It's getting colder :(

[Gareth Hale]

Has anyone else noticed it's getting a lot colder

I think you'll find that is because it is Winter...

Actually, it isnt Winter till December 20th. Still a long way left in Autumn. 8)

 

[Sprog]

Still dont stop it being friggin freezing!! hock:

 

[Techniquest]

Too right. Tis annoying, overnighters can't be done this autumn/winter, it's farrrr too cold. Snow's coming down the East Coast and West Coast soon (this week apparently!) too. The problems that some operators are having at the moment (CT, FGW/L (the latter is disappointing, but they're getting there as a result of infrastructure repairs finally being done)) are going to have a task and a half on their hands soon I reckon. I'm predicting announcements along the lines of: 'We are sorry to announce that the 1203 Virgin Voyager service to Edinburgh is cancelled. This is due to frozen rails. Virgin Trains apologises for the delay this will cause to your journey'; with other possibilities being related to the trains themselves (brakes, heating, lighting, etc), frozen-up infrastructure (iced-up semaphores on the Misery Line I'm predicting) and many more worst-case-scenarios that I daren't post or say out loud, every time I do it tempts fate and usually happens soon enough!

Don't forget, the worst of the winter usually comes between end December and end of March. This is where my predictions are based on the timeline.

Anyway, enough of me being negative.

 

[bunnahabhain]

'We are sorry to announce that the 1203 Virgin Voyager service to Edinburgh is cancelled. This is due to frozen rails. Virgin Trains apologises for the delay this will cause to your journey'

Surely you meant Frozen Points, as Frozen Rails wouldnt really affect anywhere other than the 3rd Rail Networks, it's Heat that affects rails the most, cold doesnt really do anything to them other than make them contract slightly.

with other possibilities being related to the trains themselves (brakes, heating, lighting, etc), frozen-up infrastructure (iced-up semaphores on the Misery Line I'm predicting) and many more worst-case-scenarios that I daren't post or say out loud, every time I do it tempts fate and usually happens soon enough!

It's likely that brake blocks on older trains that dont have Disk Brakes could get stuck on if they ice up, in that event a good ole' blowtorch and a few kicks should suffice. And if you have Iced Up semaphored the same should also suffice, though I wasnt aware that the ex-London, Tilbury & Southend Railway line still had semaphores, I thaught it was all controlled from PSB's.

It may be a cold winter, but the Railway's will see it through.....after all, I saw a photo of a Manor puffing through a few feet of water, just goes to show that Steam is better than Diesel at coping with the weather, especially Icy weather, what with the Fire and all that!

 

[Techniquest]

Someone's slowly turning into a middle-aged steam lover...

My frozen rails thought missed out the broken rails that could happen. I daresay the rails would be more vunleable to breaking in the extreme cold on its way.

Everyone that has been on this forum for a few weeks should know that when heart-of-wessex or myself refers to the 'Misery Line' (note, I refer to it using a capital M and a capital L to distinguish from the old LTS route's nickname), it is in reference to the Cardiff to Manchester route. :roll:

I'll put that in my signature actually: 'Please note: The 'Misery Line', when referred to by myself or heart-of-wessex, is not in reference to the LTS route, instead it refers to the ATW CDF - MAN route.'

 

[TheSlash]

The closest the country has had to cold is the Friday just gone. Infrastructure problems galore, but the cable fire at Clapham diverted attention.
I went to Michledever mid Friday morning, highest point{ish} on the South Western mainline {Waterloo to Bournemouth} and it was no where near as cold as i've known it to be {3 years experience}.
To pre answer comments about being 'darn sath' i went to Coventry on Saturday, there was a thick freezing fog doing the rounds but it wasn't as a cold as Michledever on the Friday
Don't say NR can cope, coping means emergency change of duty to create snow patrol gangs, changing broken rails {we thought we had one Friday morning}, no maintenance except emergency work can be done when the rail temperature goes below -7*c either

 

[bunnahabhain]

I doubt everybody on the forum would be able to distinguish what 'misery line' and 'Misery Line' indicate, infact if you go and ask most people on this forum they will tell you that the Misery Line, is the ex-London, Tilbury & Southend Railway line out of London Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via the three routes that c2c serve.

And Semaphore's will normally only become unworkable if there is damp in the air and the temperature has fallen to below -0c, otherwise it's just ice and snow collecting on the Signal making it heavy to pull meaning that the signalman cannot pull the signal off to clear it. Signalmen are expected to work semaphore signals regularly to ensure that this does not happen.

