The East London Line Platforms At Whitechapel Station Now Appear To Be Full Length
Because of Crossrail works, Whitechapel station had to wait to get full-length platforms for the five-car Class 378 trains on the East London Line.
It at last seems the platforms are now extended.
But then it is only just over a year until December 2018, when Whitechapel station opens for Crossrail services between Paddington and Abbey Wood stations.
A New Era For Abellio ScotRail
How many train operating companies in the world would open a new rail service using forty-year-old refurbished trains with the slogan of A New Era?
According to the picture in this article on Global Rail News, which is entitled Aberdeen Launch For Scotland’s First HST, Abellio ScotRail have just done that!
I hope ScotRail are not tempting fate!
The service will be phased in from next Summer and I’m sure enthusiasts will book the first trains solid, such is the affection for these iconic trains.
GWR are also using the trains in a similar concept for local services between Cardiff and Penzance.
After these refurbishments, there will still be quite a few units left.
I can’t believe that none of them will find innovative uses with other train operators.
How about?
Norwich to Liverpool
East Midlands Trains run a service between Norwich and Liverpool, which does seem to suffer from fluctuations of use. It can be very busy, if say Norwich are playing Nottingham Forest and quiet at other times.
In some ways it the forgotten East-West route in England.
Derby and Nottingham to Liverpool and Manchester are journeys, where it is easier to drive.
Running the route with a refurbished and shortened HST might be a chance worth taking.
The Heart Of Wales Line
The Heart of Wales Line is an interesting possibility, to open up the centre of Wales.
The line is maintained as a diversion route for both much large passenger and freight trains, than the trains that usually work the route.
Along The North Wales And Cumbrian Coasts
If the concept works in Scotland, it will surely work on these two lines. Especially, in the summer!
Conclusion
Terry Miller’s iconic High Speed Train will outlive us all!
Through The Bermondsey Dive-Under – 15th September 2017
On my trip to Rochester today, I went twice through the Bermondsey Dive-Under.
These pictures were taken on the way to Rochester.
And these were taken on the way back.
It looks like Network Rail are creating a lot more railway arches and other premises for small and medium-sized businesses.
But there seems to be little on the Internet about the future of the area between the lines.
I did find this article on the Network Rail web site, which is entitled Award-winning Network Rail infrastructure project brings biodiversity to Bermondsey. An industrial slum will at least be a green corridor.
The article finishes with this paragraph.
The first line through the Dive Under entered into service in December 2016 and two new lines, dedicated to Southeastern services, will come into passenger use in August 2017.
So as it’s September 2017, we were on the new lines dedicated to Southeastern services.
Filiming Trains At Rochester
I took these pictures at Rochester.
The station is new, as the last picture shows.
I filmed from the North side of the station from a probable development site, where people were working dogs and jogging.
The camera was a top of the range Nikon Coolpix
Aventras Have Underfloor Heating
I have underfloor heating in my house, so why shouldn’t trains.
In this article on Global Rail News, which is entitled First look around Greater Anglia’s Bombardier Aventra mock-up, this is said.
Instead of body-side heaters encroaching on leg room, under-floor heating has been used, seats are cantilevered too to save on space and there will be no doors separating vehicles.
These pictures show the heating in various trains.
Note.
- The Class 314 trains have the heating built into the seats
- The Class 350 trains have them along the side.
Can this be why the Class 345 trains give an impression of width?
The Garden Station
Stations increasingly are getting to be very grand and expensive buildings.
I was musing today about the design of the Windsor Royal station on the proposed Windsor Link Railway.
This railway could be a double-track railway between the current Windsor and Eton Riverside station and the Slough To Windsor And Eton Line, created in a cut-and-cover tunnel across Windsor.
Much of the area of the route is either car parks or gardens.
The station could be a single island platform with the following characteristics.
- The platform would be long enough for the longest trains to use the route.
- The platform would be wide enough to incorporate booking, passenger and staff facilities in a relaxed layout in the middle.
- Escalator and lift entrances at several places along the platform.
- Minimalist surface buildings much like the fosteritos of the Bilbao Metro.
- Light pipes and other ideas could give the station a lot of natural light.
The surface area would be one large garden with walking routes to the sights of the town.
Any car parking would surely be provided at a Park-and-Ride station outside of the town.
Train Spotting At Samphire Hoe
Samphire Hoe Country Park lies a few kilometres west of Dover.
These pictures show the railway line that runs along the foot of the White Cliffs Of Dover.
In the time I was there, I only saw the one Class 375 train.
Running Electric Trains Across The Forth Bridge
Search for something like Electrification of the Forth Bridge and you find a lot of speculation and no one who.believes it can be done easily.
A ScotRail conductor said very firmly that it wouldn’t be done.
I think that in addition to the engineering problems of electrifying the Forth railway bridge, there will probably be a lot of opposition from the heritage lobby!
I also think, that if you could solve the engineering oroblems, they will.cost a lot and mean closing the bridge for at least several.months.
Bi-Mode Trains
Virgin are proposing to use Class 800 trains, which are bi-mode and will use diesel power on the bridge. These trains will have no problems crossing the bridge.
They will probably even be quieter than the current InterCity 125s, that will be continued to be used by ScotRail.
Trains With Energy Storage
The bridge is not very long at 2.5 km. and an electric train with onboard energy storage could prossibly cross the bridge, if the tracks were electrified as far as the approaches.
