Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[eightf48544]

It's called MBWA (Management by Walking About) as advocated by Tom Peters and Nacy Austin in A Passion for Excellence,

Maybe if more company bosses and politcians did it then things might be considerably better. Lord Adonis when transport minister was a good example.

Gerry Fiennes tells the story of a Divisonal Manger at Doncaster on the pre war LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) who gradually raised his Divison up the table for punctuality. When asked how he'd done it "personal supervison sir". Apparently what was not said was that "personal supervison" consisted of standing at the door of the buffet on Doncaster station with a pint in hand!

[paul7575]

It's called MBWA (Management by Walking About) as advocated by Tom Peters and Nacy Austin in A Passion for Excellence,

That must be a new PC version - on my management course the acronym used was still 'GOYA'.

...as in Get Off Your A***.

Paul

[lbraine]

Attached is a poor picture showing a local Turbo *in* the bounds of the new train depot. I presume doing some firm of track circuit proving.

It was sitting alongside the country most shed - on the line connecting the country end stabling sidings with the main depot shed.

To its left were the freight lines - soon to be new relief lines.

Also ground clearance for new viaduct seems advanced - a few drill in situ just to the west of the line to Reading West. They did not seem to line up with the existing 'gap' that is P7/8 - which were further north in alignment, so they must be related to some if the dive under build activity I concluded.

[SandTEngineer]

Camera shows that there has been some gauging tests on the depot today and there is a turbo stabled in the new shed.

Yes.  You can see it in the new shed at 1530 on Saturday 23 March 2013 on Camera 4 Tab 3.

[paul7575]

Also ground clearance for new viaduct seems advanced - a few drill in situ just to the west of the line to Reading West. They did not seem to line up with the existing 'gap' that is P7/8 - which were further north in alignment, so they must be related to some if the dive under build activity I concluded.

I think where those piling machines are operating (visible in webcam 04/1 in long shot) is roughly where the new 'south to east' freight chord will be heading round to pass under the viaduct - the concrete box section where the lines cross will not necessarily match the obvious line of the flyover route because the freight chord will pass under on a skewed angle.

When it comes to the main flyover construction, the east end ramp will have to line up roughly with the present 'gap' through P9/P10 anyway, with a gradual move over to line up with the existing mains well beyond the west junction somewhere.  However the east end of the flyover also carries a third line (is that the route to be known as the 'Festival line'?) to enable XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services to get over the freight chord and then dive under the main line pair to reach the reliefs, so the eastern part of the viaduct will have to be wide enough for three tracks, with the southern track lining up with P8.

What would be handy is a nice straightforward before and after plan, something I haven't quite found yet when searching the planning application linked a few pages ago...

Paul

[Oxman]

Took this pic at Reading this morning.

It was taken from the stairs to platform 10 looking west along platform 11. The reason for the shot is the black triangle in the white circle.

Its clearly a sign for drivers - its mounted on a substantial bracket so as to be clearly visible to drivers. I could see what were probably the same signs on other platforms, and there was probably another one of these facing west on platform 11, about 20m beyond the one which is visible.

My guess is that they are markers to show stopping points for trains that are intended to use only half the platform - a sort of Reading "St Andrew's Cross"?

Unless of course, you know differently?

By the way, looked at the work to open the new south side concourse, and it look to me as though passengers will be channelled through the walkway that was built for the opening of the subway, at least until the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) portacabins are removed.
 

[paul7575]

The triangles for P15 and P13 are easily visible on webcam 01/1 as well. 

I don't really see what the potential problem is with normal 'X car stop' markers like they use on the A and B split platforms at Southampton though. I suppose there's some sort of rationale for every area having its own way of doing the same thing, but I can't think what it might be...

In separate news, they've now positioned the OHLE mast (and gantry) on the P12/13 island that seemed to be dragging on for a few days.  Over the weekend it looked like they were doing something very time-consuming in the excavation on the platform, they did the steel piling a week or so back...

