Reading reports that there was a loss of power at the signalling centre resulting in the loss of control of signals between Farnborough and Weymouth causing major disruption on the mainline.
Would there be much in the way of backup power?
I believe that most (all?) signalling centres have backup power generators and/or UPSs.Reading reports that there was a loss of power at the signalling centre resulting in the loss of control of signals between Farnborough and Weymouth causing major disruption on the mainline.
Would there be much in the way of backup power?
Very strange, I'd have expected all large signalling centres to have backup generators that could power them for at least an hour.
There's a massive gas engine outside the building (just realised the building next to AA HQ is the signalling centre, isn't it?).
Would that be serving as a backup genny?
The photograph appears to show the Basingstoke ROC, but this is NOT currently the signalling centre.
The current signal box is located adjacent to the station behind platform 5.
I may have jumped to conclusions on a Google search.
Am I right assuming the long term plan is to move into that building?
Following a significant failure of the National Grid power supply to our signalling centre in Basingstoke yesterday, a large amount of signalling equipment became damaged and we were unable to run trains on some of key routes between Farnborough, Basingstoke, and the West and South West of England.
The damage to the equipment was extensive, and engineers have worked through the night to rectify the problems and bring the equipment back into working order.
The majority of signalling equipment was brought back into use at around 0600 this morning.
Services between London Waterloo, Bournemouth and Weymouth will remain significantly disrupted for some time.
We are not able to run trains between Bournemouth and Weymouth at this time, and our engineers are still working on a estimate for the repairs to these systems.
A number of buses are in place and running between Weymouth and Poole, however, these are not running to a timetable at this time. You may face a significant wait for replacement transport to arrive. We are attempting to source more buses, and will work to arrange a timetabled service so that you are able to plan your journey more effectively.
Services between London Waterloo, Salisbury and Exeter St Davids are now able to run normally, but will remain heavily disrupted. Delays of up to 40 minutes and short-notice alterations will be likely whilst we try and get the service back to normal.
As soon as more information is available, it will be provided, so please check back here regularly.
In order to help you complete your journey, we have arranged for you to be able to use your tickets on the following routes:
London Underground - services between London Waterloo and London Paddington
Great Western Railway - services on routes between London Paddington and Exeter, Bath, Bristol and Westbury.
We are very sorry for the disruption to your journey yesterday, and the continued disruption to your journey today.
I have received this email from SWT this morning and by the sounds of it there must have been a power spike of something and the protection systems must have failed big time or something similar.
I heard a story once (don't know how true) that some company had a fully working backup diesel generator but then a new building got built next door to the generator so when the generator kicked in, it overheated and shutdown
Usually a UPS to last in excess of the standby generator starting up and takeing load which then will run till the mains is restored.
Some times instead of a standby generator they have an alternative REC supply, so if the fault on the REC takes out both supplies then your up the creek without a paddle.
If you go for belt and braces back up then you would have UPS, two REC supplies and standby generator as back up .
A standby generator run for an hour? we had one run continuously for a least 2 weeks to keep the trains running, it just needed fuelling after about 5 days of running.
Working in IT business continuity I have some war stories
A company I worked for about 20+ years ago had a very large datacentre. Near to all exits were large red emergency power off buttons, shielded from accidental depression etc. Unfortunately it didn't shield them from a determined cleaner who for some unexplained reason thought it turned all the lights out, lifted up the protective flap and .... and the UPS didn't cut in.
An even larger IT company in Portsmouth with an even larger Datacentre realised that its existing diesel generating plant would not provide a stable supply quickly enough to maintain UPS (unless left running constantly) so they installed a high capacity battery array which would provide UPS for around 30 minutes. It was installed and placed inline. Some time later a huge flashover shorted out the entire datacentre to such effect that it took nearly a week to recover all the systems, one by one. The cause was condensation on the ceiling of the battery room dripping onto terminals eventually causing an arc and a fire. When the innoccent had been sacked and the guilty promoted, the subsequent recommendation was to "bring in yet another battery solution in case the first one failed". Yep, I thought, that'll do it.
I don't think I've known a backup UPS that actually worked without problems, nor an IT system.
My UPS at home has always worked during power outage, touch wood but I'm not running a large data centre or signalling system. I also have it plugged into an extension lead that is surge protected.Working in IT business continuity I have some war stories
A company I worked for about 20+ years ago had a very large datacentre. Near to all exits were large red emergency power off buttons, shielded from accidental depression etc. Unfortunately it didn't shield them from a determined cleaner who for some unexplained reason thought it turned all the lights out, lifted up the protective flap and .... and the UPS didn't cut in.
An even larger IT company in Portsmouth with an even larger Datacentre realised that its existing diesel generating plant would not provide a stable supply quickly enough to maintain UPS (unless left running constantly) so they installed a high capacity battery array which would provide UPS for around 30 minutes. It was installed and placed inline. Some time later a huge flashover shorted out the entire datacentre to such effect that it took nearly a week to recover all the systems, one by one. The cause was condensation on the ceiling of the battery room dripping onto terminals eventually causing an arc and a fire. When the innoccent had been sacked and the guilty promoted, the subsequent recommendation was to "bring in yet another battery solution in case the first one failed". Yep, I thought, that'll do it.
I don't think I've known a backup UPS that actually worked without problems, nor an IT system.
Haha. Oops.A friend of mine said at there was a power cut at their work once where the backup generator came in so seamlessly that no-one noticed that the mains was off and everyone continued working as normal - until the generator ran out of fuel about 6 hours later.
By "Services between London Waterloo, Salisbury and Exeter St Davids are now able to run normally" they meant all services from Exeter cancelled until 0925!
Perhaps they need to reword the statement to read, trains can run normally on the line but due to X reason, we can't run trains until x time. Then no confusion.Just because they can 'run trains normally' it does not mean trains are in the right place.
Anything sat in Exeter New Yard was probably stabled and in need of a crew to travel by road or special ECS to prep the unit. What would be the point of sending crews west by road 'just in case' the line re-opened? They would have had to come back by road is the line stayed shut!
Perhaps they need to reword the statement to read, trains can run normally on the line but due to X reason, we can't run trains until x time. Then no confusion.
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Perhaps they hoped to have someone down their but found they couldn't. However you'd hope that would be known lore than a minute in advance of the service running.Exactly. Also, if they had no crew in Exeter they'd have known in advance and so why did they only the cancel the 0725 and 0825 at the last minute. Also this should have been put on Journey Check and in the email instead of the statement saying things were running when they weren't.
Only if they were delayed by more than an hour. I don't know what the compensation deal would be between National Grid and Network Rail however. I've also lost track of how the finances work between South West Trains and Network Rail. Someone else is bound to know.Did the failure of the National Grid power supply to the signalling centre in Basingstoke affect only Network Rail and TOCs? I assume the public power supply was unaffected ? No doubt there will be a big claim for compensation from National Grid ? Passengers will be making claims under Delay/Repay.
Perhaps they hoped to have someone down their but found they couldn't. However you'd hope that would be known lore than a minute in advance of the service running.
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I thought the worked along side NR, hence the we.Interesting that SWT talk about "our" signaling centre in that email, when they could legitimately blame NR for this one
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I thought the worked along side NR, hence the we.
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Only if they were delayed by more than an hour. I don't know what the compensation deal would be between National Grid and Network Rail however. I've also lost track of how the finances work between South West Trains and Network Rail. Someone else is bound to know.
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