"Electrical Fault" on the Central line

So far I've had a 14 minute wait at South Woodford for a Leytonstone service, and now a 16 minute wait at Leytonstone for the next westbound train into town. All fun and games!

Also trains are reversing in platform 1 back to Epping. Not sure how rare that is, but I've not seen it before in service!

It seems to be

There are normally multiple rectifiers at substations, the number depending upon the required output. Therefore if one rectifier is defective the loadings on the substation as a whole may need to be reduced. The issue is simply to avoid too many trains drawing more current than the remaining plant is able to supply, which would result in an overload and the section tripping out.

If I understand this correctly, platform 1 is the side platform and next to the Church road exit, former car park / nowadays bus terminus.

I've never seen eastbound trains depart from this platform. I'd love to do so, especially when my camcorder is recording the action!

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I was going to start a new thread but maybe this electrical fault is related to what I experienced this afternoon. My journey was to the Visions International bus event at West Ham bus garage.

As I am only free on Saturday afternoons the part of my journey on public transport began at about 2pm when I arrived at Gants Hill station, only to find that the station staff were blocking the ticket gates and telling all "wannabe passengers" that because of a points failure at Newbury Park there were no trains between Leytonstone & Hainault and severe delays on the rest of the Central Line.

We were advised to catch a bus to Ilford and use TfL Rail, which I was very unhappy to do as it meant that I was charged a bus fare, thereby doubling the cost of my journey.

Having arrived at Ilford I discovered that TfL Rail services were also in trouble, as apparently there was also a points failure at Forest Gate junction. But at least the trains were still running!

Happily a train was arriving at the station at the same time as I descended the steps to the platform, however after departing it came to a screeching halt (noisy brakes!!!) whilst travelling over the Ilford Flyover. This unscheduled stop was to allow two fast trains to switch to the local tracks - which effectively meant that they went immediately in front of us. At this stage I should add that my journey through east London was westbound... towards Stratford.

Near to Manor Park I saw an eastbound TfL Rail train travelling on the eastbound fast tracks. This normally only happens at times of disruption or weekend closures. At Forest Gate I saw an eastbound TfL Rail train departing the station - whilst travelling on the *westbound* fast tracks. This is unusual!

At Maryland I saw a stationary C2C train on the eastbound local tracks, presumably delayed whilst waiting to switch to the route towards Barking at Forest Gate Junction.

Eventually I arrived at Stratford, to see crowded platforms Nos. 3 and 3a, which are used by westbound Central Line trains. Happily I was able to switch to the DLR and complete my journey to Star Lane without undue delay.

However, my journey home was also not without drama. This is because when I arrived at Stratford I saw staff everywhere telling us that passengers wanting Epping trains should take the first train to Leytonstone and then switch to a replacement bus! For me this was OK, as at least it meant that I could get back home to Gants Hill. However what baffled me was what had happened and how they got so many buses so quickly. Perhaps my answer came whilst leaving Leytonstone when I saw that a train waiting at platform 2 was showing Epping as its destination. At times of disruption running a Leytonstone - Epping shuttle service is not unusual. Or maybe it really was that thousands of passengers wanting to use Epping trains had a nightmare bus journey home... this I do not know as I was just thankful to be on a train that would take me to Gants Hill and since I could not do anything about it I did not wish to dwell on the misery of others.

Maybe its because of better reporting (in my case, twitter alerts), maybe its me; certainly from what has been happening over the past few weeks it *seems* that there are far more delays than there used to be.

Simon

This week has been a complete disaster for the Central Line. Points failures on multiple occasions, dislodged current rail knocking shoes off a train, and probably something else I've missed. All seems to be track related though, could the cause be heat or just simply everything is becoming "tired/worn".

Monday: Point failures at both White City and North Acton in the late afternoon then an eastbound train became stuck at Shepherd's Bush after losing all shoes. The current rail had become displaced. Train had to be evacuated. 

Tuesday: Faulty train at Notting Hill Gate just in time for the evening peak.

Thursday: Signal failure at Holborn just after the evening peak.

Friday: faulty train at Epping in the middle of the morning peak, 

Saturday - today major power supply problem and signal failure at Newbury Park.

Not exactly the best of weeks how the line will make it until it gets its next round of investment through the NTFL programme I will never know. 

Station stops should not be so long that there is enough time to log in to the wi-fi and surf the net! Hopefully the train did eventually continue its journey.

Simon

Actually, scratch that. The TfL website says good service but at the station they're saying severe delays still that are due to continue for the remainder of the day. A nice 16 minute wait for a westbound train for me!

Signal failure at White City this afternoon. The misery just keeps on coming.

Defective cable