Azumas Everywhere!
I arrived in Peterborough twenty-five minutes late to the site of Azumas everywhere.
Something had obviously gone very wrong. Passengers for Inverness were even being moved from one train in Platform 2 to another in Platform 4.
Was this chaos and my post called Was The Queen’s Locomotive Acting As A Thunderbird? connected?
With hindsight and a bit of help from Real Time Trains, I think they probably were?
Spalding Station – 8th September 2021
I’d only ever been through Spalding station a couple of times, but I’d never seen the station, so because I wanted to take some pictures of the completed Werrington Dive Under, I decided to take a train to the station today.
The quality of the station was a welcome surprise.
- It was opened in 1848.
- But it is a Grade II Listed Building.
- It has a very tasteful step-free footbridge totally in-keeping with the rest of the station.
- The Entrance Hall, which I didn’t photograph, was excellent.
I can only fault the station in that it lacks a café or better still a real ale pub. But there is a Sainsbury’s outside the door.
Greengauge 21’s Suggestion, That Thameslink Be Extended To Spalding
In the study by Greengauge 21, which is entitled Connecting East Lincolnshire, this is said.
As noted the Spalding-Peterborough line should be a strong candidate for electrification because of its freight potential, and if so it could also accommodate an extension of Thameslink services from London and the South East to Spalding where interchange would be made with a Spalding–Boston–Louth–Grimsby express bus using the A16.
This Google Map shows the station.
Note.
- The station only has forty-five parking spaces.
- I suspect the express bus could park outside the station.
- There is probably space to the North of the station for a turnback siding.
- Trains seem to take about 21 minutes to cover the 16.6 miles from Peterborough.
There certainly doesn’t seem to be anything that gives a great big No!
Arriving In Platform 0 At Kings Cross
I’ve arrived in Kings Cross station hundreds of times, but today, when i came back from Spalding via Peterborough, it could have been the first time, that I arrived in Platform 0.
I took these pictures of the island between Platform 0 and Platform 1, which contains the InterCity 225.
Note that it is a very long and wide platform.
I am getting more convinced that the answer to the question I asked in Is King’s Cross Station Ready For Parcel Trains?, is in the affirmative.
Was The Queen’s Locomotive Acting As A Thunderbird?
I took these pictures of 67006 Royal Sovereign at Kings Cross when I arrived in Platform 0 from Peterborough today at 15:45.
Note.
- Normally, 67006 is assigned to the Royal Train.
- The locomotive is in Platform 1.
- The Class 67 Locomotive was definitely coupled to the InterCity 225.
- It does appear that the next movement out of Platform 1 was a diesel-hauled empty coaching stock movement to Neville Hill Depot in Leeds at 19:40.
- It looks like the train arrived in Kings Cross at 12:55 from Skipton, nearly three hours late.
It does look as though the train was towed to London by the Queen’s Locomotive and then pushed all the way back to Leeds.
Connecting East Lincolnshire
The title of this post, is the same as that of this study by Greengauge 21.
The study goes through all the transport options in East Lincolnshire, comes to some interesting general conclusions, in addition to those specific to East Lincolnshire and then makes this recommendation.
We recommend putting in hand the studies to compare and select the best of the two ways identified here to use electrified net zero carbon public transport to meet East Lincolnshire’s future connectivity needs.
The two ways are.
Reopening the East Lincolnshire Railway
Reopening the East Lincolnshire Railway between Louth and Firsby and running these services.
- Skegness–Wainfleet–Boston–Sleaford–Grantham–Nottingham
- Louth–Wlloughby–Alford–Firsby–Boston–Donington–Spalding–Peterborough (and
thence potentially, London KX).
Note.
- There would be a mini-hub at Boston.
- There would be good connections to Lincolnshire’s InterConnect bus links.
I wrote about reinstating the East Lincolnshire Railway inBeeching Reversal – Firsby And Louth.
An Express Interurban Bus Alternative
The study describes this option like this.
A Louth–Boston–Spalding express bus, interchanging with the east west Nottingham–Skegness trains with timed
connections at a multi-modal hub at Boston and an improved hourly interval rail service onwards
from Spalding southwards.
One of their suggestions is to extend Thameslink to Spalding.
Russian Convoys
This article on Railway Gazette is entitled Five-Train Platoons To Operate With Virtual Coupling.
This is the first paragraph.
Russian Railways is planning to use platooning technology to operate flights of up to five freight trains next year using radio data exchange between locomotives to create a virtual coupling. The aims to reduce headways from 12 to 6 to 8 min, increasing capacity on congested sections of the Trans-Siberian main line.
As a Control Engineer, I must believe that if the Russians get the programming right, then it should work.
Similar techniques will probably be used with digital signalling in the UK and Europe, where each train is controlled by the signalling. But each train will probably have a driver.
The problem in Russia could also be the large number of ungated level crossings, which according to some I’ve met are prone to a lot of accidents, as drivers regularly chance it after too much vodka.
Ryanair Backs Away From Boeing Jet Order
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Ryanair has ended talks to purchase tens of billions of dollars of Boeing jets amid a stand-off over the price.
