The Picc on 20070303

[Deleted]

A thread elsewhere says that the reason why the Picc went up the spout on Saturday was due to a stalled train at South Ken that required a pushout. The thread states that the line was initially suspended between Hammersmith and King's Cross, but that the crossover at KX failed to normalise after it was used and thus locked up the whole site, necessitating a Code Amber.

1. Why couldn't trains be reversed at Down Street or HPC? The thread states that at one point the stalled train was to be detrained onto the track - does the current section feed Down Street siding and the crossovers into it?

2. The thread states that an AET went into IMR 'L' at KX and was able to take local control of the crossover to get things going again. Does this mean that the control links from Earl's Court were faulty, or does it mean that the crossover was faulty and would need the S&C to allow trains to operate?

[Oracle]

I read that thread as well!

[Deleted]

16.59 Picc Line suspended HPC - Hammersmith Westbound only due to faulty train at South Ken - Minor delays rest of line

17.15 Picc Line suspended both roads Cockfosters - Hammersmith due to faulty train at South Ken & signal failure at Kings Cross - Minor delays rest of line.

18.14 Picc Line suspended both roads Cockfosters - Hammersmith due to faulty train at South Ken & Signal failure at KX - severe delays to rest of line.

18.18 Picc Line suspended both HPC - Cockfosters due to faulty train at South Ken & signal failure at KX - Severe delays rest of line

18.35 Picc Line Severe Delays to all destinations due to an earlier faulty trainm at South Ken and an earlier signal failure at KX

19.46 Picc Line minor delays until C.O.T.

Down Street siding is fed Leicester Sq - HPC Westbound feed. The HPC cross over is fed from the Eastbound feed.

The last time I worked at a points failure, it was a stuck lever in the IMR. The T/O would remain on site if the fear of failure was likely to return.

[Tomcakes]

Why, then, did I get on an EB train which I was assured was going through to Cockfosters, at Hammersmith, at around 1745? Nobody mentioned anything at that point about as suspension, we were told that the problem was now fixed and the service was bound for CFS.

[Chris M]

I can't answer that question, but I do that around 23:30-24:00 services were advertised as running CFS - Heathrow, with a shuttle service running on the Rayners Lane branch. Certainly in the Holborn - Leicester Square area the trains were running at capacity with large queues of pax on platforms around this time.

[Deleted]

That timed information was taken from the history of the service status.

This is the official status of the service, although the reality may be different.

e.g. officially the service was initially suspended from Hammersmith to HPC, however this doesn't mean any trains actually turned at HPC.

Additionally staff may be working on 'local information' rather than this official account.

Something similar happened to me about 2 years back. We had an official suspension due to a points failure, but line controller phoned and told me that we're back on the move. Needless to say that the points failed again and the train load of punters who had been chucked off, then told they could get back on, where chucked off again. Not a good day.

[tubeprune]

What is interesting about the S Ken incident is that when the train got to Northfields, they couldn't find anything wrong with it. There was a reference to it being "off juice" at S Ken. Does anyone know what the problem was?

[Deleted]

I'm not entirely sure of the exact reason, but there is a problem with load shedding in the South Ken bends. From what I heard today the t/op tried to reset the batteries but couldn't get them to work, hence the need for a pushout. I know that if you are stopped at a signal in the bends and then try to go full parralel when the signal clears, you will lose your pilot light as the couplers "separate" slightly. I've not been a driver for too long (9 months now) but since I have I know of three trains that have stalled in this area, both east and west.

[Deleted]

it sounds like the aet/t.o removed the air feed to the interlocking machine (the frame) to manually get control this is what we do on nights frequently

depends on the failure but removing the air off the frame is rare during traffic hours and is usually done as a last resort he could of been 100's of things why he needed the air off but without knowing the precise details of the failure it would only be guessing