Stabling Trains

The reason why trains that are stabled at Richmond with no tail lights on is because the unit has been completly shut down. That means no power to the unit. It is not at all a LOROL thing either. This was done under Br and Silverlink with class 313s.

If you leave the lights on and the engineers take an isolation the batteries on the unit will run until they eventually drain and when a driver turns up the next morning the unit is dead as a doornail and will need to be assisted. So all units that stable overnight are shut down to save the trains batteries.

The rear lights are permantley illuminated until a driver puts his key and then they turn to the normal white lights.

Also with the current signaling system at Richmond the only platform that has permissive working is platform 3. so if there is a train on plats 4 to 7 the signal will not clear and the signaller will have to speak to the driver in order for the train to proceed onto another train. Which with the advent of 4 car 378s will not happen as a 8 car 378 is too long for any platform at Richmond.

Hope that this was of help to you.