Kirby Cross single line

[greaterangrier]

Kirby Cross station is a two platform station which lies on the single line to Walton on the Naze station.
Access to the station is 99% onto Down Platform 2 - there is a field on the other side. The platforms are linked only by a foot crossing.
Linespeed is 50mph on the Down Walton and 20mph on the Up Walton (Loop)

Historically, all trains have used the platform corresponding with their direction - searching old working timetables shows no platform detail required, presumably indicating this.
However, if all trains used the down platform 2 e.g. like at Ockenham station, the number of people using the level crossing would be minimised to reduce risk and trains would not have to slow down for the loop.

As most £0 safety gains have already been made, is there something location specific as to why this doesn't happen?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@greaterangrier. Are you effectively saying that section of line adjacent to platform 1 at Kirby Cross isn't needed and should be removed / rationalised / taken out of use?

 

[greaterangrier]

Are you effectively saying that section of line adjacent to platform 1 at Kirby Cross isn't needed and should be removed / rationalised / taken out of use?

The second platform line does get lots of use, as at Ockendon and is definitely needed.

I am wondering why up trains don't also use the down platform if it reduces risk and takes less time to traverse. Trains have worked this way for decades on the branch, but it is odd.

 

[Kite159]

So basically suggesting that all trains use platform 2 with the only time platform 1 gets used is maybe peak times when trains pass each other at Kirby Cross?

Similar to Ockendon where the loop only gets used during peak times when more trains run on the single line between Upminster & Grays [or when the service is reduced to a shuttle between Upminster & Grays due to engineering works] & Dullingham on the Cambridge - Ipswich line [plus likely other stations which are loops on single track lines which only sees trains passing in that loop a handful of times a day]

Probably would make sense to reduce the risk of people having to use the barrow crossing to access the opposite platform (although the crossing will still exist because from memory exit from P1 is onto a footpath, but use will drop), assuming the signalling & track layout permits trains to use the 'P2' line at Kirby Cross bi-directionally.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is there ever more than one train allowed on the Walton branch between Thorpe-le-Soken + Walton-on-the-Naze?

 

[Kite159]

Is there ever more than one train allowed on the Walton branch between Thorpe-le-Soken + Walton-on-the-Naze?

At a glance of RTT from today, the loop seems to get used as an actual loop 3 times in the morning peak and 2 times in the evening peak for trains to pass when frequency is increased to 2tph [although the evening peak services seem to run back empty]

 

[Alfie1014]

Kirby Cross station is a two platform station which lies on the single line to Walton on the Naze station.
Access to the station is 99% onto Down Platform 2 - there is a field on the other side. The platforms are linked only by a foot crossing.
Linespeed is 50mph on the Down Walton and 20mph on the Up Walton (Loop)

Historically, all trains have used the platform corresponding with their direction - searching old working timetables shows no platform detail required, presumably indicating this.
However, if all trains used the down platform 2 e.g. like at Ockenham station, the number of people using the level crossing would be minimised to reduce risk and trains would not have to slow down for the loop.

As most £0 safety gains have already been made, is there something location specific as to why this doesn't happen?

The signalling doesn’t appear to allow this, neither platform is signalled reversibly so up services have to use platform 2 and down services platform 1. The situation at Ockendon is different as both the loops are signalled for use in both directions.

 

[randyrippley]

Gillingham (Dorset) and Sherborne worked like that for years, as the up line was signaled reversibly.
With the current more frequent timetable I've no idea if they are still worked that way

 

[61653 HTAFC]

This would seem to be something worth considering when the signalling on the branch is next up for renewal, depending of course on when that is. It's not a location I'm familiar with though, so there may be other complications that make those adjustments more difficult and/or costly.

 

[ls2270]

Gillingham (Dorset) and Sherborne worked like that for years, as the up line was signaled reversibly.
With the current more frequent timetable I've no idea if they are still worked that way

Gillingham still generally uses this method of working, as does Honiton, but Sherborne is generally used in the conventional Up and Down manner.

 

[greaterangrier]

The signalling doesn’t appear to allow this, neither platform is signalled reversibly so up services have to use platform 2 and down services platform 1. The situation at Ockendon is different as both the loops are signalled for use in both directions.

The sectional appendix shows both lines to be reversible, so would I be correct in assuming this was possible previously, maybe before the 2009 resignalling? Was this a cost saving measure?

 

[Gloster]

Gillingham was a result of the peculiar arrangement that was introduced with the singling in 1967. The Down platform could only be served by Down trains while the box was open, but when it was closed the Up road was reversible as it was part of the Wilton Junction-Yeovil Junction single-line (a single token less block section). It was no great deal to add on the option of using the Up platform for Down trains when the box was open.

Sherborne was part of the same scheme and the Up road was reversible all the way from Templecombe to Yeovil (originally only to Sherborne). Both of these were retained, with the addition of the Down roads becoming reversible, when the line was resignalled in 2012. The arrangement at these two stations was very much a result of the peculiar history of the 1967 project.

 

[Railsigns]

The signalling doesn’t appear to allow this, neither platform is signalled reversibly so up services have to use platform 2 and down services platform 1. The situation at Ockendon is different as both the loops are signalled for use in both directions.

The signalling does allow it. Platform 2 is bi-directionally signalled, but Platform 1 isn't.