17:05 Didcot Parkway to Evesham due 18:24 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

18:51 Evesham to Oxford due 19:50 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

If fully signalled with shunt signals the points would be mechanically locked and presumably electronically locked and you would not be able to change the points on the main line.
On the undergound as some who might have to do it we were taught to say scotched and clipped as the scotch goes in first in case the points move as you try to put the clip on. The trainer would also say don't put the clip on over the rail. It's been done!

Not for the first time a completely unnecessary death which is entirely down to the actions of the deceased is followed by calls, and in some cases such as this instructions, to the rail industry to somehow rectify the perceived problem.

Whatever happened to common sense and personal responsibility?

The substitution of a through service with one involving a change has long been deployed as a way to put the brakes on passenger flows. It always puts me in mind of the time when capacity on the trains took a sharp nosedive and it was used to reduce summer passenger numbers heading for Weymouth.

Mark

All fully signalled with shunt signals. No need for anything to be clipped and scotched.

The return service was - err - full and standing on occasions!   After the withdrawal of the SWR service from Bristol as far as Westbury, a GWR train was put in in its place (great saving that!) with a connection at Westbury into the SWR coming up from Yeovil.  The connection hasn't always been held at Westbury ...

Indeed, the USA considers it's a good year when the homicide rate is under 6 per 100,000. In  Europe it averages 2.1, about 1.1 in the UK.

Don't think you are safe on the roads either.  The USA has a fatal accident rate of 14.2 per 100,000. In the UK it's 2.4.

It is written to be intelligible only to academics ... and to go over the heads of the rest of us.

probably safer there than in many parts of Europe in all honesty.

To digress slightly........  I have always thought that US Immigration staff were recruited specifically for their rudeness and aggressiveness ...

The return service was - err - full and standing on occasions!   

Bit late on this one....

Yes the last train to Salisbury was the return SWR service back to the depot - and it was reasonably well used. This service was removed for a number of half baked reasons. The current last train to Salisbury is once again an SWR one - but having been banished from Temple Meads this one come up from Yeovil.  Totally bizarre !!

RNLI volunteer at Southend records 100th life saved in 40 years


Tony Bonham, 59, says he feels young and has "years" left in him

An RNLI volunteer commander has saved more than 100 people since he signed up 40 years ago.

Tony Bonham has logged 101 lives saved and 953 people aided since Southend-on-Sea station's record-keeping began in 1996, 10 years after he started. He said the real number was probably much higher.

The 59-year-old began volunteering as a lifeguard at nearby Shoebury West beach aged 15, joining the lifeboat team four years later. "We don't look at ourselves as heroes. I've been, I've done a job, I'm getting on with work now... we never look for recognition," he said.

If the person would have drowned without their assistance, it is recorded as a life saved, otherwise it is "assisted".

"There's 100 families plus that have still got their loved ones with them," he said.


Three generations of Bonhams - Tony Bonham with his son Tyler, and his son who "always wants to go down to the lifeboat station"

Bonham said they lose a lot of volunteers due to the commitment that is asked of them. "You can be out days, nights, anniversaries, Christmas Day. If you're on duty and you get a call, you've got to go," he said.

"We could be out at two in the morning... we do the job, we put everything back, make sure it's all ready. We go home to our families and carry on the next day. You might read about it in the paper; you might not."

Bonham says he is "very proud" of his son Tyler, who will soon be starting as a commander at the Gravesend lifeboat in Kent - and the family's involvement looks like it could extend to another generation. "Now his son, who's six, always wants to go down to the lifeboat station. He enjoys the cookies," said Tony.

Talking to Sonia Watson on BBC Essex, he described being called out together with his son for the first time recently. "He was my helm, I was his crew and it was really, really funny him being in charge," he said. "But I still got dressed quicker and was out before him."

He said he never turns his pager off, and returned to duty straight after the interview. "I still feel young. I am young - I'm 59 - got many years in me to go yet," he said.

or did come back with 175002 and not mentioned.
An interesting signal problem is how. On London Underground signalling; as the points cannot be guaranteed, because a train is occupying the approach section, to be locked they would have to be scotched and clipped and hand signalled into the platform or the trains moved towards Liskard past signal LD20, the points on the branch scotched and clipped then the normal signal interlocking can take effect and the trains moved onto the main line.

Also, thinking of the previously useful ~19:20 from Waterloo. Fast forward to 2026 and the closest Salisbury departure to that, on arrival, three carriages are detached - Gillingham, Templecombe, Sherbourne and Yeovil Junction get the benefit of those, while the three that could usefully serve Warminster, followed by the county town of Wiltshire, Bradford on Avon, Bath and Bristol are sent off to the depot. So, for that service, for once, there is the stock available and sitting around to cover the run to Bristol and return. (And the return wasn't a carrier of fresh air either.)

Mark

Rail signs call after runner's death at crossing



A coroner has called for better signs at level crossings after a runner listening to music died when he was hit by a train.

Sam Dudley died while jogging in Formby, Merseyside, on 24 August.

The klaxon siren and red light were in operation at Hoggs Hill Level Crossing and CCTV footage showed he appeared shocked at the sight of the train and tried to jump backwards.

Investigators found the 29-year-old had been listening to music on his mobile phone, which displayed a warning that the sound was too loud.

Anita Bhardwaj, senior coroner for Sefton, said the crossing had been "safe, compliant and operating as designed", adding it was "more likely than not that Sam did not hear the klaxon".

Following an inquest into his death, she concluded: "In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken." The coroner added that "increasingly, more people wear earphones and are therefore less aware of their surroundings".

She said visual signs on the approach to level crossings should be improved to prevent further accidents. "Visual cues generally attract initial attention more effectively and support rapid comprehension, while sound cues tend to create a stronger emotional connection," she said.

Network Rail, as the operator, is obliged to respond to her report by 31 March with details and a timetable of plans for action.

1.  Why set the cut off points at 30 and 60 minutes - they could almost have been designed to cause problems on "clock face" services where people drop back through a cancellation or a missed connection into the following train.  Why not 25 or 35, 55 or 65 minutes?