Trains calling - or not calling - at Coombe Junction Halt

[30907]

Would it just make sense to have it as a request stop on all services, so that the train can pick people up only as required? It saves time when there is no one, and it allows a passenger increase when they do come.

No, because you've got to timetable the extra distance, small though it is, and the branch timetable is tight at certain times. Trains which serve Coombe vary from one year to the next seemingly at random because of changing connections at Liskeard etc (as do stops at the other halts).

 

[TEW]

Stops at Coombe depend on the light as well, the station has no lighting so in the winter can't have any services. Generally the branch is timetable at roughly hourly intervals but maintaining connections where possible, so the other halts are skipped where a particular run is a bit tight for time.

 

[Crossover]

Isn't one of the platforms at Morecambe still accessible (in theory) when the line to Heysham is occupied?

Yes, as it is a totally separate section. Between Bare Lane and Morecambe, the lines are run as 2 independent single lines so two trains can pass travelling in either direction, rather than in the more traditional up/down way. The southernmost line is generally only used for Heysham traffic, everything else in the main goes into Platform 1 at Morecambe.

Correct. I think generally, p1 could be mainly used for the shuttles whereas longer distance (and Heysham traffic) uses the other. So yes, whilst a train is in the Heysham branch (passenger or a freight), a train can go from Bare Lane on the northernmost track into Morecambe, a train just to Morecambe can not use the southernmost track, even if it is to Morecambe only, as the whole lot is one section.

 

[MarkyT]

Stops at Coombe depend on the light as well, the station has no lighting so in the winter can't have any services

I wonder if any services at unlighted halts had to be withdrawn on August 11, 1999
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A new alignment proposal for a steep climb dreckly from Looe without reversal at Coombe, under Moorswater viaduct and into Liskeard main line station from the Bodmin end, then turning off again on the old branch to a new Liskeard Town station. Assumes all freight traffic at Moorswater has ceased. Town station spur allows reversal to take place off the main line as well as better serving the centre. Shorter route and avoidance of Coombe Junction reversal might reduce journey time sufficient to allow more regular hourly service calling at all stations. Abandoned portion of old branch redeveloped as foot and cycleway . . .

http://www.townend.me/files/liskeard1.pdf
http://www.townend.me/files/liskeard2.pdf
http://www.townend.me/files/liskeard3.pdf

 

[HSTEd]

If a diesel multiple unit can handle 5% you might be able to manage it....

If only the gradient wasn't so steep.... you might have been able to justify trains from further afield going to Looe.

 

[MarkyT]

If a diesel multiple unit can handle 5% you might be able to manage it....

There are steeper adhesion railways around the world, at least one in Austria uses DMUs, albeit only as a heritage operation now:

http://www.vordernberg.at/en/history/erzbergbahn.html

The Erzberg Railway in Austria has maximum gradients of 7.1% and uses an Austrian version of the Uerdinger rail bus, ÖBB class 5081 -

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ÖBB_5081

Not that different from a pacer, although has a better power to weight ratio and the Erzberg examples were specially fitted with magnetic track brakes (a later adaptation possibly after some hair raising incidents?).

If only the gradient wasn't so steep.... you might have been able to justify trains from further afield going to Looe.

The junction could allow services to Plymouth and beyond. Perhaps a Voyager could manage the gradient with its high power to weight ratio!

 

[Cliveblackpool]

The GWR created the link to what was the Caradon Mines - Moorswater - Looe line in 1901. (Moorswater station etc then closed)
(Originally the course of the main line was to follow a route where the present bypass is, but it was refused PP.)
It is a bit of a switch back operation!
I can't see that it will be changed in the next 100yrs!
Electric points would be an advantage! Operated by remote control from Liskeard S box, or driver?
A park & ride to Looe/ Liskeard on the old china clay dries sites (Moorswater station) could be a very worthwhile future project.

I would like to add that there would be space and opportunity to run heritage trains/specials from Moorswater to Looe.

 

[MarkyT]

Electric points would be an advantage! Operated by remote control from Liskeard S box, or driver?

On lines operated by NSTR and RETB, passing loops originally equipped with the now obsolete hydro-pneumatic points have been fitted recently with replacement conventional point machines, controlled by small self contained interlocking systems, highly standardised and presumably with power and communications constraints similar to remote ground frame sites. A similar installation replacing the ground frame could work on a 'program' to switch automatically after passage of each 'trailing' movement, with an override switch operated from Coombe Jn Halt platform by train crew to cater for a train needing to return from whence it came, or starting out from Moorswater sidings to Liskeard whilst another train is between Coombe Jn and Looe. A clear route indication could be made visible from the platform to assist.