District Line disruption due to Network Rail problem!

[whole diary]

[James Vertigan]

I know it's not to do with FGW^▸ (First Great Western), but:

Severe delays are occurring between Putney Bridge and Wimbledon, with minor delays between Putney Bridge and Earl's Court due to ongoing Network Rail power supply problems.

Never seen this excuse before - blaming someone else!

They don't share the same lines do they, so I wouldn't think they'd share the same power supply.. but clearly they do.

[grahame]

There's someting odd about that "end" of the district line - aren't there a few SWT^▸ (South West Trains) trains that use it from Clapham Junction to Wimbledon, via the "Windsor lines".   I suspect a similar excuse could be used from Gunnersbury to Richmond.

[James Vertigan]

There's someting odd about that "end" of the district line - aren't there a few SWT^▸ (South West Trains) trains that use it from Clapham Junction to Wimbledon, via the "Windsor lines".   I suspect a similar excuse could be used from Gunnersbury to Richmond.

Although that bit of line is now under TFL^▸ (Transport for London) control, is it not, with it being London Overground - or do they come under Network Rail as well?

[RailCornwall]

Still uses Network Rail infrastructure to run on though, LOROL^▸ (London Overground Railway Operations Ltd) being a 'glorified' franchise administered by TFL^▸ (Transport for London).

[paul7575]

There is a lot of history to the Wimbledon section, but basically from an infrastructure technology point of view it is still a NR^» (Network Rail - home page) line from the junction at East Putney station. At one time the boundary was on the north side of Putney Bridge IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly).  When it was transferred to LU ownership at privatisation, that was all that changed. The electrical supplies and signalling are still Network Rail technology, and maintained and operated by them.  There is a project to separate all the mixed up LU and NR electrical supplies because NR want to raise the line voltage for the 10/12 car projects, but can't yet where they also provide power to LU. As pointed out SWT^▸ (South West Trains) have running rights over this section, and use it fairly regularly for ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock), and also maintain a couple of in service trains that way for route knowledge purposes.  On a couple of occasions in 2008 SWT used it for the whole weekend and half the District trains were cancelled to make room. The line speed is lower for mainline units than LU trains, because the latter have better braking and are protected by LU trainstops.

As well as LO/LU to Richmond which could be described as LU running on an NR(LO) line there are various control permutations with the LU/LO 'DC^▸ (Direct Current) Lines' (Euston - Watford).  The rest of the NLL is normal NR, and will remain so.

There are a couple of odd aspects with the newly rebuilt ELL - operation of the electrical supplies is going to be done by Lewisham Electrical Control Office (ECO^▸ (Electrical Control Officer)), and the signalling is going to be operated by NR signallers, sitting in a London Rail owned signalling centre at New Cross Gate. This makes operational sense because of the service frequency of 12 tph running onto NR tracks.

Simples...

Paul

[eightf48544]

Paul has put it better and beat me to teh post but here goes on my take.

Railcornwall is right Netwrokrail is responsible for the power supply, trrack and signalling (new Waterloo) betweem East Putney and Wimbledon. If I remember correctly from my days in Waterloo there are special isolating sections between East Putney and Putney Bridge to isolate the power supplies.

As well as ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) the following SWT^▸ (South West Trains) passenger trains use the line.

Point Pleasant Junction - East Putney (152,155,158) WH
0454 SuX Basingstoke - Waterloo
0105 SX Waterloo - Southampton Central
0042 SX Waterloo - Strawberry Hill

Courtesy of PSUL website http://www.avoe05.dsl.pipex.com/2010.htm

Well worth a look.

[Electric train]

The traction current for this line is provided by NR^» (Network Rail - home page), I not been in the office today to know what the exact problem is there are plans to renew rectifiers and HV switch gear in that area to separate it from the NR main lines so that the NR lines can be up rated to 750 v DC^▸ (Direct Current) leaving LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd) at 660 v DC this is all to do with the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) requirement on NR to introduce regen breaking which can raise the potential on the third rail to close on 1000 volts LUL stock is not designed for this level (an boy would they go fast  )

It could be a rectifier failed (unlikely as the system can loose 2 in that part of the world) could be a high voltage feeder has failed or a problem with Wimbledon Grid or just a good old fashioned someone has nicked the signaling cables

[James Vertigan]

Seems the problems are continuing today between Wimbledon-Putney Bridge.

[Electric train]

There was a faulty 33,000 volt feeder in the area, these are oil filled feeders which require specialist jointer's and take quite a few hours to joint, that is once you've located where the fault is and got all the kit there issued safety documentation