MaidaVale
Member
He also things New St 4c could take 6 cars, so I think he may just be plucking numbers out of the sky
I did say 6 cars at the very most, my Wellington Eastbound and Cosford numbers are based on experience, Having seen a 10 car 221 fit 7 cars (although all coaches in the rear 5 were locked out of use until Birmingham) at Wellington on the eastbound platform, and seen 6 coaches of a 221 comfortably on the platform of Cosford whilst seeing one passing.
Platform 4C at BHM is 110m, So now having calculated it, could fit 5 carriages, hence why I said that it'd likely require the use of a different platform (which a number of Shrewsbury services do anyway), guestimating at 6 carriages based on eyeballing it. Whether or not 5 carriages would be cleared for service into 4C is another story, not my area of expertise, although based on measurements, it could do so, and would be required to do so once the 5 car 730s enter service (as LNWR services to Crewe & Liverpool often use 4C).
Completely slipped my mind about Shrewsbury's bays, Didn't really process it properly at 1 in the morning, They'd obviously be too small to fit 6 or 8 coaches, so the use of P4 or P7 would be needed to fit them in this formation. P4 would be an obvious no-go as this is required for main through services such as the MAN-CDF (and beyond)s and the BHI-CTR (and beyond)s. Platform 7 could be used, as it has been used for terminating services (particularly TfW and Avanti ones) previously, although not as a regular occurrence, so could only be used to terminate often if the Crewe locals were relocated, of which there is nowhere to do so.
Further edit: Looking at measurements for Shrewsbury's P5 bay, It could in theory fit a 6 car unit, although it'd be a tight fit as to not block the points for other trains to access P6 whilst P5 was occupied. P5 is 2 metres short of being able to fit an 8 car (although even if it was 2 metres longer, it would block the points to P6). These reasons would make it unlikely for P5 to be cleared for a 6 car unit, although physically able.
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