Partial suspension today

[Deleted]

The one day I go to get the Met and it's suspended Baker Street to Aldgate 'cause of a faulty train at Barbican. Why such a large suspension for a faulty train? And it stopped the Circle and H&C for quite a bit too, think the H&C was suspended from Edgware Road to Barking.

Guess it was the only way to try and get some sort of service running?

[harlesden]

It is important to suspend the Baker Street-Aldgate section in such a situation to avoid disuption to the main Met service Baker Street-Amersham/Uxbridge/Watford.
There are alternative routes from Baker Street to City (Bakerloo to Oxo then Central Line to Bank and Liverpool Street) or Jubilee to London Bridge and then bus.

[21146]

It should have been possible to reverse E-to-W at Kings Cross but the points failed. A C Stock was detrained via Kings Cross Disused station, an A Stock onto 'closed' Baker Street platform 3. Elsewhere, passengers smashed windows on a stalled A Stock in order to get some air.

[Deleted]

Jul 9, 2010 20:46:09 GMT @cj said:

Why such a large suspension for a faulty train?

I believe the train had a train line burst, which is rather a major defect and would indeed result in a suspension. From what I can gather, this happened between stations, which makes it ten times more difficult to deal with compared to being in a platform. I'm also led to believe the train was stuck for 2 hours, with 4 other trains stuck between stations, coupled with todays very hot temperatures would not have made this a good place to be today. I'm sure someone who was on duty this afternoon, or indeed stuck on a train, will enlighten us more, but not a good afternoon for the Met/H&C.

[Deleted]

Jul 9, 2010 21:25:40 GMT @21146 said:

It should have been possible to reverse E-to-W at Kings Cross but the points failed. A C Stock was detrained via Kings Cross Disused station, an A Stock onto 'closed' Baker Street platform 3. Elsewhere, passengers smashed windows on a stalled A Stock in order to get some air.

I think we also have a set of points out of commission at Farringdon

[metman]

Was it an A or C stock that failed?

Which train had it's windows smashed!!

[21146]

Jul 9, 2010 23:08:16 GMT metman said:

Was it an A or C stock that failed?

Which train had it's windows smashed!!

C failed. A Smashed.

[metman]

Thanks, I guess I would be too much to ask which units!

The video was interesting, but I can't see that 5030 had got up to 70mph!

Not a great day for the SSL. A burst train line would be an air failure? Resulting in loss of the Westinghouse brake among other things?

[Deleted]

I see. I assume the train line is fed from the main line then?

[Phil]

Jul 10, 2010 6:54:42 GMT @cj said:

I see. I assume the train line is fed from the main line then?

Yes - in other words the fail-safe failed safe, so the train was immobilised.

[Deleted]

Jul 10, 2010 9:01:53 GMT Phil said:

Jul 10, 2010 6:54:42 GMT @cj said:

I see. I assume the train line is fed from the main line then?

Yes - in other words the fail-safe failed safe, so the train was immobilised.

Can you say that 20 times? ;D

Surely it is pretty difficult to get a line burst?

[Colin]

Of course, which is why it rarely happens and is a pain in the rear when it does go.

[citysig]

Jul 9, 2010 21:27:14 GMT @linecontroller66 said:

I'm sure someone who was on duty this afternoon, or indeed stuck on a train, will enlighten us more, but not a good afternoon for the Met/H&C.

Well, not quite the afternoon, but I certainly had to come in and sort out the evening/late evening service as it was still all more or less in tatters.

Eastbound Barking service became stalled just on the approach to Moorgate eastbound (the tail end of the train was just over the pointwork for the bay roads - train length or so further on and the bay roads would have been a useful get-out).

Despite best efforts, by late evening the Met was actually running with more delays than the H&C - simply because it is a larger line, and unfortunately the majority of trains stuck within the original shutdown were Met trains.

The actual shutdown itself lasted just over an hour, so some A-stocks spent over this time south of Baker Street - putting them very much off-path for the remainder of the day. And before anyone suggests that "Surely if they were 2 hours late, they were close to their next trips" please also consider that the train operators were stuck with their trains as well.

To compound things, around 40 minutes into the shutdown, at Hammersmith a train stalled entering depot from platform 1 - effectively putting Hammersmith out of action for well over half an hour. So H&Cs turning back from the original Moorgate shutdown towards depot then became stuck along the Hammersmith branch.

The crossover at Farringdon is indeed out of commission at present, and the one at Kings Cross did us the favour of also failing during the shutdown - but worked once things got moving. The sun may have been shining, but Lady Luck wasn't today. Hottest day of the year, and the one thing we try to avoid at all costs in this weather is people stuck on trains anywhere that's not a platform.

[Deleted]

Jul 9, 2010 21:25:40 GMT @21146 said:

It should have been possible to reverse E-to-W at Kings Cross but the points failed. A C Stock was detrained via Kings Cross Disused station, an A Stock onto 'closed' Baker Street platform 3. Elsewhere, passengers smashed windows on a stalled A Stock in order to get some air.

Has window smashing on the A Stock happened before? Don't blame them, but must have been an extreme situation!