Great Western Coffee Shop

What signalling centre oversees the Reading to Basingstoke Line? Is it Basingstoke signalling centre? Is it Thames Valley signalling centre? Do Swindon control oversee this line or do they only oversee lines on the GWML?

Basingstoke panel controls to just short of southcote junction, Thames valley from there on, dont know who 'owns' the line wether Swindon or SWR control.

https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/berksandhants#LINK_3

https://photos.signalling.org/picture?/280/category/33-signal_box_2013

Thank you

And on the Thames Valley side, albeit 2015:
https://photos.signalling.org/picture?/13347/category/1297-2015_september_post_stage_q

Dave

Are all the Thames Valley Branch lines monitered by Swindon Control or just TVSC?

There is a differential there, I think. 

The Swindon Control Centre is run by the train operating company "Great Western Railway" - still a marketing name for First Great Western Ltd, and it looks after all the trains the company operates, but not all the trains on the lines. In places, they're the only operator or just about so - just the occasional works train.  The lines they use include most of the branches in the Thames Valley.

The Thames Valley Signalling Centre is run by Network Rail. It looks after all trains within its signalling area. It includes lines in the area which have no GWR services - I suspect they go up to Bicester from Oxford, for example, and also freight lines.

Another arm of Network Rail - based around its regions - looks after maintenance and enhancement.  The Western Area looks after the main lines out from Paddington and the Wessex Area looks after the main lines from Waterloo.   Each includes offshoots and branches, and in places they interface.  I know that Western and Wessex meet just south of Warminster on the Westbury to Salisbury line, but definitive detailed maps seem absent from the resources I know about.  Evidence would lead me to guess that the boundary on the Reading to Basignstoke line is just south of Southcote Junction.

Let's add another complication ...  "Route Utilisation Strategies" are a look at what's needed right along a route, and on lines such as Reading to Basingstoke decisions have to be made as to who studies the whole line.  And in this case, Western has been chosen.

The “route boundary” on this line was moved slightly in 2019, by less than half a mile to the south, I think it was to make sure the 25 kV OHLE over-run down the Basingstoke line was entirely within the Western area of responsibility.

AIUI the Signalling boundaries can sometimes be different in either direction, and don’t necessarily align exactly with the track boundary.

Paul

Just to add to this point, the control centre in Swindon is in a Network Rail building and is an integrated control centre for both Network Rail and GWR.

Multiple controls one of the joys of privatisation.

Whose the Fat Controller.