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Post by stapler on Aug 2, 2022 8:16:28 GMT
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Post by stapler on Aug 1, 2022 17:25:56 GMT
Ongar is too far from London by an all-stations metro service to attract serious support - if the LOIS proposals of 1999 had come to anything, it'd have been a different story....
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Post by stapler on Aug 1, 2022 13:01:03 GMT
It's that Sonia again...
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Post by stapler on Jul 29, 2022 10:35:51 GMT
Of course, the Central Line Leytonstone- Newbury Park section part of the Loop was built ***under** Eastern Avenue in the late 30s...a rail and road scheme rarely depending on each other. Had the line of the Claybury railway/tramway been followed in 1893, the development of NE London would have been radically different... BTW, does anyone know how the Claybury line crossed the Roding? I seem to recall before Woodford bridge was replaced c1970 a line of stumps in the river bed...but am not sure
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Post by stapler on Jul 28, 2022 7:04:32 GMT
It was very common before the days of derv-powered equipment to build temporary railways to enable huge civil engineering projects. I doubt whether many of them were engineered other than on a cheap and dirty basis, so I don't think any would have been laid out with any kind of permanent use in mind. Some did persist as supply routes (like the Surrey asylums railway Wikipedia: Horton Light Railway) but most were simply taken up and reused. Another Essex example was the Claybury railway, which left the GE Loughton and Epping branch at Woodford. Arguably, if had been more strongly engineered, it might have been a better bet than the Fairlop Loop 10 years later....
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Post by stapler on Jul 26, 2022 16:14:16 GMT
Has there been any news in the two months since it opened on 1. Bond St 2. Through running GEML- Crossrail 3. ditto on the West side? I've seen the "autumn" and later 2022 dates!
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Post by stapler on Jul 22, 2022 9:49:32 GMT
They are. And those on the TRT look different, I think, from the set that used to stable in the "Ongar siding" (?No. 21 road?) at Loughton up to 1994. Though I can't think quite how!
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Post by stapler on Jul 21, 2022 15:48:26 GMT
This was out this morning, stabled at about 10 in platform 2 Leytonstone, after which it appears to have followed an Epping-WRuislip service train with Special on the describers. Is this a usual movement, or was it out checking the track in the open sections specially following the heat of recent days? Ambient temperature was about 70F at the time. The TRT appears to be 2 Craven 1960TS motor cars sandwiching two ?1973TS trailers, which presumably contain the recording apparatus. Quite an antique in 2022 - but someone will doubtless confirm...
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Post by stapler on Jul 20, 2022 9:32:46 GMT
It is certainly not 46 years since we had such high temperatures; it's 2 or 3 - and early August 1990 was just as searing. 1976 was long and hot, but that was quite exceptional. This awful heat has now to be regarded as ***endemic***. What can be engineered out practically and economically should be engineered out. As far as LU is concerned, William Bridges Adams (who invented the fishplate) could go down to his local station (Loughton) and recognise the p/way architecture instantly, after 166 years...couldn't he?
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Post by stapler on Jul 19, 2022 14:31:36 GMT
The worst offender in stock designs was undoubtedly the D78s when first introduced. They made changing at Mile End to the Central a positive experience.
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Post by stapler on Jul 18, 2022 10:02:35 GMT
Most of the Central is, of course, above ground, so expansion problems, for both conductor and running rails, will be akin to NR. Would there be different limits for tunnel and open sections? TFL website currently stating #Central Line: Severe delays due to heat related speed restrictions.
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Post by stapler on Jul 17, 2022 14:53:55 GMT
Unless these messages are accompanied by announcements, or a scrolling, stating "change at Leytonstone for the Epping shuttle"/"change at North Acton for W Ruislip", they are highly misleading.
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Post by stapler on Jul 17, 2022 6:55:20 GMT
Someone on here doubtless has the actual figures, but I'd have thought Snaresbrook to Epping inclusive has **higher** usage than Wanstead to Hainault...
