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  1. MarkyT

    Steam engines powered by battery

    I've read elsewhere that all the battery traction kit including the motors will be housed in the tenders. The locos will be lightly modified to be pushed around by the power tenders. They may have boilers and pistons removed to reduce weight and resistance , although I'd have thought the...
  2. MarkyT

    Talgo AVRIL

    They have at least managed to squeeze some folding armrests between each seat, which shows how much wider the Avril cars are than much other rolling stock. I really don't like the 3 abreast 'bench' seating on many UK suburban trains, but at least the properly formed individual seats and armrests...
  3. MarkyT

    What is the point of Old Oak Common?

    Hythe Road would be no good for the Milton Keynes service as it was planned to be on the Mitre Bridge Loop, the connecting line from Mitre Bridge Junction on the West London Line to Willesden High-Level Junction on the North London Line. A WLL northbound train routed that way would find itself...
  4. MarkyT

    What is the point of Old Oak Common?

    There's no room between the two double junctions at Acton Wells which are only about 100m apart, with no signals in the gap so if (short) platforms existed a route would have to be set right through both junctions to approach it, needlessly blocking other movements that might take place in...
  5. MarkyT

    Is the Heathrow Express a viable, worthwhile service?

    On RTT, looking at a handful of mid-morning Down Main running times planned on Tuesday 23/04 from a standing start at Paddington, they all pass Heathrow Airport Junction between 8.5 and 9.5 minutes after departure, with the lower figure representing the best 80x times. The difference is around...
  6. MarkyT

    Gatwick Express: Should it have more stops?

    Agreed. The connectivity of Clapham Junction makes it a great stop if the timetable could be made to work. If a resurrected Waterloo-bound Airtrack route resurfaces as part of a Heathrow Southern project, Clapham Junction could form a useful interchange for anyone transferring between the airports.
  7. MarkyT

    XC trains behing heavily used by Wolverhampton to Birmingham commuters: how could this be resolved?

    Cutting out Coventry on XC is absurd. It would add around 40 minutes to the journey to anywhere south of Leamington Spa and cut the frequency to Leamington in half to only the local service once an hour. And the train would still crawl tantalisingly through Coventry station to negotiate the...
  8. MarkyT

    What is the point of Old Oak Common?

    Totnes has high long-distance sales because the trendy town and its picturesque South Hams hinterland are home to many media and arts and other business people who travel frequently to London and other big cities, or they regularly come to stay in 2nd homes at weekends. Because the local service...
  9. MarkyT

    What is the point of Old Oak Common?

    Euston is well sited, well known and understood by the public and together with KX and St P forms a cluster of major termini whose pedestrian interconnection could be further improved if desired in the future Stopping at both stations, splits the load between the two and provides the wider...
  10. MarkyT

    What is the point of Old Oak Common?

    Mainly in the peaks, for layout reasons, on the South Western, something that might plausibly be fixed in the future in which case more could stop, and the need for such a super intense peak service uplift in the tight morning rush might be less of an issue with today's more hybrid working...
  11. MarkyT

    Victoria & south london resignalling phase 5: what actually changes on the ground?

    CAD, with its ability to move elements around on a circuit drawing more easily for such alterations, came a bit late for much use in the relay interlocking field. I found a few awfully convoluted circuit routings in some of the Welsh interlockings I worked on at Reading in the mid-1980s. The...
  12. MarkyT

    Victoria & south london resignalling phase 5: what actually changes on the ground?

    Once the insulation degradation sets in, the risk in interlockings can also be higher, especially big complex ones like Victoria where wires are packed tightly in the ducting. Pulling old wires out when doing alterations or piecemeal renewals can be dicy, hence many relay rooms have harsh...
  13. MarkyT

    How could Island Line be improved? Could a 32/28 minute frequency work? Any other suggestions?

    Were there any changes to speed limits through the points converted?
  14. MarkyT

    Countries where rail traffic drives on a different side to road traffic

    Right-hand running in Alsace is because the territory was part of Germany between the 1870s and WW1, when many railways were built. Germany is right hand while the rest of France is left hand.
  15. MarkyT

    Cambridge Area Signalling Renewal

    People stepping out behind a train that has just passed is a common hazard around the world, especially in many overseas stations where passengers have crossed the track historically on the level routinely, which is why many nations have been busy eliminating such foot crossings widely when...
  16. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    So they all go to one platform, then still get on the wrong train if signage is confusing! The provision of bigger tunnels to allow total platform surface area to be halved is bizarre.
  17. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    That's the default for much of the historic Paris metro too, though not constructed using modern TBMs clearly!
  18. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    7m isn't all that wide for a high-capacity urban system for a growing densifying region into the foreseeable future, considering stairways, lifts, etc. taking up space on the platform, especially as the illustration up-thread suggests no platform screen doors are planned. With stacked tracks...
  19. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    The island platform for both directions seems no wider than each of those in the stacked arrangement. That could be major safety issue with crowding at the busiest station. London has been gradually removing remaining narrow island platform configurations, on the Northern Line. Glasgow removed...
  20. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    The 'eliminating confusion' assertion seems nonsense. Just because passengers may be able to see trains going in the other direction in some side-by-side platform configuration doesn't prevent them ending up on the wrong platform. Good signage and information systems are the best policies to...

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