Turn 'em round

Circle line trains can indeed be reversed at any place [on the Circle line] with reversing facillities. It is rare - mainly because it's only usually done when they can't go any further; for example, a points failure at South Kensington / Aldgate or a defective train ahead.

The District Line Controllers are due to be moved from Earls Court to Baker Street in the next year or so, this will help both the Hammersmith & City/Circle/District Line controllers to work together to improve the services on the three lines.

Already over a year late, but the move is beginning. In June the people currently occupying the room will be moving offices, and from July, the equipment is due to begin being installed. So you never know, it may be sooner

I sincerely hope it does improve the current working relationship between the lines. It would be very advantageous of the District controllers to familiarise themselves with our room.



The way they have spoken to us in the past would mean they would be closer for something

(That something of course would be that we could personally go round and tell them why the Circle had to go first ;D )

I would imagine that once the new room is ready, the move will be during engineering hours. Of course someone will need to remain at Earl's Court until staff are available in the new room, unless depot traction current is disharged, though I think the Picc controllers can do this ??

I think it will be the same as their Emergency Control room and feature the (oh so reliable and not for safety-critical decision) TrackerNet, telephones an traction current Tunnel Telephone and earth-detection equipment.

Only the Line Controllers, Service Managers and Information Operators from the District are going. Don't know about the Piccadilly Controllers. Bearing in mind that the Service Operators (level 4) that are remaining are owned by JNP (Picc)

I'm a bit confused! I would have thought it would have been practical to keep the District Line controller and the District Line signal operators together, in the same room. I appreciate that its never going to be fully possible as the District and the Picc share the same signal desks as well.

You've basically answered you're own question there ;D ;D ;D

The signal operators at Earls Court are 'employed' by the Picc - and the signal desks work the Picc and District simultaneously. In essence, it would be extremely difficult to simply move a few signallers at will.

It's possible - but highly unlikely to happen for the reasons stated in replies 1 & 2 above. Passengers are simply told to change at Earls Court or Aldgate East when the circle has gaps.

I know at age 50, and with two more articles to write in two weeks for my mag (five in an issue..amazing!) I am falling out of my tree but I am sure that I have seen an Outer Circle with destination 'BAKER STREET' in the last few months at Bayswater. I now know that it is possible to do an Outer>Inner at Baker on the trailing #over, but is this ever done in service apart from engineering works? It would seem to take too much time to effect in practice given several days' viewing of the Liverpool Street reversing (very slick!) and the effect on the H&C and Met ML. I would imagine that Baker St. was the reversing point for the late night C-stock runs to Neaden for stabling that ran on the Jubifleet (#over south of Finchley Road) in the dim and distant past..correct?

May I also ask a subsidiary query? When did the bay at Liverpool Street 'go'?

I think you're right about the Baker Street reverser if it was on a weekend or bank holiday.

Outer Rail trains are sometimes turned at Baker Street if the service is suspended and with few trains, though this wouldn't be decided until between Paddington and Edgware Road. On one of my last days (the service was up the wall), an Outer Rail detrained at Edgware Road (another Pax behind), ran to Baker and shunted, back to Edgware Road and onto the sidings.


Also if you're really lucky and a certain controller is on you might even get a ride on a C stock westbound into Baker Street platform 2. ;D ;D

During the recent weekend closures between Baker Street and Liverpool Street, many trains may well have shown "Baker Street" on the front. Normally, the train describer would show "Circle Line" on that particular timetable (it helps avoid customer confusion / reluctance to join the train) but it is indeed capable of displaying "Baker Street."

The shunt moves at Baker Street are more or less as prjb mentioned. There is a booked move each morning, where a train ex-Edgware Road shunts east to west and goes on to form an inner-rail Circle service. The C-stock Neasden stablers that used to run did indeed run as prjb says, and one was the last train ex-Kings Cross.

Both Platform 2 and 6 at Baker Street have wrong-road starters, which, although not generally used very often, can prove to be a real help when nothing is moving. It makes the area quite flexible - especially when you think we can "happily" shunt C-stock from Platform 2 or 3 back into 6 or vice versa. Normally only tried with the Line Controller C5 mentioned ;D

As for Liverpool Street, I believe it was early-1980s. But how much of this forum have you trawled? I'm sure this has come up before and we had a date for it somewhere.

Some? Quite a few of the Circle Line trains have said "BAKER STREET" or "LIVERPOOL STREET" when the north side of the Circle has been closed.