How about glass tubes filled with mucky grease or red paint/dye, suspended on cables from the lower portal at the height of the upper portal. Any vehicle too high for the whole bridge will smash the tubes and have the grease or paint spread over their windscreen. Good luck explaining that to your boss!
And then the lorry can't move out of the way until the tow truck comes, because the driver can't see where he or she is going. Not to mention the impact on other motorists coming down the hill who unexpectedly find the road covered in grease, heading towards a crossroads!
I've seen about 3 or 4 5 car sets going to Penzance in the past few weeks and I work on the things every day? Most of the time any short formations of 5 cars have been swapped onto the Exeter terminators for which a 5 car is more than adequate.
Bristol and Cardiff are suffering more than Plymouth because of the stock shortage; their frequencies have been halved in addition to any short-forming.
I note that extra stops are being made in the London to Penzance service.
Agreed, however the original reply was regarding Plymouth, the West of England services have been incredibly busy of late due to the whole nation deciding to holiday in Cornwall it seems
What, for every road in the UK?
They have to with steam locos, to make sure coal well trimmed and not foul of loading gauge. Esp if to run under 25kV wires...
Just kinda makes sense really doesn’t it?
Playing with the Street View lookback, it's interesting that it's lost 6 inches clearance since the beam was fitted between 2015 and 2016!
Food for though. I’m not a driver so obviously know not the ins and outs of things, but it would seem to me that something like that really should be on the mot. Almost screams safety critical.
“Some sort of “ doesn’t mean the same as railway route knowledge. Appropriate satnav will do - as will a pre- agreed/ checked route which is “signed off@ by someone who will carry the can. That should ensure that no hgv is scheduled on a route for which it is unsuitable, leaving just the unexpected diversions.
Thing with a lot of wagons though, is that when fully laden they can sit a few inches lower on the springs than when empty. In theory this could mean that a route to a construction site that involves a low bridge might be fine for the loads going in but not for the empties going out!
That's very marginal though and it it was a hit when empty it would be bloody close when full, close enough to make me uncomfortable if it does just fit.
Update on this: As of 16:35, the line remains shut according to Open Time Trains (which isn't always the most accurate but still). I heard somewhere that it's due to open at around 10pm tonight, but as far as I'm aware it's not guaranteed as of yet.
No more so than the difference caused by surface-dressing or resurfacing, which is frequently cited as a reason not to blame the road vehicle drivers.
They are two very differant situations though. The height of a vehicle due to loading is a vehicle issue and therefore down to the operator, the road surface is purely down to local councils and if there is a change the sinage should be updated accordingly.
Different in terms of liability, but not in terms of the end result. Certainly there should be better management of signage to ensure it is updated as soon as any changes take place. There does seem to be a significant section of the haulage industry with a cavalier attitude to low bridges though. I recall a thread several years ago where an LGV driver boasted about how he "knew" that the signage gave a lower height limit than was actually there. It wouldn't surprise me if the more cautious drivers find themselves being ridiculed by their comrades... that doesn't seem to be a culture that has been allowed to take root on the railway.
That's because the railway has been beat down with very strict safety methods since privatisation where as other industries (like road haulage, house building etc) haven't had such a massive beat down (well they have to an extent but we get away with it). H&S is great but when it makes the job harder there comes a point when something needs to be done.
They check there is a height sign in the cab. But not that it's the correct height!
And they would be correct. As a safety margin, the signed height is always at least 3" or 0.08 m less than the measured height. BUT, drivers are not supposed to intentionally take advantage of that safety margin.
Which is entirely my point- that margin of error is there for a number of reasons, not least the variations in actual vehicle height caused by things like loading, tyre pressure and any number of other factors. Being "correct" in this case is a Phyrric victory if you end up wedged, or (unlikely though it is) stopped by a random check that shows you've ignored a posted height restriction.
It did cross my mind to stay in Totnes on Monday night, but it wasn't practical for a number of reasons.
