Ladbroke Grove control room

[Deleted]

Why does Ladbroke Grove station have a control room with its own Station Control Room Assistant throughout the traffic day?

I'm not aware of other non-Subsurface stations with a proper control room with a SCRA like this (others just have a S/S office).

Is there something special about this location that warrants it having a SCRA, like do they control/make announcements at other stations too?

[crusty54]

I think the announcements may be the factor here. You can frequently hear announcements at Paddington that tell you the times for the next train that will call at x station in 2 minutes and y station in 3 minutes etc etc

[pitdiver]

Does this not go back to the days of "Action Stations" when each group would have a Group control room like Ladbroke Grove. If I remember Ladbroke Grove was the only one that was ever completed before AS was binned. Others will no doubt put me in my place and beat me about the head with a SCD.

[Deleted]

ladbroke grove was supposed to be the first of many of this type of control room but it was the only one built- i'm not certain if it was chosen because of its usefulness for the carnival or because of the large amount of anti social behaviour thst used to plague the branch

[Deleted]

The control room manages PA as well as CCTV & help points along the branch. All branch stations are also on their channel.

Edgware Road - same group - also has a SCRA and isn't section 12.

[l1group]

Jan 24, 2013 20:19:20 GMT crusty54 said:

You can frequently hear announcements at Paddington that tell you the times for the next train that will call at x station in 2 minutes and y station in 3 minutes etc etc

These seem to be automated, as I've seen from listening to it too many times waiting for a friend of mine at Wood Lane many times. I've always wondered, however, that it tells you about when the train arrives at Wood Lane, as well as Latimer Road etc. Would it be more expensive to send separate announcements to each station?

Just asking in any case, do any other lines/branches have this in any way?

[railtechnician]

Ladbroke Grove was a one off Group operations room trial installed by one of my former colleagues. I believe LBG was chosen because of (a) the annual carnival (b) the anti-social behaviour in the area (c) the six station group was relatively easy to cable and install equipment at.

This was just one initiative to combat anti-social behaviour, on the south end of the Northern line the approach was different, the installation of Focal Points.

Thinking of help points, they were trialled originally at Oxford Circus station, local intercom to the station ops room, auto zooming cameras and red emergency handles and also at sites on the east end of the Central line prior to the adoption of the now familiar white 'pill box' units.

Action stations was something completely different, I did the survey work at 25 of the original 80 stations Action Stations project. This involved turning station booking offices into station ops rooms with PA + CCTV facilities.

[pitdiver]

Jan 25, 2013 4:58:48 GMT railtechnician said:

Ladbroke Grove was a one off Group operations room trial installed by one of my former colleagues. I believe LBG was chosen because of (a) the annual carnival (b) the anti-social behaviour in the area (c) the six station group was relatively easy to cable and install equipment at.

This was just one initiative to combat anti-social behaviour, on the south end of the Northern line the approach was different, the installation of Focal Points.

Thinking of help points, they were trialled originally at Oxford




Circus station, local intercom to the station ops room, auto zooming cameras and red emergency handles and also at sites on the east end of the Central line prior to the adoption of the now familiar white 'pill box' units.

Action stations was something completely different, I did the survey work at 25 of the original 80 stations Action Stations project. This involved turning station booking offices into station ops rooms with PA + CCTV facilities.

Thanks I stand corrected. When I was on the north end of the Met all the work was done re Action Stations. I booking offices were as you say converted into ops rooms. Still had to lamp out the last trains though. Bit of a shock to the system coming out of a nice warm B/O at 0040 to see the last train out.

[Deleted]

The Group Security Control Room announces when a train is departing. They used to do then manually and say how many minutes at each station. They've probably got this recorded now so just press a button!

[Deleted]

Thanks for the replies all, was really interesting.

I've just moved onto the branch and hear the "Ladies and gentlemen, Eastbound customer information. The next Eastbound train has just departed Shepherds Bush Market, it will be at Wood Lane in 1 minute, Latimer Road in 2 minutes and Ladbroke Grove in 4 minutes. The next Eastbound train has just departed Shepherds Bush Market" announcement and wondered who did it. It's always the same voice but can be quite intermittent

Does that mean that other stations on the branch don't have their own CCTV/Help points? I know they all have rostered staff 24/7, and the S/S at Wood Lane always seems to be working hard looking at something on their array of screens!

[DWS]

My Local station Hornchurch has no station control room or passenger help points, no lifts only steps to the platforms.

The facts are there are lots of stations that need to be upgraded.

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2013 7:19:27 GMT DWS said:

My Local station Hornchurch has no station control room or passenger help points, no lifts only steps to the platforms.

The facts are there are lots of stations that need to be upgraded.

I think you need to travel on mainline railways more

My nearest station used to be LUL, and I didn't realise how good they are until I moved. Now my nearest station is a TOC station, I'm in the world of no staff after 7pm or before 6am, stations left open all the time (even over Christmas Day/Boxing Day), CCTV has only just been upgraded to save more than 1 frame every 4 seconds and be viewable remotely, huge areas with no cameras. And there are even some stations with no cameras whatsoever!