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Journey by Journey / London to South Wales / Re: Coupling
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on: March 10, 2024, 10:04:12
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AFAIK▸ , Weddings used to be only permitted in suitable and registered premises, but these days can be performed anywhere provided that a suitably qualified person such as a priest or registrar officiates. A railway chaplain presumably satisfies that requirement.
I think that the captain of a ship is also allowed to perform a marriage.
From The CAB website https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/getting-married/I am thinking the ceremony on the train was a blessing, the actual legal bit was done elsewhere Still a charming story and well done to the GWR▸ team that made it happen A marriage can take place in:-
a Register Office
premises approved by the local authority such as a hotel
a church of the Church of England, Church in Wales
a synagogue or any other private place if both partners are Jewish
a Meeting House if one or both partners are either members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) or are associated with the Society by attending meetings
any registered religious building (England and Wales only)
the home of one of the partners if the partner is housebound or detained, for example, in prison
a place where one partner is seriously ill and not expected to recover, for example, in hospital
a licensed naval, military or air force chapel
Local authorities in England and Wales may approve premises other than Register Offices where civil marriages may take place. Applications for approval must be made by the owner or trustee of the building, not the couple.
The premises must be regularly open to members of the public, so private homes are unlikely to be approved, since they are not normally open to the public. Stately homes, hotels and civic buildings are likely to be thought suitable. Approval will not be given for open air venues, such as moonlit beaches or golf courses. Generally, the premises will need to be permanent built structures, although it may be possible for approval to be given to a permanently moored, publicly open boat. Hot air balloons or aeroplanes will not be approved. |
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17
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Derailment near Walton-on-Thames, 4th March 2024
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on: March 10, 2024, 08:07:58
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Network Rail didn't clean up after themselves it would seem and left equipment on the tracks for the train to hit.
That was my initial thoughts as well, but has there been any more info about what happened made public at all? Not that I'm aware of. If it was caused by something NR» or their contractors did or didn't do or by vandals it will be part of an investigation by the ORR» , RAIB▸ and potentially BTP▸ as such a statement will be made to the public when they are ready to release it. In public now ... BBC» Scrap rail left on tracks following engineering works was the cause of a derailment in Surrey, according to Network Rail.
The company said a train hit the object at about 05:50 GMT on Monday in a 90mph area near Walton-on-Thames.
A Network Rail Wessex safety bulletin said it was the first train on the fast line following the weekend works.
The incident initially closed four tracks between Woking and Surbiton before disruption spread across the South Western Railway (SWR» ) network for 24 hours. I was aware of the cause Tuesday morning. It would seem to be such a simple thing not to leave anything on the track after work; there is an inordinate amount of processes and procedures designed to prevent such things happening. Most if not all of the processes and procedures relies on the person in charge of a work site checking and reporting back to the person in charge of the possession their work site is clear of all tools, material, machines, personnel etc and its safe to hand back. The person in charge of the possession will have multiple worksites all doing different work over often a very large length of railway, the work load on this person has increased since the prohibition on the use of unassisted lookouts to do work in normal traffic running, this has pushed more routine maintenance and inspection activities into engineering possessions. There is the pressure to hand back the possession on time so as not to delay train services. (A possession is the term used when a Engineering Department take over a section of railway from the Operations Department. The person in charge of the possession is responsible for the setting up and handing back processes of the possession, controls all engineering train movements into and out the possession and authorises engineering train movements between work sites) I would think the ORR and RAIB will be looking into the processes and procedures of handing back a possession. |
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18
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Derailment near Walton-on-Thames, 4th March 2024
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on: March 05, 2024, 18:13:23
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Network Rail didn't clean up after themselves it would seem and left equipment on the tracks for the train to hit.
That was my initial thoughts as well, but has there been any more info about what happened made public at all? Not that I'm aware of. If it was caused by something NR» or their contractors did or didn't do or by vandals it will be part of an investigation by the ORR» , RAIB▸ and potentially BTP▸ as such a statement will be made to the public when they are ready to release it. |
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19
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: £140 million plan to address Paddington - Reading shambles
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on: March 05, 2024, 18:08:41
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I have. The article states
QUOTE
Between Monday and Thursday until March 28 there will be a reduced Elizabeth line service from Paddington from 9.30pm, with four trains an hour to Heathrow airport and two to Reading.