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Post by stapler on Jul 16, 2022 16:03:05 GMT
Glad I stayed at home especially in 84F temperatures- why does the Epping line always get saddled with an inferior shuttle service in these circumstances?
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Post by stapler on Jul 16, 2022 10:12:19 GMT
There was never a Loughton steam shed; Not even when Loughton was the terminus? No. Locos were not stabled at Loughton. They ran out from/to Stratford at the beginning and end of service. This is possibly because of water supply problems as Loughton village in 1856 and before was perennially short of water.
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Post by stapler on Jul 15, 2022 19:40:02 GMT
I read in a book ( can't recall the title, author or year- only that it was blue!) that some trains for the loop in the 1920's started at Liverpool St and finished at Fenchurch St. Tangentially, was the junction from Seven Kings to Newbury Park ever used in passenger service? It was certainly so used when the GEML was disrupted by bombing, and the Loop was used for the Norwich etc expresses...not sure if any started at Fenchurch? The GE tended to plan lines with junctions facing both ways for flexibility even if not regularly used- eg the New Essex Lines of 1889 (Southend to Colchester via Wickford, Maldon and Witham) or the proposed Chingford to Loughton loop, that fortunately for the Forest, was never authorised.
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Post by stapler on Jul 15, 2022 16:38:16 GMT
When Stratford was rebuilt for the Central Line to take over those services, two bay platforms were provided for a remnant shuttle to Fenchurch Street, one later used by the DLR on opening. Presumably the Fenchurch Street link service had been lost during wartime bombing and never restarted. As far as I am aware, the Fenchurch Street shuttle never commenced - certainly not with the planned single unit Class 306 electric trains. This was because of wartime bomb damage in east London. The traditional destination (from Loughton/the Loop) of Fenchurch became a little less desirable by the wholesale destruction of the EC4 area in the Blitz, and with it, the shipping and food wholesaling HQs there...
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Post by stapler on Jul 15, 2022 16:33:15 GMT
Possibly,when I started at Hainault Depot there a couple of guys there that worked at Loughton steam shed pre war. There was never a Loughton steam shed; for what is now the Central Line, that was at Epping, and even had a turntable. Several times the GE considered a shed at Loughton, which was the major station on the line, an even sank a thousand-foot deep well to facilitate it. What your Hainault colleagues probably remembered was the primitive coaling stage at Loughton and (I guess) signing on point where locos rested between peaks. And of course water cranes were also at Loughton, but only for topping up.
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Post by stapler on Jul 14, 2022 19:27:40 GMT
I don't think it's the ground **water** that's hot - as that can be a thousand feet below London. But it's certain the ground does not offer a cooling solution.
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Post by stapler on Jul 13, 2022 8:52:48 GMT
When I started this thread 4 yrs ago, I quoted the Central GM as saying the **new trains** would be here by 2030. Since we now have only twice the life of this thread to go, has anyone heard of any adjustment to that ETA? Seems as if we'll only be getting the last of the re-motored sets by then!
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Post by stapler on Jul 12, 2022 17:35:20 GMT
Fluff, hair, brake dust, skin particles, fibres? I was reminded of how originally the CLR trains were supposed to clear the air by piston effect in a snug-fit tunnel, let alone fans. A WB train ex-Loughton was tipped out at Leytonstone following some defect, and we all crowded onto already full T56, presumably ex-Hainault. I leant out of the car end window; it being 85F - and on entering the tunnel mouth west of Leyton, got a mouthful of the 2-ft long hair of the girl who was doing the same in the car in front.
