Train Spotters Corner - Page 14

Stuart · 11-11-2013, 20:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravenheart

This is unbelievable

Network Rail get fines for the railway being unsafe, but you can't make it idiot proof

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-24865671

Never a thought given by people like this to save no time at all, they ruin people's lives, not only that of their own family, but possibly that of the poor driver who comes round the corner at 70mph to see her in front of them.

You can go a long way to doing it if you have both the money and the willingness to spend it. Providing automatic gates along each platform would stop most of these people, but the cost would be prohibitive.

I saw something similar at a local station a couple of years ago. A man was waiting by the ticket office, and suddenly decided to leave the station. I was on the platform opposite the ticket office. Rather than just walk up to the ticket office and walk out through the gate next to that, he decided to jump down on the tracks, cross them and leave through the gate next to me.

Now, you could argue that neither gate was particularly well signposted (they aren't), but we were both standing a couple of feet from the footbridge, which doesn't exactly blend into the background.

However, I wonder why people do this. It doesn't save enough time to be worth bothering about. It's not that much effort to go up/down stairs, and a lot of stations do have ramps, hills or lifts now. I can only conclude it's for the thrill.

denphone · 21-11-2013, 13:18

Virgin train derails and crashes into buffers at Chester station.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/20/virgin.../?ITO=facebook

thenry · 01-12-2013, 15:22

Quote:

A passenger train has crashed in the Bronx area of New York City, and US media are reporting that at least four people have been killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25176496

RIP

Ravenheart · 12-12-2013, 09:35

Pendolino's proposed for ECML

Quote:

Plans for new high-speed trains between London, Newcastle and Edinburgh have been announced.

Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) said the "pendolinos" would cut journey times by up to 40 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25340545

denphone · 12-12-2013, 10:04

Anything that improves train travel has to be a good thing and l have always been impressed with the Pendolino's the couple of times l have been on them on journeys to relatives.

Stuart · 12-12-2013, 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

I seem to remember our last flirtation with highspeed tilting trains was a fiasco.

You see, you can look at it two ways. You can view the APT as a disaster (passengers being sick during corners etc) and forget about it. Or, you can go back, collect the data on what went wrong, work out how you can fix it and in the mean time learn from the good points of the APT as well.

The Railway Industry has it's faults, but it chose to do the latter. For instance, the tilting mechanism used in the APT forms the basis for the tilting mechanism in use on the Pendolinos.

Ravenheart · 12-12-2013, 13:05

BREL made some excellent loco/units/coaching stock, to this day the IC125 sets are still in service as they were largely more reliable than the trains brought in to replace them. Those same sets were also exported to Australia.

The APT was way ahead of its time, the problems were largely due to the fact they were trying so many new technologies all at once. hydro kinetic braking, tilting mechanism etc.

As Stuart said the Pendolino's are essentially the descendants of the APT after ironing out the problems, just a shame it's not British engineers making them.

denphone · 12-12-2013, 18:05

Clapham rail disaster: Memorial service held.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25349254

Lets hope and pray this never happens again.

denphone · 17-01-2014, 09:41

Shortlist for East Coast franchise announced.

http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2014/...franchise.html

Quote:

THE Department for Transport has revealed the list of contenders who have been shortlisted to take over the East Coast franchise in early 2015.

The three groups which have made it through to the final round are FirstGroup, Keolis/Eurostar and Stagecoach/Virgin Trains.

denphone · 17-01-2014, 15:34

Overhead cable damage disrupts trains from London's St Pancras.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25779852

Halcyon · 17-01-2014, 23:04

If instead of implementing HS2 we spent money upgrading and improving our current rail network, that would be a step in the right direction if you ask me.

The French nationalised rail system works well.

denphone · 28-01-2014, 15:37

Mail Rail: What is it like on the 'secret' Tube?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25145632

Never knew it was there but its nice to see it nevertheless.

denphone · 06-02-2014, 07:15

Bombardier wins £1bn Crossrail contract.

http://www.itv.com/news/central/stor...rail-contract/

Excellent news.

denphone · 07-02-2014, 13:22

Aerial pictures of train travelling through floods.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26084245

Sadly if this weather continues and that is highly likely l can see from Somerset to Penzance the rail network being cut off totally.

denphone · 10-02-2014, 13:01

Network Rail chooses Dawlish alternative route.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26110559

Lets hope there is the political will do this as we cannot go on like we have for the last two years with the main route into Plymouth and Cornwall closed for periods of the winter and its not just that the but the economic impact it has as well.