Henley-on-Thames during Henley Festival

[ess]

When the Henley Festival is on (this week) the Henley branch has 'circular' trains because some don't stop at Shiplake. I think they don't stop going North at Shiplake in the morning and they don't stop going South at Shiplake in the afternoon. They also get 2x2 car (4 car) trains to cope with the extra passengers and usually get nicer stock than normal. Are there any other examples of this on other lines for special events?

Separately, why can't they put 2x3 car trains on and have SDO for the Henley Branch with passengers walking through the train where the doors are locked out of use?

 

[JonathanH]

Separately, why can't they put 2x3 car trains on and have SDO for the Henley Branch with passengers walking through the train where the doors are locked out of use?

Length of the bay platform at Twyford (and therefore the position of the signal). Other stations on the Henley branch can take 6 cars without SDO being required.

Twyford platform 5 is 110 metres. Shiplake the next shortest at 149 metres. Henley is 177 metres which could in theory accommodate a 7-car Turbo formation. 6-car trains can run on the branch but only using the up main platform at Twyford.

usually get nicer stock than normal

No. Turbos are the only stock available.

Henley Festival

Henley Regatta.

At one time, in Thames Trains days, Regatta Saturday would see all the trains on the branch run from Paddington for a large part of the day.

 

[autotank]

On Saturday the branch gets 7 car Turbos running in and out of the up relief at Twyford. Wargrave will be served by a bus all day and some southbound services will run non-stop (all northbound services have to stop at Shiplake because the way the level crossing is set up).

There is even a through train to Paddington in the early hours of Sunday timetabled to take an impressive 46 minutes:

Realtime Trains | 2P82 0032 Henley-on-Thames to London Paddington | 03/07/2022

Real-time train running information for 2P82 0032 departure from Henley-on-Thames to London Paddington on 03/07/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk