Atomic Systems

I'm sure i'm not the only one who gets annoyed with the amount of times our local lines are shut for works. But this area is just getting stupid. It seems every bank holiday and quite a few weekends this branch is closed, even though most of the trackwork is now new. I had noticed the Colne Valley Railway were hosting a vintage rally event, only about an 1-1 1/2 hour journey so thought it would be worth doing, but nope Network Rail have other plans and have closed the whole lot and it would take 2 hrs 45 minutes. I could get to the North Norfolk Railway in just over that when the trains are running!

The lines were closed this weekend just gone and are closed or have works every weekend until the first weekend of June! I am pretty furious with the way things are operated, my local line is more or less a branch line, why is it needed to be closed so much? I pay out for TRAIN tickets and a RAIL card but i have to use buses... that take even longer. I frankly think it's pathetic and has now put me off from going to what seemed like a good event, the CVR were even putting on a vintage bus service from Braintree station, and as the railway is difficult to get too if you can't drive this was most ideal.

Sorry CVR, you have sadly lost a customer who would have loved to have visited, NR did exactly the same on the NNR's M&GNR event. Perhaps some communication is needed?

Once the tracks in there's usually quite a lot of follow up work to be done, and I think there's also been a resignalling scheme going on down the Clacton line too. Rather than doing it all in one go it's now been accepted that doing the work over succesive weekends disrupts far fewer people at times when it's easier to obtain rail replacement services than closing the whole line for a whole week or more.

There is a huge resignalling scheme going on the the Colchester-Walton/Clacton line at the moment, there was an article in last months Today's Railways UK.

Apparently, Frinton will be losing the crossing gates in this scheme too.

Unfortunately it is far less risky for NR to shut a line to carry out work rather than try to operate with one line open for bi-directional running. Although a single line only branch will always have to be closed when major works need to be carried out e.g. re-signalling.

Regards,

Dan

Going against my original intentions of not going, i have thought sod it, it's a day out! Hopefully the weather will be decent... would be the icing on the cake if it rains!

try living on the Cambrian line between Welshpool - Aberystwyth/Pwllheli. theres plent of work up there.

kieranhardy wrote:I'm sure i'm not the only one who gets annoyed with the amount of times our local lines are shut for works. But this area is just getting stupid. It seems every bank holiday and quite a few weekends this branch is closed, even though most of the trackwork is now new.

The lines were closed this weekend just gone and are closed or have works every weekend until the first weekend of June! I am pretty furious with the way things are operated, my local line is more or less a branch line, why is it needed to be closed so much? I pay out for TRAIN tickets and a RAIL card but i have to use buses... that take even longer. I frankly think it's pathetic and has now put me off from going to what seemed like a good event, the CVR were even putting on a vintage bus service from Braintree station, and as the railway is difficult to get too if you can't drive this was most ideal.

Sorry CVR, you have sadly lost a customer who would have loved to have visited, NR did exactly the same on the NNR's M&GNR event. Perhaps some communication is needed?

Bank holiday and weekend closures affect far fewer people than on a weekday. Alot of work on that branch does go on at night, however with the sheer amount of work and testing to be done, weekend work is a guarentee.

Remember that it is a multi million pound project that has been in the works for some years...its not like its just been sprung one people. They are replacing some 300 signals, alterting/adding track cricuits, upgrading track, replacing 6 manual level crossings, working on 3 AHB crossings and transfering all controls to Colchester PSB....its not a quick or easy task.

If you want a more reliable service in the long run, then you will have to put up with what goes with it in the short term.

bgstrowger wrote:There is a huge resignalling scheme going on the the Colchester-Walton/Clacton line at the moment, there was an article in last months Today's Railways UK.

Apparently, Frinton will be losing the crossing gates in this scheme too.

The order for removing the gates should have been signed by the government today (Friday) with the gates coming out over the weekend (or as soon as possible)...good job too.

And to all those Frinton residents that think it will be alot less safe....get your facts straight!

bgstrowger wrote:There is a huge resignalling scheme going on the the Colchester-Walton/Clacton line at the moment, there was an article in last months Today's Railways UK.

Apparently, Frinton will be losing the crossing gates in this scheme too.

The order for removing the gates should have been signed by the government today (Friday) with the gates coming out over the weekend (or as soon as possible)...good job too.

And to all those Frinton residents that think it will be alot less safe....get your facts straight![/quote]

As a former resident of Walton, I had to have a small laugh at Frinton's protests over the gates.

Sorry I'm not really 'up' on the whole 'gates' issue, but its my understanding that the local residents want the gates removing from a crossing? If so, why? Or, the railway wants to remove them, to make it safter? If so, how?

Cheers,
Ali

AlistairW wrote:Sorry I'm not really 'up' on the whole 'gates' issue, but its my understanding that the local residents want the gates removing from a crossing? If so, why? Or, the railway wants to remove them, to make it safter? If so, how?

Cheers,
Ali

I assume to remove the gates and replace them with barriers? (just a guess though)

AlistairW wrote:Sorry I'm not really 'up' on the whole 'gates' issue, but its my understanding that the local residents want the gates removing from a crossing? If so, why? Or, the railway wants to remove them, to make it safter? If so, how?