END QUOTE
This is neither very long - how much can be done in the next three weeks? - and only affects the stretch out to Maidenhead. Removing a couple of trains an hour to Heathrow and a couple of trains an hour to Maidenhead late at night is merely show business.
It all depends on what else has been cut out; for example are there any services starting / terminating at Reading, the removal of the semi fast to Didcot and Newbury. It will be about freeing up lines in between Paddington and Acton this will give more time to get the possession and isolation in place on some lines. The process setting up and giving up possessions and isolations eats into the available time to do actual work, there are ways to speed it up but there are no short cuts in the process. Oh, quite, I agree. But the subject was about Mayor Khan's implication that the only railway west of Paddington is the Elizabeth line, nowhere was any mention made that other operators use the Great Western Main Line as well. I repeat, his statement was simply show business. I suspect he's concerning himself with his remit, although he seems to have catalysed something which will be to the benefit of all, in contrast there's been a deafening silence from the upper reaches of GWR▸ . GWR gain from what is called "schedule 8 payments" this is a refund Network Rail makes to TOCs▸ for delays. Of course it all goes to passengers "delay pay" and not toward the bubbly at the share holders meeting |
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20
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Journey by Journey / London to Didcot, Oxford and Banbury / Re: Disabled access at Cholsey: time for a campaign!
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on: March 05, 2024, 06:51:27
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At problematic locations, such as this, would it be possible to provide wheelchair access across the line, similar to the old fashioned "barrow crossing"
Safety could be much improved by use of gates, interlocked with the signalling system, that physically prevent access to the track unless no train is in section, and the relevant signal at danger. Clearing the signal would require visual confirmation that no person was between the gates. This could be done remotely by CCTV▸ .
Simply no, the ORR» would not agree to it. I do not have that much knowledge of Cholsey station, as it has a subway shafts will need to be sunk down to the subway level on the island platform, possibly on the UR platform an external lift shaft can be installed. Planning permission will be required, has an application been made to the Local Authority / Parish Council? The Local Authorities would be a good start to raise the access for all with NR» and GWR▸ |
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21
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: £140 million plan to address Paddington - Reading shambles
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on: March 04, 2024, 06:46:27
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I have. The article states
QUOTE
Between Monday and Thursday until March 28 there will be a reduced Elizabeth line service from Paddington from 9.30pm, with four trains an hour to Heathrow airport and two to Reading.
END QUOTE
This is neither very long - how much can be done in the next three weeks? - and only affects the stretch out to Maidenhead. Removing a couple of trains an hour to Heathrow and a couple of trains an hour to Maidenhead late at night is merely show business.
It all depends on what else has been cut out; for example are there any services starting / terminating at Reading, the removal of the semi fast to Didcot and Newbury. It will be about freeing up lines in between Paddington and Acton this will give more time to get the possession and isolation in place on some lines. The process setting up and giving up possessions and isolations eats into the available time to do actual work, there are ways to speed it up but there are no short cuts in the process. |
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22
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: £140 million plan to address Paddington - Reading shambles
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on: March 03, 2024, 18:36:33
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just curious, are the UR/DR lines on a separate circuit than the UM/DM lines?
If you are refereeing to 25kV circuits then yes. Each line is broken down in to electrical sections and has a circuit breaker at each end of the electrical section. For example Maidenhead MPATS▸ to Twyford IATS and Reading ATFS (well soon to be a feeders station) The electrical section are then divided into sub sections by Over Headline switches these can be manual or motorised |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: £140 million plan to address Paddington - Reading shambles
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on: March 01, 2024, 06:59:34
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I would hope the money is spent on addressing causes rather than symptoms.
Good on Mayor Khan for sticking his head above the parapet like this and pointing out that NR» 's performance is unacceptable.
Certain TOC▸ MDs could learn a bit from that.
