Reading Stock movements

[paulusthegnome]

This is a question for someone who spends their days at Reading.

I am trying to understand the movements of Terminal Platform stock at Reading.

I can see that P1 is used primarily for the Kennet Valley turns, P2 for the Basingstoke turns and P3 for Cross Country turns.

But I can not fully understand how P6 and P10 are operated.
There appears to be many terminating services at these platforms without
subsequent originating services.
Does this mean that there are empty stock movements back to the yard, running through the station?
Or are these stock sets being parked somewhere on the east side on the station?

P

 

[robertbishop]

P1, 2 and 3 are for Kennet and Basingstoke services, moslty P1 for Kennet services and P2 being Basingstoke, P3 being less used but its not an exact science. I have only seen a Voyager in P3 once or twice, they usually use P7 and P8. P6 and P10 are for the stopping trains into London, originating from both Padd and Ealing Broadway.

 

[Oracle]

Do they still have trains for Guildford from the east end bay? I was on an afternoon train for Redhill once tghat was a 33/1+ 4TC. Round about 1977.

 

[OxtedL]

Trains to Redhill and Gatwick via Guildford use 4a/4b, the east end bays, along with SWT trains to London. The North Downs (Guildford) trains are all turbos now.

 

[paulusthegnome]

Thanks you:

All interesting information, but I still don't understand the workings of terminating services to P6 and P10.

Does this stock run light back through the station to the yard or is in parked somewhere on the east side until required for revenue service?

P

 

[louis97]

Generally services arriving at xx43 then form the xx18 back to London using P6 and services arriving at xx12 then form the xx48 back to London use P10. Timings and platform numbers do vary in the peak time.

 

[Freightmaster]

....I can not fully understand how P6 and P10 are operated.
There appears to be many terminating services at these platforms without
subsequent originating services.

It would help enormously if you could give some specific examples
of such 'unbalanced' arrivals...

...If you could do that, then someone will be able to check the
diagrams for you.


MARK

 

[paulusthegnome]

The previous excellent reply enabled me to go back through the display boards and determine that I had missed some arriving services. This helped fill many of the "unsourced" departures.
Some common sense helped fill in others.
But I'm still left with some unexplained movements.

12:17 PAD arr. P8 clears by 12:22. 12:26 dep. EBY P10 is this the same set or two yard movements?

14:43 PAD arr. P10 . 14:48 dep EBY P6. Is this the same set?

15:42 PAD arr P6. 15:48 dep EBY P10.

There are some more but that give a flavor of the problem.

At the end of the day, I'm assuming terminating trains run to
the yard for cleaning/storage and reappear from there next morning.

In general, I'm interested in the details of the movements that allow stock to get from the yard on the west side to the east side bay platforms.

P

 

[Bedpan]

What does EBY mean? Robertbishop mentions trains originating at Paddington (PAD) and Ealing Broadway (EAL) - I find it hard to believe that trains actually originate/terminate at EAL, is it the case that do trains actually originate/ terminate from/at PAD but are shown on the departure board as terminating at EAL as they are always overtaken by faster trains to PAD.

 

[Invincibles]

EBY = East Bay?

The answer does appear to lie in long lay-overs, but the times given do not quite match.

 

[Freightmaster]

In general, I'm interested in the details of the movements that allow stock to get from the yard on the west side to the east side bay platforms.

There are only two such movements booked to run between 7am and 7pm:

- 10:20 from platform 8 to the DMU depot
- 16:19 from the DMU depot to platform 6 (arrives at 16:28)

There is also an empty DMU from Twyford, which is booked to arrive
at platform 10 at 10am.

Perhaps other 'unbalanced' moves are explained by trains splitting?

MARK

 

[robertbishop]

What does EBY mean? Robertbishop mentions trains originating at Paddington (PAD) and Ealing Broadway (EAL) - I find it hard to believe that trains actually originate/terminate at EAL, is it the case that do trains actually originate/ terminate from/at PAD but are shown on the departure board as terminating at EAL as they are always overtaken by faster trains to PAD.

My mistake, I didn't know that was how it worked.

 

[imagination]

There are trains that join and split on platform 6, mainly in the peaks. There are (or were) also some trains that spend hours sat at a platform between arriving and departing.

The trains all go on to London Paddington - just when the display screens said "London Paddington" with "local stopping service" underneath people used to get on them when going to London. Not sure whether or not the late night services (which aren't overtaken) are still marked as London, but any train that stops between Slough and London has been shown as for "Ealing Broadway" (where they all stop) for some years now. A similar thing is done at Didcot Parkway, and services from London are often shown as being to Radley or Twyford instead of Oxford or Reading when they are stopping trains (confusingly, however, there IS a train, as mentioned above, that just goes to Twyford).

When trains are terminating at Reading and then going off somewhere empty they use Platform 8 instead of 6, then platform 9 the other way (think there's only 1 of these?).

