Trivia: Wired Stations served mostly by Diesels

[Allwinter_Kit]

I was walking through Leeds yesterday afternoon and was struck by how every platform is fully wired and yet every train bar 1 (a 333 in P3) was belching diesel fumes, including the 185 I'd just got off.*

This struck me - are there any other stations fully wired with such a great proportion of diesel services? Manchester Victoria perhaps? Are there any which are electrified yet receive only diesel services?

* on reflection I think there was another 333 or a 322 in too, but it was stabled with all the lights off.

 

[Polarbear]

Until the Liverpool - Manchester line via Chat Moss was wired, both Earlestown & Newton le Willows were two stations where only diesel services operated.

Paddington, was rather similar too. Until the advent of Heathrow Express/Connect, there were electric services at the station, albeit operated by LU. Even when HEX/connect was introduced, they were the only electric services in an otherwise diesel operation until the wires were extended down the main line toward Maidenhead.

 

[jfisher21]

Woodgrange Park used to be all diesel with wires, not sure if the electrics have started running yet.

 

[AM9]

Until the Liverpool - Manchester line via Chat Moss was wired, both Earlestown & Newton le Willows were two stations where only diesel services operated. ...

The OLE from the WCML, through Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows and back onto the WCML could never have enabled a meaningful service calling at those two stations, I assume that it was really provided for diversionary and other stock movement purposes.

Woodgrange Park used to be all diesel with wires, not sure if the electrics have started running yet.

The link from the GEML by Manor Park, through Woodgrange Park to Barking, just like the Gas Factory junction to Bow junction has been used for stock transfers and as a diversionary route between the LT & S and GEML lines since both were electrified in the late '50s/'60s. More recently, there have been regular trains between Liverpool St. and the LT & S line destinations but Woodgrange Park itself is a local station served only by GOBlin services that until next year will be operated by DMUs.

 

[gg1]

Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington and Chathill on the ECML north of Newcastle all qualify, although with a service frequency only one step up from parliamentary. Do any of the better served ECML stations between Newcastle and York meet the criteria?

 

[hexagon789]

Several stations on the now electrified Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Bishopbriggs - 2tph both diesel
Lenzie - 2tph both diesel
Croy - 4tph, 2 diesel, 2 electric
Falkirk High - 4tph, 2 diesel, 2 electric
Polmont - 4tph, all currently diesel
Linlithgow - 4tph, all currently diesel

Tph refers to trains per hour in both directions.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington and Chathill on the ECML north of Newcastle all qualify, although with a service frequency only one step up from parliamentary. Do any of the better served ECML stations between Newcastle and York meet the criteria?

That has always struck me as the laziest electrification gap that requires the use of DMUs - a couple of hundred yards of missing wires prevent EMU use. Really should wire it (or make the service more useful by continuing it on to Berwick or beyond).

 

[PeterC]

Woodgrange Park used to be all diesel with wires, not sure if the electrics have started running yet.

Same for South Tottenham.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Id say York and Newcastle up to Edinburgh are particularly bad. With only the Virgin electric services using the wires. Even many of them are HSTs.

Only a slight improvement will occur in the near future with tpe having bi modes on some services and virgin no longer having an diesel only trains.

 

[scrapy]

In the North West; Davenport, Woodsmoor, Hazel Grove, Fairfield, Gorton, Ardwick, Manchester Oxford Rd, Deansgate, Manchester Airport, West Allerton, Mossley Hill, Leyland, Preston and Longport all have far more diesels than electrics calling.

 

[swt_passenger]

That has always struck me as the laziest electrification gap that requires the use of DMUs - a couple of hundred yards of missing wires prevent EMU use. Really should wire it (or make the service more useful by continuing it on to Berwick or beyond).

Every time this is mentioned it has to be pointed out that the existing services interwork across Newcastle with the Metrocentre, and in future timetables will also interwork to Carlisle. There's also the minor problem that existing plans for additional franchised and open access LDHS services, and hourly TPE extensions, probably won't leave any paths for extension of a stopper to "Berwick or beyond".

