Great Western Coffee Shop

A SWR unit has derailed inside Fratton depot near Portsmouth trapping several GWR and SWR units.  Also affecting one of the lines past the depot.

Several cancellations and short-forms as a result.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/fratton.png)
(Image from Twitter)

I think that’s a repeat of a previous incident of points being moved under the train, I’m sure I remember a very similar picture a few years ago.

Paul

10th February 2015 - but cannot find any photos.

How does that actually happen? Is it a human error, switching the points too early, or a technical one with the automatic equipment?

I think (but am not sure) that it’s all manually controlled from a local shunters cabin, (even if power operated), rather than from the signalling centre at Havant.

From another forum it seems to have been an internal depot shunt move with the train heading into the depot through the wash road.  So the points probably moved under the 9th carriage of 10.

I think the left most through track of the four in the photo, between Fratton and Portsmouth & Southsea, is known as the “back road”, and becomes the “reception road” alongside the station, and as far as the online sectional appendix shows it’s not part of the main network.

Paul

Half an hour ago from the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-58127960)


Do SWR outstation some of their 158/159s at Fratton, or is the Salisbury to Reading change nothing to do with the derailment? 

I don't think so, certainly not the ones that were doing the evening Reading service yesterday.

SWR JourneCheck lists:

But there is no such train listed (e.g. on RTT) - no Saturday Reading/Salisbury service at the moment. And the information (which I can't see on SWR's own site) says they are still thinking about tomorrow, when there isn't a train at quite that time anyway. Strange.

I've just found SWR's announcement, which says:

I still don't think that's a change.

Five GWR units have been trapped inside the depot.

Which is why the trains that are based at Portsmouth haven't been out to play. Same change on both of these two.

I had guessed that the mention of Salisbury-Reading trains not running yesterday resulted from an early decision not to run them today (when there are some to cancel). After all, they only go to Reading to retain driver knowledge, so look like an easy first choice to cancel - especially if you can cancel them throughout. But that's neither what has happened, nor what was eventually (after 11 pm last night) announced for today.

Under the same general text, they say:

On Sundays, there is no service just for Salisbury-Basingstoke before 18:00, just long-distance services plus the hourly Salisbury-Reading trains (cut back to Basingstoke in the evenings). So some trains are lost where Exeter services are terminated at Basingstoke; I'm not sure if buses are running for those (but none are in RTT). The Salisbury-Reading trains are all running, at least so far! All of which is very odd.

I don’t think any SWR DMUs reach either Portsmouth station, or Fratton depot any more. It finally stopped a few timetables ago, when the last “South Hants local” workings, (other than Salisbury - Romsey), all became 450 operated.   

I was wrong about that evening service being cut back - after the last train leaves Reading at 17:12,  there are no more, just Waterloo services to, from, or via Salisbury. Except tonight! Today the (retimed) service continued until the last departure from Reading at 21:12! Those changes were entered as VAR, so must have been done before the last-minute Covid losses. But why? Not another event, was it?

There was a SW mainline engineering closure at Weybridge, so the Waterloo via Woking services were thinned out for diversions via Cobham/Surbiton and via the Byfleet Curve and Virginia Water.  That may have meant direct travel into Reading for Paddington was extended into the evening.