Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[Electric train]

This will also require trackside running boards as the driver changes ends *outside* of the HST^▸ (High Speed Train)...

Safe walking Route. Any place where Drivers change end outside the train will be risk assessed and approved as part of the project. The safe walking route can be the cess if it is level and no adjacent running line.

Can't the driver change ends inside the train?

oooo too much like hard work scrabbling through a packed and standing train

[Ollie]

oooo too much like hard work scrabbling through a packed and standing train

Or perhaps it's quicker, than walking through the train when it has passengers on it..
As said driver will need to get off anyway to check lights at each end..

[IndustryInsider]

If it was a Turbo (2 or 3-car) they'd probably change ends without leaving the train ('proving' lights in the cab confirm what the head/tail lights are showing).  Although it is possible to change ends on a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) without leaving the train, you'd have to be pretty desperate to want to do so, as squeezing through the engine room of two cabs with engines blaring away would not be pleasant on either the heat or noise front!

[woody]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) will be serving Waterloo during the blockade. But only with West of England services.

Read on another forum that quote "A notice has gone up that the guards will be starting route learning soon."
Can anyone confirm or deny?

[ChrisB]

The reversals at Aynho will have to wait, I suspect!

[onthecushions]

Slight deviation.

Alighting at Reading last night off the 1922 to Hereford, in the midst of a downpour, many customers had to leap through sheets of water overflowing from the unmaintained platform canopy gutters. No pensioners fortunately (except me!). Thoughtfully, the gutters contrived to overflow at just the 23 m car lengths needed and the train drew up so that the doors were precisely sited under the respective Niagaras.

Risking prosecution (you may be accused of swearing etc), I suggested to platform staff, including a supervisor that this was a safety issue as customers could not step down safely and water was flowing freely down both sides of the open doors into the electric locking mechanism...

I was told that it was a Network Rail station and that nothing would be done as it was all to be rebuilt. It wasn't a safety issue of course, until someone was injured....

If all NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s horses and men can't economically attach a gutter to a bargeboard at the right fall and keep the downpipe clear, then we are wasting our time thinking of new stations, electrification etc.

Isn't Reading General is a FGW site?

OTC

[Oxman]

Reading station is leased from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) by FGW^▸ (First Great Western). NR are responsible for maintenance of the canopies.

Its unlikely that the gutter is the problem. In common with many other stations the drains are just not adequate in a torrential downpoor - rain water backs up, and overflows from the gutters. You probably noticed that the back of platform 4 becomes a lake as water floods out of the drainpipes and the drain is unable to cope.

We can only hope that the rebuild starts some way underground, with adequate drainage!

[IndustryInsider]

In common with many other stations the drains are just not adequate in a torrential downpoor - rain water backs up, and overflows from the gutters.

And not just stations - the drainage on many public buildings/surfaces can't cope with some of the heaviest bursts of rain like some of the stuff that was coming down from the heavens last night.  Like with the safety hazards that heavy snowfall cause - I'm thinking back to the fact that some pavements were icy hazards for well over a week last winter - I think you just have to shrug your shoulders and accept that certain conditions will inevitably cause your own safety to be compromised slightly on occasions.  Look on the bright side, at least you weren't trying to pitch a tent at Reading festival!

[ReWind]

A bit like platform 7 at Bristol TM^‡(resolve) then. 

[SDS]

You should see PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) when it rains.
plat 3 london end under the massively huge roof, it leaks badly.
plat 1 country end it is a downpour.
plat 6/7 are fine, but thats cos hex get what they want.
plat 8/9 is a running river
10 is fine
11 turns into a river, right where the pax run for trains.
13/14 being rebuilt by crossrail.

[Electric train]

You should see PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) when it rains.
plat 3 london end under the massively huge roof, it leaks badly.
plat 1 country end it is a downpour.
plat 6/7 are fine, but thats cos hex get what they want.
plat 8/9 is a running river
10 is fine
11 turns into a river, right where the pax run for trains.
13/14 being rebuilt by crossrail.

The roof at Padd deals with heavy rain quite well given the age of it's drainage, part of the problem is and always has been is the way the Victorians built the drains, the pipes away from the down pipes (the down pipes are internal to the columns) are too small and have bends that silt up quickly.  When I first worked at Padd in the late 70's the District Civil Engineer had a team of men who spent quite a lot of their year cleaning out the roof gutters and gullies
To modify the drainage would mean virtually digging the whole station up this one reason way 6 & 7 is dryer because the drains were renewed when the HEX (now disused) baggage tunnel was built

[smokey]

Reading station is leased from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) by FGW^▸ (First Great Western). NR are responsible for maintenance of the canopies.

Its unlikely that the gutter is the problem. In common with many other stations the drains are just not adequate in a torrential downpoor - rain water backs up, and overflows from the gutters. You probably noticed that the back of platform 4 becomes a lake as water floods out of the drainpipes and the drain is unable to cope.

We can only hope that the rebuild starts some way underground, with adequate drainage!

On today's Railway whilst NR own the Stations maintenance, painting etc is done by FGW or it's contractors up to I believe 2.5 m high then NR take over Except for lighting and Guttering which is a FGW problem, but as there is no FGW maintenance programm to keep guttering clean problems occur.

[willc]

But if you point out there are problems with blocked gutters to them, they usually do something about. I emailed FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customer services about water pouring through the platform 2 canopy at Oxford in several places early this year or late last year and the next time I was there when there was a torrential downpour (only a week or two later) it was clear someone had been up top and cleared the gutters and fallpipes.

Paddington is entirely NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s responsibility as a major station. Presumably matters at the platforms under under span four will be improved by the current restoration work and removal of the crash deck.

[onthecushions]

It's one thing for customers to get wet when it rains.

It's quite another to make them pass through a vertical sheet of water caused by neglect.

Just removing the canopy gutters would reduce the problem, as water would not then be chanelled from a wide area onto the carriage doorways.

Today's Engineers seem lost if something can't be done by Autocad, Microsoft Project, or FEA.

Well done at Paddington for trying, though

Drying nicely,

OTC

[IndustryInsider]

Presumably matters at the platforms under under span four will be improved by the current restoration work and removal of the crash deck.

At the moment there's not really a roof over span 4 to speak of whilst it's being renovated.  Temporary plastic and metal sheeting is stopping the worst of the water getting through, but there are a few spots which are really bad when it rains, and the contractors have their staff constantly clearing water off of the platforms when it has rained heavily.  This time next year the place will be transformed though and hopefully it'll be nice and dry because those nice shiny tiled slabs on the floor and water don't mix too well.