The Irish budget airline had been in talks to buy as many as 250 planes of the 737 Max 10 model but said yesterday that the talks had collapsed.
But have Michael O’Leary and Boeing fallen out over hydrogen?
Consider.
- Many countries in Ryanair’s largest markets are aiming to go net carbon-free by 2050 or even earlier. Scotland is aiming for 2045.
- An airliner delivered today will still be flying twenty or even thirty years later.
- I believe that by 2030, small airliners up to thirty passengers will be zero-carbon.
In Could An A320 neo Be Rebuilt As A ZEROe Turbofan?, I came to this conclusion.
I very much feel that there will be a route to convert some or all of the A 320 neo aircraft to hydrogen power.
If Airbus can offer an airliner, that can be rebuilt as a hydrogen-powered plane that must change the economics of purchasing a fleet of airliners, which could be made worthless by worldwide carbon emission legislation.
Because the Boeing aircraft is a 1960s design with an aluminium airframe, I would doubt it is designed to be converted to hydrogen power.
All Change As First Class Ditched By New Intercity Rail Service
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Rail bosses signalled the end of the first-class carriage today with plans for a new all-standard intercity train service between London and Edinburgh.
The new budget service will operate on the east coast mainline from October 25, with one-way fares starting from £14.90. In all, 60 per cent of single tickets will be below £30.
I find it interesting that The Times is making the lack of First Class, the most important point in the story.
In Thoughts On Seating In East Coast Trains’ New Class 803 trains, I looked at what the seats could be like and decided they could be generous with lots of tables given the number of seats and the size of the train.
The Times article confirms my analysis.
Having travelled to Liverpool a couple of years ago in Standard Class with two senior guys from Legal and General, I suspect that many business travellers who want to read and chat could turn to East Coast Trains from the airlines.
The article does give some previously-unknown information.
The Service Will Be Called Lumo
The name is unusual, but it is short, memorable and lumo.co.uk was available and is now up and under development as the East Coast Trains web site.
Lumo has also been used for an energy provider, which has now been merged into OVO Energy and is also a video game.
The Service Starts On October 25th
The times are still as I said in Thoughts On Seating In East Coast Trains’ New Class 803 trains, with London and Edinburgh services as follows.
King’s Cross and Edinburgh
- 05:45 – Arrives 10:10 – 4 hours 25 minutes – Stops at Stevenage
- 10:45 – Arrives 15:17 – 4 hours 32 minutes
- 12:18 – Arrives 16:41 – 4 hours 23 minutes – Stops at Stevenage
- 14:36 – Arrives 19:15 – 4 hours 39 minutes
- 20:18 – Arrives 00:46 – 4 hours 28 minutes
Edinburgh and King’s Cross
- 06:14 – Arrives 10:51 – 4 hours 37 minutes
- 09:11 – Arrives 13:48 – 4 hours 37 minutes
- 11:14 – Arrives 15:46 – 4 hours 32 minutes
- 16:12 – Arrives 20:47 – 4 hours 35 minutes – Stops at Stevenage
- 19:58 – Arrives 01:05 – 5 hours 7 minutes – Stops at Stevenage
Note.
- Times appear to be in-line with those of LNER.
- East Coast Trains’ objective of arriving by 10:00 is not met.
- Paths exist for East Coast Trains from the 7th June.
I got these times from Real Time Trains.
The Lumo Web Site
I have also tried to book a ticket on their web site.
They accept Railcards and I was able to get a one-way ticket for £13.30. But as the site doesn’t appear to be complete, I didn’t buy the ticket.
But if you can go between London and Edinburgh for £13.30, that is certainly good value.
The First Group Press Release
This Press Release from First Group gives more details and was the source of The Times article.
Let The Diving Under Begin!
The page on the Network Rail web site is entitled Network Rail Completes Major Signalling Work Near Peterborough Ready For Freight Trains To Begin Diving Under East Coast Main Line This Winter.
The Network Rail web page gives details of the innovative techniques used to build and insert the dive-under.
This Network Rail picture shows the dive-under going under the East Coast Main Line from the North East.
It certainly looks to be strongly constructed.
Freight Trains Through The Werrington Dive-Under
I have just counted the number of freight trains that would have used the route had it been open last Friday between 0600 and 2400.
It was twenty-seven trains or almost one train per hour (tph) in each direction.
- How long will it be before the residents of Lincoln and the other towns and cities on the route start protesting about the noisy, smelly and polluting Class 66 locomotives, that haul most of these freight trains?
- The long trains will also annoy drivers and residents at the many level crossings on the route.
Operators may not be able to do much about the train length, but they can start looking for some more environmentally-friendly locomotives, which could be hydrogen-powered.
At least there is funding for a lower-emission dual-dual-fuel locomotive, that I wrote about in Freightliner Secures Government Funding For Dual-Fuel Project.
Railway To Hell To Be Electrified
This is the title of a serious article on Railway Gazette.
Hell is a village near to Trondheim in Norway and the railways around Trondheim are being electrified.
The Anonymous Widower 