Goblin Electrification info

Wrong type of wires now or post`s all wrong. Poor old Goblin line.

What will happen to the class 172s when the EMUs take over on GOBLIN?

The most likely scenario is that they get snapped up by Chiltern who operate their sister units, but as far as I know, there is no solid plan yet.

While the initial units had their pantographs changed that's apparently no longer necessary? Presumably whatever concerns were had have been addressed.

In the last couple of days an extensive new ramped structure has been installed at Blackhorse Road. This fills in the gap between the footbridge and ticket hall but means a longer overall walking distance than in the past. I assume it has been done to ensure that all ramps are compliant with modern standards so that a wheelchair user will be able to get between the ticket hall and the lift towers to both platforms. Given how many people have "knife edge" connections, myself included sometimes, to / from the GOBLIN platforms I can see people missing trains in future because of the longer walking distance.

The User Group tweeted the following.

There is another photo, but not of fantastic quality [1], on the user group twitter feed which shows the new ramp stretching round to the right of the new lift shaft and filling in the gap to the ticket hall. The lift shaft doors are quite clearly orientated to the west so that they emerge on to the footbridge / new ramp (for the lift to the Barking platform).

I will have a wander this week so see if I can get some photos but the local bridges have had height extenders fitted making it difficult to get a camera at the right height and then get a shot that's in focus or pointing in the right direction.

[1] that's not me being horrible btw. It is extremely difficult to get a photo facing east from Ferry Lane because the pavement is very much lower than the tracks and there are buildings in the way. You'd need a very expensive zoom lens to stand any sort of chance of getting a shake free, fully focused shot.

Well let's see how it is when it opens as you and I are both speculating about the time impact. We only have a fortnight to wait. The alternative is that nothing is done and I am sure you will have seen people with luggage, kids / buggies or those who are less steady on the feet struggling badly with the old set up at Blackhorse Road. At least they will have an alternative in due course so won't be struggling with the staircases. It's a shame that more platform width hasn't been added as the numbers using BHR are high relative to the available space.

London Midland's 172s have corridor connections, so I suspect it's unlikely they'd go there:


Stourbridge Junction - London Midland 172222-172332 Worcester service [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], by Geof Sheppard (Own work), from Wikimedia Commons

Not impossible though - a gangwayed end can couple to a non-gangwayed end, eg the class 455/456 combos on SWT, or Pacer/Sprinter pairings.

If a through gangway is needed in a longer train, the units could be re-formed with one gangwayed car and one non-gangwayed, the units being coupled together by their gangwayed cars. Something similar was done with the 150s several times.

There are, in any case, some services for which two cars are enough.

Wasn't the best start to driver training on Saturday as the 1st unit failed whilst carrying out validation testing then we had a few signaling issues & a few speed restrictions to contend with. I'm in the process of sorting out the video I took & will post this afternoon.

Great vids. Interesting to see theyve plonked the supports for the wires in spaces formerly used for passing loops, would have thought if its to be successful as a major freight route and an intensive metro line that keeping that kind of flexibility would be important.

Actually, traditional loops (known as 'static' ones) are not that helpful - Anything using them has to approch the turnouts slowly and it takes ages to tuck a long freight inside the loop. Similarly when leaving the loop it takes an age to get going again and while it may be worth doing on a 100mph railway, the same is not true of an urban slow speed one.

Basically on lines like the GOBLIN, NLL or WLL it is better to keep freights rolling at a steady speed, with the faster passenger trains accelerating ahead, but the freight then catching them up again after the passenger service has made its station call. Its why extra loops under Earls Court in the WLL have been rejected - there simply are not effective in such a railway.

To be truly effective, loops should be dynamic ones (typically 3 signal sections long or so on multitrack lines) - allowing the freight to keep rolling at a steady speed while the much faster passenger train overtakes on the main line.

On single lines a dynamic loop should be long enough enough so trains may enter the double track section from either end at the same time, running at line speed through it, before exiting onto the single line again with no need to slow for adverse signals.

Where Static loops do have a role is if it is needed to recess a freight train running between main lines as its hard to path trains across several main lines (Hence all the worries about Thameslink tying together the ECML, the MML and the BML, plus bits of the SE area).

Fingers being crossed ;-)

The line will reopen at the end of February, using the existing diesel 2-car Class 172s until the new electric 4-car Class 710s are ready, coming into service in 2018.