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Unusual train movements between Barons Court and Hounslow Central and other questions?

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Peregrine 4903

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Hello, I commute to Hounslow Central everyday using the Piccadilly line and have seen some very unusual sights between Barons Court and Hounslow Central on both the District and Piccaddilly lines.

The first thing is today at Baron's Court I saw a District line train going to High Street Kensington, which I thought was unusual as District line train don't go to Hish Street Kensington from the Richmond and Ealing Broadway branches.

Even stranger about a month ago, I saw a circle line train at Acton Town that had come straight from Ealing Common depot in passenger service being avdertised as going to Aldgate. Is there a reason as to why this happened?

There is also three coach Piccadilly line train that is not in service and is running around between Northfields and Heathrow. Its a converted passenger train and I suspect its a leaf cleaning train, but am not sure. Can anyone advise me as to what it is?

A final question is does the Eastbound line between Northfields and Acton Town actually have any scheduled use. I get very frustrated getting stuck outside Northfields station fo 5 minutes when I know we could continue down the local line to Acton Town. I asked tfl about this and they said it was for emergency use only, yet I very often in the morning see trains use it when there is seemingly no emergency. Can anyone shed any light on this as well?
 
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The first thing is today at Baron's Court I saw a District line train going to High Street Kensington, which I thought was unusual as District line train don't go to Hish Street Kensington from the Richmond and Ealing Broadway branches.

Yes, there aren't many timetabled services from Ealing Broadway / Richmond to High St Ken / Edgware Road as you say. However if a service is severely delayed or there are issues beyond Gloucester Road (in particular during the peaks), it may be terminated short at High St Ken for service recovery. I've experienced it quite a few times when a Tower Hill service gets diverted and terminated short.

Even stranger about a month ago, I saw a circle line train at Acton Town that had come straight from Ealing Common depot in passenger service being avdertised as going to Aldgate. Is there a reason as to why this happened?

There is actually a timetabled service starting at Acton Town at 16:14 (weekdays) which goes up to Edgware Road and then on to Aldgate.
It's typically advertised as a District Line service to Edgware Road (later changes to Circle, I think) but I have seen a few occasions where it is shown as a Circle Line train. This is perhaps what you saw.

(It is H172, can be found on page 46 of the District Line Working Timetable, see http://content.tfl.gov.uk/wtt-150-district-20-may-2018.pdf )

There is also three coach Piccadilly line train that is not in service and is running around between Northfields and Heathrow. Its a converted passenger train and I suspect its a leaf cleaning train, but am not sure. Can anyone advise me as to what it is?

This is indeed a converted passenger (half-)train, only for the "autumn" period. The proper term is Rail Adhesion Train (RAT) I believe, its job is to spray sandite on the rails in order to minimise the effects of leaffall - and prevent a mass 'wheel flat' problem which plagued the Piccadilly Line fleet a few years ago.

I will leave the last question to someone else, though the Piccadilly Line Working Timetable may have the answer.
 

Peregrine 4903

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Yes, there aren't many timetabled services from Ealing Broadway / Richmond to High St Ken / Edgware Road as you say. However if a service is severely delayed or there are issues beyond Gloucester Road (in particular during the peaks), it may be terminated short at High St Ken for service recovery. I've experienced it quite a few times when a Tower Hill service gets diverted and terminated short.



There is actually a timetabled service starting at Acton Town at 16:14 (weekdays) which goes up to Edgware Road and then on to Aldgate.
It's typically advertised as a District Line service to Edgware Road (later changes to Circle, I think) but I have seen a few occasions where it is shown as a Circle Line train. This is perhaps what you saw.

(It is H172, can be found on page 46 of the District Line Working Timetable, see http://content.tfl.gov.uk/wtt-150-district-20-may-2018.pdf )



This is indeed a converted passenger (half-)train, only for the "autumn" period. The proper term is Rail Adhesion Train (RAT) I believe, its job is to spray sandite on the rails in order to minimise the effects of leaffall - and prevent a mass 'wheel flat' problem which plagued the Piccadilly Line fleet a few years ago.

I will leave the last question to someone else, though the Piccadilly Line Working Timetable may have the answer.

Thankyou for your response.

That's really cool that there is timetabled train from Acton Town to Aldgate.
 

lightbulb

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Thankyou for your response.

That's really cool that there is timetabled train from Acton Town to Aldgate.

There are two trains a day in each direction via Edgware Road (Mon-Fri):

Acton Town 0542 to Barking 0656
Acton Town 1614 to Aldgate 1709

Aldgate 1025 to Ealing Broadway 1122
Edgware Road 0031 to Ealing Broadway 0106
 

londonboi198o5

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There are two trains a day in each direction via Edgware Road (Mon-Fri):

Acton Town 0542 to Barking 0656
Acton Town 1614 to Aldgate 1709

Aldgate 1025 to Ealing Broadway 1122
Edgware Road 0031 to Ealing Broadway 0106

there are other services from Edgware Road to Ealing Broadway as well albeit out of service
 

Mawkie

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Even stranger about a month ago, A final question is does the Eastbound line between Northfields and Acton Town actually have any scheduled use. I get very frustrated getting stuck outside Northfields station fo 5 minutes when I know we could continue down the local line to Acton Town. I asked tfl about this and they said it was for emergency use only, yet I very often in the morning see trains use it when there is seemingly no emergency. Can anyone shed any light on this as well?

