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Post by spsmiler on Mar 8, 2024 11:49:52 GMT
Any use on LU metals? eg: during the Amersham Fayre weekend?
Or will the 1938ts be the only LU heritage train this year (2024)
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 8, 2024 11:46:42 GMT
Ilford used a temporary entrance and completely rebuilt the station building.
West Hampstead cut down trees to clear a vacant space and built a new station building next to the existing building, which was meant to be closed afterwards. Leyton will be doing the same except that the new construction will be where the station house was before the A12 road was built.
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 7, 2024 21:10:11 GMT
Thanks for the link. This looks to be where the platform access will be located (filmed on the westbound platform, my camera is pointing towards Leytonstone) The glass brick passageways remind me of West Ham. Other aspects of the works remind me of Newbury Park and West Hampstead North London Line stations. At Ilford they kept the gateline where it was - but just made it much wider.
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 7, 2024 20:40:31 GMT
I wonder if Network Rail still sometimes borrows this train.
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 5, 2024 19:07:33 GMT
Great that more funding is now available (is it true that is costs circa £10M per station to modify + £150k/yr ongoing costs). Like North Acton & West Hampstead, I hope at Northolt opportunity can also be taken to economically make other improvements for the majority of passengers (ie the congestion on the stairs to the platform + at the station entrance/pavement area re: West Hampstead Overground station relocating the platform entry point from 'as close as possible to the street entrance' to the middle of the train is a pain in the neck for the number of times I've missed a train that I would have caught had this not been done. It also encourages running, which is especially risky on the stairs. Not installing proper 'weather protection' platform shelters means that when its raining passengers wait on the stairs. This is very sub-optimal! Building a station that does not have a staffed ticket office means that the old station building is still being used by the railway. Its a shame that since there is a member of staff present at all times the ticket office is open, the gateline could not also be reinstated - and steps down to the platform on the right (ie: the side that does not have the new station building). On the topic of using making stations accessible as a reason to also increase capacity to benefit everyone else, I fear for Leyton. I think the same mistakes will be made here, although one slight difference is that this station still retains platform shelters. Instead a different mistake will be made at Leyton - until the building of the A12 road this station had a second entrance at the Leytonstone end of the platforms. The planned new works do not seem to include reinstating this facility. I have to wonder, if it were to be reinstated would it reduce the pressure on the existing station building to such a degree that it no longer needs replacing? Or maybe the planned new passageway alongside the outside of the platforms could be modified to include an access to the east? This would still be better than doing nothing for the people who live on the eastern side of the station
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 5, 2024 18:47:49 GMT
Its looking even more fantastic every time its updated ... the sheer level of detail really brings it to life.
As someone who has seen this 'in the flesh' what also makes this even more remarkable is its size (or rather, lack of size). Photographs, sometimes perhaps in macro mode, can be deceptive because they make everything look much larger than it actually is.
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 5, 2024 18:30:58 GMT
was it carrying passengers - or solely 'test trips'?
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 5, 2024 18:27:07 GMT
It sounds like having northbound fast trains skip Wembley Park would actually be a positive step in keeping the service running optimally. Perhaps all day, perhaps only in the rush hours. I'm not sure I quite follow your thinking here. The problem at the moment is that a full service is being run down one track which isn't signalled for the frequency it is handling and through one platform, where the dwell time is probably also adversely affecting throughput. I don't see how non-stopping on the Northbound would help things. My comment was based on an understanding that the problems are affecting northbound services
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 5, 2024 18:14:56 GMT
it will be good to see the revoking of the TSRs - it is somewhat tedious to ride through them
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 1, 2024 12:14:14 GMT
As goldenarrow says, it's a combination of the two. The auto signalling between Harrow and Wembley is probably the oldest left on LU, dating from just after the Second World War. It was generally designed for a lower frequency of trains, not all of which will have stopped at Wembley - and certainly not designed to support the full service. It sounds like having northbound fast trains skip Wembley Park would actually be a positive step in keeping the service running optimally. Perhaps all day, perhaps only in the rush hours.
