Axminister redoubling

[Chafford1]

First double track at Axminister since 1967! (courtesy tivvybumper - links to flickr)

 

[CSR]

Yet another excuse for putting up the fares on the Exeter - Waterloo route, but it'll still be the 'snail-train' compared to Paddington !!!

 

[DaveNewcastle]

What's that big white trackside monolith in the first picture? 50% across, 35% down.

 

[O L Leigh]

Sorry, but just who is the Axe Minister...?

Oh, I see. You mean Axminster.

O L Leigh

 

[Mojo]

Could be wrong, but think it may be the liftshaft and support for the footbridge.

 

[Aictos]

Could be wrong, but think it may be the liftshaft and support for the footbridge.

It's not my area but I think you've hit it on the head, as the station is being improved with a new platform, a new footbridge and lifts.

 

[33011]

Could be wrong, but think it may be the liftshaft and support for the footbridge.

Agreed and a new platform

 

[SWT Driver]

It's the lift shaft for the footbridge to eradicate the need for a barrow/foot crossing I believe that H&S would have a fit if they tried to install one on a 85/90mph line I also believe it's to do with the DDA as well.

PS. Yes I know that everything's booked to call there, but some ECS moves (to/from Sarum) will pass straight through non-stop as will any FGW services that may get diverted that way.

I've also had a look at the services post December 12th & the average journey time from EXD is 3h23 departing at xx:26 with a few minor retimings during the peaks, fastest is 3h19, slowest 3h39.

From WAT to EXD you have a 1min difference ave. 3h22, departing WAT at xx:20 (bar 07:10 @ 3h32), the longest being 2020 (3h41) which sits at Sarum for nearly 20 mins, I expect that's due to ECS coming back up & the constraint of the single section from Tisbury.

To be blunt damned pathetic, but then again this is Stagecoach & SWT we're dealing with here, not FGW, I for one will still use FGW to go to the WoE, it's far quicker & easier!

 

[mr_moo]

Good to see some progress pics. Thanks!

 

[LondonLarry]

Yet another excuse for putting up the fares on the Exeter - Waterloo route, but it'll still be the 'snail-train' compared to Paddington !!!

Not necessarily! BR should never have single tracked it in the first place. As west of Salisbury came under the former BR Western Region, they were only interested in the GW Mainline so they pulled up track.

It will always be a slower route as NR won't increase the line speed and there are far more stops on the line than the Great Western.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

Which parts of the Waterloo - Exeter were singled and what year ?

And which bits are been doubled now ?

 

[SWT Driver]

Axminster is (more or less) in the the middle of a 3 mile loop, so it starts <>1,5 miles each side of Axminster.

The singling was carried out in the 60's by BR, the Waterloo to Exeter line is the shortest & if it were upgraded (returned) to double track throughout & had its line speed raised at the same time it would provide FGW with some stiff competition, which if electrification is carried out may happen, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

[starrymarkb]

The line is Single from Wilton (west of Salisbury) to west of Templecombe (with passing loops to the East of Tisbury and at Gillingham), Double to Yeovil Junction, then Single to Pinhoe (with loops at Chard Junction, Honiton and from Dec at Axminster)

Future plans include another dynamic Loop at Whimple to allow for a Half hourly Exeter to Honiton service (hourly stopper to Honiton and Hourly fast to London) - these are on hold while funding is wrangled

IIRC This line has some of the longest sections of single track in England

 

[sheff'd victoria]

IIRC This line has some of the longest sections of single track in England

I remember watching a profile of this line on one of them Video Track vhs tapes years ago when the class 50's were in charge of the services.

How does the line cope with delays then if you have all this single line everywhere , one bit of bad weather and your stuffed

 

[Drsatan]

Axminster is (more or less) in the the middle of a 3 mile loop, so it starts <>1,5 miles each side of Axminster.

The singling was carried out in the 60's by BR, the Waterloo to Exeter line is the shortest & if it were upgraded (returned) to double track throughout & had its line speed raised at the same time it would provide FGW with some stiff competition, which if electrification is carried out may happen, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

NSE thought about electrifying the route with 3rd rail electrification and ordering units based on the Networker design but they decided it would be cheaper to replace the 50s with 159s.

 

[SWT Driver]

To put it simply, it doesn't.

If one runs late then because of the timetable you get a cascade failure of service, so what may start as a simple 2' delay can quite easily escalate to a 20'+ one, which then screws up most subsequent services, with trains then missing stations (getting NTCO's) to make up the lost time or they get terminated short.

This happens with Gillinghams' & Yeovils' which will get terminated at Sarum, on the up they also get terminated at Sarum & restarted as a different service.

Trains none too frequently miss out Grateley, Andover, Whitchurch & Overton, it's also not unknown for them to just call at Basingstoke (Connections to Woking & Clapham) & Waterloo only.

 

[thefab444]

The other day, I noticed a service (xx:20) departing Waterloo about 20 down, so it had CLJ, WOK and BSK stops caped. Actually made up a fair bit of time running fast to Andover.

 

[SWT Driver]

With a moderately clear run you can knockout about 8-10' by omitting those stops, clear run add another 2-4' to that.

What they're after is getting the train within the all important 5' mark.

It's called fiddling the figures.

 

[visibleimagery]

Hello

Indeed; thanks for the photos.

