In the very very early days if you started the GU on an 801 Hitachi used to get very angry and say no you can't do it unless an emergency ie train with wires wrapped around it.
Sounds like positive progress - at least the tail doesn’t wag the dog now by the sound of it!
Not certain. The announcements I heard appertained to "overrunning engineering work" and the "power failure". I believe the engineering issue was around a set of points, but NRE doesn't always give accurate updates.
The possession at Kings Cross overran due to an issue with the points.
I don't believe there was a wires down incident, the train manager initially did not have any information when my service stopped at New Barnet, however after 15 minutes it came around that it was just a complete loss of power in the Harringay area and that Kings Cross was full with no electric trains being permitted to leave.
Every time there is a major incident the inability to get trains out of Kings Cross platforms and parked up locally magnifies the problem. We had the same problem returning from holiday last year caused by a fatality at Gratham. Trains stacked up outside Kings Cross with passengers on for up to 2hrs because all the platforms were full with empty trains with nowhere to go.
They could run them on the GU, but they would struggle on the banks on the way to Ferme Park etc
Reports are the GU's are prone to overheating, is it the case when ascending the banks, they would overheat and shut down, or under-powered for the task?
They would manage, and have done including in passenger use when there had been issues. The engine is literally revving like anything. Plus if it came to a stand on say the exit to Copenhagen Tunnel NR get twitchey incase it can't get going again.
Yes I do sometimes wonder if disruption goes on a bit longer than perhaps it needs to were there a bit more flexibility and contingency built in but one thing I will say is that LNER are very good at making sure even significant disruption doesn't run into the next day's service.
We witnessed this back in October, if they had been able to clear the platforms at Kings Cross it would have been a lot easier all round. There were trains stacked up to the north unable to enter the station and offload because the trains that had already arrived had nowhere to go, so every platform was occupied by an empty train.
And how much of that recovery is due to services run by Hull trains, Grand Central, and LUMO being given the short straw and pushed out of the way despite being able to run at line speed, and often in their correct paths, thus perpetuating a two tier railway, (LNER and the rest)..
Don't think LUMO would be able to run at line speed - or at any speed at all really - during a power failure. Their trains are electric only.
How does Kings Cross with 12 (or 11? not sure, haven't used the suburban platforms for 40 years) platforms stack up against the other major London terminals in terms of departures and arrivals per hour. It always seems to be one of the more heavily used stations and always has done, I know they added platform 0, but thats pretty much it, there is nowhere else to go without some serious demolition.
Maybe they need to have a word with Harry Potter and get Platform 9 3/4 back into passenger use
The different feeder stations are all off different circuits so I interpreted it more like two feeding points were lost and a third one couldn't stretch to cover that distance/load no matter how much power was available to it. There aren't any grid power lines specifically for moving around load to/from railway substations so as far as I understand it, it doesn't really make sense to say that the grid operators tried to divert or send "the power" meant for one place instead to another.
This seems believable to me and makes sense with the effected area and "3 into 1" thing. Ferme Park and Wood Green are both supplied from the same dual circuit 132kV powerline, so if demand was suddenly too much in the Finsbury Park area, the fault would trip Ferme Park - but Wood Green can't supply both the Hertford Loop and suddenly-high-demand mainline to Kings Cross and so also trips, presuming that it's programmed to automatically cover for Ferme Park which seems believable. The Welwyn supply then can't cover for both of those. Could also have been the case that either Wood Green or Ferme Park was already out of use at that particular time, as the full timetable is expected to be supported with one supply lost.
Disappointing given that there was a huge inquiry about this in 2014 after the disaster that was caused when they failed to finish works on time, and then tried to terminate everything at Finsbury Park, and then used overcrowding as the excuse - on an extremely busy day when funnelling people through a tiny station!
The Train Manager I had on 1A16 (10-car Azuma) stated that they were unable to release the doors as the train was too long for the platforms at New Barnet and New Southgate and we were not fully accommodated, so it would not be possible to get any fresh air, and that passengers should remain onboard and not attempt to pull the emergency egress handles.
The long distance operators filling all the platforms in the main trainshed at Kings Cross during disruption is not a new thing. It was already happening when I finished commuting more than 15 years ago.
This incident is quite different from 27 December 2014, with the power supply problems spread over a wider area.
A very long time ago I did this at New Barnet when an up train, formed of a single class 365, was held there because of a fire at New Southgate. I succeeded in persuading the driver to open the doors, and then led a crocodile of passengers up the hill to High Barnet. It is a long walk, about a mile, and High Barnet isn't called that for nothing.
It was only possible to do this because the train that I abandoned at New Barnet was only 4 cars.
The contingency plan exists, it involves terminating at Peterborough and Stevenage.
A Thunderbird is not much use for moving empty trains at Kings Cross because of the location of the carriage sidings at Bounds Green. A Thunderbird loco can't run round the train in the Bowes Park reversing siding, which would be required to get onto Bounds Green.
It would have to haul trains and leave them at Ferme Park sidings.
There are already procedures in place to open 'one or two' doors so customers can get fresh air, or alight and leave the service.
How much siding space is available at Ferme Park?
Can get at least 4-5 (poss more can't remember how many stable each night) full length sets in there.
I thought that the Hornsey reversing sidings were only accessible from the down slow lines, and not from Ferme Park, though it is a long time since I looked!
my mistake!! I'm thinking of when they run booked ecs Kings Cross to Bowes Park To Kings Cross.
I think people are on about when the OHL power is off and trains are cancelled.
