I should know by now not to post something quickly just before dashing out to have lunch ...

What else you can see in the aerial photo is the big shed - GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Temple MillsMeads Goods stationDepot - north of the passenger one. And if you know where to look, you can see the MR^▸ (Midland Railway) equivalent at St Philip's, where there was also a very small passenger station.


Going back to the current vestigial siding on part of the MR line and connected to Filton Bank (ex GWR), there is no sign of such a connection in any of the OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) maps up to the 30s. Once the MR tracks turned off north before Bristol east Junction, they were hermetically separate from GWR's ones all the way out of town. There were GWR sidings beside Lawrence Hill station, but the surveyors never saw any connection. Of course there could have been one made at any time during or after the war, if not when the MR lines were closed.

There was, however, an earlier link via a chord off the north of the MR line down to Filton Bank northwards. That was taken up around 1900 - funny thing, inter-railway relations.

I could have called this thread "mix Ouibus with BlaBlaCar and you get ...", but that's only today's news. SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) is selling its Ouibus operation to BlaBlaCar, and buying into the business (just a small minority stake). Ouibus is France's second-biggest long-distance coach line, after Flixbus, and its 30% share is big enough to lose SNCF lots of money. Obviously they don't think it will ever stop losing money under their ownership, so they have had a rethink of the issue.

These bus routes were restricted to not compete with trains, until new rules were introduced by a young industry minister called Macron (whatever happened to him?). SNCF felt threatened and felt they had to try to keep the business their trains lost, but it's a low-margin business that has already killed off Megabus France, and now SNCF too.

During the rail strikes SNCF started to collaborate with BlaBlaCar as a way of offering substitutes to get people to work, and that has led to ideas of further cooperation. SNCF are now talking about through bookings for train + bus + car share - and "BlaBlacar are not the enemy any more, our common enemy is the private car". That looks to have more relevance here than the sale, hence the title.

Isn't that the point? How would a deficiency be discovered, or even a total failure? I guess that for oral announcements (not "manual" - that would mean using your hand, like by pressing a button, wouldn't it?) whoever is doing it will hear something from the nearest speaker, so know if it really doesn't work at all. Otherwise it's down to passenger (or other crew) feedback, for which they have to know there was something to hear.

Is any testing part of routine maintenance? And does that measure sound levels? I suspect being too quiet in one carriage may well be missed, even if testing is done.

I think strictly that should have been either Wroxham (the name on the other end of the signal box, and of the Bure Valley Railway station) or Hoveton (the nearest part of the town of Wroxham is the village of Hoveton that it has now engulfed) but not both. Hoveton & Wroxham is the name of the GA^▸ (Greater Anglia) station, but the signal box now belongs to its own trust, not to Network Rail nor to the Bure Valley Railway. It has also been moved, by a few feet, as it obstructed the sighting of one of the new signals that replace its own ones. Surely there must be a simpler way of solving that problem, with some kind of extra signal ...

33: Hoveton (& Wroxham)

Presumably that list is only of closures for repair. "Ordinary" interruptions of train services due to too much sea (in the wrong place) must have frequent throughout, though perhaps without today's formal announcement in advance, and more of a try it and see if the fire gets put out attitude.

There's pictures of that around - like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96859208@N07/9501943965/

But I just relied on that banner to find it.

8. Blackpool North

And where is there a major road along a sea wall? Near to Dawlish there's the A379 Slapton Line, but that does get closed by storms, and needed major repairs this year after storm Emma. And it's not exactly a trunk route.

Looking along this coast I could find nothing mainer that B-roads, but for example Shore Road (Swanage), Preston Road (Weymouth), and Portland Beach Road all do get closed when storms are expected (and none of them goes anywhere much - expect Swanage, Weymouth, or Portland.)

So it's not whether it's a road, it's location, location, location...

I hadn't noticed that the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) announcement is only for today, while the more severe (yellow) weather is tomorrow. Today the forecast is for less wind (over 29 mph) from a similar direction, but staying later this evening. As high tide is also much the same, the end time of 20:30 still looks odd, but so does the fact that it is today not tomorrow!

The timing of that looks odd - no start given but disruption until 20:30. The Met Office yellow warning for wind and rain for the South West, which was issued for late tonight until the middle of tomorrow, is now timed for "Between 13:00 Fri 9th and 23:59 Fri 9th". The wind is forecast to peak above 38 mph from the south at about 17:00 and high tide is at 19:12.

I think they know their own weight, and would never try to perch on a wire - they need a larger diameter to grip or else they would swing round and dangle underneath! Big outdoor substations with substantial linking bars might pose a risk, but I've never heard that is the case.

Wasn't the inspection specifically about running GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains on what was up to now "heritage" track? I remember previous discussions about what that would imply, though maybe not on this thread. In this case it must depend on what ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) were asked for, as well as their interpretation of the rules.

The IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) specification didn't call up any standards, in fact it didn't say whether the train should provide mains or USB outlets. I assume we are only talking about mains and you own charger here; some posts certainly are, but are USB sockets even provided? 

USB itself was designed for data and control, and repurposed for recharging phones etc., both as an interface on the phone and a charger itself and its outlet. That has now been standardised, though using the principle that if one standard is good then a lot of them must be better. But I'm sure in reality they are pretty similar - EN IEC 62684:2018 seems to be current. But (without its full text) I  think it only covers volts and amps, not interference which is probably regarded as unimportant for charging. Working while plugged in is another issue altogether.

I suspect, like broadgage, it's about earthing. If the mains supply (live and neutral together) has a significant voltage at the train's inverter frequencies, which I understand are around 1 kHz, or their harmonics, that could well interfere with a touch screen. I don't know which principles they use these days; some types do use such voltages in the touch sensing itself, but even those that don't may have them just inside and not provide much screening.

In addressing the issue, the first problem is that you are GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s customer, but GWR and DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) together are Hitachi's customer, so you have no direct contract with the design authority. Then, do they offer the service you are using, or only a charging facility? If there is no standard, or it's not a formal requirement, then what does someone (we don't know who) test the sockets against?

There ought to be solutions that can filter out the suggested kind of common-mode interference, but they all require filters that are properly earthed. A charger could use the mains earth for this, but I don't think they ever do. You can get filters to put in the USB lead, but they aren't yet (AFAICS^▸ (As Far As I Can See)) standard consumer items, and in any case are unlikely to address common mode interference or such low frequencies. But has anyone else come across workable solutions, using filters or otherwise?