Fun Today wasn't it???

[Deleted]

Signal Failure Earls Court, severe delays occuring on the District Line, boomed the PA system at Kings X. So much for a trip to Wimbledon. I had to make do with Cockfosters and Walthamstow instead.

Also the Kenny Olympia service was suspended again today!

[Deleted]

I certainly picked the right week to do my block training! It's been one of those weeks!
Been a standing joke all week while I've been doing my 'office'-based training at Hammersmith every time we've been going outside for a cigarette, having a look at the 'white boards' to see what the state of the District line is!

We seem to have had a fair amount of failures this week so far!

[Deleted]

it was a seized silec treadle just before WB1/2 so when the olympia train went through the area the route was not beening cancelled thus not allowing nothing to west ken or from west ken and when the early turn t/o went to change it the new one from the REW did not work either so they just suspended the olympias

yesterday at cannon street was a sticky trainstop valve
monday at putney bridge was a trainstop valve for the policeman trainstop which just life expired
thankfully i just been getting stupid little jobs this week on lates ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Deleted]

REW = Railway Engineering Workshop
the place were the screw sorry fix equipment for rolling stock and signalling

[Chris M]

The DR appeared to be running better than the H&C yesterday morning.

Leytonstone -> Paddington. Departure approximately 09:45.
I got of a standing room only Central Line train at Mile End in the hope of getting a seat on a H&C train.

1st train was a DR train to Richmond with seats available, so I took this as far as Aldgate East.

Next train and Ald E was a DR to Wimbledon, following one was a DR to Richmond. then two DRs to Upminster arrived on the e/b. Then finally was a H&C to Hammersmith, with a D stock arriving on the e/b immediately before we departed.

On the tuesday early afternoon the Circle wasn't working well either - it shoudl not take 20 minutes to get from Paddington to Baker Street!

[Deleted]

And it all went really well today too! Major signal failure in the Whitechapel - Bow Road area. Service suspended Tower Hill - Bromley By Bow from about 8:30 to around 2:00 pm.

[Deleted]

adw said:

And it all went really well today too! Major signal failure in the Whitechapel - Bow Road area. Service suspended Tower Hill - Bromley By Bow from about 8:30 to around 2:00 pm.

We were sitting on our C stock on 27rd PG doing our refresher and we saw D stocks going past with 'special' numbers on the front... Then it seemed to be a C stock only service on the branch. I assume an emergency TT was introduced?

[Deleted]

At the East End sets 600 to 607 working Upminster - Bromley-by-Bow shuttles. Blinds set to "Special" or black or yellow blank. "Bromley" not featuring on the blinds - no refurbs on the service which, of course, can show "Bromley-by-Bow".

I had to twist the DMT's arm to allow me to run one, as I haven't reversed there before ... and i'm sad like that ;D ;D ;D Just managed it, last but one before extended to Whitechapel and then through running.

[Deleted]

this was due to the signal main deciding that enough was enough so it shut everything but it might have something to do with the earth they have had on it all week

[Deleted]

So what caused the signal failure at Whitechapel, which really made me mad ? Was it due to poor maintenance, no maintenance, inexperience, old equipment or what ? And it will happen again. Why ? The TFL web site was still showing severe problems after 4pm.

[Deleted]

the 600v signal main developed a fault with a cable around the mile end area which knocked out the breakers and whitechapel and bow road this then makes the signalling completely shut down. maintenance is done on them but due to the electricity at work act special conditions have to be put in place before any work is carried out on that type of equipment because of the voltage involved. and yes it can happen again it could happen anywhere on the system like anything failing if the equipment has had enough its had enough.

[Deleted]

Interesting. Are these sort of faults fixed by London Underground or do you have to call out a third party ? Unfairly, I will say that there always seems to be signal failures at Whitechapel, East Ham or Barking. Is the equipment that old and needs replacing ? Does the same piece/sort of equipment always go wrong ?

[Deleted]

Interesting - I'd always heard it said that sites like Whitechapel and Edgware Road almost NEVER fail, primarily because they were wired up in the "good old days" of the LTE, and therefore benefited from the differing working practices of the time (the wiring looms are supposedly works of art!).

[Deleted]

theonekea said:

Interesting - I'd always heard it said that sites like Whitechapel and Edgware Road almost NEVER fail, primarily because they were wired up in the "good old days" of the LTE, and therefore benefited from the differing working practices of the time (the wiring looms are supposedly works of art!).

The main difference between working practices in 'the good old days' and now is the time allowed to complete the job.

[Deleted]

the area between whitechapel and plaistow is life expired and will be the first section to be re-signalled

the east end is more reliable then the west end but i have found when it goes wrong it really goes wrong

the wiring looms around the network should be all roughly to the same standard as there wasnt that many circuit installers around and still isn't

[DWS]

bustergut said:

Interesting. Are these sort of faults fixed by London Underground or do you have to call out a third party ? Unfairly, I will say that there always seems to be signal failures at Whitechapel, East Ham or Barking. Is the equipment that old and needs replacing ? Does the same piece/sort of equipment always go wrong ?

All signal faults will be fixed by Metronet staff, not London Underground.

The equipment in the Whitechapel to Bow Road section is over 50 years old.

[Phil]

I am led to believe that the signalling itself is actually prewar, the 50s changes being comparatively minor.

[Deleted]

god knows when it was all installed i know the newest section on the district is around the high st ken area (re-signalled around 1991 ) and the oldest is whitechapel - plaistow which is the only area never to be resignalled apart from a few mods over the years

there is rumours afloat that LUL wants back the shift signalling staff as they are not happy with level of cover how true is this who knows