 

[gordonthemoron]

Cramlington and Manors

 

[Royston Vasey]

Paddington, was rather similar too. Until the advent of Heathrow Express/Connect, there were electric services at the station, albeit operated by LU. Even when HEX/connect was introduced, they were the only electric services in an otherwise diesel operation until the wires were extended down the main line toward Maidenhead.

Think that misses the point of the thread entirely. It was wired only for HEX from 1993 until recently; an isolated light rail network alongside the station isn't the point of the thread. Plus the LU line is not wired.

Until recently Paddington's mainline station was all diesel with a few wired platforms for HEX and a shoret electrified section to the airport (privately funded) - much more efficient than the thread topic is after.

 

[methethpropbut]

Does Ely count?

 

[DarloRich]

Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington and Chathill on the ECML north of Newcastle all qualify, although with a service frequency only one step up from parliamentary. Do any of the better served ECML stations between Newcastle and York meet the criteria?

those stations and Thirsk was to be my answer.

 

[Stopper]

Brunstane and Newcraighall are both electrified but see only diesel Borders Railway services.

Holytown, on the Shotts line, only sees diesels, after being removed from the Lanark service.

Slateford, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes, Curriehill and Kirknewton see mainly diesels, however they do see a couple of electrics a day I believe.

Coatbridge Central and Whifflet used to see only 156s and/or 158s despite being fully electrified, this has changed now though.

The GLC-MIA TPE service is mainly run by a 185 these days, I think that may run under wires the entire distance?

Several stations on the now electrified Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Bishopbriggs - 2tph both diesel
Lenzie - 2tph both diesel
Croy - 4tph, 2 diesel, 2 electric
Falkirk High - 4tph, 2 diesel, 2 electric
Polmont - 4tph, all currently diesel
Linlithgow - 4tph, all currently diesel

Tph refers to trains per hour in both directions.

Linlithgow and Lenzie certainly get peak electrics, Polmont probably does too.

 

[Allwinter_Kit]

Interesting. I hadn't realised quite how many of the ECML stations were diesel only despite being wired! Although i suppose at least there the wires are used by fast trains passing through.

But if we put to one side local stoppers on electrified express lines, are there any big stations/terminii with similar issues to Leeds? I mean, wires on every platform but I imagine a lot of them (the Transpennine platforms for example) ever get an electric service even passing through - the wires have probably not been used on some of those platforms since installation!

 

[Taunton]

The OLE from the WCML, through Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows and back onto the WCML could never have enabled a meaningful service calling at those two stations, I assume that it was really provided for diversionary and other stock movement purposes.

It was an absolute mystery why that bit of route was electrified. Even if it was needed for a diversion from a very short and plain bit of the WCML, no such crews would sign it.

When the electrification was opened in 1974, for a few years there was one passenger service routed that way, a morning 304 emu ran from Crewe to Preston stopping at those stations, returning in the afternoon. I wonder if anyone ever got on/off there.

There's a similar wired section through South Tottenham station on the Goblin in London, all wired for many years as a connection between the Enfield and the Lea Valley lines, never used meaningfully. One odd train was timetabled that way, apparently principally to keep the wires clean.

The large Basford Hall marshalling yard at Crewe was wired under the 1960s ac electrification, every road, but electric locos never went in there, only diesel shunters. It was said the unused wire in there was sufficient to have electrified the adjacent Crewe-Kidsgrove line, whose non-electrification until recent times was an operational nuisance.

 

[hexagon789]

Linlithgow and Lenzie certainly get peak electrics, Polmont probably does too.

Forgot about peak time services, my post was referring to off-peak. In general though, most services at those station are diesel.

 

[notlob.divad]

The OLE from the WCML, through Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows and back onto the WCML could never have enabled a meaningful service calling at those two stations, I assume that it was really provided for diversionary and other stock movement purposes.

