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31  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture - related rail and other transport issues / Trade Mark issues on: August 14, 2011, 23:52:42
Just because something is in common use does not mean that a company won't defend its trademark. I can assure you the Tarmac company is still quite keen on protecting its rights, though perhaps without the sheer determination of the manufacturers of a certain type of whirlpool bath or of a well known kind of mobile building - both brands one might say are "in the English language". Both parties are very keen on dispatching lawyers' letters to all and sundry about infringements of their trademark rights, I have seen them at work a good few times. As for "no court case would stand up" - want to bet? That's why it's best to avoid the risk in the first place by using generic terminology, though perhaps not DBM or bitmac...

Anyway, returning to the point of this thread, all looking on target for a resumption of service at Moreton-in-Marsh tomorrow, with the new signal operational, along with the point rodding for the crossover, and lots of other new s&t kit plugged in around the station area.

32  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture - related rail and other transport issues / Trade Mark issues on: August 13, 2011, 18:05:33
My key aim in writing asphalt was to avoid using a word beginning with 't' which is a registered trademark, as I'm sure Graham can do without getting a lawyer's warning letter on behalf of its owner...
33  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Turbo refresh started. on: August 13, 2011, 16:32:45
The old one. Only 166218 (trial set) and 166206 (going by Jonathan's experience back up the thread) appear to be fitted with new equipment so far.

Quote
If that's representative of the fleet then FGW (First Great Western) have installed a bit of a pup of a system.

This is the system that BR (British Rail(ways)) installed when the 166s were built.
34  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 13, 2011, 16:27:00
Lots of work going on today.

At Evesham, the semaphore signal arms have been removed, though the posts are still in place. The new junction point is still laid out near the signalbox waiting to be moved up the line.

Rail welding was under way at Littleton & Badsey, where both lines are now complete heading east towards Clayfield and west towards the eastern of the two River Avon bridges at Evesham after slewing and connection of the assorted bits of new track here. I don't know if track is being placed on the eastern bridge yet, but so far no sign yet of work on the western bridge near the signalbox.

Honeybourne was a hive of activity. Asphalt was being laid on the base of the footbridge ramp on the new platform, which was just waiting for its top surface and fencing. A team of masons was building the other ramp base alongside the station car park and a ballast train was waiting to be sent west. Tracklaying and ballasting on the new Long Marston branch connection is complete.

After the ballast train had moved off, I set off to take a look at the new crossover, which is in position west of the station. By the time i reached the bridleway crossing, the train had been shunted from the down line to the up using the crossover, which was being operated manually and clipped between train moves. After a short pause, the train went 'wrong line' towards Clayfield but I don't know where it was headed. The shunting signal is now in place next to the bridleway crossing for trains moving from the down line (the one towardsWorcester) on to the branch line or into the sidings.

At Chipping Campden double track is in place through the level crossing and the bearers and surface sections for the road are awating installation. At Blockley work to lay the level crossing road surface was taking place.

Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

35  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 12, 2011, 23:28:54
Things are really progressing well in the last phase.

I've heard that the present turn back signal at Moreton is a temporary measure (whence no back LED light), the new semaphore signal hasn't appeared in time.  Looks like they may have cut & chopped the old down semaphore which was by the signal box.  It looks like it needs a few coats of paint thou, lol!   Not 100% sure on this so it may/may not be replaced.

Any idea what the new equipment cabinets over London Road bridge is for, seems a strange location to put them.

Pretty sure the signal post is the result of a bit of work on the old post with some cutting gear.

I think the cabinet on the bridge is a 400-volt feeder from the mains electricity supply into the Network Rail system, hence the roadside position
36  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Stock cascade of class 150s on: August 12, 2011, 00:11:25
Slightly off topic but it Looks like overcrowding is likely to get worse:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14491488

I do hope FGW (First Great Western) or whoever operates the franchise next will run all the IEP (Intercity Express Program / Project.)'s in pairs instead of just 1 unit during the off peak.


These figures relate solely to the peaks, so I can't see how you get from that to off-peak operations.
37  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 12, 2011, 00:06:31
Would have been taken from where the goods shed loop line ran but the goods yard was not fenced off from the station approach back then.

