Paddington Station 24/7 - Channel 5

[JN114]

1) Yes, with a slightly reduced service into Paddington over a number of days to accommodate the inspections and required remedial works.

2) They’re very specialist staff - presumably they were on another job; or even a day off. Takes time to arrange their attendance.

3) What can you do? The track formation is essentially a shallow concrete trough; with longitudinal timbers laid on top and rails on those. There is drainage but much of the waste is solid in nature; and thus blocks the drains. The problem is societal. The signage on trains says do not use/flush. Unfortunately many feel they are above such rules.

4) Shortening Platform 2 (and others later in the week) was considered. The issue was it would only have been good for a 5 Car turbo or a 180; neither are particularly common traction to see on the mainline side of Paddington station. The risk - of routing an over length train into a short platform; or a driver not realising the platform was shortened and ploughing into the worksite - was found to outweigh the benefits of having the platform available for 16x or 180s. As it was the train plan of starting/terminating the Bedwyns at Reading is well practised and generally frees up enough capacity for them to work around the reduced platforms. There were a couple of other peak cancellations but not much.

5) I’d hope staff know a whole lot better than to use on train toilets at Paddington.

 

[imagination]

4) Shortening Platform 2 (and others later in the week) was considered. The issue was it would only have been good for a 5 Car turbo or a 180; neither are particularly common traction to see on the mainline side of Paddington station. The risk - of routing an over length train into a short platform; or a driver not realising the platform was shortened and ploughing into the worksite - was found to outweigh the benefits of having the platform available for 16x or 180s. As it was the train plan of starting/terminating the Bedwyns at Reading is well practised and generally frees up enough capacity for them to work around the reduced platforms. There were a couple of other peak cancellations but not much.

The irony there being that the Bedwyns are the one group of trains that would be consistently short enough to fit in a shortened platform.

 

[MonsooN]

Thanks for the responses, JN114. I was pretty sure an inspection would have been carried out but this wasn't alluded to in the programme.

 

[JN114]

The irony there being that the Bedwyns are the one group of trains that would be consistently short enough to fit in a shortened platform.

Indeed! That was my argument too; however the reduced length didn’t fix the risks inherent with shortened platform operation.

For a variety of reasons terminating HSTs doesn’t really work at Reading - certainly not while you’re trying to squeeze as many trains into Paddington as possible. Oxford/Cotswolds are a mix of HSTs, Turbos and 180s - the latter very restrictive for what crews can work them - so again not really suitable for turning (quickly) at Reading. Bedwyns thus end up the best choice.

 

[Essexman]

Two questions on the derailment incident:


Would the driver get some kind of warning in the cab that wheels are off the track so stop the train, or does it rely on the guard seeing it or in this case frantic waving by platform staff?


A member of station staff appeared to immediately open the rear coach door as soon as the train had stopped. Would the doors have been immediately released by the guard or maybe this bit was edited?

 

[mikemcniven]

Two questions on the derailment incident:

Would the driver get some kind of warning in the cab that wheels are off the track so stop the train, or does it rely on the guard seeing it or in this case frantic waving by platform staff?

A member of station staff appeared to immediately open the rear coach door as soon as the train had stopped. Would the doors have been immediately released by the guard or maybe this bit was edited?

The guard I think alerted the driver to this incident, but I assume the driver may realise something is wrong on how the train is handling, might take longer for them to realise what is happening I suspect.
-
The guard was at those doors (You could see him with his head out), and typically the door panel remains open to allow them to unlock if the train has to stop or give the emergency bell/buzzer to stop (single bell/buzzer press rather then two bells/buzzer presses) and something has to be dealt with, the panel from what I have seen is typically closed as it passes the end of the platform, so I assume the guard unlocked the door when it had stopped, with the staff member then jumping onboard I assume to check everyone was okay onboard.

 

[Crossover]

43167 seems to be an unlucky power car - involved in the derailment at Paddington and on this weeks' programme, suffered a broken windscreen (as an aside, they'll have been lucky to get it to Carmarthen if it were to be going there via Swansea!)

 

[Andyh82]

They were very close to not lose that urinating bloke, he was half way up the road before the BTP caught up with him.

 

[Crossover]

4) Shortening Platform 2 (and others later in the week) was considered. The issue was it would only have been good for a 5 Car turbo or a 180; neither are particularly common traction to see on the mainline side of Paddington station. The risk - of routing an over length train into a short platform; or a driver not realising the platform was shortened and ploughing into the worksite - was found to outweigh the benefits of having the platform available for 16x or 180s. As it was the train plan of starting/terminating the Bedwyns at Reading is well practised and generally frees up enough capacity for them to work around the reduced platforms. There were a couple of other peak cancellations but not much.

I'm not railway staff, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to have been working on p2 with part of the platform live with the risk of an overrun (thinking about the Plymouth incident where a calling-on signal I believe was misinterpreted) so from an outsiders viewpoint, probably a wise decision

 

[Kite159]

Claverton level crossing still causing issues I see

That van driver who was caught on camera going under that low bridge was an idiot, especially with the company name on the rear

 

[edwin_m]

43167 seems to be an unlucky power car - involved in the derailment at Paddington and on this weeks' programme, suffered a broken windscreen (as an aside, they'll have been lucky to get it to Carmarthen if it were to be going there via Swansea!)

I wondered if they'd turn it on the triangle at Landore and again on the one at Carmarthen, but I suspect they actually just cancelled it.

 

[Crossover]

Claverton level crossing still causing issues I see

That van driver who was caught on camera going under that low bridge was an idiot, especially with the company name on the rear

Was that the same PHBT incident as in the first series? Some of the shots seemed to ring bells, or does it just happen to be the same crossing?

The van drivers on there were just blithering idiots, quite frankly! It's probably a good job they've installed a couple of 'RSJ's' to level the vans off before they get to the brickwork!

