Lineside Fire Causes Chaos at Waterloo

[JonB4472]

A line side fire between Vauxhall and and London Waterloo is causing a lot of disruption this evening:

SWR Help (@SW_Help) on X

⚠️ A fire next to the track between London Waterloo and Vauxhall. Trains may be cancelled, delayed or revised because of this problem. More information: https://t.co/RJwWF6zK4A

x.com

 

[swt_passenger]

An infrastructure fault? I think ’lineside fires‘ are usually nearby, but not necessarily in a point motor or its wiring…

 

[JonB4472]

I was a tad confused, SWR were telling us it was a line side fire, but it looks like a point motor in the picture…

 

[swt_passenger]

I was a tad confused, SWR were telling us it was a line side fire, but it looks like a point motor in the picture…

Happens a lot. Makes me wonder if they’re intentionally trying to downplay the problem, or they just don’t know the true nature of the problem when they raise the incident…

 

[E16 Cyclist]

Happens a lot. Makes me wonder if they’re intentionally trying to downplay the problem, or they just don’t know the true nature of the problem when they raise the incident…

They only have a certain amount of preset templates available and aren’t able to freestyle therefore their choices are lineside fire or safety inspection of the track. Neither are 100% accurate but lineside fire is probably closest

 

[alxndr]

In this case the photograph looks as though the fire is in the 4ft rather than the point machine itself. That said, depending on where cables are run the wiring could have been affected. Doesn't change the fact that it is a lineside fire.

 

[High Dyke]

Similar at East Croydon last Thursday. Information was saying a lineside fire near the station. It was an infrastructure cable that was affected, as you approached Platform 1 / 2.

 

[Phil R]

Not unheard of for the movement in the area of a point motor causing the insulation on a juice cable to wear through over time.
It was the usual struggled service recovery this evening which seems to have got worse as the evening went on, as is common thanks to the lack of full resource working. Luckily for me I escaped very lightly on the last PDL train close to time for the next 3 hours.
Some interesting use of the Windsor side this evening, this all kicked off just after 5 and the ECS for the 1720 Southampton was put into P21. Heard it announced and assumed it was 450s, but it was 444s - I'd never heard of those going into the International platforms (in fact I'd assumed they were banned).

 

[Goldfish62]

Not unheard of for the movement in the area of a point motor causing the insulation on a juice cable to wear through over time.
It was the usual struggled service recovery this evening which seems to have got worse as the evening went on, as is common thanks to the lack of full resource working. Luckily for me I escaped very lightly on the last PDL train close to time for the next 3 hours.
Some interesting use of the Windsor side this evening, this all kicked off just after 5 and the ECS for the 1720 Southampton was put into P21. Heard it announced and assumed it was 450s, but it was 444s - I'd never heard of those going into the International platforms (in fact I'd assumed they were banned).

The first 444 in SWR livery was displayed at P21 back in August 2027.

 

[Class15]

The first 444 in SWR livery was displayed at P21 back in August 2027.

Thats just a month ago and surely must be 2017?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 12:19 ==

Some interesting use of the Windsor side this evening, this all kicked off just after 5 and the ECS for the 1720 Southampton was put into P21. Heard it announced and assumed it was 450s, but it was 444s - I'd never heard of those going into the International platforms (in fact I'd assumed they were banned).

I wonder if 444s use the international platforms when the main line is shut and they go via Virginia Water?

 

[swt_passenger]

Some interesting use of the Windsor side this evening, this all kicked off just after 5 and the ECS for the 1720 Southampton was put into P21. Heard it announced and assumed it was 450s, but it was 444s - I'd never heard of those going into the International platforms (in fact I'd assumed they were banned).

The online sectional appendix (public version updated March 2024) reads that 444s can use 20-24 with a normal ‘Y’, but there is a disconnected (so probably out of date?) ‘R1‘ note in the right hand column suggesting at least one type of rolling stock was not cleared into P21 and P23 at some time.

 

[DelW]

The first 444 in SWR livery was displayed at P21 back in August 2027.

Thats just a month ago and surely must be 2017?

Not a month ago, it's next year (11 months time).

Presumably 2017 indeed.

 

[Deepgreen]

I was a tad confused, SWR were telling us it was a line side fire, but it looks like a point motor in the picture…

Same thing for all intents and purposes.