Avanti Pendalino Query

[M60lad]

Yesterday (2/4) I travelled on 20:13 Crewe-Manchester Piccadilly service and noticed that it was in Reverse Formation (1st Class at the front heading towards Manchester) and have a few queries:

1> How would this have happened as 1st Class is nearly always at the front heading towards London?

2> Considering the set was spending the night in Longsight when will the set be the right way round (1st Class heading towards London)?

 

[DanNCL]

Yesterday (2/4) I travelled on 20:13 Crewe-Manchester Piccadilly service and noticed that it was in Reverse Formation (1st Class at the front heading towards Manchester) and have a few queries:

1> How would this have happened as 1st Class is nearly always at the front heading towards London?

2> Considering the set was spending the night in Longsight when will the set be the right way round (1st Class heading towards London)?

The most common reason for sets ending up the wrong way round is when they arrive at Polmadie overnight from Edinburgh and return south from Glasgow Central (or vice versa) - the Carstairs triangle means that sets arriving at Polmadie from Edinburgh will be the opposite way round to those arriving from Glasgow Central, if not sent back out from the same place it arrived from in the morning the set will end up in service the wrong way round.

I think there’s also a way of turning the sets round in the Birmingham area, but I’m not 100% sure on that.

On the case of how long a set will remain the wrong way round I don’t know for the 390s but will refer to an example I’m more familiar with on the ECML. Prior to the Azuma rollout there was just one place 91+Mark 4 sets could be turned which was the bridges in Newcastle. If a set ended up the wrong way round, it would stay the wrong way round until it next made it to Newcastle where an effort would usually be made to turn it.

 

[jfollows]

I think there’s also a way of turning the sets round in the Birmingham area, but I’m not 100% sure on that.

There's a railway electrification map at https://railmap.azurewebsites.net/Public/ElectrificationMap which shows the Birmingham area; it's possible to head north (west really I guess) out of New Street in the Wolverhampton direction and then turn right to get to London and turn the set.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Sets could be turned round on the newly-wired layouts between Manchester, Warrington and Liverpool, but Avanti prefer the older Birmingham and Carstairs options.
Trains yesterday were disrupted north of Birmingham, which might have cause the reverse.

 

[jfollows]

There was disruption yesterday caused by passengers reported here at Birmingham-Wolverhampton Problems 2-4-22 between Smethwick Galton Bridge and Smethwick Rolfe Street so it'd not be unlikely for some services from Wolverhampton to have run round the disruption and into New Street from the south (which is really from the east) which would have turned the sets.

 

[voyagerdude220]

There were also problems between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street on Tuesday afternoon. I know at least one or two northbound Pendolinos turned around at Birmingham New Street on Tuesday afternoon to divert via Aston, leading to First Class being at the front.

 

[themiller]

There’s also a route at Glasgow which requires a reversal. I sat facing direction of travel leaving Central some years ago only to be diverted west then a reversal to head south again. I can’t remember exactly what route it was but reference to a map should reveal it. I can’t do it myself at the moment as I’m away from the UK.

 

[Falcon1200]

There’s also a route at Glasgow which requires a reversal. I sat facing direction of travel leaving Central some years ago only to be diverted west then a reversal to head south again. I can’t remember exactly what route it was but reference to a map should reveal it.

That sounds like a diversion via, with a reversal at, Shields Junction, if there was an issue between Central and the Polmadie area, or Newton; I can't recall if this did actually happen some years ago now when a large building (not part of the railway) burned down near Polmadie Depot and the line was shut.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Apart from Carstairs and Shields there are now electrified triangular layouts at Wishaw and Coatbridge, and near Falkirk Grahamston.
But these are generally not on Avanti's routes, though they have reached Edinburgh from the south via Coatbridge and Falkirk G in the past.

 

[Watershed]

Pendolini can also be turned around in the Motherwell area, if they run Glasgow Central-Hamilton Central-Braidhurst Loop-reverse-Motherwell and onwards. This route is actually used on some of the ECSs to and from Edinburgh, to effectively reverse the sets twice (the second time being the Carstairs north curve) and hence put them back in the right orientation.

If for any reason a set only does one of the reversals, it will end up in reverse formation.

 

[DelW]

There's a railway electrification map at https://railmap.azurewebsites.net/Public/ElectrificationMap which shows the Birmingham area; it's possible to head north (west really I guess) out of New Street in the Wolverhampton direction and then turn right to get to London and turn the set.
View attachment 112441

It's also possible to turn down trains by heading eastward from New Street and turning left via Aston to head towards the northwest - which was of course the original Grand Junction route from Birmingham (then Curzon St) towards Liverpool and Manchester, before the Stour Valley line was opened through New Street and towards Wolverhampton.

 

[Flying Snail]

It's also possible to turn down trains by heading eastward from New Street and turning left via Aston to head towards the northwest - which was of course the original Grand Junction route from Birmingham (then Curzon St) towards Liverpool and Manchester, before the Stour Valley line was opened through New Street and towards Wolverhampton.

For many years one of the early Wolverhampton - Euston services went via Bescot and Aston to New St, reversing there. There doesn't seem to be a booked service going this way at present.