Things moving along nicely at Moreton-in-Marsh, with the crossover ballasted and the new turnback signal in place. New LED lamps in the existing signals are powered up. Some pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

Have also come across a picture from Evesham on Wednesday, taken by Peter Tandy, showing the new junction point being assembled alongside the signalbox and new LED signals in place including the one allowing trains to turn back to Worcester from platform 2. The LEM and PEM transporter units to move the point along the line to the west can be seen in the yard off to the right. See http://www.petertandy.co.uk/66005_6W81_100811.jpg

There are a few other pictures showing engineering trains in the Vale on Peter's updates page here http://www.petertandy.co.uk/Recentpics.html
38  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Turbo refresh started. on: August 10, 2011, 22:32:18
Quote
Look - I'm sick of hearing about "unreliable AC". The fact is another TOC (Train Operating Company) with the same stock solved the problem.

Chiltern did not solve the problem. Their 165s did not have an air conditioning system until they were overhauled, so there was no problem to solve in the first place, which is not the case with the 166s.

Quote
If Chiltern had the money to throw - First Group must have it.

I don't think Chiltern did any throwing of money - it was one of a series of carefully considered spending decisions, based on the fact that they have a 20-year franchise with a string of investment commitments written into it.

First don't have the luxury of such a long period to earn a return on money they put in. And they are actually investing a lot of time and money in trying to get the 166s right at long last. But if that effort is not to be wasted then, should the system prove its reliability, the windows will either have to be locked, with staff checking the system is functioning at either end of a journey and unlocking windows if required, or lots of robust seals that actually take some effort to break need to be provided to deter the people who will always insist on opening any window they see, whatever the weather is doing outside and the a/c is doing inside. I am quite sure that if there were windows in Mk3s, then some clown would want a 125mph gale blowing in in January.
39  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 10, 2011, 22:08:06
Installation of the new crossover at Moreton-in-Marsh and track around it was nearing completion this evening, with the last track panel being put in place just after 7.30pm, with a ballast train and tamper waiting south of the road bridge. The up siding connection was severed during track lifting this morning. The rest of the old track in the station area will be replaced at some point in the winter.
Some pictures taken this evening at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

A special mention must go to the members of the track crew, who hand-weeded and litter-picked the line between the station platforms and past the signalbox in between work on lifting old track and installing the crossover. All looked spick and span tonight. This gives an idea of what they were up against http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/5837258369/in/photostream
40  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 10, 2011, 09:47:44
Work to lift the old crossover at Moreton-in-Marsh was under way this morning as I drove past just after 8am.
41  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 09, 2011, 23:03:53
Working on a hunch that the closure of the road bridge at Honeybourne today portended the arrival of the first sections of the footbridge, I headed over there after work, to find that the main span of the bridge had indeed arrived, along with a couple of the landings and the first ramp section. Oddly, although the rest of the station, including the new shelters, is decorated in blue and grey, the footbridge bears the same GWR (Great Western Railway) light and dark stone paint as Charlbury.

The crane was leaving the site with its day's work done as I arrived but track work was in full swing just outside the station, with the old Long Marston branch connection taken out and plain line being laid, with just the remains of the point in the former single line yet to to be removed and replaced. Didn't have time to walk all the way round to the bridleway at the west end of Honeybourne to see if the new crossover is in place, although there was activity up there as well.

Double track is in place through Blockley, with the components for the new road surface on site awaiting installation.

At Moreton-in-Marsh work is continuing to remove redundant signal equipment and point rodding but no sign yet of work starting to replace the crossover.

Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/
42  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 08, 2011, 20:56:19
You may be thinking of Finstock, just down the line from Charlbury, where what was effectively a new platform was built out into the trackbed when the line was singled and realigned in the early 1980s and will have to go should the rest of the line ever be redoubled, posing something of a dilemma, as it would be nigh on impossible to justify building two new platforms for such a sparsely-used halt. See http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sjp/FIN/images/photos/800/o1837-0000011.jpg
43  Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011 on: August 07, 2011, 16:25:04
Not aware steel sleepers are out of favour. Certainly a lot were used in renewals of Boston to Skegness earlier this year, though that is clearly only used by dmus and the occasional excursion, so it may just be horses for courses in terms of which type is used on which route, based on likely traffic.