I've been meaning to get up to Axminster for some time now to see how the work is getting on, there certainly have been lots of freight movements, mainly at the weekend, although this is the only time I am home and tend to hear them, albeit usually too late…
However this Saturday just gone, at approximately 16.00 I heard the ‘typical’ chirp, chirp, chirp of the 66' at idle and the subsequent slow rolling, squeaky freight behind it; (i live right next to the Waterloo line), so I immediately grabbed my camcorder, tripod and car keys and ran out to the car and drove down to the car park next to St. David’s level crossing. Fortunately enough the loco was sat in platform 3 waiting to move-on up the line, going where I’m not sure…?

The video will be on my YouTube channel later this evening.

Can anyone possibly tell me of a rough schedule for these freight workings, I’d love to be able to go out at many different locations along the ‘Waterloo‘ line and video them before they disappear.
There have been at least 3 a day on a Saturday and Sunday for at least the last couple of months now from what I have heard, so any info on approx timings would be great, I can’t really justify sitting in one location all day for an indefinite amount of time for which a train may never show-up…?

Thanks in advanced.
Please check out my videos.

 

[starrymarkb]

With a moderately clear run you can knockout about 8-10' by omitting those stops, clear run add another 2-4' to that.

What they're after is getting the train within the all important 5' mark.

It's called fiddling the figures.

I thought missed stops were an automatic PPM failure and therefore counted worse then merely late - its more to avoid delays to the following service

 

[SWT Driver]

Nah, NAFAIA anyway.

If they miss the stops out which is a regular occurance particularly on Waterloo-Alton, Waterloo-Basingstoke & Waterloo-Weymouth services then because of the exceptionally large amount slack that's in the schedules, they can gain back at least 10' possibly more & so arrive within the 0-5' charter threshold.

The SWT timetable is absolutely ridiculous, it's slower than the steam days, Ok there are more trains than the steam days, but we did far better than this shower of sh17 in the late 80's, with a similar amount of trains & with more coupling & uncoupling involved too.

Privatisation is a cheats charter.

 

[fgwrich]

Going back to the original subject...passed through Axminster yesterday... Bridge is now in place over the 2 tracks and the second track is ballasted for about 1 mile heading west out of the station...

One thing that bugs me about this ' Dynamic Loop' though...Why couldnt the loop be extended either westwards towards seaton junction, and or eastwards to Chard Junction?...Thus connecting it up with the exsisting loop there...

 

[gigarailer 123]

dont suppose you have any pics of the new line being laid down do you ?

 

[SWT Driver]

Going back to the original subject...passed through Axminster yesterday... Bridge is now in place over the 2 tracks and the second track is ballasted for about 1 mile heading west out of the station...

One thing that bugs me about this ' Dynamic Loop' though...Why couldn't the loop be extended either westwards towards Seaton junction, and or eastwards to Chard Junction?...Thus connecting it up with the existing loop there...

Don't be silly....

You should know by now that the railway & common sense are completely incompatible with each other. :roll:

Perhaps you should make the suggestion to DaFT and see what answer you get!

BTW, just out of interest if the loop were extended in that direction to link up with the other one how long would the loop then be?

 

[The Planner]

Dynamic loops are a bit of a farce, they basically fix the timetable and inhibit it from ever evolving or changing a service pattern.

 

[SWT Driver]

Which is a typical SWT manoeuvre.

Like I said I won't use the line, even though it's run by my TOC, I can use it as much as I like for nowt because of the SWT TOC pass, it's just far too slow.

Unless DaFT threatens to give SWT the proverbial big E, nothing will change ever, the line will stagnate.

Perhaps when the franchise gets to hot for Souter & his cronies and another lot take over we might get somewhere with the line, maybe an extension of the loop to Chard or beyond, so it could go half-hourly, that however would require more stock.

Better still force the next franchisee to put in the extensions as part of the deal

Oh well, we can only dream of Souter getting the big E & the lines fortunes improving.

 

[devon_metro]

Exeter - Yeovil doesn't even did hourly services, it hardly goes through any major centres of population! Meanwhile the FGW route from Exeter is hourly and passes through Tiverton which is a major destination for North Devon, Taunton and Reading before reaching London.

 

[SWT Driver]

Exeter - Yeovil doesn't even did hourly services, it hardly goes through any major centres of population! Meanwhile the FGW route from Exeter is hourly and passes through Tiverton which is a major destination for North Devon, Taunton and Reading before reaching London.

Err, the highlighted bit doesn't make much sense DM.

I understand that Tiverton Parkway is a railhead for maybe Simonsbath & South Molton and at a push Wiveliscombe, but not much else, the only real redeeming thing about TVP is it's slap bang on the M5, there's nothing else.

 

[royaloak]

But it will be going hourly to Exeter from, and the Paigntons/Plymouth and token Penzance all finish from December.

 

[devon_metro]

Should read "even need".

Re: Tiveton Parkway, 2008 footfall saw passenger numbers higher than both Honiton and Axminster, as well as both Yeovil stations. The car park at Tiverton Parkway was recently expanded too, and from 2007 to 2008 there was a 12% increase in journeys. Its not bustling but its on an ideal section of motorway. Looking through some passenger figures, the WOE line on SWT is dismal for the proposed service it is to increase.