Oxford to Bicester Line - FGW and Chiltern Railways (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

The first train to Oxford fell foul of some trackside eqipment & activated a tripcock, bringing the train to a halt the M40 side of Islip.

After isolating said tripcock, the driver called control to get NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to shave the trip down, and proceeded to Oxford arriving 4 late.

[IndustryInsider]

Overnight stabling of the unit at Oxford Rewley Road Carriage Sidings will take place on Saturday nights with the unit returning to Banbury the rest of the week.

[eightf48544]

Any news on Bicester chord and general upgrade of line for the Marylebone service.

[willc]

Awaiting the verdict of the public inquiry in Oxford at the end of last year and start of this year.

[ChrisB]

The Vhiltern unit is stabled in Platform 3 on Saturday nights - or was last Saturday night.

[gwr2006]

The Vhiltern unit is stabled in Platform 3 on Saturday nights - or was last Saturday night.

There is an issue with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) drivers not signing the Chiltern 165/0 as they've got different controls to FGW's 165/1s and have modifications like tripcocks.  If the unit failed in the carriage sidings it would block in quite a few FGW units so best kept out of the way in the bay platform.

The unit can't get back to Banbury on Saturday nights due to engineering time, which also means the final train from Oxford to Banbury is always a bus!

[ChrisB]

The unit wouldn't necessarily need to fail - it might be that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) might need to just have it moved to access their own stock, for example.

[IndustryInsider]

The Vhiltern unit is stabled in Platform 3 on Saturday nights - or was last Saturday night.

At what time did you see it in platform 3?

[ChrisB]

I didn't - a driver told me that's where he left it.

[IndustryInsider]

Rather bizarre then, as I saw it locked in behind two other FGW^▸ (First Great Western) units in the Carriage Sidings at 2am Sunday morning?!  They were certainly staying put for the night!

Makes sense to either stable it in the bay platform or on the headshunt at Rewley Road though for the reasons 'gwr2006' mentioned.

[ChrisB]

I wasn't aware that the avoiding line behind those sidings was only an 'up' line - not Bi-directional....

[IndustryInsider]

What avoiding line are you talking about?

[ChrisB]

The one behind the turbo sidings that gives access from Platform 3 & the parcels area to the Bicester Town Branch without going via the Main Lines.

[IndustryInsider]

Oh, OK.  Well, firstly I'd have described that as 'in front' or 'next to' the turbo sidings, and I've no idea how that's linked to what we were talking about, but... 

...Called the Down Jericho, it's signalled for 'Down' direction movements only.  It used to be called the Up Goods Loop and was then signalled for 'Up' direction movements, but not those involving passenger trains.  However there's a Ground Position Signal meaning that trains can still shunt from Platforms 1/3 or the Dock and return back to any of those three locations.  The difference being that the line is no longer under permissive working so you are unable to stable more than one train (sets coupled together in that sense would only count as one train though) at a time.  So its use as an extra siding is now more limited given the lack of permissive working and the extra trains going to Bicester.  The alteration from Up to Down movements was completed in the minor enhancement scheme finished in June 2009.

[ChrisB]

Oh, OK.  Well, firstly I'd have described that as 'in front' or 'next to' the turbo sidings, and I've no idea how that's linked to what we were talking about, but... 

'In front of' = Main Line, IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)
'next to' = better, but could include Main Line, and I wanted to be clear that I wsn't talking about that line.

Thread Title = 'Chiltern takes over Bicester Branch'. This line is part of that branch. I didn't quote any of your previous post = talking about thread title, not necessarily the previous post.

...Called the Down Jericho, it's signalled for 'Down' direction movements only. 

Oh, ok. When I asked a Chiltern staffer why we hadn't used that line to access Oxford station instead of sitting at a signal awaiting an up Cotswold to clear the Main Line before following it into Oxford, I was told it was 'up' only. Which explained why we couldn't use it into Oxford. But you've clouded the answer - any ideas as to why we didn't / couldn't use it on Sunday morning?

So its use as an extra siding is now more limited given the lack of permissive working and the extra trains going to Bicester. 

I didn't lnmow that extra trains had started running yet - the current Chiltern service mirrors that which FGW^▸ (First Great Western) was offering.





Edited to fix quotes. bignosemac