What's goin' on?

[Phil]

It's 1927

It's Ealing broadway

Trains everywhere, including a District to Southend.

BUT: there are Districts on BOTH of the outside lines (of 4) and both the trains in or approaching the platforms also appear to be Districts.

I had thought the District and Central had always been separate at this point, with separate lines and platforms...

Can someone enlighten me?

[Deleted]

All 4 tracks are District, the 2 on the left are sidings, (the sidings are still there, but now rarely used) the train on the left is in the siding, the one on the right probably with Q8 driving is heading eastbound.

[Phil]

So where's the Central: the lines to the left do not appear to have fourth rail!

[Deleted]

The Central line tracks are to the left of the train in the siding, if you look very closly you can just about make out the 4th rail near the cable run.

[Deleted]

There does seem to be unelectrified crossovers from the main line to the Central line though which I didn't know of before.

[q8]

jim said:

All 4 tracks are District, the 2 on the left are sidings, (the sidings are still there, but now rarely used) the train on the left is in the siding, the one on the right probably with Q8 driving is heading eastbound.

Not quite but I have been on one of those loco's. Secondly the central line in those days only had a centre postive rail with running rail return. There was a connection between both railways behind the left hand train. The eastbound train is in fact for Southend. It is LTSR rolling stock and the Loco's were changed for steam ones at Barking. It ran non-stop all the way from Ealing to Barking and crossed to the LTSR down line at Barking.

[Phil]

So, when DID the Central gain its fourth rail?

[q8]

rbruce1314 said:

So, when DID the Central gain its fourth rail?

1940

[q8]

jim said:

There does seem to be unelectrified crossovers from the main line to the Central line though which I didn't know of before.

Those xovers you see from main to central enabled GWR goods trains to access the yards near White City where the motorway is now. As an alternative to the access via Northolt

[Phil]

So, to wander off topic slightly, it took one weekend in 1940 to change the whole Central line, track and trains, to 4th rail.

But in 2005/6 it took SEVEN days just to add one car to each jubbly train - and even then a lot of them didn't work properly.

As stated by Q8 in another thread: is this really progress?

[setttt]

rbruce1314 said:

So, to wander off topic slightly, it took one weekend in 1940 to change the whole Central line, track and trains, to 4th rail.

Similarly, the GWR Broad-Standard guage conversion only took one weekend, didn't it...? But as you say, 7 days to add in an extra trailer? Progress my rear...

[q8]

Yes it is 'progress' but in reverse. During the war both sides in the conflict suffered terrific bomb damage to their railways with craters sometimes 90ft across and possibly 50ft deep. Yet by sheer manpower alone they had trains running again within 2 DAYS albeit at reduced speed. Plaistow. Moorgate, Sloane Square. and many more places. Direct hits or severly damaged. But they knuckled down and got on with it as a TEAM to repair things. Not like today where 'Tom does this., Dick does that and Harry does the other'

[Deleted]

rbruce1314 said:

So, to wander off topic slightly, it took one weekend in 1940 to change the whole Central line, track and trains, to 4th rail.

The changeover took a weekend, but I would suspect most of the work had already been done with track and train equipment isolated in place.

[Phil]

jim said:

rbruce1314 said:

So, to wander off topic slightly, it took one weekend in 1940 to change the whole Central line, track and trains, to 4th rail.

The changeover took a weekend, but I would suspect most of the work had already been done with track and train equipment isolated in place.

Track possibly, but you still have all the pickup connections to reverse on every train between end of traffic and its restart. That bit can't be done in advance (unless a reduced service a-la-jubbly was in place before)

[allchange]

Its nothing to do with the technology today, its fine, it COULD be done at the same speed. What the real problem is, is the people behind the machines. Working for more than 5 hours, pricking your thumb on a bush etc, are all things that make finishing a simple job, long winded, risks cannot be taken anymore. Companies have to make sure its a risk free job otherwise they may get sued into the ground and staff are too lazy to do what their paid for and use health and safety as a reason. Its nothing else, its PURE LAZINESS!

I would have loved to be the one taken that picture though! It looks so much more interesting compared today! VERY NICE! ;D

[Tomcakes]

Then a few thousand pages of paperwork on which set of contractors will do what, another hundred or so squabbling over which particular sub-sub-subcontractor it is who is responsible for x, and top-level security because terrorists don't want to know about them adding an extra current rail!

[Deleted]

setttt said:

rbruce1314 said:

So, to wander off topic slightly, it took one weekend in 1940 to change the whole Central line, track and trains, to 4th rail.

Similarly, the GWR Broad-Standard guage conversion only took one weekend, didn't it...? But as you say, 7 days to add in an extra trailer? Progress my rear...

It actually took 16 years system-wide! See this page: lionels.orpheusweb.co.uk/RailSteam/GWRBroadG/BGHist.html

[stanmorek]

I love it when these internet hardmen come on and say they can do better. ..I can assure you that working on the railway is still a hazardous and difficult environment to work in.

I can vouch for those Eastern Europeans though, now they're not afraid of a bit of hard work. Maybe we should employ more of them in future to bolster our numbers to 4200 for a weekend...