I wondered if they'd turn it on the triangle at Landore and again on the one at Carmarthen, but I suspect they actually just cancelled it.

In passenger service I imagine doing so would be awkward, though not impossible. I imagine it would have gone to Swansea then off to Landore

 

[Crossover]

I see we had another round of p2 at Paddington being cleared of its canvas sheets again tonight too

I thought the 166 brake fault was a bit over-dramatised. I'm sure the words initially mentioned were on the lines of an ingenious idea of getting it out of the way by isolating the brakes, before going on to say it would be done with another unit. In amongst all this, I think they could have made mention that such a move was heavily speed restricted (5mph?) although in the case here, the depot is very close so it wouldn't have caused any undue problem

 

[Right Away]

Claverton level crossing still causing issues I see

Several close calls again this summer. On a warm day during the summer holidays there is an almost constant stream of people using the crossing. There was a visible Network Rail and BTP presence there during July and August. It is now mandatory to sound both high and low tones on the horn at the whistle boards approaching the crossing. According to a notice board at my depot, Network Rail are intending to upgrade the crossing to one with Red and Green warning lights.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

43167 seems to be an unlucky power car - involved in the derailment at Paddington and on this weeks' programme, suffered a broken windscreen

It was 43188 off the road at Paddington with 43028 at the country end.

 

[Temple Meads]

It was 43188 off the road at Paddington with 43028 at the country end.

43167 isn't even a GWR power car, it's now 43367 with VTEC..

 

[Crossover]

I'm probably misremembering the number. It was the Welsh dragon in both cases anyway

 

[SpacePhoenix]

They NR guy said that it took about half an our to do the 500m of track with that machine, before that machine was introduced, how long would it have taken to do the same length of track?

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Does anyone if and how I can watch this series (legally) from outside the UK?

 

[Requeststop]

Hello, I am, as you can see from my published Info, in Papua New Guinea. I cannot answer your question as you ask, but I download the programme(s) from a UK based torrent site. Maybe not legal in the EU but out here no-one really cares. It is great to see such rail based programmes basically the next day after transmission, and I can see the producers wailing and gnashing their teeth at the fact that one person nearly 10,000 miles away is watching and enjoying their efforts, and not paying for it, other than my very cheap subscription to the torrent site. Hope you find some "legal" way to see the series. By the way, I was so disappointed by the last in the series. Peeing on the seats whilst obnoxious, was not a subject I wanted to see, and the clearance of excrement from tracks had been covered in the previous episode. However, I was deeply affected by the suicides. The traumatic effect on the drivers and staff having to investigate on these fatalities caused me some concern as well as how Police and Emergency services dealt with this would have been interesting, though without the gory details. I would have like to have learned how this was covered in training of Transport Police and Rail Staff.

I also thought that the series ended on somewhat a inconclusive atmosphere. It felt like "OK we have done enough and that's it" sort of dismissal.

 

[duffield]

Definitely far too many close-ups of excrement, I was eating at the time! It was totally unnecessary to show that much detail and on two consecutive episodes. I could understand it if there was some campaigning point to it, to get viewers riled in a "This is appalling, something must be done!" way, but there is no point; Paddington will be pretty well excrement-free in the next few years anyhow (new trains or retention tanks retro-fitted).
Gratuitous is the word that springs to mind.

 

[Kite159]

Definitely far too many close-ups of excrement, I was eating at the time! It was totally unnecessary to show that much detail and on two consecutive episodes. I could understand it if there was some campaigning point to it, to get viewers riled in a "This is appalling, something must be done!" way, but there is no point; Paddington will be pretty well excrement-free in the next few years anyhow (new trains or retention tanks retro-fitted).
Gratuitous is the word that springs to mind.

Am I right in thinking the Turbos came with retention tanks when built?

 

[Elecman]

They NR guy said that it took about half an our to do the 500m of track with that machine, before that machine was introduced, how long would it have taken to do the same length of track?

That rather depends on how many staff you throw at the job, there can be no definitive answer

 

[Mag_seven]

Definitely far too many close-ups of excrement, I was eating at the time! It was totally unnecessary to show that much detail and on two consecutive episodes. I could understand it if there was some campaigning point to it, to get viewers riled in a "This is appalling, something must be done!" way, but there is no point; Paddington will be pretty well excrement-free in the next few years anyhow (new trains or retention tanks retro-fitted).
Gratuitous is the word that springs to mind.

What it also goes to show is how people totally ignore the sign in the loo that states "do not flush while train is at a station". Its a pity the HST toilets can't be locked when they are sitting at Paddington.

 

[silverfoxcc]

Not being Railway, i would have thought that standing there at the bridge watching that van scrape underneath, the least Jane should have done wasto bang on the side and stop him going all the way under rather than wittering on and taking pictures!!

But as i said i dont work for NR (or whoever)

 

[D1009]

Not being Railway, i would have thought that standing there at the bridge watching that van scrape underneath, the least Jane should have done wasto bang on the side and stop him going all the way under rather than wittering on and taking pictures!!

But as i said i dont work for NR (or whoever)

I thought it quite amusing as it was obviously damaging the van more than the bridge, and the company owning the van could be identified, although for all we know it could have been the owner of the company driving the van.

 

[yorksrob]

I enjoyed the series and will miss it next week.

 

[Lrd]

I enjoyed the series and will miss it next week.

It started off well but the last 3 episodes (at least) were a bit poor

 

[Marklund]

Yes, was a bit drawn out. Would have been an interesting 5 part show, with less GSM-R alarms going off.

 

[Mag_seven]

It started off well but the last 3 episodes (at least) were a bit poor

They were obviously running out of material - I wonder if any incidents that they managed to cover got edited out or ditched?