Aerial Pictures Show New Trains Housed In Mid-Norfolk
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Eastern Daily Press.
Greater Anglia has a storage problem for all the new trains being delivered from Stadler in Switzerland.
So the train operating company has done a deal with the Mid Norfolk Railway to store the trains in the depths of deepest Norfolk.
Wikipedia gives more details in a section, entitled Storage Of Main Line Stock.
Working with Abellio Greater Anglia, the Mid-Norfolk Railway have developed a rolling stock storage facility close to their Kimberley Park station. The £3 million sidings have been funded by Abellio Greater Anglia to allow them to store their Class 745 and 755 fleets until they are ready to be in service.
It has also been reported that the site, will be used to store the replaced trains, whilst they await new operators or the scrapyard.
This picture clipped from the Eastern Daily Press article, shows the trains.
Reading the Wikipedia entry for the Mid Norfolk Railway, which is obviously a well-maintained standard gauge heritage railway, it gets used for various rail-related training and other purposes, so as the multi-million pound deal shows, I’m pretty certain there is a lot of co-operation between all parties in Norfolk, including Greater Anglia, Network Rail, Balfour Beatty and the Emergency Services.
Will The Class 755 Trains Return With Passengers?
The following should be noted.
- Rail tours and charters use the branch and visit Dereham, several times a year.
- An InterCity 125 has even used the line.
- Dereham is a town of 19,000 people.
- Norfolk is a county, that welcomes lots of tourists.
- Wymondham station will soon have a direct hourly service to and from Stansted Airport.
Given the co-operation between Greater Anglia and the Mid-Norfolk Railway over the train storage, where a long term conveniently-located facility is of benefit to both parties, will we see occasional visits of Class 755 trains to Dereham?
There must be long-term possibilities.
- Weekend steam trains between Dereham and Norwich, similar to the Shakespeare Express, that runs between Birmingham Snow Hill and Stratford stations.
- A limited commuter service between Dereham and Norwich.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway’s long term ambition to extend their route past Dereham to reopened stations at County School and Fakenham, would surely increase the viability of these services.
Sheffield Region Transport Plan 2019 – Park-and-Ride Expansion At Rotherham Parkgate
This is a short-term objective and is probably sensible, as I know in the past that parking in Sheffield wasn’t easy and parking never gets better.
This Google Map shows the large Rotherham Parkgate Shopping Centre
Note the railway running around the South of the sight.
There is a blue dot , which is the position of the Rotherham Parkgate station, that is used by the tram-train.
To the North-East and the South of the Shopping Centre, there appears to be a lot of spare land.
Will these be spaces be more shops of car-parking?
The Tram-Train Frequency
Currently, the tram-train frequency between Cathedral and Rotherham Parkway is a tram-train every twenty minutes.
As the tram-train route could be extended from Rotherham Parkgate, more capacity will probably be neeeded.
Will this go to one tram-train every fifteen minutes, to increase capacity?
Sheffield Region Transport Plan 2019 – A New Tram-Train Station At Magna
When i was last riding on a Class 399 tram-train, a rail enthusiast mentioned this.
He said his grand-daughter liked to visit Magna or the Magna Science Adventure Centre, to give it its full name, and a tram-stop would be very welcome.
This is a paragraph from the Wikipedia entry.
The site, often used for staging events, conferences and gigs, is over 1/3 of a mile long and won the Enjoy England Gold Award for Business Tourism in 2006[2] and has received other awards for the high quality of product.
That backs up my informant.
This Google Map shows the site.
Note that the tram-train line between Sheffield and Rotherham runs across the top of the map.
So when Sheffield’s plans include this wording.
New tram-train station and associated park and ride facilities at Magna.
I think it is likely, that a tram-stop and Park-and-Ride will be built at Magna.
Sheffield Region Transport Plan 2019 – A New Station At Barnsley Dearne Valley
This station will be to the East of Barnsley in the vicinity of the village of Goldthorpe.
In Changes Signalled For HS2 Route In North, I used this map of the proposed High Speed Two and Northern Powerhoiuse routes in East Yorkshire.
