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Thank you. Very interesting. Much of what is reported corresponds to my own experience on the runs I have made from Didcot.

Don't have the detail west of Swindon, but the wires are up from Padd to east of Shrivenham with short gaps between Uffington and Baulking (around 1/2 mile) and through Steventon (from Steventon loops to about 1 mile west of the village). Wires are energised from Padd to Milton Junction, just...

Not yet, apparently. Another week or two before they appear at weekends I've been told elsewhere.

I'm not sure but it looks like they are the original 308/2s which were built for Tilbury boat trains and parcels use on the London Tilbury & Southend line. These were originally 4 car units with passenger accommodation in the three trailers and parcels in the motor coach which contains the...

Reported elsewhere by a reliable GWR source that there will be no 800 workings at weekends for the immediate future. So the two diagrams planned for the 28/29th October won't happen, they'll be HSTs.

Nope. They're all running to HST timings. The first down service this morning 1C03 ran on AC to Maidenhead and was 4 minutes early by Slough: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C20071/2017/10/16/advanced Fared somewhat better than the up working!

Normal HST speeds according to a GWR insider involved with IET introduction posting elsewhere. Apparently westbound IETs running on AC reach 100mph by Acton and 125mph just after Hanwell (compared to HSTs which reach 125mph by Hayes). This is on the original BR OLE, which has been beefed up...

Class 800s now signed off by ORR for passenger use? https://twitter.com/IanProsser7/status/918228681293811713 I know it doesn't explicitly say that but that's what I infer.

Temporary measures announced by Network Rail to get the OLE under Steventon High St bridge. Main gist as follows: Full NR statement here: http://www.steventon.info/pdf%20converted/other%20pdf's/Steventon%20Bridge%20temporary%20solution%20statement%2011-09-17.pdf Possibly some limited...

One of the destinations for ferryboat wagons from Harwich and Dover was the London International Freight Terminal (LIFT) in Stratford. Built in 1967, this was a large Inland Clearance Depot (ICD) for wagonload and container traffic and was served by both road and rail. Most of the sheds were...

It's an autotransformer station (ATS), part of the power supply arrangements for the line. It looks complex with all the feed wires from the autotransformers and switches strung across the tracks to supply the traction OLE There are three others on the Didcot-Swindon section just west of the...

All of the steelwork from west of Steventon to Baulking is now up and the line is wired throughout (and has been for some weeks). Most of the steelwork is complete from Baulking through to west of Acorn Bridge (where the line crosses the A420) - I'd say that over 90% of the main steelwork is in...

Yes, that's where the Knighton loop was. On the up side only I believe.

Correct. The long loops between Challow and Wantage Road were put in first during the 1930s, removed during the 1960s MAS resignalling programme and put back in around 1990. There were also loops at Uffington (disused from sometime in the 1990s) and Knighton (decommissioned in the 1960s I...

I'll agree with that. While the Didcot-Swindon section is a bit of a bottleneck it's nothing compared to Didcot North Junction - Oxford. Whilst Didcot-Oxford is further you at least have the long loops between Wantage Road and Challow to shunt freights out of the way. Even with the enhanced...

It's definitely just double track - look at the elevations drawing carefully. There is no provision being made for widening the line between the Steventon loops and Wantage Road. Some while ago a Network Rail engineer at one of the local public consultations told me that the bridges were...

My understanding agrees with LNW-GW Joint. Amey (now Amey Inabensa) were awarded the contract from Maidenhead to Bristol & Cardiff and have completed (almost) the Maidenhead to Didcot section. They are still working on the wiring west of Didcot. Balfour Beatty had the Crossrail West contract...

Quite a bit of class 800 testing and driver training happening this week. Here's what it sounds like powering out of the station on diesel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vnbJH57MQo It's very quiet!

Can't answer your question but Heathrow to Munich return on BA with an APEX ticket (advance purchase, fixed schedule) was £99 in 1978 which works out at over £500 in today's money according to the Bank of England inflation calculator. Took about 1hr 45 on a Trident. I doubt if rail was much...

As others have said - to provided a fast electric service on the BR lines with the District line serving the intermediate stations. Prior to electrification the District and 'main' lines weren't segregated like they are now and there were several flat junctions between them. Before the OLE...