Selly Oak Station

[enjoy_trains]

I noticed today that those responsible for the cross city line (in Birmingham) are doing engineering works from Longbridge to Redditch. Trains were terminating at Selly Oak. The line becomes single track after Barnt Green (a station between L and R. I was just wondering how they would actually terminate the train at Selly Oak? Would they have to go a bit further along the line and swap onto the other side. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I have a fascination for the railway and it's stations but no experience of working on one! Thanks

 

[O L Leigh]

I have not witnessed this service being reversed, but I would imagine that the train runs back towards New Street on the same line it arrived on and then crossed back onto the correct line using the crossover just before Five Ways station.

As a new member I'm going to assume that you are not familiar with degraded working arrangements such as single line working, but I would imagine that this is what happened here. Trains normally run in one direction on each line, leaving New Street on one line and returning on the other. It is possible for trains to run safely in the opposite direction on the "wrong" line under degraded working conditions, provided that certain conditions are met and working arrangements put in place to ensure safety.

O L Leigh

 

[enjoy_trains]

Ahhhh thanks for the explanation. No i'm not fully aware of how they operate it but it's interesting and certainly worth reading about and looking up.

 

[O L Leigh]

Maybe you should take a trip next time to satisfy your curiousity and report back. The reason for the closure is to allow the pointwork at Kings Norton to be replaced. It's not just affecting the Cross City service, as CrossCountry services to Wales and the West of England are also affected.

Single Line Working is quite simple to do but a bit of a faff to explain, at least from first principles. But if you're diligent in your research I'm sure you can find a workable explanation for it without too much difficulty. Certainly this would be easier than me having to explain it, especially at this time of night.

O L Leigh

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Its called the Church Road croosover ...

 

[willc789]

The other posts are correct, the trains effectively terminate at Selly Oak then double back on themselves calling at University but on the wrong side then switching back at Five Ways. The Cross Country services are been sent into New Street via the other line (cant remember its proper name off the top of my head!). Not sure what the Cardiff and Worcester trains do for the University stop though, presumably just requires a change in town and to head back out on the Selly Oak terminator. Anyone else knows what happens to them when there are works on?

 

[O L Leigh]

The XC services are not running while these works are underway, as I hinted above. They cannot even run via the Camp Hill line because the lines converge again at Kings Norton where the junctions are being renewed. They are unable to run in any case due to track relaying around Ashchurch, hence the bus replacements to Gloucester.

LM services to Worcester and Hereford run via Kidderminster thus avoiding the problem altogether.

O L Leigh