chesham shuttle in operation

No

Train 407 - 5094 is the set

signal failure at C&L this morning, presume the best way to deal with this was to lock in a shuttle

so its operating for the whole day and possibly tomorrow?

It is operating merely to provide Chesham with a service until the points can be fixed - which in itself would have involved a shutdown of between 30-60 minutes.

At the latest, these points will be fixed overnight.

It's quite obvious why there aren't any fast NB services from Baker Street in the morning - most people need to go towards Baker Street

When will 5094 go back to Neasden or wherever its to be stabled tonight? Will they move it during engineering hours?

Worth mentioning the Whitechapel destination blind

how much longer will the chesham shuttle run for? Does anyone know what the problem is down there, that no through chesham services can operate?

was this train trapped on the branch prior to the failure?

if the points had failed how did the train access the branch otherwise?,they drummed this one very quick presumably there was a 4 car unit somewhere.

www.flickr.com/photos/willfaichneyphotography/6489029149/in/photostream/

a very nice photograph of the "broken" A stock too.

Thanks!

To answer a few questions...

407 left the branch at around midnight last night, as we had no available train operator to cover the shuttle right up until the end of service. Taxis were laid on for the last couple of booked workings.

The points at Chalfont were fixed overnight. The point motors I believe were replaced. The job would have taken too long to do during normal traffic hours.

Much as the points were failing, enough functionality was retained to be able to use them just to get the shuttle onto the branch. After that they were taken out of use. They are the set which leads from the northbound to the southbound, and so were not required when the shuttle returned south to depot.

The shuttle was put in as a spare 4-car was available. This one-off event does not justify keeping a spare set fully maintained and ready to go. If a similar failure occured in 5 years' time, then the service would be suspended just as if something similar happened on another part of the line. It is cheaper to have to use emergency taxis every now and then, than to keep a standby 4-car up and running. No doubt many of you will disagree, but you have to remember we are a business and not a tourist railway.

I doubt a few enthusiasts are going to pay for a specially converted train!

Perhaps LUL should have a couple of spare buses that could be used in emergency. They could be painted in corporate livery and have yellow hand rails and no seats to match the trains

Arriva have something similar around here. Normal corporate livery, but it is painted on the side that they are Rail Replacement. Not seen them for a little while though now.