Cheers,
Ali

It really all boils down to snobery of the part of frinton residents. The people of frinton feel that if you live "inside" the gates you are of a higher class then those that live "outside" the gates and obviously modern gates are not quite as quaint as the old style wooden gates...apparantly

The other side of the argument for keeping the gates is they feel the current setup is alot safer than modern barriers...this people obviously have no clue on modern workings because of they did, they would see there is effectivly no difference in how the crossing operate. Modern barriers are still controled by a human, the crossing is still viewed by a human and the signals controlling the protecting signals are still controlled by a human....just the same as the current gates.

Basicly Network rail want rid of them as they dont convey a 21st century image and are percieved to be more reliable.

danielw2599 - Former crossing keeper Frinton LC

danielw2599 wrote:

AlistairW wrote:Sorry I'm not really 'up' on the whole 'gates' issue, but its my understanding that the local residents want the gates removing from a crossing? If so, why? Or, the railway wants to remove them, to make it safter? If so, how?

Cheers,
Ali

It really all boils down to snobery of the part of frinton residents. The people of frinton feel that if you live "inside" the gates you are of a higher class then those that live "outside" the gates and obviously modern gates are not quite as quaint as the old style wooden gates...apparantly

The other side of the argument for keeping the gates is they feel the current setup is alot safer than modern barriers...this people obviously have no clue on modern workings because of they did, they would see there is effectivly no difference in how the crossing operate. Modern barriers are still controled by a human, the crossing is still viewed by a human and the signals controlling the protecting signals are still controlled by a human....just the same as the current gates.

Basicly Network rail want rid of them as they dont convey a 21st century image and are percieved to be more reliable.

danielw2599 - Former crossing keeper Frinton LC

That may be the 'modernist' view - and if it's a case of image over safety then Network Rail are sadly misguided.
My personal feeling is that gates are much safer as a road vehicle driver is a lot less likely to try to beat a gate closing in front of the vehicle than a barrier descending from on high. It's also impossible to park a vehicle on a gated crossing (a la Ufton Nervet) for it to be hit by a train, and if a vehicle breaks down or gets stuck on the crossing (Hixon was before your time, I suspect,) the gates can't close, the signal can't be cleared, and the vehicle can't get hit by a train.
On the other hand, barriers are cheaper to install and maintain - and NR don't have to pay compensation to the victims...

thenudehamster wrote:

danielw2599 wrote:

AlistairW wrote:Sorry I'm not really 'up' on the whole 'gates' issue, but its my understanding that the local residents want the gates removing from a crossing? If so, why? Or, the railway wants to remove them, to make it safter? If so, how?

Cheers,
Ali

It really all boils down to snobery of the part of frinton residents. The people of frinton feel that if you live "inside" the gates you are of a higher class then those that live "outside" the gates and obviously modern gates are not quite as quaint as the old style wooden gates...apparantly

The other side of the argument for keeping the gates is they feel the current setup is alot safer than modern barriers...this people obviously have no clue on modern workings because of they did, they would see there is effectivly no difference in how the crossing operate. Modern barriers are still controled by a human, the crossing is still viewed by a human and the signals controlling the protecting signals are still controlled by a human....just the same as the current gates.

Basicly Network rail want rid of them as they dont convey a 21st century image and are percieved to be more reliable.

danielw2599 - Former crossing keeper Frinton LC

That may be the 'modernist' view - and if it's a case of image over safety then Network Rail are sadly misguided.
My personal feeling is that gates are much safer as a road vehicle driver is a lot less likely to try to beat a gate closing in front of the vehicle than a barrier descending from on high. It's also impossible to park a vehicle on a gated crossing (a la Ufton Nervet) for it to be hit by a train, and if a vehicle breaks down or gets stuck on the crossing (Hixon was before your time, I suspect,) the gates can't close, the signal can't be cleared, and the vehicle can't get hit by a train.
On the other hand, barriers are cheaper to install and maintain - and NR don't have to pay compensation to the victims...

It was a common occurance that viehicles would block the crossing at Frinton due to A, to the original road layout (there was a roundabout straight after the crossing) and B, the impatiance of the motoring public.

It was also a common occurance that cars would indeed try and beat me when closing the gates and on several occassions I had to step back to avoid being hit, so I guess the new crossing will be safer in that respect as staff would not be put in the position.

As for a car being on the crossing while a train is approaching, well you would never get a collision as when the signaller presses the button to start the sequence, he must keep view of the crossing via CCTV, once the barriers have lowered he must confirm the crossing is clear (by looking at the CCTV) before pressing the "crossing clear" button. Only when this button is pressed can the protecting signals be cleared. If the CCTV has failed for any reason then trains will be instructed to approach at caution and not proceed over the crossing unless safe to do so (ie its clear).

To my knowledge there has never been a collison at an MCB crossing involving a car and a train.

I should of said in my previous post that with the new arrangements, should the signaller need to stop a train for any reason before the crossing he can do that straight away via CSR where as before we would have to ring the signaller first to explain the situation risking valuable minutes.

sounds like a 10mph restriction would be needed incase of gate runners

salopiangrowler wrote:sounds like a 10mph restriction would be needed incase of gate runners

cars or trains???