston to debate the Henbury Loop at a Bristol City Council meeting apparently fell short of time but instead there's been some proposal to run the Severn Beach Line to Bristol Parkway which falls short of a loop.I t's reported in the below link to Bristol Live:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/transport-planners-looking-extending-severn-10758098

Frankly the scheme seems somewhat half baked to me, requiring seemingly a reversal at Parkway and not realising the gains that a loop would achieve.  A  compromise that ultimately helps hardly anyone?

 
So long will it take to sort that out?

 
Have seen some pics on social media and it doesn’t look like there’s much damage to the train. The track underneath (wooden sleepers) doesn’t look too clever though when it comes time to re-rail the train.

The other problem created is that it’s a 9 carriage IET that’s going to be out of service for a while at a time when GWR can’t really afford another set out of service; particularly a 9 car set.

 
Have Network Rail managed despite the events of last weekend to complete all the work planned on the St Ives branch? If so they must have been heroic.

 
Apparently cancelled due to signal failure (per real time trains)

 
5A87 has derailed on approach to Paignton South level crossing as it left Goodrington yard

 
Just to say, that film (and the link to it) was by a gentleman named Steve Court who has, throughout this whole awful incident, reported factually, sensibly, undramatically and with extreme sympathy to everyone concerned. He's a credit to the canal "family", just as several people hereabouts are a credit to the wider railway scene, and deserves to be applauded for his efforts. I happen to know him personally, and he gives up a great deal of his valuable time (he runs his own very successful plumbing business here in West Wiltshire - my home restoration a decade or so ago happened to be his very first job when he resigned from British Gas and went solo!) supporting good causes such as the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust. He can also be seen on a couple of DIY SOS programmes that air on catch-up TV from time to time, selflessly installing plumbing in the homes of deserving members of the public. A top bloke in other words.

 
Nothing from Wolverton in the past two hours. Maybe they have gone to get some clear cello tape. Perhaps the tide is in at Dawlish when the train is due?

 
Thanks for that link. Good to see this handled somewhat sensitively here and also reflects well on the Canal and River Trust.

Mark

 
The two boats that were down in the breach had been pulled out onto the level canal bed by yesterday evening, today should see them refloated by building a portable dam behind them.  There are loads of YouTube videos of yesterday’s work, but here’s one which covers both and has the best coverage of the more difficult second boat, (the one with the bow partially buried), which was pulled stern first:

https://youtu.be/9ErDrPh4hD8?si=hewNSddJSQiiu4qP

 
Last night I dreamed that I caught a TfW class 175 train from Hereford, the train calling at Bath on its way to Southampton - and on the train's exterior, as branding, that glyph, used by TfW for their interregional services through Wiltshire.

Today, the Cornwall glyph's shrunk, but it's lent its strength to a second more ghostly one centred on Reading and Basingstoke.

Mark

 
175001 (paired with 009), the only unit that can run in public traffic, was terminated on its training run at Liskeard as the windscreen spontaneously cracked in 2 places.

 

I think that's reasonably well known - the maintenance contract was taken away from Alstom (who built the trains) and given to CAF (who built their replacements), and CAF were either uninterested or unknowledgeable. There was a series of Adelante-like fires in 2023.

 
Even by railway standards, the entry into service of these existing trains is happening at glacial pace. It does make you wonder how they were maintained towards the end of their time in Wales and the length of time they were stored outside has played a part.

 

 

You may well be right, but let's hope not. When the 165/6's came to Bristol they were plagued with reliability issues while the local maintenance teams got the hang of them. Now they're  not too bad, given their age and unsuitability for short-stop metro-style services.

 
This is the BBC's static news item on his accident, Its content is mostly as in the rolling news item, and it is  still dated yesterday; I would point to this paragraph:

There is also this picture, credited to Reuters, which strongly suggests a major failure of the launch girder system itself. The perspective is confusing - The Times had a better view, I think from Getty, which I can't find anywhere on-line.
Image not available to guests

You may remember how such a system works, from the one used on the Colne Valley Viaduct (aka Dominique). The girder must rest on two supports at all times, and it moves forwards along the viaduct either  by a support crawling along the now-built viaduct, or using a third support.

What I see in the picture suggests something along these lines: the forward support has collapsed, the girder has fallen onto a pier ahead of where segments are being added, and it has buckled. The moving crane that carries the segments was operating at the time, and could not sustain the shock as the girder landed; part of that crane, and perhaps the segment, fell off. That forward support can't be seen, so most of it may also have fallen onto the train.

Note that this is not unprecedented - another launch girder operating in Thailand, this one building a road viaduct (and painted blue) collapsed in January 2024. 

 
175003 did not run but 175001 took it's place. So a second of four has still not run in public service. Something seriously wrong with these trains.



See what tomorrows delivery from Wolverton is.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K60141/2026-01-16/detailed

 
Latest count 28.

A second crane from the same site fell the following day in the other direction on to a road, and killed two further people, both driving vehicles.

 

Thanks for that topical update, Richard. Image not available to guests

Our own family experience, some 15 years ago, after mooring somewhere on the southern towpath of the Kennet & Avon Canal, was really very funny. Having enjoyed our own breakfast, we decided to stroll down into the nearest village (they used to have shops, then) to buy some fresh bread and milk.

There on the towpath, rolling around on his back, wielding the anchor, was the clearly inebriated Swede. I rather think we got his connections to Sweden from the nomenclature on his narrowboat and his own jovial exclamations.  He was clearly 'out of it', but quite inoffensive.

CfN. Image not available to guests