extreme line closures

The majority will be platform work/ associated work - for your new trains you'll be getting.

Better to get the works done in a 3 week period than say a Jubilee Line style multiple weekend closure?

I agree that longer, several week closures are probably the way forward and should have been tried much earlier - apart from anything else, I'd have thought it'd actually been cheaper to do it this way.

Does anyone know if places such as platform work at, e.g. Goldhawk Road, which has been cordoned off/boarded for as long as I've lived in London (>4 years)?

Given that there aren't really any points apart from (what looks like) a fairly simple set at Royal Oak to necessitate such a long closure, will it also be the track being replaced?

Presumably there will be no access to/from Hammersmith depot, hence significantly reducing C stock availability. Is there anywhere else with the capability and spare capacity to maintain some C stock for the 3 weeks or is it the entire lot forced out of service? I know some are stabled at Triangle and Barking sidings, as well as possibly Parsons Green, but I don't know what maintence facilities they have. I suspect given the geography of Triangle and Parsons Green, not a lot in those two cases.
I agree that it is far better to get the work done in a 3 week, 23 day long closure rather than several weekends, which would result in more closure days. Then again, I am biased as I normally visit London on Saturdays.

Is it back to Circle line Mk I during the period when Hammersmith-Praed St Jn is closed, or are the powers that be crazy enough to keep the Circle reversing alongside Wimblewares and the truncated H&C?

Half and half really. Much of the blockade will see the "old Circle" running - and no doubt regular punters during the week can experience the unreliability that came with that service, and maybe by the end will be begging for a return to the "new Circle" which will of course be an interesting irony. Maybe the "powers that be" won't seem as "crazy" by that time.

I just thought I'd pick up on this specific question as it appears to have gone unanswered.....

In a nut shell, their name gives them away - Barking sidings, Triangle sidings and Parsons Green sidings - they are all sidings which means there are absolutely no maintenance facilities (apart from perhaps a few consumable odds & sods like spare light bulbs, log books, J door covers or fuses). It is absolutely impossible to do any of the normal maintenance carried out by Hammersmith depot.

Both Ealing Common & Upminster depots are capable of maintaining C stocks as they both supply the overnight staff for train preps in the above mentioned sidings, however this would be subject to available spare parts (they both only hold parts for D stocks) - so not an impossibility whilst Hammersmith is out of commission, but it could well be that a given train's required maintenance is delayed whilst parts are sourced from Hammersmith.

Ealing Common is the better option as Acton Town drivers are C stock trained (with the exception of the pool and I/O's, Upminster drivers are not) and of course Ealing Common is much closer to Hammersmith. The major negative point is that there is no extra space available at Ealing Common - nor Upminster either come to that.

So maintenance will certainly be something where innovative solutions will be required, let alone any outstabling if that's planned to occur....

Wouldn't Edgware Road also have been an option if they were still in use? (Are they?)

The Farringdon sidings possession is listed as lasting until start of traffic 5th July. This is the Monday following the weekend that sees the commencement of Hammersmith branch closure. I doubt this is a coincidence. The sidings have already been temporarily returned to use over a couple of weekends in May when extra stabling was required in the city and I would suggest that the plan is that the sidings will be again available for the duration of the works on the Hammersmith Branch.

Slightly off topic, but why are Edgware Road sidings now out of use? As I'd hinted at in a thread a few months back, the removal of points and sidings seem to be increasingly common, but even when not needed on a daily basis, surely closures like this show that there is use in retaining them...

Ones that come to mind:
Edgware Road
Farringdon (extended temporary)
Liverpool Street bay road
Some sort of point removal at Baker Street?
King's Cross third platform/bay road after 1987
2 sidings by Ealing Common eastbound platform (dunno anything about these, but look completely rusty)
Piccadilly Circus on the Bakerloo that was out of commission for about 2 years I think


The above may not be entirely accurate or, indeed, there may well be more that I can't think of off the top of my head, but there certainly seem to be numerous examples of sidings/crossovers disappearing where they might actually be of use. I'm willing to be shot down about any of the above as I don't know too much detail of reasons why they disappeared, it's just more of a casual observation.

These aren't sidings as such, they are shunting necks for shunting trains in Ealing Common Depot and are still used.

Edgware Road sidings will be back at some point - though the shape in which they (or it) return is not yet clear.

Farringdon sidings will be re-entering possession shortly after the current "end date" being circulated, and whilst they will return fully at some point, they too will be "changed / reduced."

The stabling of trains during the shutdown has, I hear, been fully resolved - the timetables are more than likely pretty much signed and sealed. The only issue being foreseen is the movement of the umpteen engineers trains out of the closure area at the end of the shutdown in August. Currently a separate weekend shutdown on the Uxbridge branch (including Ruislip depot) clashes with the engineers trains ex-Hammersmith branch needing to return there.

There are more than a few work-arounds for this, and it's an operational hurdle that shouldn't impact on other services.

I take it that this one siding will have been lengthened to take the new S7 stock ?

and as for the bakerloo line at picc circus these points are now back in use after getting replaced over a 4 day long weekend closure

*wanders into library* ;D

As a first port of call I'll look in the OPO introduction WTTs, and I'm pretty sure that the trailing crossover was recommissioned in 1982.

Bit of a needle in a haystack job - and distinctly off-topic!

Hmm. After reading only three WTTs, I've found an ex-Chesham service reversing at Liverpool St - Met No 2 WTT 279 (6/10/80) has the 0733 ex Chm running with a TD of LS5, booked into Liverpool St at 0834; 0753½ ex-Amersham in at 0848; 0804 ex-Chm in at 0904; 08a24½ ex-Am in at 0919½; 0839 ex-Am in at 0935½; 0854½ ex-Am in at 0949½. This last Liverpool Street reverser has Stop with a reurn working off LS at 1616, so it was an interpeak stabler in the bay, giving no slack hours reversers there in this WTT. The evening busy gives the 1525½ (1620), 1540½ (1634½), 1555½ (1648½), 1610½ (1704½) all ex-Uxbridge reversing in Liverpool St () time is the booked arrival. Then 1627 ex-Rickmansworth (1720), 1640 ex-Watford (1736), 1654½ ex-Am (1751½), 1724½ ex-Am (1820½) [coincidentally the last arrival into the City in this WTT] also being Liverpool Street reversers.

Looking at the next No 2 section WTT (281: 6/12/82) all Liverpool Street reversers had ceased. Therefore the last time the bay was booked to be sued in anger would have been on Friday, 4th December 1982 - 110 years to the day after the Mary Celeste was found!

Back on-topic....