Arnos Grove

Assuming David is talking about reversers using the 'eastbound' platform regularly, there is nothing new in that. When I were a lad they were often doing that, much to the annoyance of the punters. Sometimes it was to get them stabled, but more often than that it just happened.

It would sometimes go on for a couple of weeks, or 6 months, or whatever but I never did find out the reason.

Of course, if the service gets disrupted and two reversers appear at once, the second would then have to use the far platform. Now if the next Cockfosters is in before the second reverser departs, it can only use the centre road..............and so on until the regulator has both roads free again

No idea now - ask Seth.

In my day it used to be Arnos, Cockfosters, Arnos, Wood Green.

I gather the Wood Greens have (virtually ) gone, so there must presumably be more Cockfosters

The Term is called Service Recovery, the trains stay on the track, unless derailed. ;D

I believe Phil meant that there are no longer any services which are scheduled to turn at Wood Green (although I think there's one or two odd turns that do, which are run, IIRC, to DMT's instructions). It is indeed used for service recovery though.



It's a turnback siding - I doubt you would see anything stabled there on a regular basis.

The tipping out times, slow entry speeds into the siding, and restrictive signalling renders Wood Green useless(ish) as a regular reversing point.

The signalling system at Arnos Grove has been ropey and dodgy for several years, and I am just waiting for it to be replaced.

All Arnos Grove reversers are timetabled to reverse via platform 2/3, the middle platform. Unfortunately, for over five years now in my experience, the system often defaults to putting trains to reverse into platform 1 – the far eastbound platform. This unintentional default was “unofficially” confirmed to me by someone who works on the Picc line there. As a result the operator has to always monitor every single Arnos Grove train to reverse in the middle road, which is not easy to do, every single time. As a result, trains that reverse in platform 1, when they pick up their westbound journey, all eastbound traffic has through Arnos Grove has to stop for roughly 2 minutes to allow the WB train to crossover the EB line from platform 1 to run to Bounds Green.

Someone also asked about how often trains reverse at Arnos Grove. In the timetable, usually during the MF daytime, and the busy weekend periods of 21TPH Central London service, you have 3TPH reversing at Arnos Grove, translating into an Arnos Grove train every 20 minutes. Usually they are Arnos Grove – Northfields shuttles. During the MF peak services, where you run 24TPH, you have 6TPH reversing at Arnos Grove, effectively a reverser every 10 minutes.

Of course this is all timetabled, and works OK, but cannot offer much flexibility for recovery. So when things do go wrong, which does happen on the Picc regularly(!), you have several Arnos Grove trains out of turn, you’re always stuck in congestion coming into Arnos Grove on the EB, and you have a few Wood Green reversers.

is the service is running to time, the programme machine is doing all the work , but if the railway is broken for any reason, then the signalman will over ride the programme machine and reverse trains in either platfrom depending on what trains he has on the approach , really pi$$ses the livestock off when they get of a reverser on the east bound platform only to get on the next eastbound that rolls into the middle, only to find out , that is a reverser as well,.
if there is a good controller on at earls court ( and they are far and few between these days) then he will tell the signalman to try and keep the reversers on the eastbound platfrom at arnos to a minimum .

All they need are two words programmed into them...

"FIRST TRAIN"

Can't be that much strain on the system, surely?

Getting new DMIs to talk to old signalling systems is not quite as easy as you think, especially when it comes to predicting train movements that havn't been set.

They sometimes indicate the destination of the train in the platform, but thats only when the train arrives. It gives you no idea of when that train is due in, or indeed the status of the next two trains behind it. Its just that when they installed the DMIs in as part of the station refurbishment, they proudly boasted through press releases and METRO articles about the benefits of these DMIs but there isn't really any.

But you may like to know that in the old heritage listed booking office in the middle of the atrium, they have a screen in there showing the same information as the DMIs do.

And sometimes they mislead you in terms of which is the first train out of the station. What I have to resort to, is to find a vantage point on the platform where I can see both station starters for platform 3 and 4 (travelling westbound), and then when I see one of them showing green, I know thats my first WB train, and promptly run for that. More accurate than the DMIs!