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Post by spsmiler on Mar 1, 2024 12:04:26 GMT
Good photos, I would have also gone to see it but by the time that I learnt about it being there I had already made other arrangements for my time.
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 27, 2024 14:51:16 GMT
I agree with you and understand the ruling and how it affected the Metropolitan Railway in north London.
But in the long period of time after the 710's had been delivered but could not be used I saw at least one of these trains which were being stored in the Willesden Junction area was showing New Cross as a destination!
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 25, 2024 14:20:35 GMT
Following my recent trip to Glasgow I've now created an 11 minute video showing the older and newer trains
This includes rides on both types of train - for the Metro Cammell trains I was able to travel in a near-empty carriage, which was convenient, and I was able to film a complete ride between two stations, including doors opening and closing, etc. I also added a little footage from the 1990s when these trains were in their 'Clockwork Orange' livery.
I had two opportunities to ride a Stadler train and both times it was too full to film exactly as I would have liked. But, I managed.
btw, i did not use a stopwatch but the older trains felt faster at station stops, the doors open and close sooner as there is less 'beep beep beep' alert sounds.
Enjoy, Simon
Glasgow Subway Older And Newer Trains
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 24, 2024 19:06:33 GMT
I wish that train drivers would announce more often about the need to not lean on the doors - its quite irksome when trains trying to depart from stations constantly perform 'kangaroo' hops.
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 24, 2024 18:55:04 GMT
Keep them convertible between passenger and RAT duties and then they can earn their keep (when not needed for RAT duties) as heritage trains carrying premium fare paying passengers!
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 18, 2024 23:50:53 GMT
A new floor? Maybe that could well be the unplanned work?
surely cleaning, painting, signage and even wall tiling can be done when the station is open?
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 18, 2024 23:46:28 GMT
what about Fridays?
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 18, 2024 23:40:23 GMT
All I know is that its specialised and skilled job - and that one clever and cheeky bod working at 55 Broadway wrote a timetable that included an evening rush hour westbound District line train which skipped 'quite a few stations' so that he got home to Chiswick Park a little more quickly and comfortably than he would of, had all trains called at all stations!
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 17, 2024 11:16:22 GMT
"Nearly 2,000 new trains ordered by the national railroad, SNCF, are too wide for many French railroad stations. So to accommodate the new trains, hundreds of platforms at railroad stations will have to reconfigured." I'm sure this has happened before - didn't the slightly longer 1973ts tube cars have some gauging issues when brand new? (caused by sharp curves in tunnels?) And .... well before any of us here were around, there was the issue of the Central London Railway electric locomotives being too tall for the tunnels!!
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 15, 2024 17:38:29 GMT
Electrification came much later with 1500v dc overhead system (already becoming obsolete) in the late 50s although Fenchurch -Stratford had already been electrified to meet with the Eastern Region railways. 1500v dc? Are you sure? The LNER route from Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street through Stratford was that voltage but I thought that the LMS route via Barking was 25kV AC from the start? (possibly also 6.25kV AC at the London end)
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 15, 2024 17:32:04 GMT
Very much the DLR needs subdividing into line names. Then suddenly London will have enough lines to make it possible to add questions into pub quizzes (etc) asking players to state which line name is which type of service - Underground, Overground, DLR...
As long as only Croydon has a Tramlink the trams will not need line names.
Anyway ... these new lines are very much a shock to the system (for me, at least). Yes they are what the Mayor said they would be - diverse, woke, different, racist (in a positive way), possibly even sexist. Also, almost political.
I understand the desire to honour the ladies of the Saffragette movement but the struggle is still ongoing and anyway who can spell the word without looking it up? (I cannot - my spell checker is flagging it as incorrect!!)
re: the hospital name, it is perhaps just as well that they did not choose Bedlam - in case the service started reflecting that name.
Having seen the explanation I can understand the reason for Windrush but to name a line after racial groups has shocked me.
The name Liberty is very daring and might yet become a source for regret - because it might be hijacked by protest groups wanting just that. I have the very under-reported ongoing farmers protests in mind, these are happening in too many countries around the globe to name them all.
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 15, 2024 17:03:37 GMT
Probably passenger demand would mean that a fleet of two car S Stock trains will suffice.