There is one Mon-Thurs late night service departing Platform 4 at Northfields (to Cockfosters).

2350 NFD - 0059 CFS

And one on Saturday Northfields (to Arnos Grove).

2301½ NFD - 0001 AGR

Both are timetabled to be routed along the local line.

Note these are from Working Timetable 58 (not the current leaf fall timetable).
 

Mawkie

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There is one Mon-Thurs late night service departing Platform 4 at Northfields (to Cockfosters).

2350 NFD - 0059 CFS

And one on Saturday Northfields (to Arnos Grove).

2301½ NFD - 0001 AGR

Both are timetabled to be routed along the local line.

Note these are from Working Timetable 58 (not the current leaf fall timetable).
In the current Temporary Autumn Timetable, aka leaf fall timetable (ending 22/12/19) the timings are as follows:

Mon-Thurs

2337½ Northfields - 0048 Cockfosters

Saturday

2301½ Northfields - 0011½ Cockfosters
 

ST156

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A final question is does the Eastbound line between Northfields and Acton Town actually have any scheduled use. I get very frustrated getting stuck outside Northfields station fo 5 minutes when I know we could continue down the local line to Acton Town. I asked tfl about this and they said it was for emergency use only, yet I very often in the morning see trains use it when there is seemingly no emergency. Can anyone shed any light on this as well?

The eastbound local line is used early morning when trains are starting from Northfields Depot. The line is then regularly under possession between mid-morning and late evening for Rolling Stock Test purposes, so has no booked train movements through most of the day. As has been mentioned above, one train is scheduled to use the line on Monday to Saturday evenings.
 

rogercov

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This is indeed a converted passenger (half-)train, only for the "autumn" period. The proper term is Rail Adhesion Train (RAT) I believe, its job is to spray sandite on the rails in order to minimise the effects of leaffall - and prevent a mass 'wheel flat' problem which plagued the Piccadilly Line fleet a few years ago.

There seem to be two of them. In the "leaf fall" working timetable, train 730 makes a few journeys at the Western end of the line and train 731 does the same at the Cockfosters end. They are labelled as "3 cars" in the notes.
 

Dstock7080

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There seem to be two of them. In the "leaf fall" working timetable, train 730 makes a few journeys at the Western end of the line and train 731 does the same at the Cockfosters end. They are labelled as "3 cars" in the notes.
Indeed, one 6-car train withdrawn from timetable commencing 9 September to achieve this.
 

Peregrine 4903

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Sorry for the late reply but thankyou for all your responses.

I am not going to lie not using the eastbound local line between Northfields and Acton Town seems like a complete waste of infrastructure and I feel like it should be used. Also I never see any rolling stock testing going on there, but maybe I don't go at the right time.

Also thankyou for providing the link to the Piccadilly Line working timetable, its really interesting to see.
 

Peregrine 4903

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There are two trains a day in each direction via Edgware Road (Mon-Fri):

Acton Town 0542 to Barking 0656
Acton Town 1614 to Aldgate 1709

Aldgate 1025 to Ealing Broadway 1122
Edgware Road 0031 to Ealing Broadway 0106

There services are really cool, I wonder if people knwo about them and use them in particular.

Is there any reason why these services exist?

Also does the Barking service advertise its going via Edgware Road as otherwise I feel like passengers may get on it thinking its going via Victoria the usual way only to end up at Paddington?
 

Dstock7080

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Is there any reason why these services exist?

Also does the Barking service advertise its going via Edgware Road as otherwise I feel like passengers may get on it thinking its going via Victoria the usual way only to end up at Paddington?
There are no depots on the Hammersmith & City or Circle Line, therefore trains must be worked to/from Ealing Common or Upminster for maintenance.

Platform indicators usually show Edgware Road, until there. Trains also have limitations as to destination displays.
 

Lewlew

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Do Hammersmith Depot and Barking Sidings not count then?
Hammersmith is now just sidings and Barking sidings is exactly as named, sidings. Trains are just stored there overnight. Any maintenance work is done at Ealing Common, Upminster and Neasden
 

simple simon

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Sorry for the late reply but thankyou for all your responses.

I am not going to lie not using the eastbound local line between Northfields and Acton Town seems like a complete waste of infrastructure and I feel like it should be used. Also I never see any rolling stock testing going on there, but maybe I don't go at the right time.

Also thankyou for providing the link to the Piccadilly Line working timetable, its really interesting to see.

Ah but, when it was done the outer pair of tracks were in full use - as part of the District line service to Hounslow West.
The middle pair of tracks were for Piccadilly line trains - also travelling to Hounslow West (the extension to Heathrow came many years later - in the early years air travel was only for the military and very wealthy).

Also, on the topic of passenger trains making rare journeys, I've been on a late night Upminster train which travels via the northern side of the Circle line. I think its train number 267 and it starts off as a Hammersmith & City line train. I suppose it could be seen as 'going home to bed' (at Upminster depot) for the night!
 
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