Danger UXB!

One thing I don't get - why have they canceled the last Upminster last night and tonight (tue/wed)?

What difference does 10 minutes make to this ongoing incident??

It appears District line will be suspended from 2100 tonight, until 1000 tomorrow morning from Whitechapel to Barking

What is going on? How come it is taking so long to sort this thing out?? I wish my second half involved an Upminster later on but its Tower Ealings bet I wont get out of anything

With the greatest respect hb are you any sort of expert in dealing 60 year old ordnance which may be in a highly unstable state.

The types of weaponry dropped during WWII was massive with a huge variety of fusing mechanisms.

I think this is most certainly a case where these things are best left to the experts don't you?

Or do I perhaps wonder if your sole cause for complaint is that someone may get out of work and you won't..........??

Well they're obviously trying to do most of the work at night but clearly engineering hours aren't long enough. Even after last train they need to do p-way track walks and then after that ensure the LU area affected is clear ("sterile") during the Army/RLC work.

HB, you should really recall your days on the stations. Remember the short course - world war II bomb disposal in 5 easy steps ;D

I'm sure we discussed it one Saturday evening.

I guess 21146 is right, as long as the UXB is safe, why cause wide spread disruption, although would be better to start earlier to reduce the chance of a delay the next morning IMHO.

From reading, doesn't the UXB sit next to a big gas-o-meter or something?

Wonder how many more UXB's there are in the area?

May I add to DD's succint comments that even today WW1 oprdnance blows up in Belgian fields for no reason, or kills farmers who are ploughing. The location of a UXB may well be felt to cause enormous disruption should it go off, especially as it cause cause a shockwave. Southampton has had its fare share of UXBs over the years, dug up when new building work is undertaken though I doubt if there are any left now. The 'mines' discovered under the wartime runways at Lee on Solent were a terrible job to remove, and yet if they had gone off then the results would have been quite calamitous to local property.

According to the BBC London News last evening one of the bomb disposal technicians returned to the device no less than FOUR times after it appeared that the fuse may well have activated!

Apparently it is one of the largest that has ever been found in that part of London - and heaven only knows how many were dropped. I have no doubt that there are still many more UXB's in the area but what are the authorities supposed to do - ignore them?

I repeat my earlier sentiment that there is no quick way to deal with these devices - it takes time to make them safe - there are no short cuts so the disruption is inevitable.

In response to SS Stig - yes, there are indeed gas holders not all that far from the site but I *think* probably outside the cordon area.

You don't mess with explosives NO expectation's esp old bombs as they become unstable as time goes by. A suspension in my view is the only option. Worst case is bomb goes off and debris IE a big lump of metal fly's onto the tracks and derails a train. As DD says it's best left to the experts.

Shuttles Upminster to Plaistow on the east end and to Bromley or Whitechapel on the west end this morning, with no H & S either.

And As I heard it was suppose to be over at midday but don't hold your breath as there was some talk possibly of it going on till tomorrow, and what with the Jubilee and Central lines both being suspended because of engineering works tomorrow it could be rather confusing to say the least.

The early morning SPAD at West Ken eastbound didn't do the west end of the line any good plus a platform strike by a C stock also put the mockers on the service also.

** Update **

On BBC London news an Army bomb disposal expert has stated that they went to drill 2 holes in the device which is 1000 KG about 2200 LBS and found that the metal case was much harder than thought so they only managed to drill one hole.
Then they found that the explosive is set like concrete so now they are going to steam the explosive out.

That was on the 1330 BBC London news so dont expect any service till at least 1600 at the earliest.

The correct number of trains were at the right places last night.

Certainly confusion for you!!

Only the Jubilee is out tomorrow (Saturday only) - the Central line suspension is Sunday only

Saying that people should avoid the H&C for the rest of the day - is this due to a possibility of overcrowding, or a poor special timetable, or what?

The C2C marketing machine is sending me relative regular updates (not quite sure why as I live in Cambridge). It seems that there will be severe disruption this evening too, with all Southend trains going to and from Liverpool St.

So do the District have a full compliment of C stocks on the Wimblewares? There was a 30 minute gap in the service down the Wimbledon branch earlier... which I fell foul of!

It was a large explosion, did you see it on BBC London news?