Note, these points about High Speed Two.
- It by-passes Sheffield and Barnsley and enters Leeds from the East, via Junction 2.
- It goes via Junction 1 to link up with the East Coast Main Line to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
- It links to the Leeds and Hull route at Junction 1.
- It has a Southern route via Chesterfield directly into Sheffield.
The current main route between Sheffield and Leeds is the Wakefield Line.
- It is thirty nine miles long.
- It is not electrified, except North of Wakefield Westgate station
- Trains stop at Meadowhall, Rotherhall Central, Swinton, Bolton-on-Dearne, Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe, Moorthorpe, Fitzwilliam, Sandal & Agbrigg, Wakefield Westgate and Outwood.
- Services take an hour and thirteen minutes
- The route is not very busy, with only, a total of around 4-6 trains per hour (tph) in both directions.
The Northern Powerhouse Rail improvements will see four tph between Sheffield and Leeds
- Journey times will be twenty-eight minutes.
- Some trains will extend past Sheffield to London St. Pancras.
- These fast services will probably stop less often.
- They will probably be backed up by stopping trains at perhaps two tph.
- I suspect the trains will be 125 mph bi-mode trains with batteries.
- I doubt there will be full electrification, as train developments will achieve the same objectives, in a more affordable manner.
- There will be full digital signalling to increase the capacity.
So where does the proposed Barnsley Dearne Valley station fit in?
- It will be on both the Wakefield Line and High Speed Two.
- It will have fast local trains between Leeds and Sheffield at four tph.
- It will have High Speed Two services between London and Leeds via East Midlands Hub at a frequency of at least two tph.
- It will have High Speed Two services between London and Newcastle via East Midlands Hub and York at a frequency of st least two tph.
- As I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Turn-Up-And-Go service on major legs of High Speed Two, will Barnsley Dearne Valley have four tph?
- Stopping trains to and from Sheffield could be at a frequency of four tph and be tram-trains.
The station would be a quality one, with ,lots of parking.
Barnsley would be welcomed to the Twenty-First Century.
I also believe, that the Wakefield Line could be improved, sooner rather than later.
I have flown my virtual helicopter along the route between Rohterham Central and Fitzwilliam stations.
- It is at least double-track all the way.
- It would appear to be fairly straight.
- There is plenty of room on either side, so third and possibly fourth tracks could be added.
- There are no level crossings and very few bridges.
- The stations are simple, but could be easily upgraded to full step-free access.
- Electrification could be a lot easier than some of the TransPennine routes.
So one way to give early benefits could be.
- Electrify between Sheffield and Fitzwilliam.
- Improve line speed to at least 100 mph and possibly 110-125 mph.
- Make all stations step-free.
- Build the Wakefield Line station at Barnsley Dearne Valley.
- East Midlands Railway could run two tph between Leeds and Sheffield using 125 mph bi-mode trains, with stops at Barnsley Dearne Valley, Swinton and Rotherham Central.
- Perhaps one tph could be between Leeds and London.
- Extend the Sheffield tram-train to Barnsley Dearne Valley.
I don’t think much of the engineering would be difficult and an opening date of 2023 would probably be possible.
The proposal would give these advantages.
- Twenty-eight minutes journeys between Leeds and Sheffield at a frequency of four tph.
- One or possible two tph between Leeds and London calling at Barnsley Dearne Valley and Rotherham Central.
- Extension of Leeds local electric trains to Barnsley Dearne Valley.
- A four tph tram-train service between Sheffield and Barnsley Dearne Valley.
- A direct service between Barnsley Dearne Valley and Doncaster is also a possibility.
The idea of a station at Barnsley Dearne Valley is a brilliant idea.
Do Tourists To The UK Get Bad Advice On How To Use The Trains?
I travelled out to Oxford with a Chinese family from Hong Kong.
- They were going to Oxford and home via Bicester Village.
- They had actually flown into Edinburgh and after spwnding a few days in the City, they had taken the train to London, where they were spending another few days.
- They were going to spend a day in Paris using Eurostar.
I think they had booked most of the tickets in Hong Kong before they left.