 

[metrocammel]

I doubt everybody on the forum would be able to distinguish what 'misery line' and 'Misery Line' indicate, infact if you go and ask most people on this forum they will tell you that the Misery Line, is the ex-London, Tilbury & Southend Railway line out of London Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via the three routes that c2c serve.

And Semaphore's will normally only become unworkable if there is damp in the air and the temperature has fallen to below -0c, otherwise it's just ice and snow collecting on the Signal making it heavy to pull meaning that the signalman cannot pull the signal off to clear it. Signalmen are expected to work semaphore signals regularly to ensure that this does not happen.

The Misery Line tag from the LTS services has basically been dropped now, assuming it's due to the passengers being happy with the new Electro*'s over the 312's- (stupid people!!) But yes he did make it clear in his signature, so theres no excuse for a misunderstanding!!!!!

 

[bunnahabhain]

He made it clear in his signature after I had made that post, if you had read his post clearly then you wouldnt have misunderstood my post.

 

[yorkie]

The former LTS line (now known as C2C) suffered from years of under-investment, the infrastructure was in a poor state and there were regular problems with the overhead wires. The whole thing was modernised at the end of the 1990s (I think) and the infrastructure almost never fails now. I read an article about it a while ago and can't remember the exact details.

Plus the (relatively) new trains on that line are very reliable, probably the most reliable of any trains built since privatisation, the reliability figures are up there with the old 'slammers', something like 50,000mpc (miles per casualty), IIRC ! hock:

 

[Nitro]

I agree with yorkie as i live on a station that the c2c serves and i cant remember the last time there were delays or reduced service apart from engeneering works

 

[bunnahabhain]

c2c have the benefit of operating a single type of train, being the single operator on their entire line (apart from a few freight services here and there) which means they essentially only delay themselves, Punctuality always improves is something similar happens at another London Terminus, it happened with Thameslink and Midland Mainline when the London St. Pancras blockade was in place, with Midland Mainline achieving 100% punctuality on I believe two seperate days, and their average punctuality rising to 96%.

 

[TheSlash]

Cold? hock: I was doing this in my summer leathers today:


Lovely and warm, sunny too

You bunch of wimps

I like the way you have editted the photo to blur the background, i almost believed you were doing more than 10mph 8)

 

[Gareth Hale]

Just got my Weather forecast, Hottest temp in forecast is 12C, Coldest is -9C :roll: 8) :roll:

 

[Dave A]

Just got my Weather forecast, Hottest temp in forecast is 12C, Coldest is -9C :roll: 8) :roll:

Why do we need to know this? Most people aren't concerned about the weather in London, unless they live in London which most on this forum don't,, let alone America. :? :roll:

 

[AlexS]

New Street has already had one instance of frozen points. Wessex's units keeping dropping from the cold, and just wait for the DC units

 

[Simming]

Wessex's units keeping dropping from the cold

Thats got nothing to do with the weather 8)

What ever the weather your guaranted a we-suck unit faliure!

 

[Julian G]

hmm, it would be nice to see DeathStars struggling :P with the reduced Voltage

 

[Techniquest]

He made it clear in his signature after I had made that post, if you had read his post clearly then you wouldnt have misunderstood my post.

No, you were just being pedantic. You've been around this forum long enough to know what was meant by it. To ensure confusion in future was prevented (let me know if you're unhappy with that sentence structure :roll: ), I both posted what was meant and put it into my signature. Besides, if you can't read that and see the capital letters, well...

 

[Guinness]

well...

... This signature has been removed. To find out why, click here

 

[Techniquest]

Yeah, yeah, I noticed it after posting...

I still think that calling the 'Marches Line' (a title given to it by Regional Railways and a couple of other authorities along the route) the 'Misery Line' is fair. Mr. Steel has yet to experience this route all the way through, I daresay he would agree it sucks. heart-of-wessex certainly knows how boring it is.

However, you may wonder if that's the only reason for calling the 'Misery Line', boredom. Far from it. Delays, cancellations, poor quality stock in use all the time (ex-CT 158s, 150/2s for examples), nothing of any real interest on the route...

I guess you'll have to trust me, a regular user of the Misery Line, when I say the route is boring and justifies the name given to it. Besides, the name isn't used on the c2c route now, so why can't I use it?