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Post by stapler on Dec 30, 2022 8:16:44 GMT
What a nuisance the shorter C stock trains were for passengers where the service (eg Victoria - Tower Hill) was shared with Ds
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Post by stapler on Dec 27, 2022 13:29:55 GMT
Four of them are ex-GER stations, Debden, Hackney Downs, Newbury Pk and Liverpool St, and all four have some part of the original GER station standing and still in railway use today
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Post by stapler on Dec 18, 2022 11:35:27 GMT
Roding Valley was of course opened as a Halt after the New Works programme had been announced, but before the LPTB took control. Laings, who wanted to sell their new houses nearby, paid the LNER for it, and I daresay it cost less than much-trumpeted Beaulieu Park that Essex County Council are currently shelling out for....
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Post by stapler on Dec 18, 2022 11:31:15 GMT
I don't think it took LU too much to "sacrifice" the Leyton B entrances. The 1990s were still years of retrenchment. Subsidiary entrances at Epping and Buckhurst Hill were closed at that sort of period with no link road excuse, and Woodford almost so. Nice pic, SPS!
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Post by stapler on Dec 18, 2022 11:12:40 GMT
<<That risks LU being stuck with 92TS for probably another decade >> At least....
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Post by stapler on Dec 6, 2022 16:04:12 GMT
The GER, faced with 1 in 70 and extended dwell time at LV, on the Bethnal Green Bank, always worked with locos smokebox first up the bank. Did the District (or LT&S) locos also always work chimney first up the Bow bank?
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Post by stapler on Dec 3, 2022 8:20:10 GMT
Surely this depends not only on the % axles motored, but on the gearing and power of each motor?
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Post by stapler on Nov 28, 2022 8:20:49 GMT
How long was an Edwardian CLR train, and would have ability to cope with the original humped gradient profile have been affected when the Bo-Bo locos were replaced by EMUs?
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Post by stapler on Nov 26, 2022 15:14:45 GMT
The idea of reducing Fenchurch dates from quite a long time ago way before traffic and service growth is up to what it is now .
Stratford platforms 4 and 7 were built for a Fenchurch shuttle but never used so. This was meant for Loughton, Fairlop loop, and Ilford passengers to replace the pre-war through trains from those places to Fenchurch. In fact cross - platform interchange at Mile End turned out to be less inconvenient. Fenchurch St was of course a Blackwall Railway then ECR then GER property, the LTS and LMS being mere tenants. This changed after the cessation of the Blackwall service in 1926. But would their pax now after 75 years really appreciate being diverted via Forest Gate Junction?
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Post by stapler on Nov 25, 2022 16:57:31 GMT
tubeprune notes on his website that (at least as of 2003) the steepest gradient on LU is 1 in 28 or 3.57% - between Bow Road and Bromley By Bow, District Line. How did they cope with that under steam traction for the first 5 years of the Whitechapel & Bow - and from a standing start?!
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Post by stapler on Nov 25, 2022 16:34:04 GMT
At about 1030 this morning got the EL from Stratford to Whitechapel; only a couple of seats free in the cars. At Whitechapel, noticed the lack of the country end exit which was deleted early on for cost reasons. That trek does not make for a good passenger experience at Whitechapel!
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Post by stapler on Nov 25, 2022 16:18:29 GMT
I have been consulting "Improving London's Transport" the Railway Gazette supplement of May 1946. There is a description of the Loughton Branch Junction signalbox consolidation (with intriguing photo) on p24. The gradient east of Stratford is, annoyingly, not stated, but approaching Stratford from Mile End is given from Carpenders Rd, as only 1 in 45. (p.21). It would have been known that the Standard Stock, with which the line opened, had coped easily with the 1 in 20s of the CLR, but these were for acceleration/deceleration.
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Post by stapler on Nov 24, 2022 18:19:37 GMT
What, for comparison, is the gradient on Central Line EB and WB to Stratford Station? I seem to remember they had to float Loughton Branch Junction signal box on a raft of concrete to make the EB grade acceptable....