All well and good Khan doing this in public but it achieves very little if nothing unless you aren’t prepared to meet Network Rail and give both barrels to their face. Piping up in the media now and again is merely a PR▸ exercise. The Mayor for London has regular meetings with Network Rail CEO▸ , my understanding they are very robust meetings. Politicians have the "freedom" to make critical statements to the press and media about public companies such as NR and TOC's but these companies cannot be critical of political bodies (Government, Local Authorities etc) I agree I do hope the WW Region spend the money and the extra disruptive access wisely and fix the underlying problems and not just put a sticky plaster over them |
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24
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Vivarail chosen for fast charging trial on the Greenford branch
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on: March 01, 2024, 06:46:30
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230001 has made it to Greenford! RTT» can't confirm that, as Greenford East is not only a mechanical box but still has semaphores (though not on the GFD-WEA route). However, there are not many valid ways of getting from P1 to P2 at South Greenford. This morning's run was just a final "make sure it fits" run, and the fast charging kit isn't in operation yet. This afternoon's run was cancelled, as it's been graffitied and needs more cleaning (its duties involve having its picture took for PR▸ - assuming it all works!). The move from Reading took place on Tuesday, and it's being kept at the end of one of the sidings that 387s stable in. Getting from there onto the branch is a bit convoluted, involving going out to Hanwell Bridge Loop to reverse. Getting back from WEA P5 is even worse, unless it uses P4 to reverse. So near and yet so far ... I did see it at West Ealing stabling sidings on Wednesday, I would think the normal move will be into Plat 4 and reverse. Platform 5 the old Milk Sidings  The real test for the 230's will be on the Maidenhead - Bourne End line with the gradient in the wet out of Furze Platt towards Maidenhead. One, slightly off topic, observation is the GWR▸ green livery seems to suit any of the rolling stock its applied to |
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27
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: £140 million plan to address Paddington - Reading shambles
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on: February 27, 2024, 14:17:18
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That might just mean replacing the contact wires, of course, though I don't think those can have lasted 30 years unchanged.
25 years is seen as the asset life for contact wire. The ware is measured during maintenance inspections and there are places of high ware which are more closely monitored. The OLE▸ out of Paddington until 7 or 8 years ago saw very low levels of (electric) traffic so ware would be lower than say Euston. I am guessing that the Western and Wales Region are accelerating their CP7 renewals in the Paddington area, some of the CP7 renewals may have originally be timed to coincide with the development of Old Oak Common station. They may also be addressing emergency evacuation routes / access as that was one of the major criticisms from the 7 Dec 23 incident The work between Paddington and Didcot could mean that there will be CP7 projects elsewhere on the W&W▸ Region that could be deferred into CP8 or 9 |
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Journey by Journey / Portsmouth to Cardiff / Re: Landslip - and what it tells us about what can be done.
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on: February 24, 2024, 08:10:18
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Alterations to services between Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff Central
Due to a landslip between Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff Central fewer trains are able to run on some lines.
Train services running through these stations will be revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice
Owing to a landslip between Patchway and Pilning railway stations the line normally used by train services headed through the Severn Tunnel from England to Wales is closed in order that remedial work may be carried out.
The layout of railway lines in that area still permits for the safe passage of trains to operate in both directions over the line which remains in use. However, as train services must be regulated over that section we are unable to operate our full advertised timetable so there will be a reduction in the frequency of train services between Bristol Temple Meads / Filton Abbey Wood / Newport South Wales / Cardiff Central and vice versa. The general pattern of service will be that our Portsmouth Harbour - Cardiff Central - Portsmouth Harbour services will not operate between Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff Central in either direction. At the beginning and towards the end of the day, when fewer services are scheduled to operate certain other individual train service alterations will apply. Engineering changes and infrastructure problems such as this provide a wonderful demonstration of what can be done if the will is there. All England to Wales trains via the Severn Tunnel are running wrong line today. Let's say that just three trains a day were to run "wrong line" in normal operation - around 07:30, 17:45 and 18:45 - and call at Pilning. 3 calls at Pilning on trains that normally use that line anyway - one in the morning and two (an hour or so apart) in the evening from South Wales to Bristol, and you have a useful commuter service in both directions (Filton and Bristol, Newport and Cardiff) with a morning train "in" and a choice of two evening trains "out". Of course, that's a silly idea with all the coal traffic going through the tunnel and eating paths up. Oh - wait - hasn't that changed? And I understand that IETs▸ are now programmed to be able to stop at Pilning. The reason is probably based on the signalling when running wrong road. Bi-di signalling on the reverse road is not to the same sectioning as the normal running. This means not only reduced number of paths in the normal direction due to wrong road running the number of trains that can run wrong road is reduced; in other words its not 50/50 more like 70/30 |
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