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Post by norbitonflyer on Mar 2, 2018 16:22:42 GMT
To be fair the station is nowhere near the actual Latimer Road after that road was split into two when the Westway was constructed. I believe the southern bit was renamed Freston Road. . It was - although the entrance is now at the other end of the station, on Bramley Road.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Mar 1, 2018 6:41:59 GMT
I'm curious why one would raise the track in a tunnel. There must be something that I'm missing. High water table, risk of flooding. Steam engines could cope with a bit of paddling, but third rail electrification is a different matter!
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 27, 2018 16:20:16 GMT
The value of the ticket to him would be somewhat less than £3000, since if he had had time to lose it twice (and replace it once) there would have been rather less than a year to go until he would have needed to renew it anyway. I have had a similar accident myself - fortunately with far less serious consequences as I was seen before the right-away was given - but I had only myself to blame for my injuries.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 26, 2018 17:46:43 GMT
Are there any existing designs of diesel trams?
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 26, 2018 13:53:35 GMT
I got a cake too! (On the Brighton-Cambridge service - the third through the Canal Tunnel)
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 24, 2018 21:02:57 GMT
The problem described by norbitonflyer is another matter and another good reason for guards on trains. There are guards on 707s (as on all SWR trains) - it didn't seem to make a difference
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 24, 2018 21:01:19 GMT
I'd assume that any system of charging batteries etc is liable to be extremely costly to arrange - it may be easier to do something radical than introduce a new, bespoke system. Vivarail's train can be charged from the 3rd rail, and an 8 minute charge gives a range of 40 miles. In just one layover at one of the termini it could accumulate enough charge to make two round trips between Ryde and Shanklin. vivarail.co.uk/battery-train-update/
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 24, 2018 17:42:37 GMT
But it might be worth mentioning that the somewhat similar style class 700 stock on Thameslink services already has automated coach by coach loading displays INSIDE these often 12 coach trains. Given the very long distances involved I suspect this is a sensible solution as if people see the display shows loads of space elsewhere in the train they may well use the interconnected carriages to relocate to less crowded areas whilst on the move. Doesn't happen on the very similar class 707s on SWR, I'm afraid. Despite clearly showing part of the train had seats and another part was full and standing, everyone still crowded into the full part - especially the doorways - so that no-one could move down the train to the quieter part even if they wanted to. (Why didn't I? - because I had to get on at the rear as the train was about to leave)
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 23, 2018 17:42:57 GMT
Could be worthwhile even if the only dead section was Ryde Tunnel, if that meant you could lower the floor to take stock built to main line dimensions - D train, class 769 or whatever.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 23, 2018 11:55:28 GMT
Not long back some fool installing concrete piles managed to drill right through the roof of a tube line with debris ending on the track – I doubt any computer would have noticed until too late. Thankfully an alert driver reported unusual water cascading from the roof and stopped services. It was between Old Street and Essex Road - so a tube line but not a Tube line - which was part of the problem because the surveyors had only checked with TfL and not Railtrack - and of course it wasn't on the Tube Map! The driver was actually very lucky: the drill bit, which was about two feet across, had snapped off so was lying on the track. Had it not done so it would have gone through the driver's side windscreen. (As had happened, mercifully with a - much smaller - surveyor's drill, on the Central Line some years previously)
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 22, 2018 20:52:33 GMT
At the moment, the drain is the last to get new trains. Daft question, but do they have wipers fitted? It probably rains more on the Island :-) Yes they do - fitted as standard to all 1992 stock as built and retained on refurbishment. They can be seen in photographs of the trains. Their class 487 predecessors did not have wipers, making their occasional forays onto the main line (via the famous hoist) subject to the weather!
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 22, 2018 20:47:40 GMT
the oldest stock in daily use in the world as I l know Two of the locomotives, and four of the carriages, on the Achenseebahn rack railway in the Austrian Tyrol date from its opening in 1889. It runs daily from April to October.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 22, 2018 7:49:17 GMT
perhaps the selection process would need to include testing them for being water tight, this being something that is unlikely to be a major concern in London where they only operate below ground. The "Drain" used to be notoriously leaky.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 20, 2018 20:15:18 GMT
The Vivarail trains are diesel, so the line could be de-electrified ( the infrastructure is over 50 years old anyway). That could allow the floor of Ryde Tunnel to be lowered again.
Or if the battery version is used, the batteries could be charged on the rest of the line and used to get through the dead tunnel section.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 19, 2018 16:28:46 GMT
would be interested to know exactly how far outside the core it starts sharing. The limits are something like West Hampstead on the Midland line (Where freight for the Goblin branches off), Canal Tunnel junction on the east coast main line, somewhere between the Bermondsey diveunder and New Cross Gate on the Forest Hill line, and before Elephant & Castle on the original LCDR route. As for Surrey politicians campaigning for CR2 to serve their constituencies, they seem to miss the point of CR2, which is to get oi polloi stopping services off the route to Waterloo so that their fast trains are not held up. Their constituents wouldn't thank them for adding a dozen stops to their fast run from Woking or Guildford! Not to mention the other delights of Crossrail 1 - no First Class and no toilets!
