Great Western Coffee Shop

I know some of you smart people out there can download train running logs.

Well this morning the down 23.45 (19/07/2010)  Pad to Penzance sleeper arrived Penzance (20/07/2010) about 10 minutes late, however it travelled over some very rare track, mainly Oxford Road Junc to Reading West Junc, (the Reading avoiding line) at one time this train was about 135 minutes late.

Seemed there was a bit of a problem as the train was due to go via Didcot but was sent to Westbury where due to Line Occupation by Engineers it was stuck, engine run round and back to Reading.

So for any one who travelled on this train and put the reserval on route down to going via Yeovil, Sorry you didn't. ;D ;D ;D

erm both oxford road and reading west station are erm west of reading station so how the hell do you get to them other than going through reading

unless oxford road junction is named for other reasons

Oxford Junction is the junction immediately North of Reading West, and Reading West Junction is about a mile west of Reading station. They are linked by a chord which forms the western side of a triangle, The north side is the mainline from Reading to Didcot. The east side is the line from Reading to Reading West. The west side is principally used by freights from Southampton, Basingstoke and Reading West to Didcot and destinations North, and vice versa. There are no scheduled passenger services over this section of track. It is sometimes used for reversing HSTs (if there is fault in the leading cab, for example), and occasionally for diversions (Cross Country sometimes run directly from Oxford to Basingstoke, not calling at Reading, during engineering work).

It sounds as though the sleeper came back up the B&H, thru Reading West, round the west side of the triangle, and straight on to Didcot and Bristol, then picking up its route at Exeter, thus avoiding Reading station.

I am not surprised that it is was able to make up so much time. It is timed so that it can run via any route (B&H, Yeovil, Bath, Bristol Parkway, Bristol TM etc.) and still be be on time. Its not unusual to see the up sleeper arrive an hour early into Reading (where it waits for its scheduled departure time, early departures not being allowed, even for set down only calls!).

So everything is west of reading so how can a pad to pnz avoid reading to get there

Doh! context

Its not paddington departures that use the reading avoiding - must learn comprehension

...and unlearn mindless (subconscious...?) use of the "quote" button ;)

Paddington - Northolt - Haddenham - Banbury (reverse) - Didcot avoiding curve - Melksham - Westbury - regular route ...

But surely that's the whole point of set down only calls during evenings/nighttime! Oh dear, why is there no common sense on the railways!

What would sending the sleepers out of Reading early achieve? The first Paddington - Bristol departs from platform 1, and the sleeper often has to wait for this platform to become available before it can arrive into Paddington - often 10 minutes early. People don't want to be arriving in London at 0500.

Especially those sleeping with an alarm set for 4am who were intending to get off at Reading and instead awake to see the delights of the gas tower at Southall!

If the beds arrive early enough at Reading, you can hope off and get a Turbo into PAD arriving earlier than the beds