The big "E"

[Polarbear]

Hi there

Just a quick query.

I commute from Bache to Bootle New Strand. The last few days, I've noticed that the trains between Sandhills & Bootle have been travelling slowly between stations. At the end of the platforms on this section, there are boards (situated on the platform & moveable - certainly not premanent) with a large letter "E" on a black background.

Can anybody tell me what the sign means & why the trains are running so slowly? Would it be to do with the electric supply or am I being too obvious?

Cheers!

 

[Railsigns]

I commute from Bache to Bootle New Strand. The last few days, I've noticed that the trains between Sandhills & Bootle have been travelling slowly between stations. At the end of the platforms on this section, there are boards (situated on the platform & moveable - certainly not premanent) with a large letter "E" on a black background.

Can anybody tell me what the sign means & why the trains are running so slowly? Would it be to do with the electric supply or am I being too obvious?

Hi,

You'll find the meaning of those "E" signs on my website (item [18.12] on the page linked below):

http://www.railsigns.co.uk/sect18page1/sect18page1.html

I've never actually seen one of these signs, hence why there isn't a picture of it on that page. If you could provide me with a detailed description of the sign (or even better, a photo), I'd be very grateful!

 

[First class]

All Merseyrail stations have these stored (somewhere). This should be the sign you're looking for. They're on a sandwich-board type support.

(Yellow is the same type that is used for TSR signs)

The one at Sandhills is currently on Platform 2 towards Southport, underneath the main signal.

Mainly seen around Underground sections though.

I will take a picture of one tonight at LVC and send it to you Railsigns and you can use it for your website.

 

[Railsigns]

Excellent! Thanks very much, First class.

 

[Polarbear]

Thanks for the information. I did think it would mean something like that given the trains were running so slowly. Mind you, they did seem to be keeping time as well which is commendable.

All seems normal today.

 

[First class]

As promised, a real photo from Liverpool Central taken last night. Feel free to add to the website if good enough.

 

[A60K]

Interesting, thanks! May be a daft question, but why would there be a reduced electrical supply available - substation out of commission or something else?

 

[First class]

A reduced electrical supply can happen for a number of reasons, but the most common one is a sub-station failure, or a different sub station is temporarily feeding it, e.g. maintenance on usual sub.

Example:

Bank Hall sub-station feeds Sandhills and up to Hall Road. The next closest sub-station, Leeds Street mainly provides the power for the Underground section. If Bank Hall fails, you could use Leeds Street (or another sub station) as a backup, but as the electric has to cover a larger area, not as much is available, so everything in that section has to be more conservative with it.

 

[A60K]

Thanks - it sounds like there's very little (if any) redundancy in the Merseyrail electrical supply network then!

Presumably this means that if you wanted to run significantly more frequent services you would need to upgrade the electrical supply first?

I imagine that future new trains would also probably require a power supply upgrade as well. Here in London the 67 stock on the Victoria line is being replaced with 09 stock, and the power consumption is much higher per train - around 70% I think it is.

 

[Railsigns]

As promised, a real photo from Liverpool Central taken last night. Feel free to add to the website if good enough.

Thank you very much, First class; those pictures are ideal. Was the board 'in use' at the time, or just brought out for the photos?

 

[First class]

Thank you very much, First class; those pictures are ideal. Was the board 'in use' at the time, or just brought out for the photos?

I had a look for them last night and found that they were very dirty (obviously not used for sometime at Liverpool Central).

Took them out and tried to clean them up as much as possible. Caked in brake dust from the 507s and 508s.

Took a picture when I'd finished cleaning them...

 

[45378]

They were being used 'in anger' (as it were) at Bootle Oriel Road about 10 days ago.

Rgds

45378