Newhaven Marine.  According to Wiki, its single platform is numbered '3'.

This is a rather shrewd move.  Simply make it the third platform of nearly adjacent Newhaven Harbour and then at sometime in the future rationalise the platforms of the Harbour station.  Voila!! No station closure procedure required. Cynical - Moi? 

That would explain the size of the bang. They don't need to be asked twice to complete the mission!

I suspect the amount of explosive used was considerably more than would have been had they been able to safely set the charges by hand rather than using remote control.  I am seven miles (as the crow flies) from Didcot, but the seismic wave woke me up just after six o'clock - thinking it was an earth tremor - and then I heard the bang about 30 seconds after the event. Speed of sound in rock is about ten times that in air.

Common to many European countries the line is reported (BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)) to be Telephone Block which relies on operators reaching a complete understanding.  As this is subject to human frailty, it is destined to fail. Hence our various physical token systems which are harder to defeat. They are not though undefeatable as in the case of Abermule.

There is nothing in Group Standards that I can see but GI//RT7033 on page 119 states that the sign should be at driver's eye level.  I wonder if a new eyesight level has been assessed (or just a scheduled renewal) and new signage has been added before the old signage is removed so that there can never be a gap in cover. One wouldn't want to be responsible for the lack of a warning at a crossing. Just a thought ...

It appears that the Greenford service has been prematurely recast and has been for a few days now:


These changes are now dominating the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journey Check.

I appreciate that this is a result of the derailment and OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) stanchion collision at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) but I can't quite work out the direct connection.  I don't see the capacity constraints now at PAD. Any clues please from those within?

I forgot to mention on Friday that I saw a Greenford service in the new (and what I thought was the still unfinished) bay - Platform 5 - at West Ealing.  Was this use planned or was it brought forward because of the derailment? RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) shows it in use today.

In a photograph taken from the overbridge that was linked to in the Infrastructure thread, there is a 25mph speed sign for the link line in the opposite direction to which the train ran. There is also quite a distance between the exit signals for the two sidings SN6006/8 and the link line exit signal SN6004 after which the derailment occurred.

Edit: Looking at the Sectional Appendix (maps GW103-001/2) the line speed on the link line and the two sidings is 25mph.  Hard to tell from the SA but the link line could be 20 chains long, i.e. a quarter mile.

Have just seen the mess this morning coming in on 1A02. I have to admit, I have never seen so much train off so much track and the damage to the overhead is considerable with the OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) brought down dangerously* close to the track. (* dangerous when live that was).
Opentime trains for Paddington still shows 3H52 (ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) for 1813 Henley train) at signal SN6004 and the whole of the old departure side of the station (platforms 1 - 5) closed. Looks like it will take a concerted effort over the weekend to clear that lot up. Hope the driver is OK - the cab was all sheeted over this morning.

I noticed that all local services are maximum 3 car today to make maximum use of the high numbered platforms, particularly p. 13 and many early down services west of Reading were cancelled.  Ironically, my arrival today was one of the earliest in the whole week.

According to the WR Sectional Appendix (p. 148 of Mod. WR2; document page 320), the photograph is of 'Chester Line Junction' but the route is now called the Up and Down Oxford.

When I looked yesterday, platform 13 was a lot shorter - a lot shorter!

It looks like the link-up with platform 12 to make one long one for the new IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) is about to come to fruition.

I see that someone from GW^▸ (Great Western) Towers must have read my post! The details I gave when I posted above were correct at the time according to the timetable and Realtimetrains fed from TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS).

Go on leave for a week and I see that 1P08 is now First and Standard class HST^▸ (High Speed Train) with reservations available on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website). JohnR from Maidenhead will be pleased!

On line timetable amended too, but doesn't mention reservations: Hidden service for those in the know? Cholsey passengers will need to move down the bus now. 

At the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway we are host to Linda the Lymington Flyer: a BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) 411/9 - 3 car CEP.

She was out and about this weekend (4-5^th June) being hauled by a guest Class 66 very kindly provided by DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) Schenker.

Being only air-braked, the CEP usually requires haulage by our dual braked Class 08 as a third rail at 750V DC^▸ (Direct Current) on a heritage railway would be a bit dodgy! 

Also highly recommended. Did Alice Springs - Darwin in Gold Class in 2013. Very memorable.
The trains coaches used up most letters of the alphabet but my main problem was that they were not in alphabetical order!

B*gg*r ! 

Same old stuff then?