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Post by stapler on Jul 12, 2022 15:37:49 GMT
NF, the reason Harlow want the Tube is not speed, it's cheapness. They say "Epping is in zone 6; why not us?" Probably, Harlow would be in a zone 9 or 10... Of course Harlow council hasn't the money to pay for it - they are a humble district council - not even a transport authority (which is Essex CC)
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Post by stapler on Jul 11, 2022 9:51:50 GMT
Harlow's "statement" is at www.harlow.gov.uk/news/statement-central-line-extensionI agree with shrugged that it's a far-fetched idea and won't ever happen. Crossrail2 must now be reckoned moribund if not dead, but that would have been more possible than the Central Line, especially as its proposed northern terminus was "nowhere in particular". Whilst it is true that Harlow administrations of both colours have traditionally rather considered themselves underdogs, it's simply pejorative to call them a trash area, and I hope that can be withdrawn from the forum.
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Post by stapler on Jul 11, 2022 6:29:46 GMT
Talk of WTT70 had me thinking of how much the service has changed since I worked at Hainault Deopt.After the peaks it was a 10 min service Ealing-Hainault/WRuislip-Epping plus the lunchtime to afternoon service White City- Liverpool St-Marble Arch also every 10min.Hainault had 16 off peak staplers,Ruislip had 10 or 12(not too sure),White City had 6 and 1 at Loughton.Also in those days nothing left Woodford Sdgs on a Sunday. I like the idea of "16 off-peak staplers", but I can assure you there's only ever been one of me! Useful thought how thin the service really was back then...
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Post by stapler on Jul 10, 2022 8:45:45 GMT
Great - so the info relayed in the programme was correct. It generally is, which is refreshing.... I am a professional nit-picker with TV programmes, currently doing the same with the re-run of Downton Abbey, but this one has been excellent.
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Post by stapler on Jul 10, 2022 6:56:51 GMT
Fifty or more years ago, at least until the advent of the ATO trial, the Woodfords generally but not always departed from the outer rail platform. There was an element of the lottery about it, just as at Hackney Downs, where just occasionally a Chingford would be diverted to the slow lines, and a porter would yell, deliberately and inaudibly at the last moment, "Chingford No4!", prompting a rush for the stairs. The grey describers near the passimeter at Hainault AIRI were lit by a single 40w bulb, and were unreliable at the best of times...... The blue ones at Hackney Downs were better; and as a small boy, I always hoped to see a Palace Gates train announced, but never did!
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7/7
Jul 8, 2022 7:12:23 GMT
Post by stapler on Jul 8, 2022 7:12:23 GMT
It was a terrible set of events. I was on the JLE, and we were all tipped out at Waterloo. I got on a red arrow, when the driver had just heard the news over his radio, and sirens were going off everywhere. I was due to work late that night, by which time all tubes had ceased. But a colleague gave me a lift to Upper Holloway station, near where she lived; never was I so glad to see a class 150. And then a no 20 bus back home from Walthamstow. The great euphoria that London would get the 2012 Olympics, announced on the sixth, dissipated very soon.
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Post by stapler on Jul 8, 2022 7:04:21 GMT
Apropos of nothing, the man who initiated/installed the suicide pits was Vernon A M Robertson, LT Chief engineer in the 30s, and a distinguished engineer nationally, who was president of the Institute. Oddly enough, his name came up on Wednesday at the Epping Forest planning committee, in discussion of an application to demolish his former house in Buckhurst Hill... Appreciate this won't help railway modellers!
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Post by stapler on Jul 8, 2022 6:56:43 GMT
There is one Woodford via Hainault service every day under WTT70. After they arrive at Woodford they continue as Woodford - Hainault shuttles, replacing one of the earlier shuttles (171 and 172) Monday - Friday Train 023 departs Ealing Broadway 18:18, arrives Hainault 19:27, departs for Woodford 19:28 Saturday Train 146 departs Ealing Bwy 16:57, arrives Hainault 18:03, departs 18:07 for Woodford Sunday Train 074 departs White City 17:49, arrives Hainault 18:45, departs 18:46 for Woodford Shrugged - do you mean in your first line "after they arrive at Hainault"?
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Post by stapler on Jul 7, 2022 16:03:13 GMT
South Ealing to Northfields. 0.39km You can throw a stone...
Ah, but Covent Garden to Leicester Square is 0.26 of course.
Yes, but not on the Elizabeth line!
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