East Croydon - Gatwick Disruption - 17/2

[ushawk]

Currently delays of up to 90 minutes on Southern, FCC and GatEx services via Purley this evening due to Electrical Supply problems at Purley.

Seems the GatEx is suspended between Croydon and Gatwick too.

Anyone have any info on whats happened ?

 

[DavyCrocket]

Saw one man in orange peering in to a cabinet at Stoates Nest Junction.
It was very messy for sure. Nothing at left Victoria for about 45-60 minutes. 12 coach train was crush loaded with people left behind at Victoria, Clapham and Croydon!
Someone else said that it was a signal failure which makes sense as we stopped for about four minutes.
Feel sorry for people heading to the Coastway who were left behind where there is still only an hourly Sunday service which is very poor offering really!

 

[tsr]

Severe delays of up to 60mins are still occurring, which is better than some of the earlier delays of up to 110mins or so!

The version of events I have heard has been very unclear, but it seems a track circuit failure has occurred on the Up Fast line at Stoats Nest Junction. As far as I can tell, this was due to a power cable being severed by a broken (?) rail or an equipment fault. There have therefore not only been speed restrictions but also a requirement to stop at one of the signals on the Up Fast.

The whole issue has been compounded by NR's possession of the lines through Redhill today, meaning that the Slow Lines (through Redhill Station, these are often called the Up/Down Main Lines) on this route were not an alternative to the Up/Down Fasts (Quarry Lines).

 

[Class377/5]

Signal failure and power system issues in different areas are compounding the problems.

 

[tsr]

Signal failure and power system issues in different areas are compounding the problems.

Sounds like my information has come from the famous method of putting two and two together and equalling five (Note to Southern: this method does not work with rolling stock allocations, either).

 

[Class377/5]

Sounds like my information has come from the famous method of putting two and two together and equalling five (Note to Southern: this method does not work with rolling stock allocations, either).

Well add in the problems on the London Bridge route is causing issues properly mean your five is correct but not got full knowledge. Fun night ahead.

 

[tsr]

Well add in the problems on the London Bridge route is causing issues properly mean your five is correct but not got full knowledge. Fun night ahead.

Bearing in mind we are specifically talking about disruption East Croydon-Gatwick Airport, I still don't think the maths works!

As an aside, I have just heard from another source that the conductor rail failure and signal failure (a signal on the Up Fast at Stoats Nest, by all accounts - as above) were indeed different. I think this chain of events still falls into the category of being a rather calamitous afternoon and evening...

 

[Class377/5]

Bearing in mind we are specifically talking about disruption East Croydon-Gatwick Airport, I still don't think the maths works!

As an aside, I have just heard from another source that the conductor rail failure and signal failure (a signal on the Up Fast at Stoats Nest, by all accounts - as above) were indeed different. I think this chain of events still falls into the category of being a rather calamitous afternoon and evening...

Plus issues at Honor Oak Park!

 

[ushawk]

Disruption to continue into Mondays AM peak, so diversions via Redhill then !!

 

[sarahj]

There was both a con rail fault and a signal fault, plus with no diversion via redhill, plus the line being closed from east croydon to balham, meaning trains needing a pilot for the route via cystal palace, trains were soon getting stacked up. Was a 'fun' day for all concerned.

 

[cjohnson]

The Bognor-Victoria services were on a planned diversion through the Dorking route*, so thought I would escape the worst of it, but subsequently hit signal problems at Balham as apparently only one line was available from there through to Victoria.
(*Going at speed through Warnham and Ockley was quite a rough ride - I guess it's quite rare that services run fast through there)

 

[tsr]

The Bognor-Victoria services were on a planned diversion through the Dorking route*, so thought I would escape the worst of it, but subsequently hit signal problems at Balham as apparently only one line was available from there through to Victoria.
(*Going at speed through Warnham and Ockley was quite a rough ride - I guess it's quite rare that services run fast through there)

I thought there is/was a TSR (not me ) in the Warnham/Ockley area following the recent landslide...? It sounds like it may still be needed!

 

[Firestarter]

FCC fault? Has to be surely.

 

[ushawk]

The Bognor-Victoria services were on a planned diversion through the Dorking route*, so thought I would escape the worst of it, but subsequently hit signal problems at Balham as apparently only one line was available from there through to Victoria.
(*Going at speed through Warnham and Ockley was quite a rough ride - I guess it's quite rare that services run fast through there)

Fasts were closed through Balham as well i believe, so everything was using the slows.

Had this happened on a Sunday where there wasnt any work taking place, then it wouldnt have been as bad.

 

[DavyCrocket]

Fasts were closed through Balham as well i believe, so everything was using the slows.

Had this happened on a Sunday where there wasnt any work taking place, then it wouldnt have been as bad.

All lines closed Balham to Selhurst so routed via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace.

 

[ushawk]

All lines closed Balham to Selhurst so routed via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace.

Yes - that.

442s are also currently banned from the Quarry Line due to power issues too.

 

[DavyCrocket]

Yes - that.

442s are also currently banned from the Quarry Line due to power issues too.

Is that from today? On Sunday morning went via Quarry line NB. The afternoon and today I only travelled via 377!

 

[ushawk]

Is that from today? On Sunday morning went via Quarry line NB. The afternoon and today I only travelled via 377!

Yep, was after the lines re-opened - Up Quarry line only affected i believe - should be fixed for Tuesday.

 

[neilm]

And it's back....

 

[tony6499]

Problems still seem to be ongoing, must be one hell of a signal fault

 

[tsr]

Furthermore, you would think that the repair work would have perhaps lasted longer than the short time period that was 0500-0945 (or so) this morning.

NRE have stated that a power fault is directly affecting the signalling between Earlswood and Purley. As they have also stated that the signalling problem over Sunday/Monday "reoccurred" at approx. 0949, surely this means that there is major power loss to the track circuits, as a multiple track circuit fault was the previous issue.

All I can say is that the Up & Down Mainlines at Redhill are having a thorough workout thanks to this... ah... mess. Not really much else I can call it.

 

[Minstral25]

And continues today - that's the third day of problems - what has happened to cause such a long term problem.

 

[sarahj]

Sounds like I hit a week of rest days right on time.

As I was walking out of Brighton station on Sat there was the person under at portslade,
since then
Fire alarm at Brighton
Signal faults
Power faults.

Dread to think how many messages will be on my phone when I look at it again.

 

[radamfi]

It has been back for today and yesterday morning. Perhaps the problem isn't fixable so maybe it would be a good idea to rewrite the timetable so only 2 tracks are needed north of Earlswood.

 

[ushawk]

It has been back for today and yesterday morning. Perhaps the problem isn't fixable so maybe it would be a good idea to rewrite the timetable so only 2 tracks are needed north of Earlswood.

Points are being clipped into 1 direction only, so looks like nothing can change lines at Sloats Nest (I assume that's where the problems are).

And yesterday's problems were at Earlswood, not Purley.

 

[radamfi]

It always seems to be Purley or Earlswood though. It isn't possible to run the advertised service when there are regular problems at those locations.