Great Western Coffee Shop

Seems to be some carnage on Virgin Trains West Coast route following overhead power line problems.  Passengers report being trapped on trains for nearly 5 hours with no information, refreshments or air con.

https://twitter.com/mjcole/status/495632665211854848
https://twitter.com/blackmbn/status/495607208215072768

Frankie Boyle seems to be caught up in the problems and is none to pleased judging by his tweet (it does contain offensive language)
https://twitter.com/frankieboyle/status/495599990476382210

What we can expect under wires I guess.

And we thought last Friday was bad...

Goes to show problems aren't specific to FGW if it can happen to the mighty Virgin Trains.

Whole industry needs to sit down and rethink how they deal with such situations more effectively..... and tear up that McNulty report!

Not necessarily because:

1) The overhead line equipment on the GW is to a new design that is supposed to be more robust that he equipment previously used;

2) The much maligned (even by me) IEPs have standby diesel engines that will be able to move the train at low speed even when the power has failed.

True, possibly far enough to get them into the next section unaffected.

Only priblem would be if wires were down on the line they were on, I guess, then they would still need for the obstruction to be cleared first

That is where the other bit comes in. The more robust OLE

And if a train does become stranded, then the diesel engines will be able to power the on-train trains systems, so air-con/lighting can still operate - possibly at a reduced level depending on how the systems are designed, but better than nothing.

As I have stated elsewhere on these forums, I have very considerable reservations about the new trains. About the only point in their favour, IMHO is the fitting of standby diesel engines to the nominally electric units.
Being able to move at much reduced speed when the wires come down, as they assuredly will, is a great advantage, as is the ability to run on board services in such circumstances.