Knowing, what I know about ticketing, I would have organised things a bit differently.
Family And Friends Railcard
Purchase of a Family and Friends Railcard can give discounts for a one-off fee of £30.
To find out ticket orices with the Family and Friends Railcard web site.
Splitting A Journey
Most tickets other than Advance tickets allow the ticket holder to break a journey and then carry on later.
Because I am a coeliac and need gluten-free food, if I’m travelling a long distance, I may break the journey in say Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds or Manchester, where I know I can get a quality gluten-free meal.
Tourists might want to break a journey between Edinburgh and London at York or Durham. This is possible on an Off Peak or Anytime ticket.
Tickets To Or From Stations Or Terminals
This ticket is a First Class Off Peak ticket between Manchester Stations and London Terminals, using Any Permitted Route.
I actually used it between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston stations, but I could have used the ticket to go via Birmingham and then take Chiltern Railways from Birmingham to London Marylebone.
I think the general rule is if your ticket is marked Any Permitted Route and you keep going in the same direction, most routes are possible.
I always ask first, as some companies have different rules.
Visiting Bicester Village, Oxford And Windsor In One Day
The Hong Kong family I met were visiting Oxford and Bicester Village.
The best way to do this is to make sure you have a Day Return ticket between London Terminals and Oxford, which is marked Any Permissible Route.
This will enable you to do the following three journeys.
- London Paddington to Oxford.
- Oxford to Bicester Village
- Bicester Village to London Marylebone.
With a Railcard, this ticket will cost £18.10.
If you want to visit Windsor, this can be done on the outward journey, by splitting the trip at Slough. There is a branch line to Windsor at Slough worked by a shuttle train, which costs £1.90 for a return trip with a Railcard.
Ranger And Rover Tickets
Check these tickets out, if you’re staying in a town or city for a few days, as they may be a cheaper option.
The various Rovers and Rangers are detailed on this web page.
London
The Oyster card in London is dying.
- But don’t worry, as the same prices are available by using a contactless bank card.
- Contctless bank cards have the same daily and weekly cap as Oyster.
- Contactless bank cards also work on the Underground, Overground, buses, Docklands Light Railway and the Emirates Air Line.
- You can now use contactless bank cards at London City, Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton Airports.
- If you want to use Gatwick and Heathrow Express services, these can be accessed using contactless ticketing too!
It appears there are very few complaints.
If you want to read a detailed analysis of London ticketing, read this page on the Finding The Universe web site.
Summing-Up
I shall be adding to this page, as it is only a rough general guide.
Use the Contact form to send any suggestions or questions.
An Outing To Oxford
I do a bit of research for a Californian lawyer, who helps small and medium-sized high-tech and other ventures setup in the UK.
He likes my opinion on the plans of start-ups and established businesses with respect to their location in the UK.
A couple of days ago, I received this e-mail.
John and his friends are funding a new venture being setup in Oxford.
The proposed CEO is a recently-widowed sixty-one year-old Canadian, who will be moving to London, where her daughter and family currently live.
Can you tell me, what it would be like commuting out from London to Oxford perhaps three days a week?
I should also say that at the moment, she is in need of having hip replacement surgery and proposes to have that in London, where she will be near to her family, during her stay.
She wouldn’t be able to walk a long distance.
This was my reply.
I can’t see much of a problem, as knowing John, the business could probably afford a few taxis and Crossrail will hopefully start running within the next eighteen months, making the London end straightforward.
Today, I went to Oxford leaving on the 09:50 train from Paddington and returning on the 13:01. Partly, to see if there were any pitfalls in the plan and also to have coffee and a snack with an old friend in the City, who helped me very much with the algorithms for Artemis.
These are my thoughts on the journey.
Trains
I travelled out in a comfortable nine-car Class 802 train. I’m not sure, whether it was the same on return or a shorter five-car train.
The outward journey was busier than the return journey, as I suspect that quite a few people live in London and work in Reading or Oxford.
But I did get a table both ways, so I was able to lay my copy of The Times flat and read it properly.