So do I think it is possible that a train with onboard energy storage could cross the Forth Bridge?
The Energy Storage Could Be Full Before Crossing
If the overhead electrification reached to perhaps five hundred metres from the bridge, then the onboard storage would be full.
The train would lower the pantograph and then raise it again, when under the wires on the other side.
The Maximum Speed On The Bridge Is 50 mph
This must help.
The Bridge Deck Appears Level
This must help.
Any Train Manufacturer Who Creates A Train With Onboard Energy Storage Will Gain A Worldwide Reputation
There is a lot of scepticism about trains with onboard energy storage or batteries and this would dismiss it for ever, once the crossing was shown on world-wide television with headlines like.
Battery Train Crosses Forth Rail Bridge Carrying Three Hundred Passengers
I believe that any train manufacturer, who felt they could achieve this feat would be willing to have a go, as the rewards would be immense!
Scotland Would Have A Unique Tourist Attraction
Although, I wouldn’t think it would be unique for long, as other countries would do the same to solve transport problems.
But nothing would ever be as iconic as the Forth Bridge!
I also doubt Scotland and ScoRail would say No!
Could A Class 385 Train Cross The Bridge On Stored Power?
In Hitachi Class 385 Trains, Batteries And Charging Stations, I discussed whether batteries or energy storage could be put into a Class 385 train.
I said this after giving details of Hitachi’s battery trains in Japan.
So will Scotrail’s new Class 385 trains have a battery capability?
Probably not initially!
But Hitachi have obviously been doing a lot of research into battery trains and the JR Kyushu is the first practical application.
Scotland’s rail system outside Edinburgh and Glasgow is not electrified, but it is well-known that Scotland’s Government would like more electrified services and also links to places like Leven and St. Andrews.
Both of these places, and there are probably others as well, are a few miles from a main line, that is very likely to be electrified.
So could we see a battery train charged as the JR Kyushu train on a main line, serving these branch lines on battery power?
I feel that the chance of this happening is very high.
So I feel it is highly likely, that if some form of stored power was fitted to Class 385 trains, that they would be able to bridge the gap between electrification systems North and South of the Forth Bridge.
Electrification Of The Fife Circle Line
Electrification of the Fife Circle Line would be the simplest way to improve the local rail service from North of the Forth Bridge to Edinburgh.
This shows a map of the line North from Edinburgh Gateway station.
It would need the electrification from Haymarket station through Edinburgh Gateway station to be completed South of the Bridge to an appropriate point on the bridge approach.
North of the Bridge, the circle could be electrified from an appropriate point on the bridge approach, all round the circle to Markinch station.
Running The Fife Circle Service With Class 385 Trains With Onboard Energy Storage
A belt and braces approach might see North Queensferry and Dalmeny stations being the changeover point from overhead to onboard power, so that with any problems, the train is safely in a station, rather than stuck on the bridge.
Currently, the two routes between Glenrothes With Thornton and Edinburgh stations take the following times.
- Via Kirkaldy – 59 minutes with ten stops.
- Via Dunfermline – 62 minutes with eleven stops.
This means a train doing a round trip from Edinburgh takes just over two hours with twenty-one stops.
The Class 385 trains will have the following characteristics compared to the current diesel trains on the route.
- They will be faster.
- They will accelerate better and have smoother regenerative braking.
- They will have a much shorter dwell time at stations.
It would not be unreasonable to assume that the new electric trains could be several minutes under two hours for the round trip.
Trains that didn’t reverse could also go straight round the circle with the driver only changing ends at Edinburgh.
Currently, the route has three trains per hour (tph), so to run this level of service would require six trains.
Running four tph would need an extra two trains and if two tph used each direction, all stations would have a two tph service.
The trains would only need the ability to run between Dalmeny and North Queensferry stations on onboard storage.
Bi-Mode Trains Between Edinburgh And Aberdeen
Virgin Trains East Coast and possibly other operators wlll be running bi-mode Class 800 trains between Edinburgh and Markinch stations.
They will have to use diesel power where there is no electrification, but if the Fife Circle Line were to be electrified, they could use it, to run the trains more efficiently.
Onward From The Fife Circle
The Fife Circle Line could be a bridgehead to extend electrified services to the North.
Consider these distances.
- Markinch to St. Andrews – 20.7 miles
- Markinch to Dundee – 25.1 miles
- Markinch to Perth – 22.7 miles
- Glenrothes to Leven – 7.1 miles
All of these destinations could be reached by a combination of short lengths of electrification and trains with onboard energy storage.
Scotrail’s Extra Ten Class 385 Trains
Scotrail have an extra ten Class 385 trains on option, if the franchise is extended by 7 to 10 years and the trains would enter service in 2023.
Could these trains be to run an electrified Fife Circle Line service and perhaps running to Leven?
Conclusion
Scotrail have some ambitious plans for Scotland’s railways and I wonder, if they include using Class 385 trains with onboard energy storage to get electric trains across the Forth Bridge.
Gluten-Free In Virgin First Class From Carlisle!
Crisps and a banana!
That is just not good enough!
But it was aerved with a smile!
Killing Time In Carlisle
I miscalculated my journey back from Glasgow and have a lot of time to kill in Carlisle.
So I’m in the Costa outside the station, charging my phone and writing these posts.
It’s a convenient place to recharge.
The Anonymous Widower 