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Post by stapler on Nov 17, 2022 8:31:27 GMT
<< The result (as noted in the article linked at the top of this thread) was a slight preference for adding step-free access in areas that don't have any rather than making other areas step-free hubs. If followed-through then that would deprioritise Loughton, being adjacent to both Debden and Buckhurst Hill.>> True, but although Buckhurst Hill was made step-free by reopening the long-closed entrances at the south, they debouch a wheelchair user where s/he doesn't want to be for interchange; a bus every 75 minutes on the 549? And as for Debden [is there a less pleasant approach route anywhere else on TfL?], with a rough barriered alleyway to the buses?
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Post by stapler on Nov 16, 2022 16:26:36 GMT
Also, the platform height of the converted GER lines was, I think standardised on conversion - which was always an uneasy compromise, and can make the gradient of the ramps too great. I rather get the impression step-free access has been taking a back seat lately, both at "difficult" outer stations like Loughton and Leyton WB, and of course at the deep level inner stations.
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Post by stapler on Oct 29, 2022 15:38:07 GMT
Don't forget the M1 was originally the "London-Birmingham Motorway". HS2 is far too advanced to cancel, though it may not get the extensions it needs to make it really useful.
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Post by stapler on Oct 26, 2022 9:57:53 GMT
Blame Tyrannosaurus etc, and the seeming obsession of 7-8 year olds with dinosaurs....
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Post by stapler on Oct 23, 2022 12:05:37 GMT
I used to have to travel from Lambeth North some 40-45 years back. It was a delightful, if rather frustrating, antique, even then, but worth it for the period ambience and the comfort of the seats and characteristic sounds on the 38 stock.
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Post by stapler on Oct 22, 2022 7:45:59 GMT
"Perhaps the same is meant - special trips 26/02/23 and timetable service 31/02/23". As I thought, sometime never - it'll be a long wait till the 31st of February; any year!
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Post by stapler on Oct 16, 2022 7:18:56 GMT
I saw one at approx 0825 on an "up" at Harold Wood on the 11th. Couldn't get the number.
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Post by stapler on Oct 16, 2022 7:13:10 GMT
The high-pitched whistle from the Standard Stock was very characteristic of my uncle's garden near Hainault depot in the 50s. A rather anaemic sound compared with the N7s "whistling up" the gatekeeper at Chingford Hatch level crossing that I was used to..
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Post by stapler on Oct 7, 2022 12:49:57 GMT
Thanks for photo; they were definitely padded, and bet the benches (squabs?) were sprung and stuffed with horsehair, if a trifle upright and ergonomically unsound! Are modern LU seats stuffed with anything at all?
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Post by stapler on Sept 28, 2022 8:30:38 GMT
In the merged thread, I wasn't referring just to *track* noise as does the thread you've merged it into, but also boom from tunnels (is it different eg with steel and concrete), wind/air pressure, and motor/brake system sounds. Is one sort of tube tock noisier than another, for instance? Is the quiet sections clip on the net, does anyone know? I couldn't find it.
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Post by stapler on Sept 27, 2022 16:54:47 GMT
<<Post merged from 'Tube Noise/quiet sections' thread within General Questions and Comments - goldenarrow>>
Just after our family acquired a TV, Granada had a weekly programme "All our yesterdays", featuring cinema newsreels from 25 years previously (i.e 1935-6-7). One item covered, interesting to a young railway enthusiast, was the innovation of "Quiet Sections" on LPTB railways, c 1936, and featured a car of what I subsequently thought was probably 1935 stock, and a handsome couple shouting [because of ambient tube noise] sweet nothings to each other, and suddenly entering a quiet section to the general amusement of other passengers. I've never found this clip again. What became of these revolutionary quiet sections? Has anyone studied what comprises tube noise? A journey out to zone 6 on the Central Line today got me thinking about this - in the tunnel section, apart from track noise (rail/conductor rail joints?), wheel screech, general rattles seemingly emanating from the bogies, there was a squeal and boom from a higher level and from the doors; also a pump of some kind underfloor. Noise in the open sections was much more tolerable, as you would expect, because it could dissipate easily. Conversation was impossible in the tunnels; and this may be age-related, either per the stock or per the passenger - and not very easy on some of the open sections. Is it time to re-invent quiet sections?