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 19, 2018 16:15:02 GMT
Government papers are usually released after thirty years, so 2028.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 16, 2018 15:05:56 GMT
SWT converted all its class 455s to AC traction motors within the last two years of the franchise, but not the younger class 456s. These seem to work together in the same train quite happily.
Note that even if both the power supply and the motors are AC, you have to convert from 50Hz AC to DC and then to variable-frequency ac.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 15, 2018 9:46:05 GMT
There are (or were) some 1983 stock cars at an HSE site at Harpur Hill in Derbyshire
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 12, 2018 16:43:07 GMT
If you are going to Hammersmith, again during delays, it might be better to take the central line to Shepherd's Bush station, then take one of four buses (72,220,283,295) Wouldn't the White City/ Wood Lane OSI be quicker, easier and cheaper?
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 9, 2018 19:27:40 GMT
a heritage railway having access to a subterranean section of railway (yes, *very* unlikely) Mail Rail?
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 9, 2018 16:42:06 GMT
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 8, 2018 22:24:52 GMT
It would have to be 'third rail' as an isolated island of either diesel or overhead would not be practical No more impractical than the isolated island of dc between Drayton Park and Moorgate. And Southern already has units equipped with pantographs for the Milton Keynes services.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 7, 2018 23:35:44 GMT
Looks like the D train will not be going to Northern The BBC are very slow on the uptake - that's not news - the orders for Northern's 195s and 331s were placed with CAF nearly two years ago and, as the picture shows, the first ones are now almost complete. West Midlands have ordered class 230s for the Marston Vale line.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 7, 2018 10:18:00 GMT
A shame about the Epping-Ongar 'lost opportunity'. Once again I express my opinion that the loss of electric working capacity on this line was short-sighted. Possibly, but the 24/7 costs of keeping the equipment live, or even present, whilst the line was closed (public safety, theft, etc) would have been prohibitive. (I understand that the copper overhead cables on the Woodhead line were kept energised until very shortly before they were scheduled to be dismantled, to deter opportunist scrap merchants from getting there first)
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 6, 2018 12:25:08 GMT
A bit like that add on the box with a man on a scooter, on top of a van, on top of a flatbed,all towed by a man on roller skates And notice the steam coming from the front of the VW pickup, which is actually air cooled with a rear engine! Since 1991 they have been water-cooled, with a front-mounted radiator (although the engine was still at the back). c1.staticflickr.com/4/3914/14512031524_db151948a2_b.jpgMany owners prefer to disguise the radiator by hiding it behind the spare wheel, although this reduces the effectiveness of the radiator and, at the same time, causes softening of the tyre! i.pinimg.com/originals/5e/70/df/5e70df4c93f129a0e51fcca70b8223be.jpgHowever, all the pickup versions were built in Germany, and all the water-cooled versions in Mexico, so there are no water-cooled pickup variants unless someone has customised one.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 5, 2018 15:18:59 GMT
Well at least they aren't doing the ultimate lunacy of putting a train on a truck, then putting that truck on a train (a Eurotunnel truck shuttle). A train on a lorry - even a British loading gauge train - is usually an "outsize load" (orange lights, maybe a police escort, etc) so it probably wouldn't fit on a Eurotunnel lorry shuttle
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 5, 2018 8:59:49 GMT
How does it get the number 258? Only 45 units are on order, of which fourteen are of the /2 subclass.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 4, 2018 20:22:41 GMT
On the Central Line we already have Emergency Stop Plungers on the platform which turn the signal codes to zero, obviously they only work with ATO/ATP lines Stop plungers are a bit of an anachronism now. LU has decided they are not worth the cost and complexity, not to mention the risk of misuse. One wonders if the ones which still exist may quietly get decommissioned at some point. if they don't work they should be removed or at least clearly marked as out of use. We don't want people trying to use them in an emergency instead of something that actually works.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 4, 2018 12:52:51 GMT
When the new entrance on the south side of the river opened, people wanted the name of the station to reflect that although there wasn't (AFIAK) a consensus on what the new name should be constructions like "Blackfriars and Bankside" or "Blackfriars and South Bank" were suggested. When it opened in the 1880s, Blackfriars (LCDR) station was named "St Pauls", replacing the 1864 station on the South Bank which had been called "Blackfriars Bridge" It was renamed by the Southern Railway in 1937, as part of a tidying up of names in the area which also involved the renaming of "Post Office" Tube station to its present name of St Pauls.
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Post by norbitonflyer on Feb 3, 2018 17:26:09 GMT
It is entirely possible to operate a heritage railway with overhead electrification, mind. In the UK there are the Seaton, Beamish and Crich tramway museum systems, all operating on the overhead, not to mention three working trolleybus museums.
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