Westbury North Junction Renewal December 2018 - January 2019

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

They haven't all fallen down the hole have they ? 

Early finish on Friday - need to fire up the BBQ! (yes II, there it is again!) 

[ellendune]

Where is the fault?  If it is not in the picture why should there be anyone there?

[Alan Pettitt]

Apologies for my earlier message, the one I was on at the time was the one I was talking about, I now see that the the question was about a train that was nowhere near!

[SandTEngineer]

Reported elsewhere, by insiders, that its a signalling problem (unspecified) that is causing the commissioning delay.  Must be something significant to cause such a lengthy postponement

[bradshaw]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter now reporting problem carrying over into Saturday

https://twitter.com/gwrhelp/status/1081274655976161280?s=21

[SandTEngineer]

...err.  I take back what I said earlier.  This was posted on the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) Forum:

That hole might be the crown of the old narrow gauge railway tunnel that is now used as a cable route since Westbury panel opened many years ago giving way where it crosses under the junction formation. Early last century Westbury used to have an iron works on the site of what is now the engineering/fabricators works and the car auctions beyond the station and the whole area was riddled with tunnels connecting the various mine holes, (those big ponds that are in the area), to the works, plus, if you know where to look it is still possible to see traces of some of the old under bridges where the lines used to pass under some of the minor roads. What is now the West Wilts Trading Estate was formerly a WWII^▸ (World War 2 - 1939 to 1945) US Army ordnance/supply depot and where the remains of the old security fence still exist, many of the posts are old NG^▸ (Natural Gas) rail, I assume from the iron works railway system.

[ellendune]

For those who wanted to see NR^» (Network Rail - home page) actually working on the problem they have posted this photo on Twitter

[bradshaw]

Old Maps website shows the 1924 layout.

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/386503/150500/12/101156

[grahame]

Reported elsewhere, by insiders, that its a signalling problem (unspecified) that is causing the commissioning delay.  Must be something significant to cause such a lengthy postponement

Yet one found 2.5 hours before hardback was due??

Drip, drip drip .... continues ....

Disruption through #Westbury is expected until the end of service today because of overrunning engineering work. Affected tickets valid for today will be accepted tomorrow where we expect to run a normal train service.

Overrunning engineering work is now set to continue into Saturday 5 January. Due to Network Rail engineering work not being finished on time GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is unable to run any train services calling at Westbury.

There was an earlier clue with buses for Saturday on order ... hardly a surprise. Are there buses on order for Sunday yet?  No way of hand signalling a limited service through??

Feedback I have had from frustrated commuters also asks why the heck they planned a handback for the Friday, lulled commuters into the false hope that the trains would be available then dropped them in.  Would have been much more accepted to have taken the Friday and perhaps the weekend too, alllowed  time to deal with contingencies, and been in good time to restart on Monday.   Engineering disruption is a nuisance ... unplanned last minute changes can be a real hardship and a magnified frustration.

[TonyK]

Feedback I have had from frustrated commuters also asks why the heck they planned a handback for the Friday, lulled commuters into the false hope that the trains would be available then dropped them in.  Would have been much more accepted to have taken the Friday and perhaps the weekend too, alllowed  time to deal with contingencies, and been in good time to restart on Monday.   Engineering disruption is a nuisance ... unplanned last minute changes can be a real hardship and a magnified frustration.

I'm guessing this is the Donald Rumsfeld "Known unknown and unknown unknown" effect. I'm guessing that when testing starts at the end of a job, most of the staff not involved in that bit of the job take a breather and enjoy a well-earned cuppa, but don't knock off, just in casse someone comes back and says "Sorry lads, dig it up and start again." I'm sure there's often a bit of snagging work after such an intensive operation, explaining those couple of hours on a Monday morning after engineering work where nothing happens. But this one is a doozie, and sounds like the end is not yet in sight. I can't see, though, that adding a weekend to a possession "just in case" would ever have been acceptable, particularly given the somewhat pivotal nature of Westbury, as as been described, far outweighing its importance as a local station.

[grahame]

I'm guessing this is the Donald Rumsfeld "Known unknown and unknown unknown" effect. I'm guessing that when testing starts at the end of a job, most of the staff not involved in that bit of the job take a breather and enjoy a well-earned cuppa, but don't knock off, just in casse someone comes back and says "Sorry lads, dig it up and start again." I'm sure there's often a bit of snagging work after such an intensive operation, explaining those couple of hours on a Monday morning after engineering work where nothing happens. But this one is a doozie, and sounds like the end is not yet in sight. I can't see, though, that adding a weekend to a possession "just in case" would ever have been acceptable, particularly given the somewhat pivotal nature of Westbury, as as been described, far outweighing its importance as a local station.

Very easy for me to be critical ... but there are questions to be asked in this case ... my highlighting above and now might hope for testing during the job to pick problems up early not just 130 minutes before the end of a 17,000 minute possession.

[grahame]

Ironically, today's "Campaign tip" is talking about Campaign Fatigue. I'm ... at something of a loss to know whether any more can be done to sort our Westbury - best let 'em get on with it, sort things out and get on with other things.

[Oxman]

Westbury now reopened, at 02.20.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are forecasting some disruption on Saturday morning as the service is restored.

[grahame]

Westbury now reopened, at 02.20.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are forecasting some disruption on Saturday morning as the service is restored.

First trains to Weymouth, Portsmouth Harbour and locals (2) to Bristol gone - probably related to empty sidings /no stock to run them. Fingers crossed for other services.

[SandTEngineer]

Good to hear that its hopefully nothing too significant then....or turned out to be something that can be fixed at a later date.  I would love to see the commissioning risk assessment

A comment on the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) photograph posted above.  This shows what is known in BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) WR terms as a 'Post Office Relay Set' rack, well, the wiring side of it at least.  This houses all the interface relays to/from the control/indication panels in Westbury SB^▸ (Signal Box).  I note that a few wires that are disconnected are covered with green insulation tape.  Thats a definite NO NO in signalling terms (all the lessons after Clapham appear to being forgotten).  I certainly wouldn't have published that photograph....