Snow Service Changes 25/02/18 onwards.

[Trainfan344]

There's snow guarantee...

 

[Wirewiper]

Local services are operating to and from Paddington, next departures are 12.15, 12.27 and 12.45.

 

[Wivenswold]

There's snow guarantee...

I see what you did there!

 

[gavin]

2 DRS 66's are en-route to Northumberland with snow ploughs at each end in order to clear the lines north of Newcastle

 

[greatkingrat]

For those who think that railways in continental Europe are perfect and never delayed, there are cancellations in Switzerland as well due to the weather.

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/help.exe/en?tpl=showmap_external

 

[LAX54]

Don't passenger trains generally take priority over freight? Could the points not have been checked in advance? I don't know, maybe more to this than meets the eye?

No reason why they should, in fact in snowy weather a heavy freight in front a passenger is better, pushing through any drifts that have appeared, which today are many ! Plus a points failure cannot be predicted, one minute they work, then the next they don't ! Today we have used a set of points from normal to reverse time and time again for various moves, then all of a sudden they failed to go over, no warning, this stopped the passenger dead in it's tracks, and a freight stuck behind, so works both ways

 

[Martin66]

2 DRS 66's are en-route to Northumberland with snow ploughs at each end in order to clear the lines north of Newcastle

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/969185591559680002

Virgin Trains EC [URL='https://twitter.com/Virgin_TrainsEC']@Virgin_TrainsEC

[/URL]

Thank you to @NetworkRail for sending this machine through past York to the affected area north of Newcastle! #Snowmageddon

 

[_toommm_]

I was working in York yesterday - there was disruption to pretty much every service by the time I finished. Class 185 horns were failing all over the place, resulting in them being tested on incoming trains and a watering can of warm water being provided in an attempt to defrost them. A 150 also froze up after being left in the station for a while and refused to move when required, leading to a short form. We'll see what it's like later today...

The 185 I was on this morning to Manchester sounded like it was really struggling when the driver blew the horn. Made it sound quite sad really

 

[rich r]

The 185 I was on this morning to Manchester sounded like it was really struggling when the driver blew the horn. Made it sound quite sad really

The one I was on from Selby to Manchester this morning gave it a good long blast to clear it at every opportunity.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Someone signed that off as being safe too.

I hate to think what they were thinking at the time.

That said, quite possibly there have been few accidents because it is obviously dangerous (it looks and "feels" slippery - so not like black ice which looks fine but isn't). Similar to the fact that you don't get all that many people falling off platforms, as 1m drops are also obviously dangerous.

 

[Bletchleyite]

For those who think that railways in continental Europe are perfect and never delayed, there are cancellations in Switzerland as well due to the weather.

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/help.exe/en?tpl=showmap_external

SBB are generally resilient largely because unlike the UK they don't operate things to the limits - there is lots of slack in journeys including along the way, and lines and rolling stock fleets don't operate anywhere near capacity, again unlike something like the south WCML or the Brighton mainline where every last bit of capacity is eked out. But from extensive experience they are no angels - you do get delays and cancellations when things go wrong. And (a bit OT but)...Geneva airport in my experience is very poor at handling snowy weather - delays soon build up.

 

[westv]

Hopefully The Executive will get me home ok tomorrow evening!

Edit: Ah, I see it's cancelled so it'll probably be the same tomorrow. I'll just jump on a service to Doncaster and get Northern from there.

 

[xotGD]

333 unit last night had some of the doors frozen shut. At least we got there.

 

[class303]

Apparently a Kilmarnock train has run out of Glasgow Central. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G10782/2018/03/01/advanced

 

[gareth950]

Most of the ATW network will be shut down from mid-afternoon. Valleys services shutting down from 3pm.

 

[infobleep]

UMS simply has no spare room in the peaks. With the move to a 10-car railway, some previous service recovery techniques are now lost, eg. terminating something in the bay platform at Kingston to release a path in the event of congestion on the UMS. Thinning services out would allow a bit more breathing space and provide a bit more flexibility (for example, switching between UMS and UMF to bypass a blockage or simply congestion as suggested) as the likelihood of something going wrong (an infrastructure failure, a passenger slipping and hurting himself close to the edge of a platform, etc) is high.

Thanks for that. It's interesting. I enjoyed my travel today in the snow.

 

[infobleep]

I can understand Hampton Court and Chessington on the basis that they’re both low frequency services which in the grand scheme of things are comparatively less important. If you thin out Chessington, for example, the juice rails will ice up even more than they would already have done, and it’s highly likely something would get stuck.

In reality it’s quite possible the whole network will be in chaos anyway, so the issue may be rather academic.

I see they plan to thin out the Chessington service tomorrow.

 

[Antman]

Bit of snow intrusion where the two 375's are joined

 

[PHILIPE]

GWR StIves Branch about to re-open earlier but in the end didn't get off the ground.

 

[infobleep]

It was reopened later, but whatever is the case about it the flooring really needs to be replaced, as it's dangerous on anything other than a hot sunny day. Smooth tile is useless for anywhere where people will be walking in with wet shoes on, let alone anywhere actually outdoors. Crikey, you'd think NR would realise that given that they've not long replaced all the tile on Preston's platforms with concrete slabs because it was too slippery (if I recall rightly).

HaywardH Heath Station has slippery steps. Not sure how they passed saftey standards tests. Maybe they do and it's my imagination something is wrong.

 

[Temple Meads]

Paddington station is reported as being closed, with local services terminating at Ealing and others at Reading.

Is it known why? Is the snow that heavy in West London?

Apparently they cleared the snow with warm water which subsequently froze...

 

[LowLevel]

Single class 153s, many class 222s and all class 91s all now withdrawn from traffic due to class 153 air systems (and everything else) freezing up and failing and 91/222s having traction motor issues due to the snow. VTEC running HSTs only.

 

[nickswift99]

I see that GWR have cancelled both up and down sleepers tonight.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Apparently they cleared the snow with warm water which subsequently froze...

Someone mentioned the warm water trick on freezing class 321 doors . Fatal - it then freezes in the door jamb /sills - trust me the best way is to hack out with a hook switch pole or similar and then spray deicer into the gaps with a hand held pump.

Anyway 4 ft drifts around Carstairs I believe. S+C blocked ,

 

[tsr]

At least one 9ft drift reported between Diss and Norwich. I’ve seen some spectacular weather round there - but never that!

 

[ainsworth74]

Surely there must be some photos (or even better videos) of Network Rail snow ploughs in action at the moment?

 

[Cletus]

Southeastern are continuing with today's timetable tomorrow too.

 

[Class 466]

Southeastern will be operating it's Key Route Strategy Timetable tomorrow & Saturday. https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/travel-information/live-travel-information/service-disruption

 

[goblinuser]

Surely there must be some photos (or even better videos) of Network Rail snow ploughs in action at the moment?

This. I would like to see some.

 

[Robertj21a]

Single class 153s, many class 222s and all class 91s all now withdrawn from traffic due to class 153 air systems (and everything else) freezing up and failing and 91/222s having traction motor issues due to the snow. VTEC running HSTs only.

What, every 153 - all over the country ?