Overhead wires between Basingstoke & Weymouth

[Eagle]

The permanent 2 tph service to Weymouth was the fundamental improvement made for the Olympics, and it is all that was ever planned for SWT's services. I agree with those who reckon Olympic offshore racing isn't a spectator sport - and I just don't think there will be any significant extra load on the railway during the racing - although there may be some extra business transporting teams before the event...

I dunno, I reckon FGW might stick on a HST or two calling at London Paddington, Reading, Westbury, Cary, Yeovil, Dorchester and Weymouth or something like that. Wouldn't be much slower than the direct service.

 

[swt_passenger]

I dunno, I reckon FGW might stick on a HST or two calling at London Paddington, Reading, Westbury, Cary, Yeovil, Dorchester and Weymouth or something like that. Wouldn't be much slower than the direct service.

I quite specifically only referred to SWT's services. That phrase doesn't include what FGW or XC might do with their diesels...

 

[apk55]

Life expired does not only mean the only the third rail but the expensive power supply system to energize it. This is sub stations and the cables to supply power to them from bulk supply points which will also need renewing.
The existing system also limits the power taken by a train, at worst case locations the voltage can drop by around 20% hence the lower electrical efficiency of DC networks.

If higher powered trains are required then the number of substations would probably need doubling. In addition the supply cables to the substations would also need uprating (probably replacing). With High voltage AC substations are located far apart so there are not the same problems

So the London Brighton and South coast railway go it right with their high voltage AC electrification scrapped in the 1920's!

 

[Schnellzug]

I dunno, I reckon FGW might stick on a HST or two calling at London Paddington, Reading, Westbury, Cary, Yeovil, Dorchester and Weymouth or something like that. Wouldn't be much slower than the direct service.

i can fully support that idea. I don't for a moment imagine it'd carry more than about 10 passengers per trip, but it would be fun, that's for sure.

 

[HSTEd]

Life expired does not only mean the only the third rail but the expensive power supply system to energize it. This is sub stations and the cables to supply power to them from bulk supply points which will also need renewing.
The existing system also limits the power taken by a train, at worst case locations the voltage can drop by around 20% hence the lower electrical efficiency of DC networks.

If higher powered trains are required then the number of substations would probably need doubling. In addition the supply cables to the substations would also need uprating (probably replacing). With High voltage AC substations are located far apart so there are not the same problems

So the London Brighton and South coast railway go it right with their high voltage AC electrification scrapped in the 1920's!

Fitting High Voltage AC substations would require massive reconstruction of the entire supporting infrastructure to avoid phase imbalances in the local power supply grid caused by only drawing one phase rather than all three as currently happens to power the rectifiers.

The rectifiers are a relatively small component of the cost of the entire system and it now appears that train power requirements will start to drop again with the new lighter weight and mroe efficient traction technologies.