But if they had some TramTrains (as per Sheffield) then they could use these to extend the service to Watford Junction - via the alignment originally planned by the Metropolitan Railway and once in Watford as street trams for the rest of the journey.
Simon - looking forward to more cloud cuckoo land transport pre-election promises!
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 14, 2024 22:19:51 GMT
The issue was planned engineering work on the fast lines overnight. Your train was scheduled to go via the fast lines just before they closed, however the late departure meant the work had already started by the time you got to Milton Keynes and therefore the slow lines were the only available option. Thank you for the reply - this is just about the only reason that I could think of that would make sense - I had been expecting the train to go 'as fast as line speed allows' to try to reduce the delay below 30 minutes and reduce the 'delay repay' refunds. For the record, I bought my travel tickets during the 'Great Rail Sale' period so the 100% refund will be just £30.50. This was even less than my ticket would have cost had I used my Senior Railcard. I was poised to complain to the Railway Ombudsman, but will not now do so.
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 14, 2024 13:44:50 GMT
Yesterday I had my Awayday to Glasgow - 5am start, the 7:30 train from Euston and the 17:30 back, which alas left Glasgow about 30 minutes late, arrived at Milton Keynes 33 minutes late and then (because it had missed its timetable slot) was put on the slow tracks* so that it was behind a stopping train and finally reached Euston a whopping 63 minutes late!
*) My comments on this additional delay are in the 'incandescent with anger' category.
Anyway, I saw and travelled on the 1980s Metro Cammell trains (which looked a bit like a twin door leaf variant of the 1983ts) and the brand new Stadler trains, plus at the Riverside Museum I saw two generations of older Subway trains. This museum is about 15 minutes walk from Kelvinhall Subway station
Below are some tweets with photos
========================
To travel on the Subway I bought a ride-at-will day ticket. I discovered that this is an ITSO compliant smartcard. I put it in the same wallet as my London Oyster card as well as my other travel tickets for the Avanti train between London and Glasgow.
In Glasgow the ticket gate smart card readers ignored my Oyster card.
At Euston the ticket gate gave a 'card clash' error message.
I also tweeted about this ticket as now that I have proof positive that such is possible I'd much rather be able to buy similar for use in London - rather than use PAYG. Note that I did not see any facility for magnetic stripe tickets on the Subway
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 11, 2024 19:07:57 GMT
I missed the 1896 trains - was still a teenage schoolboy when they were withdrawn - but I do vaguely recall seeing something on the TV news about the Subway closing for rebuilding when it happened.
Anyway, I must be mad but for the week coming I'm booked on a 7:30 am red eye train from Euston to Glasgow and hope to see the preserved train in a museum as well as the new and 'soon retiring' fleets.
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 11, 2024 19:01:16 GMT
A short video where the trains can be seen and heard in action
Much went wrong when filming this - the train that came first was running early and I was looking in the opposite direction in anticipation of the other train. I had rainwater on my camera lens and some of the footage is somewhat unsteady. Also, the video editing software on my computer kept crashing when I was editing this footage
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 9, 2024 0:19:13 GMT
Its a branch line in as far as the Central line splits into two branches at Leytonstone - which are of equal importance
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 7, 2024 22:51:44 GMT
Photos published in Tweets
I checked Real Time Trains, the journey 230 008 was making was its last for the day. At Bidston it went 'ecs' to the depot. So arriving 7 minutes early was not a problem to the passengers, its just that I had not expected it and was caught unawares. apologies for the wet blob in the photo.
The first tweet has still images from video
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 7, 2024 22:46:59 GMT
Well I had totally forgotten about them!
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Post by spsmiler on Feb 7, 2024 22:41:40 GMT
Even thinking of rebuilding Barking Riverside station is absurd - the station is what, two years old? Surely it should have been built 'future proof', by which I mean with an extension over the Thames in mind.
Maybe it will be better to just extend the Hammersmith & City and leave the Overground station 'as-is'? (Also instead of extending the DLR, which also has lower capacity as well as less potential for a truly rapid-transit' fast service).
This would also make a more frequent service easier to arrange!
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