Great Western Coffee Shop

A massive increase in flexibility signalling wise, and when (if) Phase 2 is completed there will be further improvements including a new Platform 5 and bi-directional signalling as far as Tackley.

Just to let everybody know that another ex-WR panel signalbox closes early Saturday morning 07 July 2018. 

Won't shed too much of a tear. 'Twas pretty dire 1978-81 and only a cosmetic overhaul since then [that subway!] - prior to Chiltern's arrival.

In January 1935, the Southern Railway announced that £500,000 would be spent on improving and re-signalling the lines into Waterloo. The layout of the four lines from Hampton Court Junction was up, up, down, down as far as Waterloo "C" box, whence three up and two down lines continued to the terminus (this excludes the Windsor lines). Although it was the practice to divert an incoming train at "C" box to a route into the terminus which would cause the least interference with other up and down lines, the layout had become liable to cause delay, and with the steadily increasing traffic reorganisation had become necessary.

It was decided to construct a flyover at Durnsford Road, Wimbledon, the only suitable site, to carry the up local over the up and down through lines. Thence to Waterloo the four lines would be re-arranged to form up and down through and up and down local lines, with an additional up main through relief from Vauxhall to the terminus. Colour light signalling would be installed, with a power-operated cabin at Waterloo.
The flyover was constructed of steel girders, cased in concrete, and mounted on concrete columns. It was 2,174ft long, rising at 1 in 60 at the Wimbledon end, crossing the through lines on the skew and then falling at i in 45. Work on it commenced in September 1935.
The change to colour light signalling at Waterloo was made on Sunday, October 18th (1936). The new signalbox, on the up side, built mainly of concrete, contained 309 electrically-interlocked levers in three frames for main local, main through and Windsor lines respectively.

The changeover was made smoothly; the 12.35am to Hampton Court was signalled out by semaphores and the 1.30am to Salisbury by colour lights.

In January, 1935, the Southern Railway announced that £500,000 would be spent on improving and re-signalling the lines into Waterloo. The layout of the four lines from Hampton Court Junction was up, up, down, down, as far as Waterloo "C" box, whence three up and two down lines continued to the terminus (this excludes the Windsor lines). Although it was the practice to divert an incoming train at "C" box to a route into the terminus which would cause the least interference with other up and down lines, the layout had become liable to cause delay, and with steadily increasing traffic reorganisation had become necessary. Signals and points were worked manually, with Sykes lock-and-block control, except that at West London Junction and Clapham Junction signals and points were operated on the low-pressure pneumatic system, with track circuiting. The celebrated "A" box, which spanned the lines outside Waterloo, contained 266 levers and dated from 1892.

It was decided to construct a flyover viaduct at Durnsford Road, Wimbledon, the only suitable site, to carry the up local over the up and down through lines. Thence to Waterloo the four lines would be re-arranged to form up and down through and up and down local lines, with an additional up main through relief from Vauxhall to the terminus. Colour-light signalling would be installed, with a power-operated cabin at Waterloo.

The flyover was constructed of steel girders, cased in concrete, and mounted on concrete columns. It was 2,174 ft. long, rising at 1 in 60 from the Wimbledon end, crossing the through lines on the skew and then falling at 1 in 45. Work on it commenced in September, 1935.

There was no platform at Vauxhall on the down main through and as this line would become the up main local reconstruction was necessary. The existing down main local platform was therefore closed on November 3, 1935, and demolished. The down main local was then slewed over and a new island platform built on the space thus made available; the latter was brought into use on March 9, 1936.

Meanwhile re-signalling had been going ahead, and a girder of 132 ft. span to carry the up inner home signals was erected outside Waterloo on the night of October 20, 1935. The new colour-light signals were three-aspect as far as Loco Junction (Nine Elms), where freight workings commenced, and then four-aspect to Hampton Court Junction on the main line, and to Clapham Junction on the Windsor lines. Many of them were mounted on lattice brackets.

Several innovations were introduced on this re-signalling scheme. All colour-light signals had small side aspects, for the benefit of drivers whose trains had drawn up close to the signals, and were promptly dubbed" pig's ears" by the drivers. At junctions the practice of providing a colour-light signal for each route was abandoned in favour of position-light junction indicators. Ground signals consisted of a white disc with red bar, floodlit at night.

Permanent way alterations between Vauxhall and Waterloo were carried out in stages at week-ends, but platforms 1 to 3 at the terminus were closed for relaying the approaches from May 8, 1936, and from 6 p.m. on the 15th platforms 4 to 6 were taken out of use for the same purpose. The new track layout was assembled and tested on spare land at Mitcham before being laid in at Waterloo. On Sunday, May 17, 1936, the lines from Waterloo to Surbiton were closed from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., so that the flyover, re-arranged lines, and most of the new signalling could be brought into service.

