Trivia: Stations where a calling service is longer than the platform

[Liam]

Gleneagles can accommodate 7.5 Mk3 coaches on both platforms so the North facing Power car and the following carriage and a half hangs off the end.

Leuchars has 1 platform which can only accommodate 8.5 Mk3 coaches, so at least 1 passenger door hangs off at the end as opposed to the adjacent platform which can only just take a full rake of Mk3 coaches.

Kirkcaldy is merely an assumption as it's platforms are similar in length to Inverkeithing.

Platform 1 at Kirkcaldy cannot handle an entire East coast HST. I'm sure platform 2 is just long enough.

 

[InTheEastMids]

The southbound platform at Market Harborough is a lot shorter than many EMT services that call there.

 

[danpick]

Sunderland is too short for the VTEC services...

Sent from my Bush Spira B2 5 Smartphone using Tapatalk

 

[47271]

Sunderland is too short for the VTEC services...

Sent from my Bush Spira B2 5 Smartphone using Tapatalk

Which doesn't matter because there's nobody on them. [emoji38]

 

[Crossover]

The southbound platform at Market Harborough is a lot shorter than many EMT services that call there.

Rear coach and power car off the platform from what I recall

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Most of the stations on the North Cotswolds line:

Possibly all of them, in fact, other than the two tiny halts (Combe and Finstock) and also Ascott-under-Wychwood, which aren't served by HSTs at all.

But they are served by 180s using SDO, so they count too.

 

[A0]

Wellingborough - when the set is a 9 car Meridian.

 

[GW43125]

Clapham Junction (can't remember which platform but too long for 2x444) and also Feltham on the Waterloo to Reading line (can't remember the max coaches but there is a level crossing and (I believe) a bridge in the way).

Clapham Jn All plats SDO10 (8ish/444)
Addlestone SDO8
Chertsey SDO4 (though extensions are being built)-fun as a 5/458 on the up whilst physically clear of the Level Crossing is not clear of the track circuit, holding it down!
Virginia Water P1/2 SDO8 P3 SDO6
Egham SDO8 but being extended
Feltham SDO7 now due to it being a very tight 8
Hounslow SDO8
Isleworth SDO7
Syon Lane SDO8

Think that's it, as you mention Wraysbury 8 Sunnymeads/Datchet 7

Though a little fun as the 8/455s are a few metres shorter than 8/450s so at the 7car platforms, an 8/455 will fit but an 8/450 will not!

Most platforms on the Reading branch are 8.

I seem to recall that at Kingham (utter shack just down the line from MIM) only something like 2 or 3 carriages opened.

 

[GW43125]

Possibly yes, but on SWT it appears the front of the train is always platformed. Happy to be corrected.
At Datchet there appears to be room for the up plat to be extended; but a signal may need to be moved?

The way the ASDO system works is that it releases front x.

450s: Over beacon, it knows at a normal stop it should open the front x, an overrun or underrun will cause doors off the platform to be released.

458s: Over beacon, carriages counted in. Underrun will result in fewer opening than normal, overrun will result in doors off the platform opening.

 

[Parallel]

In addition to the previously mentioned Llanbedr; Llanaber, Llandanwg, Tygwyn and Abererch cannot accommodate a 2 car 158 though Llandecwyn can now it's been rebuilt.

Thornford and Chetnole can fit a 2 car unit along the platform but AFAIK anything longer uses the local door. When the Weymouth Wizard ran, Oldfield Park, Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge, Frome, Castle Cary(?), Yeovil Pen Mill, Maiden Newton and Dorchester West are all too short for a full HST.

The Exmouth bound platform at St James' Park is too short for most trains that call there too.

 

[me123]

VTEC advertise it as having a short platform when HST 2+9 call...

For Stonehaven, certainly the foremost FC coach (M?) is well over the end of the platform, and I believe that B is as well.

Surprised that no-one has mentioned the Ayrshire Coast Line - a relatively new group of stations that have short platforms with the introduction of the longer Class 380s a few years back. SDO is in use at the stations. I've had a look, but I can't find a list of the stations affected by this, but quite a few of the platforms can only take five or six carriages, mandating SDO.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Has Long Eaton been mentioned?

 

[Mike Buckner]

In the days when Cross Country services from the North to Brighton called at Clapham Junction, they were loco hauled, and Southbound services called at platform 17. This, the only sensible platform without circuitous routing, could only take 5 coaches, which was shorter than the standard train length. The train would stand for 10 minutes while the guard made sure people at the back wanting to alight, could move up and do so. After a while the powers that be decided to omit the stop and the train did not have a scheduled stop at Clapham Junction. Later, 4-car Vomiters were used on the service - they still did not have a scheduled stop at Clapham Junction, despite the fact that they could easily fit on platform 17. Later still, the service was discontinued.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The Caledonian Sleeper is too long for the platform at Watford Junction. Station staff attend to direct any perplexed passengers to the requisite part of the Northbound service.

 

[fowler9]

Liverpool South Parkway. 2x3 car 185's, rear most coach has its doors locked. I think this may be the case at Warrington Central to.