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Post by stapler on Sept 26, 2022 9:08:40 GMT
Thanks for that info, Jimbo. True, the CSLR cells were just that, but they *were* padded; has anyone ever sat in them? I daresay the padding was feelable, unlike modern stock with seats reminiscent of a San Remo trolleybus c1970!
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Post by stapler on Sept 21, 2022 7:21:10 GMT
What do the guidelines say about stationary in open air, not at a platform?
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Post by stapler on Sept 20, 2022 13:18:24 GMT
Passengers for Canary Wharf might find it easier and faster to avoid the Jubilee line by going to Whitechapel and taking advantage of the cross-platform interchange with eastbound trains to Abbey Wood. On the Canary Wharf Elizabeth line station open day shortly before opening, I ended up in a discussion about the quickest way to Stratford from Canary Wharf. The conclusion was that if you are starting from the north side of the Canary Wharf estate (i.e. closer to the XR station than the Jubilee line station) then going via Whitechapel will usually be slightly quicker, but if you are closer to the Jubilee line station then that route will usually be fastest. If you are already on the DLR then the time spent changing stations will normally negate any speed advantage the JLE or XR have. These considerations will obviously also apply the same to journeys from Stratford. I would imagine that if you arrive at Stratford on an Elizabeth line train from the east that changing at Whitechapel to get to Canary Wharf will offer speed advantages, as well as a more pleasant journey, versus changing at Stratford for more of the Canary Wharf area than for those who begin their journey at Stratford station. The same may also be true for those arriving at Stratford on the westbound Central line, but two changes of train rather than one will push this firmly into the realms of the best option being an entirely subjective matter. In both cases, load factors will be important, rather than just journey time. The JLE will generally afford an emptyish train at Stratford. Also hiccups in the service will be important. The worst congestion at Stratford seems to occur from synchronous/ rapidly following arrivals from GA trains on plats 9/10, and the inevitable need to use the stairs, not on 3/5 from pax on the Eliz Line...
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Post by stapler on Sept 20, 2022 10:39:44 GMT
A bit of this goes back to the concept of making frequent passenger announcements when things aren't moving, although my recent experiences suggest some t/ops no longer bother.
They seem less frequent than before lockdown. They are not helpful when they say "We are being held at a red signal. We should be on the move shortly" even at Leytonstone wb when the driver can clearly see s/he is just waiting for a platform. Accurate, but not informative...
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Post by stapler on Sept 19, 2022 20:22:37 GMT
Nobody has mentioned the Lea Valley Lines (Chingford-Cambridge-Enfield T etc). What other routes apart from to/from depot) must these drivers know?
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Post by stapler on Sept 19, 2022 20:16:48 GMT
Why were the greater Anglia trains using the Elizabeth line platforms and not platform 10 like they usually would in the first place? Or Platform 10A, as they do in the earlier part of the morning peak M-F? Nice video of Stratford but not as interesting as in the 80s, when a cup of tea (properly made) in the cafe on 6-8 provided a morning's railway entertainment for my infant son! re: platform 10a, this (I believe) is routinely used by eastbound trains in the morning rush hour because both faces of the island platform 9 / 10 are used by alternate westbound trains as this helps smooth the service and allow extra time for alighting passengers without actually causing delays. This is quite correct AFAIK, but is part and parcel of the nature of Stratford station. The staircases to and from 9/10 are narrow and impossible to use if (as I do) you need to get a GEML train out to Essex shortly after a westbound one (or pair) has disgorged a thousand pax all bent on getting to Canary Wharf. Not that 10A is any better, if a train from WAML has just tipped out! I reckon after the Shenfield trains are diverted through the Eliz line core similar may occur on 3-5...
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