It was an absolute mystery why that bit of route was electrified. Even if it was needed for a diversion from a very short and plain bit of the WCML, no such crews would sign it.

When the electrification was opened in 1974, for a few years there was one passenger service routed that way, a morning 304 emu ran from Crewe to Preston stopping at those stations, returning in the afternoon. I wonder if anyone ever got on/off there.

It was always my assumption that it was wired for electric freight trains.

 

[gg1]

The large Basford Hall marshalling yard at Crewe was wired under the 1960s ac electrification, every road, but electric locos never went in there, only diesel shunters. It was said the unused wire in there was sufficient to have electrified the adjacent Crewe-Kidsgrove line, whose non-electrification until recent times was an operational nuisance.

BR did seem to go a little over the top with the first stage of the WCML electrification. Similarly pointless was the wiring of the Windsor Street goods branch in Aston.

 

[Taunton]

It was always my assumption that it was wired for electric freight trains.

But a poor route for freight. Among other things the checkrailed curves at Earlestown are so sharp that their rolling resistance imposes a limitation on a substantial length freight going round them. On the WCML itself the 4-track started immediately north of Parkside North Junction, so it wasn't as if there was nowhere there to recess a slow freight.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

BR did seem to go a little over the top with the first stage of the WCML electrification.

Yes and I am sure (I will try and find a document or link to show) that this contributed to the spiraling costs in the 60s which was why Weaver Jct -Glasgow did not get done until 1973/4 - then branches to Blackpool etc not until right now or recent times.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

At the low point around 2000, the Wolverhampton-Stafford line lost all its electric passenger workings, leaving a handful of freights.
Virgin converted all XC services, once mostly electrically hauled, to Voyagers, and Central ran Birmingham-Liverpool with 170s from East Midlands origins.
Weaver Jn-Liverpool only saw its hourly London service.
Northern even started running Pacers on some Crewe/Alderley Edge services.
Carstairs-Edinburgh was much the same, with just the highland sleeper being electric.
Things have improved a bit, with 350s on the Liverpool services, and some 390s to Edinburgh, but the Voyagers are still there.
Most freight under the wires is still diesel.
The Kidsgrove-Crewe section, specifically wired for WCRM, saw no subsequent electrics until LM started its Crewe-Euston via Stoke.
Bescot-Bushbury saw next to no electrics for a time, except during the frequent WCRM diversions.

 

[Andrew Nelson]

I was walking through Leeds yesterday afternoon and was struck by how every platform is fully wired and yet every train bar 1 (a 333 in P3) was belching diesel fumes, including the 185 I'd just got off.*

This struck me - are there any other stations fully wired with such a great proportion of diesel services? Manchester Victoria perhaps? Are there any which are electrified yet receive only diesel services?

* on reflection I think there was another 333 or a 322 in too, but it was stabled with all the lights off.

Stockport to Hazel Grove for a long time.

 

[Andrew Nelson]

The OLE from the WCML, through Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows and back onto the WCML could never have enabled a meaningful service calling at those two stations, I assume that it was really provided for diversionary and other stock movement purposes.

Mail / parcels off the WCML I believe.

 

[Andrew Nelson]

Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington and Chathill on the ECML north of Newcastle all qualify, although with a service frequency only one step up from parliamentary. Do any of the better served ECML stations between Newcastle and York meet the criteria?

Thirsk does obviously.
As would Chester-Le-Street.
(Northallerton has some VTEC)

 

[Andrew Nelson]

That has always struck me as the laziest electrification gap that requires the use of DMUs - a couple of hundred yards of missing wires prevent EMU use. Really should wire it (or make the service more useful by continuing it on to Berwick or beyond).

Not quite sure what you're talking about?

 

[DarloRich]

As would Chester-Le-Street.

Is Chester le Street entirely diesel? Cant recall if VTEC stop there now

 

[Andrew Nelson]

Is Chester le Street entirely diesel? Cant recall if VTEC stop there now

Quick look at RTT doesn't show any no.