What happened today to the 22:01 Manchester to Crewe train? (05/02)

I was on the 22:01 from Manchester to crewe (planning to alight at Cheadle Hulme) today, and everything was going fine until we stopped about half way beween Stockport and Cheadle Hulme. From observations out the window it seemed that if we were still on the four track section we were on the slow line. Eventually after several announcements, firstly about waiting for another train, then about returning to stockport, then more waiting we returned to stockport platform 1. While we were heading back towards Stockport, another train passed us heading towards cheadle hulme.

At stockport the doors were were opened, but it was not made very clear if/when the train would move. At this point I debated mentally whether to head out for the last bus to cheadle hulme, but decided not to risk it and stayed on the train.

A few minuites later we set off again towards Cheadle Hulme, the guard announced everything was OK, but I noticed looking out of the window we were on the fast line rather than the slow line. We arrived in cheadle hulme (recent trains times says we were 46L, which seems about consistent with reality) and I got off and walked home.

Just curious what happened, did the points get stuck making it impossible to continue to cheadle hulme from the slow line or something.

According to delay reports, this was indeed down to a points failure at Adswood Road junction south of Stockport; the train was then set back to the previous junction and run on the fast line.

Sounds like terrible communications

I believe there had been a problem with the points at Adswood Road earlier in the day, yesterday, as well. Also, there has been engineering work in the vicinity over the past few weekends.

The recent engineering work was to replace the points at Adswood Rd Jn. Possibly lost detection on the points in 'reverse', but not in 'normal'? And rather than wait for the S&T to turn up to crank the points across and then the signaller talk every up train past the signals it was maybe overall less disruptive to send everything fast line.

How hard is it for guards to give the passengers some basic info though. As a driver reading stuff like this just makes you want to bang your head against a brick wall.

Off-topic I know, but I remember Adswood Road signal box, on the south-east side of the road bridge (on the up side). In addition to the fast/slow lines there was a down goods line to Edgeley Junction Number 2. The box was switched out at weekends, meaning that all trains had to use the fast lines between there and Edgeley Junctions. Signal box was removed in the late 1970s and its points and signals were taken over by Cheadle Hulme signal box, meaning that all four lines could be used all week.

EDIT: Adswood Road signal box was abolished on 1 November 1981 according to my notes.

Llama said:

The recent engineering work was to replace the points at Adswood Rd Jn. Possibly lost detection on the points in 'reverse', but not in 'normal'? And rather than wait for the S&T to turn up to crank the points across and then the signaller talk every up train past the signals it was maybe overall less disruptive to send everything fast line.

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That would make a lot of sense, the fast line can be reached from both platform 1 and platform 2 at stockport, so they could still use both the fast and slow lines between Manchester and Stockport and they could still use the slow lines south of stockport for trains heading towards hazel grove.

Llama said:

How hard is it for guards to give the passengers some basic info though. As a driver reading stuff like this just makes you want to bang your head against a brick wall.

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The impression I get is that guards can only give passengers the info they are given, the guard seemed to know reasonably quickly that we would be returned to Stockport, but he did not seem to have a clue what would happen after that.

Presumably the driver changed ends and then worked wrong direction back to Stockport?

Drivers seem to prefer to get out and walk along the cess when changing ends rather than walk through the train, perhaps to avoid a lot of questions from people on board in the case of examples such as this.
Are there any set proceedures for changing ends on passenger trains or does it vary according to circumstances?

Mugby said:

Presumably the driver changed ends and then worked wrong direction back to Stockport?

Drivers seem to prefer to get out and walk along the cess when changing ends rather than walk through the train, perhaps to avoid a lot of questions from people on board in the case of examples such as this.
Are there any set proceedures for changing ends on passenger trains or does it vary according to circumstances?

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Local instructions and circumstances I believe. Plus of course some rolling stock you can't walk through cab-to-cab if its in multiple.

Someone, who I presume was the driver, walked hurriedly through the train around the time it was announced we were returning to Stockport. I did not see the driver move in the other direction when we were at Stockport, but I would assume he walked along the platform.

It was kind of dark, but from what I can tell from looking out the window and looking at google maps and tracksy we ran back the way we came into platform 1 at Stockport. Presumablly this counts as "wrong direction working" (the line does not seem to be signaled bidirectionally). Then reversed again in Stockport and crossed over to the fast line to continue our journey.

That would be a wrong direction move yes. Should always be done from the leading cab unless absolutely not possible, and it would've given the signallers plenty to do having that train go 'bang road' back to Stockport - it's still Absolute Block working around Stockport, there would've been three signallers involved (Edgeley Jn #1, Edgeley Jn #2 and Stockport #1) in that move.

Quite why the guard didn't ensure passengers were kept well informed in such circumstances is of concern.

TUC said:

Quite why the guard doesn't ensure passengers are kept well informed in such circumstances is of concern.

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Yeah, this is surprising. I was once on a train that called at Harrow and Wealdstone 3 times (due to a fatality), a not totally dissimilar situation, and we were kept very well informed by the guard. Some did get off and give up but not many.