Some more pictures taken today are now online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

Both tracks at the north end of Moreton-in-Marsh station are now plain line, while the down line was in place through Blockley, with work on the up line in full swing. Lots of S&T (Signalling and Telegraph) work at Moreton - dismantling bits of mechanical signal kit and people working in the signalbox's interlocking room and at the two new equipment cabins behind it.

 



44  Journey by Journey / Shorter journeys in Devon / Re: Classes 165 and 166 Turbo DMU trains on: August 07, 2011, 01:38:00
Cotswold Line won't need many, perhaps just a two-car for the halts service, as the DfT» (Department for Transport - about) is planning for five-car bi-mode IEPs (Intercity Express Program / Project.) to be the backbone of the service throughout the day. West of Newbury is not going to need many sets, nor do the Cherwell Valley stoppers to Banbury - and again some of those in the peaks could well be IEP-worked through to and from Paddington.

And I expect Great Western franchise bidders will be offering wiring on the Thames Valley branches to entice the DfT - so why not to Basingstoke for Crossrail while they're at it, also creating a Class 92-friendly route to the WCML (West Coast Main Line) from Southampton? The franchise round also offers the chance to look at whether the North Downs line should be a GW (Great Western) route in the long term and whether third rail should go down.
 
In any case, I would expect the Bristol area and routes radiating from it would have first call on Turbos, as three-car sets are needed there rather more urgently than in Devon and Cornwall.
45  Journey by Journey / London to Didcot, Oxford and Banbury / Re: Oxford commuters put on 'trial' with crazy idea to save delays... on: August 07, 2011, 01:19:31
It really must be April. They're going to take a train-load of passengers and dump them at the unroofed north end of the platform in driving rain? I think not.

Quote
Bearing in mind the vast majority of terminating arrivals don't have any other trains close behind anyway

Quote
XC (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services generally follow the terminsting turbos, which are generally a few (at least!) minutes late, and the XC almost always waiting at the Home signal for the down platform
.

Cotswold Line services follow very closely behind - all the more so when terminating slow trains amble in three or four minutes behind time, followed by the pantomime I describe below in terms of despatching empty Turbos.

Sorry Chris, but as someone who day after day sees what goes on, a terminating slow service arriving ahead of a delayed XC service is a rare occurrence - perhaps they arrange it just for you - and if this does happen, the Oxford signallers often use the bi-directional signalling to put the terminating service into platform 1 to get it out of the way, unless that will mess up a southbound XC.

The trains that get delayed, day after day, are the Cotswold Line services, which are booked to follow the stoppers from Didcot. The Cotswold trains are what get stuck outside the station while the ludicrously slow process of despatching an empty Turbo goes on. The 18.17 and 18.54 departures from Oxford (and the 19.23 due to a silly bunching of trains just ahead of it) often fall victim to delays in this way - on Friday the 18.17 lost five minutes at Oxford because the 18.13 arrival from Paddington (I assume the working timetable actually allows more of a margin than the public timetable's four-minute gap), running just ahead of it, was late.

For many years, the dispatchers used to stand at the south end of platform 2 then walk through a Turbo to the front, checking it was empty. Recently, they have instead started boarding next to the footbridge steps, walking though to the back of the trains, then walking up the platform, locking the doors with the buttons on the coach ends, before reaching the front of the train and finally telling the driver he can go into the sidings. And the signallers don't always assist matters here, with the shunting signal for the move to the sidings sometimes not being cleared until after the dispatchers have completed their time-consuming routine.

If they really want to get empty trains out of the platform fast, these are the places they should be looking at to make changes, not silly notions that do nothing to assist Cotswold Line HSTs (High Speed Train) that will still be stuck at the signal south of Botley Road, because they are too long to fit on the platform behind a Turbo.

Of course, this was not much of an issue, at least for Cotswold trains, until a couple of years ago when the timetable was rejigged to put the stoppers out of Didcot ahead of the FGW (First Great Western) fasts. Who came up with that clever wheeze?

As for assisting XC, they have got a cheek, considering how often their trains arrive late, messing up FGW services, or the XC trains that have a timing allowance, eating up platform time at Oxford, even though their journey only started at Reading.
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