Paul

[onthecushions]

It's called MBWA (Management by Walking About) as advocated by Tom Peters and Nacy Austin in A Passion for Excellence,

Maybe if more company bosses and politcians did it then things might be considerably better. Lord Adonis when transport minister was a good example.

Gerry Fiennes tells the story of a Divisonal Manger at Doncaster on the pre war LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) who gradually raised his Divison up the table for punctuality. When asked how he'd done it "personal supervison sir". Apparently what was not said was that "personal supervison" consisted of standing at the door of the buffet on Doncaster station with a pint in hand!

At sea it was called "Captain's Rounds", consisting of him (!) visiting every compartment to see the sailors on watch directly. In hospitals it was called "Matron's Rounds", again to maintain standards by professional leadership. Many modern disasters are traceable to ceasing this practice.

OTC

[BBM]

Took this pic at Reading this morning.

It was taken from the stairs to platform 10 looking west along platform 11. The reason for the shot is the black triangle in the white circle.

Its clearly a sign for drivers - its mounted on a substantial bracket so as to be clearly visible to drivers. I could see what were probably the same signs on other platforms, and there was probably another one of these facing west on platform 11, about 20m beyond the one which is visible.

My guess is that they are markers to show stopping points for trains that are intended to use only half the platform - a sort of Reading "St Andrew's Cross"?

Unless of course, you know differently?

It looks like a 'Rear Clear' sign - see here for an explanation [25.23]: http://www.railsigns.co.uk/sect25page2/sect25page2.html

[SandTEngineer]

Correct.  As defined in Railway Group Standard GI/RT7033 Sign AK205z.  However, if it is to be a marker as to where the second train into the platform would have to stop then it should really be Sign AK105 as shown here: http://www.railsigns.co.uk/pics/pic_midplat/pic_midplat.html and here: http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/Railway_Group_Standards/Control%20Command%20and%20Signalling/Railway%20Group%20Standards/GIRT7033%20Iss%202.pdf

Personally I think the rear clear markers are being incorrectly used to indicate to the driver when the first train is berthed into the platform without the rear end sticking out as a guide as to where to stop to allow the second train to berth from the opposite direction

[IndustryInsider]

Yup, that's where any train of 5-cars or less, that is returning back in the direction from whence it came, will stop, as of the opening of the new platforms.

[Jeff]

That's interesting re the black-triangle-on-white-disc sign; I'd seen those on the webcams and, as a lay-person, had just thought that they signalled to alighting passengers "here's where you go UP in order to go out/change platforms", as they're sited adjacent to the stairs/lifts/escalators. Evidently, they have a specific operational purpose, but it's a nice happy accident that they also have value to the first-time arrivee at Reading.     

[paul7575]

I can see how this works for a max train length of 5 cars,  but why introduce a scheme that could easily be overtaken by events within a few years, for instance if after electrification they end up using typical 4 or 8 car EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) in multiple.

Jeff's suggestion only applies to the London end, because the platform length is not centred around the transfer deck.  Hopefully not too many people will interpret them that way, and they will use the normal way out signs to find the exits...

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

I can see how this works for a max train length of 5 cars,  but why introduce a scheme that could easily be overtaken by events within a few years, for instance if after electrification they end up using typical 4 or 8 car EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) in multiple.

If the trains are 4-car then that'll still work well with this 'rear clear' system, i.e. a 4-car EMU could quite happily share the same platform with a 5-car Voyager.  Anything as long as an 8-car (even with 20m vehicles) and you would always struggle to fit another train in the same platform given the platform lengths we have - I'm guessing that they are the maximum length that space constraints would practically allow?  Hopefully, come the end of the decade there will be a dedicated platform (or two) used solely for a 10-car Crossrail train operating at a 4tph frequency - that should be possible (and in my opinion sensible) given the extra capacity afforded by the extra platforms.  Use of the 'rear clear' system would then be more limited.

[Jason]

A couple of things I noticed this morning:

The lifts on platform 7 have been installed and it looked like some initial proving was taking place.
The temporary stairs down to platform 10/16 are gone.