Trains to Gatwick can also occasionally use Platform 6 but I don't think there are any actually timetabled to do that.

Platform 3 gets very little use nowadays - it used to be used for northbound xc services from Bournemouth but they just use platform 8 now.

 

[jopsuk]

The same thing is done on Cambridge-Kings Cross; overtaken trains are shown as Finsbury Park from Cambridge and Foxton from Kings Cross. There will be other examples I'm sure.

 

[swt_passenger]

Platform 3 gets very little use nowadays - it used to be used for northbound xc services from Bournemouth but they just use platform 8 now.

It seems to be the regular platform for XC southbound services to Southampton in my recent experience. Of course when platform 7 is permanently closed (some time in the next few months) I reckon it will become the usual platform for the terminating XCs from Newcastle as well.

 

[DXC]

The XC SOU terminators from EDB/NCL use platform 3,

Platform 7 closing permanently?? Take it that's part of the redevelopment?

 

[dzug2]

Isn't there one Voyager a day from/to Guildford? Which platform does that use?

The only time I travelled on XC in the Gatwick direction (some years back) we departed from the main platform 4 (ie wrong line) and it got diverted via KennyO anyway. Never did find out why.

 

[swt_passenger]

The XC SOU terminators from EDB/NCL use platform 3,

Platform 7 closing permanently?? Take it that's part of the redevelopment?

Yes - there'll be no bays on the main or relief island platforms after the rebuild. P7 is first to go - quite soon - because it is where the country end stairs and escalators come down from the new 'transfer deck' onto what will eventually become the two 'down main' platforms either side of the island, P8/9 in the new layout.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Isn't there one Voyager a day from/to Guildford? Which platform does that use?

Down train is planned to use P4 according to various planners, but I'm never around at theat time of day, the up train is planned to use P5 but I've seen it on P8 and P9 often enough to suggest it is pretty much random.

 

[imagination]

After about 10pm in my experience, the platform a train is meant to depart from becomes increasingly irrelevant and trains get platform alterations for no apparent (to customers) reason. The Guildford train is one of these. But then again I've only been in Reading station about 20 times or so at that time of night (and almost every time there's been a platform alteration of one sort or another).

And about platform 3 - I believe it doesnt have any trains during the day at all and is only used in the peaks/evening? I've certainly been in the station before in the morning and seen the next train from that platform to be in the evening peak before now.

 

[swt_passenger]

And about platform 3 - I believe it doesnt have any trains during the day at all and is only used in the peaks/evening? I've certainly been in the station before in the morning and seen the next train from that platform to be in the evening peak before now.

Two days ago (on Saturday) 3 successive Southampton XC departures were showing on the P3 display - 1415, 1615 and 1815; and as far as the online info is concerned all 6 of XC's Southampton departures are shown in P3 tomorrow...

 

[imagination]

Oh wait I forgot they increased the number of Southampton services. So yes there would be more now.

 

[LexyBoy]

The trains all go on to London Paddington - just when the display screens said "London Paddington" with "local stopping service" underneath people used to get on them when going to London. Not sure whether or not the late night services (which aren't overtaken) are still marked as London, but any train that stops between Slough and London has been shown as for "Ealing Broadway" (where they all stop) for some years now. A similar thing is done at Didcot Parkway, and services from London are often shown as being to Radley or Twyford instead of Oxford or Reading when they are stopping trains (confusingly, however, there IS a train, as mentioned above, that just goes to Twyford).

I find it rather baffling how this is worked out. Certainly late night trains (when there are no fasts) are shown with their true destination – however I’ve noticed that in the mornings at Didcot some stoppers are shown as “London Paddington” and others “Ealing Broadway”, even when they have the same stopping pattern! Also it’s not that helpful when coming out of London – plenty of people get the stopper to Didcot for the reasons you state! (Though not nearly as many as would go to Oxford, the tourist potential of Didcot is limited somewhat).

Trains to Gatwick can also occasionally use Platform 6 but I don't think there are any actually timetabled to do that.

Also P10 on occasion

Platform 3 gets very little use nowadays - it used to be used for northbound xc services from Bournemouth but they just use platform 8 now.

Occasional Basingstokes, rarely XC (though the last BHM arrival of the day generally terminates there), and Oxford semi-fast or stoppers starting from Reading.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Isn't there one Voyager a day from/to Guildford? Which platform does that use?

The only time I travelled on XC in the Gatwick direction (some years back) we departed from the main platform 4 (ie wrong line) and it got diverted via KennyO anyway. Never did find out why.

Didn't XC generally go via Kenny O?

As swt_passenger says, down is P4, up generally P5.

 

[swt_passenger]

...Occasional Basingstokes, rarely XC (though the last BHM arrival of the day generally terminates there),

At the risk of repeating myself - the southbound XC trains to Southampton normally use P3 - the evidence is that this happens 6 times a day - hardly rare.