The new signalling extended from Waterloo "B" box to Clapham Junction on the Windsor lines and to Malden on the main line. The change-over at Waterloo was wisely deferred until the summer train service was over, although the manual signalling had to be extensively altered.

As the station at Surbiton was being rebuilt, colour-light signals from Malden to Hampton Court Junction were not brought into use until June 28. Two new signalboxes were provided on this section; Surbiton (52 levers) and Hampton Court Junction (45 levers). The new box at Surbiton was the first of the" glasshouse" type, used in many later installations.
On weekdays from July 5, 1936, the suburban services were re-arranged so that trains from Waterloo to Dorking North and Effingham Junction were fast to Wimbledon, then calling at Motspur Park and all stations. From 5.7 to 7.7 p.m. they were fast to Motspur Park. A new service was put on from Waterloo to Motspur Park, calling at all stations and running every 20 minutes from 6.16 a.m. to 10.56 p.m.

The change to colour-light signalling at Waterloo was made on Sunday, October 18. The new signalbox, on the up side, built mainly of concrete, contained 309 electrically-interlocked levers in three frames for main local, main through, and Windsor lines respectively. The four track diagrams were of a new type, the tracks being shown as white lines on a black ground and the presence of a train indicated by two red lights. Route indicators of the theatre type were liberally provided, and on each platform a starting signal repeater showed" ON" or" OFF". Loudspeaker communication was provided to the down sidings. The changeover was made smoothly; the 12.35 a.m. to Hampton Court was signalled out by semaphores and the 1.30 a.m. to Salisbury by colour-lights.

Sorry, I don't know whether it has been selectively quoted or not.

Nevertheless, there is a startling difference between the length of time it took to do things then and now. The SR's Board made the decision in January 1935 the resignalling took place 21 months later.

And the biggest pain in the !!!! to engineers today is the whole tendering and contractual process that is in place now that would have been much simpler and quicker in the 1930's

Yes - the public sector seems to spend half their budget on ensuring that they get good value for money...

Well then, back to the topic title ::)   Stage 1 seems to have been successfully commissioned this morning (09 July 2018).

The train crew have a 78 page briefing document which fully describes the new signalling.  Then its down to actual familiarisation on site once its commissioned.

As I understand it, the reversible signalling is not commissioned until Stage 3.

Stage 2 commissioned to plan today (16 July 2018).  Trains running to/from London Paddington to Oxford and Cross Country to/from South only, using Platform No.4 at Oxford.  All other services still bus substitution.

I believe that the trains are using the new reversible signalling between Oxford's platform and Hinksey South Junction, but otherwise the full commissioning of all routes will be after next weekend.

I commented earlier that I didn't understand why the Paddington to Oxford services couldn't stop at Didcot Parkway and I am even more confused now because it appears that there are 3 services each way that do stop at Didcot that is the 0527, 0616 and 0709 from Didcot and the 0540, 0631, 0724 from Oxford.
 
So does anyone know why they are making us catch us a bus when it seems to be perfectly possible to run a train service?

Oxford area now on Open Train Times map, thers a LOT more capacity there!

https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/oxford#T_OXFD

It's interesting to watch OpenTrainTimes and see the new moves they can do now, eg parallel moves into P2 and P3, and quite a few down trains using the new Down Relief(?) from P4 to signal 2413 and undertaking Down Freights which can now run right up to signal 2415. 

It’s quite feasible that almost all down through passenger services will use that line.  If the points at the north end of the loop allow a reasonable speed it could be a faster route. 

I also noticed a Chiltern train towards Bicester leave the station via the crossovers onto the down through line.  It seemed to wait for a while before crossing back over at Oxford North Junction towards Oxford Parkway.  If necessary it could have been undertaken by a train using the outer line.

The Up and Down Relief Line points at Wolvercot Junction are both 90mph turnouts.

It looks like up trains from Hanborough could use the DM from Wolvercote Junction and go into P4, and thus allow a parallel move with up trains from Tackley into P3. Is this in fact true? 

Yes they can do that if they wish - and nothing is coming the other way!  Pretty much every line between Wolvercote Junction and Didcot North Junction is now bi-directional.  The only exceptions I can think of are the Up Oxford Relief and Down Oxford Relief between Oxford North Junction and Wolvercote and the Down Oxford between Appleford and Didcot North Junction.

Just noticed in BobMs photographs that those new signals have had their number etc. plates mounted outside the electrification protection cages, so will either have to be moved or an electrical isolation would be required to clean them..... ::)

That turnout stays as is for the Phase 2 layout at 25mph together with the 30mph entry and through speed for Platform No.4, suitable for terminating trains.  When the new Platform No.5 loop is added in Phase 2, that will have an entry, exit and through speed of 50mph, so would be the preference for through trains.