Windsor & Eton, Marlow and Henley Branch Lines

FGW have been given a Direct Award to operate the franchise, including these branches, until April 2019 - as for electrification, Windsor and Henley will be wired but the Marlow branch will not.

For the same reason Greenford won't be. Platform lengths (and in particular the distance between the buffers and the points at Bourne End) preclude the use of anything longer than two coaches on those branches. And there are no two-coach ac units, nor any way of making one by removing coaches from a longer one. (Take out the middle coach(es) and you have no pantograph, take out either end coach and it can only be driven in one direction!) They won't be a complete diesel island - Reading depot will still need diesels for the North Downs and Cotswold lines for the foreseeable future.

The only 2-car emus on NR at present are the dc-only class 456s.
www.kentrail.org.uk/Class%20456.jpg

The last ac ones were the class 309/1s, which were converted to 4-car in the 1970s and scrapped in the mid-nineties.
www.gensheet.co.uk/photo309/602svic.JPG
(note the pantograph over the driving cab, instead of the conventional position on an intermediate car)

Leaves on the line-or not as the case may be

I think it is lunacy not to electrify the Marlow Branch as this requires the retention of diesel units with the associated empty/ additional workings on an what is ti become a very congested GWML! The service to Marlow and Borne End is to be doubled in frequency and this will be achieved by making both platforms at Bourne End accessible from both the Maidenhead and Marlow lines thereby providing a passing point for trains on the branch.

This branch was originally planned to be electrified however there was an an issue with the EMU's being to lo long to fit into the platforms at Bourne End so rather than find a solution to this problem the Luddites that run the railways had their day!

XF

Have you ever been to Bourne End? The station is wedged between the Marlow branch junction at the south end, which is already on a sharp curve, and a road at the north end. The junction is also constrained by the Thames bridge which is close as well. The trackbed of the former route northwards to High Wycombe is now an industrial estate - if you could get this removed then it would be possible to resite the station north of the road, but then you would need either a level crossing or road overbridge or underbridge. The level crossing would likely be resisted due to the potential to cause traffic congestion, whilst the road bridge would be disruptive and expensive. All this might be justifiable if this was the only diesel route in the area, but as there will be a requirement for DMUs at Reading (?) for the Reigate and Greenford lines this makes it much less of a problem.

Having said all this, it does seem disappointing that the Reading-Redhill route doesn't seem to be up for electrification, especially as large parts of this already have the 3rd rail. It doesn't help that Network Rail is still flirting with the idea of replacing the whole DC network with AC, whether this ever turns out to be realistic remains to be seen, but in the meantime it imposes a planning blight on any potential DC schemes. There's no way the missing sections of Reading-Redhill could be realistically done with AC due to the number of AC/DC interfaces this would require. If this line were done on DC, and Greenford were then electrified, this might change the economics such that a costly complete remodelling of Bourne End could be more justifiable.

Of course it is possible, just very expensive.

Both end cars are trailers though.............