Recent content by jamesb84

From what I understand of the bridges along the Tarka Line to Barnstaple, NR has placed water height and flow sensors on most of its bridges and when "set off", an inspection is required (either by boat or by diver) before it can be assured as safe. We had it before Christmas on the Tarka Line...

The Guardian has a very helpful image, drone from above Stoke Canon bridges on the A396 looking back towards Cowley Bridge in the background. No timestamp, but if it's daylight it will have been about 90 mins ago. Gives a good indication of the way things are...

Indeed it has... which is why I'm not travelling today from Crediton and my children aren't at school in Newton St Cyres. Lots of fun.

It's not been windy (and what wind there was last night was coming from the South East, so would have sheltered the sea wall a touch). The bigger issue is around Cowley Bridge near Exeter. The Exe is over-topped between there and Stoke Canon up the line. The Culm is then breaching the line at...

Posted about this in the cascade topic... The unit sounded ragged as anything this morning, but it was running... ran out of the TMD onto the UM by the panel box and then back into the TMD into a different bay. So, seems like GWR might think there's life in 603 yet! Coming back soon to a...

Ah, so there is!

So, 143603, the unit that was damaged by waves at Dawlish a few weeks ago is currently sat at Exeter TMD waiting to move out on to the UM and do some sort of movement... Still got tarpaulin and tape over the four windows that were smashed. Is there a problem with sourcing windows for pacers as...

SJP seems a bit of an enigma at the moment, with only half the services stopping there, plus I was the only one going out to SJP on the Barny service, train crew were saying they've been able to run out to the Junction ECS a few times all the way from EXC as no-one is using it. Surely that's...

Something interesting I've just noticed at St James Park is that there are now stop markers for class 16x there. Is there a definite plan to run those out to Exmouth or Pinhoe/Honiton/Axminster now? Also seen the plans for Eggesford platform lengthening are with the local authority (not for...

Any idea which diagram 150002 is on? I've heard that 158956 was running one of the peak trains this morning, having looked through RTT it looks like anyone getting the 0721 from Barny is on 158's but the 1711 back from SJP is a different diagram so wondering if I'm likely to have to put up with...

Thanks BigD! If that service runs as a 158 3-car every day then I'll be a happy commuter... particularly if the 0621 from Barnstaple takes some of the early-start college students away. Primarily though, it's about getting rid of those Pacers. Apologies to anyone with an attachment to them...

Niche question here on Weekday 1... does anyone have any indication of what the diagrams look like for the Tarka Line for morning commute? We're now "blessed" with 2 trains arriving into EXC before 0900 (I know... 1tph, how spoilt we are) and with the cascade, we're supposedly getting class...

Ah right. Is that one of the services that will eventually be a turbo? If so, probably affords a good opportunity to get turbo sunset photos when it's a bit lighter!

Indeed. I am in the dog box as we speak, yet we've just pulled out of EXD and there's a 2 car 158 in the bay on platform 2. Rhyme and reason have obviously taken a long old holiday with GWR.

It is a decent service now with 4 on rather than 2. However, it will be interesting to see how dwell time is affected by the 158s. Particularly in the mornings, by the time 2R89 gets to Crediton it's always late as the timetable doesn't account for stopping at every request stop and suffering...