Cost
Off Peak Day Return tickets with a Senior Railcard, are £18.30 in Standard Class and £49.25 in First Class.
As I have a Freedom Pass, I bought a Standard Class Off Peak Day Return between the Zone 6 boundary and Oxford for just £13.05 with my Senior Railcard.
I consider my ticket to be good value for a pensioner’s day out!
Journey Times And Frequency
Both trains took about an hour.
There are also two fast trains per hour, many of which are nine-car trains, with the remainder being five-car trains.
,Coffee, Tea And Snacks
I was surprised to see a trolley on the train.
But I don’t think much business was being done.
Oxford Station And Oxford City Centre
There were plenty of taxis at Oxford station, but I walked the distance both ways in under twenty minutes.
A friend, who has had an NHS double hip replacement, reckons she could walk it easily.
The biggest problem would appear to be the traffic and the narrow pavements
Note, that there are a few maps and some decent cafes and restaurants.
Conclusion
Travelling from London to Oxford is a very feasible daily commute and there are many worse ways of spending an hour on a train.
Rats Are More Intelligent Than We Think
I heard this story from a retired gamekeeper, who was very much a proper countryman, after I said I had had a stroke and was on Warfarin.
When you raise chickens, especially free-range ones outside, rats can be a problem, as there’s nothing they like better than a nice piece of chicken.
So Warfarin is put down to poison the rats.
Anybody like me, who is on the drug, knows you must ignore Vitamin K, which is found in leafy green vegetables. I do generally eat my five a day, but they are mainly fruit, tomatoes, beetroot, beans and potatoes.
Apparently, modern chicken feed contains high levels of itamin K, as there are probably a lot of green forage crops in its ingredients.
So as the rats are also looking for their vegetables to go with the chicken, they’re eating the chicken feed.
And the Vitamin K in the chicken feed, could be giving them protection against the rat Warfarin-based rat poinson.
I also suspect, there could be a bit of natural selection at work!
PC Sales On The Up!
It has just been said on BBC Radio 5’s Wakr Up To Money, that PC sales are on the up and this is boosting Microsoft’s revenues.
So I sent them this message.
The new all-in-one PCs are tempting me to replace my aging laptop.
It was read out.
My PC will have a 27 inch screen and a wireless keyboard and mouse. It will fit my oval dining rom table perfectly.
The only thing more I need, is a bigger screen.
In 2010, I wrote this post called The Communication Wall.
We’re getting there!
The Britons Who Played For The Moon
The title of this post, is the same as that of an article on page 15 of today’s copy of The Times.
This is two paragraphs – – .
The team was organised by John Hodge, who was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and who had previously worked for Vickers Armstrong, which during the Second World War built the Supermarine Spitfire.
Mr. Hodge, now 90, would become a flight director at mission control – the one time that ‘Houston’ spoke with a British accent.
I’ve heard of John before.
Like me, John Hodge went to Minchenden Grammar School and one of our maths’ teachers; George Bullen,when I was doing Further Maths in the Sixth Form, told us the full story of one of his brightest students.
If John had a problem, it was that he couldn’t get a language O-level, which was needed to get to University in the late 1940s.
So he went to Northampton Engineering College, which is now the City University, where the qualification wasn’t needed.
I think George Bullen, with his John Arlott Hampshire accent, probably told us the story of John Hodge for motivation.
This is another paragraph in the article.
Peter Armitage, 90, who grew up in Hable-le-Rice, Hampshire, was also in the Avro group. In 1969 he oversaw the simulator that Neil Armstrong used to learn how to touch down on the moon.
As I remember it, the simulator was a hybrid digital-analogue computer using two PACE 231-R computers as the analogue half.
This picture shows the similar computer, that I worked on at ICI in Welwyn Garden City.
These machines could each solve up to a hundred simultaneous differential equations, in real time, so were ideal for calculating the dynamics of complex systems.
They were some beasts!
From what I read at the time, they were key in bringing the Apollo 13 astronauts home, as they could be quickly reprogrammed, if you were familiar with the dynamic model., as undoubtedly NASA’s engineers were.
The Anonymous Widower 