 

[Crossover]

Liverpool South Parkway. 2x3 car 185's, rear most coach has its doors locked. I think this may be the case at Warrington Central to.

Warrington has wooden platform extensions which I believe allow it to accommodate the full set (rearmost doors for alighting only)

 

[Deepgreen]

The Clapham Junction example always gets me - to have the UK's busiest railway station with two platforms (9 and 7) that are used very frequently by trains which are not fully accommodated is amazing (especially as 9 could very easily be extended after moving a signalling cabinet or two). It may no longer be unsafe, owing to SDO, but in 'slam door' days, it would have been all too easy to jump in the very rear of a 'fast' train leaving Waterloo and expect to be able hop out at Clapham Junction, only to discover the void!

 

[L&Y Robert]

Possibly yes, but on SWT it appears the front of the train is always platformed. Happy to be corrected.
At Datchet there appears to be room for the up plat to be extended; but a signal may need to be moved?

The verb "to platform" has just entered my vocabulary.
Are you asking about the signal?

 

[43096]

Clapham Jn All plats SDO10 (8ish/444)
Addlestone SDO8
Chertsey SDO4 (though extensions are being built)-fun as a 5/458 on the up whilst physically clear of the Level Crossing is not clear of the track circuit, holding it down!
Virginia Water P1/2 SDO8 P3 SDO6
Egham SDO8 but being extended
Feltham SDO7 now due to it being a very tight 8
Hounslow SDO8
Isleworth SDO7
Syon Lane SDO8

Think that's it, as you mention Wraysbury 8 Sunnymeads/Datchet 7

Though a little fun as the 8/455s are a few metres shorter than 8/450s so at the 7car platforms, an 8/455 will fit but an 8/450 will not!

Most platforms on the Reading branch are 8.

An oddity is that Feltham was ok with 8 cars before ASDO but is now SDO7 with ASDO!

On the Reading line Wokingham down side is already 12-car, as is Reading. Virginia Water 3/4, Sunningdale, Ascot, Martins Heron, Bracknell and Wokingham up side have been/are being lengthened to 10-car currently. Longcross, Winnersh, Winnersh Rectangle and Earley will be SDO8 when the 458s come back onto the route.

 

[maniacmartin]

Purley Oaks (northbound slow line)
Norwood Junction (Southern services southbound)

I think also some stations on the East London Line core - Canada Water and possibly more

 

[GW43125]

An oddity is that Feltham was ok with 8 cars before ASDO but is now SDO7 with ASDO!

It was always a very tight 8, it's been done down to 7 to allow a little more leeway in case of under/overrun.

Of course, if the driver stops perfectly in a 458, the system will still open 8 if safe to do so.

 

[Thebaz]

Purley Oaks (northbound slow line)
Norwood Junction (Southern services southbound)

I think also some stations on the East London Line core - Canada Water and possibly more

Purley Oaks down slow too

 

[bt777]

Bilbrook and Oakengates when it is 2X170.

 

[43096]

Of course, if the driver stops perfectly in a 458, the system will still open 8 if safe to do so.

Ta. I assume that isn't the case with a 450 (or 707 when they start?) due to the way the ASDO system works with the Desiro TMS?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I'm near positive Haymarket can take a full Pendolino or HST/225 without any problems on both length and positioning.

I thought I'd check this out for certain the next time I was nearby: I'm presently sat on an 11-car 390 dwelling at Haymarket and can confirm only the front 9 coaches have had their doors released. We even have a special automated announcement telling us to move coach if we need to alight!

 

[GW43125]

Ta. I assume that isn't the case with a 450 (or 707 when they start?) due to the way the ASDO system works with the Desiro TMS?

I'm told the way it works is that on a 444/450 the system is pre-programmed with how many carriages should open at a given station, so it opens that. However, if the driver stops short there may be doors open off the platform.

On 458s, the number of carriages is counted in by the ASDO beacon as the train arrives.

However, neither system counts you out again so if you overrun, tough!

 

[GW43125]

Virginia Water 3/4, Longcross,

Reading platforms at VW are 1&2, which have now been extended though the extensions aren't yet in use. Platform 3 (up Chertsey) is SDO6 and Platform 4 (down Chertsey) is full 10.

I remember being told a while ago that the SDO had been redone at Longcross so it's now SDO7 on the down, though I haven't been on a train that stopped there since.

 

[Firesprite]

Whittlesea and Manea, Front two coaches only

 

[Train man]

Carfin front 2 cars when 4 car 156/158

 

[BurtonM]

I've omitted the stations east of Knottingley / west of Goole as the platforms are long enough but only a section is raised to allow a single door to be used.

I actually used Whitley Bridge a couple of months ago on the way back from picking up an Ebay purchase with a mate - if you're being picky, a 153 fits.
Don't think anything bigger does though, the service I used was 153+142 and the 142 was locked out until Knottingley. I saw the other way service pass too (a 142) and I think it was local door only but I can't remember.

 

[ijmad]

Wapping, Rotherhithe and Canada Water are all too short for 5 carriage Class 378 trains and use selective door opening.

New Cross Gate can only do 8 carriages, 10 carriage and 12 carriage trains from London Bridge stop there quite often.