Author Archives: Tim Hall

Depressing press release of the week, from Notwork Rail. (I can’t find it on their site; but it was on the BBC North-West news. I’ve quoted it from the uk.railway newsgroup.

The reopening of the railway line between Sandbach and Wilmslow has been delayed to enable the completion of infrastructure improvement works. The line will now not open until early June whilst vital testing work is carried out on a new signalling system.

The line has been closed since December and was due to reopen on March 26, once the existing life-expired signalling system was replaced by a new computer based interlocking system. However a number of compatibility issues between the Italian system and the UK railway infrastructure have meant further testing is required to enable completion.

John Armitt, Chief Executive, Network Rail said today, “On behalf of Network Rail, I sincerely apologise to passengers for the inconvenience that this will cause. We are working round the clock to find solutions to the problems we are having with this new system to ensure we get the line reopened as soon as is possible. We will keep you fully informed of developments and as soon as we have more information we will release it to you.”

As has been the case since the blockade began in December, long distance services are being diverted with replacement coaches running between Wilmslow and Macclesfield. Local trains will continue to be replaced by a <sarcasm>high quality</sarcasm&gt coach/bus service, with links to Congleton Station from Holmes Chapel and Sandbach during peak periods. Trains will also continue to run between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport until the works are completed.

Trains will also continue to run between Wilmslow and Manchester Piccadilly via the Styal line (Wilmslow to Manchester via Heald Green) during weekdays. A direct service is also available between Crewe and Manchester Oxford Road during weekdays.

This is the third multi-month blockade that’s affected my daily commute, since I got hit by the Stockport refurbishment as well as the track relaying. At the end of all of this, there will have been a total of more than a year’s worth of rail replacement buses, more than doubling the length of my commute, adding an hour to my day. I’d been counting down days until March 26th, when the work was finally supposed to be finished. Now it’s back to some indefinite time in ‘early June’. What’s the odds that it will slip further, back to July, August, December?

Seems they’re using that same untried, untested system that was proposed and then rejected for Stockport a year ago. And it’s looking like the whole thing still doesn’t bloody work.

Heads deserve to roll over this.

For historical reasons that have a lot to do with modelling outside valve gear on British ‘kettles’, British N gauge models are made to a different scale to those of continental Europe or North America. While everyone else’s models are 1:160, ours are the larger 1:148. The difference is obvious when models of similar prototypes are placed next to one another.

Norm is unimpressed by Leeds railway station.

Here’s a word of advice. If you travel by train from Manchester to Leeds at the weekend and have it in mind to return, then find another way of travelling back.

The first thing is that Leeds station is not a great place to spend time. It never has been. It had a makeover some years ago, but it’s still a cold, unwelcoming place, not like Manchester Piccadilly – though Manchester Victoria does have something of the same feel about it.

By coincidence I travelled from Leeds to Manchester yesterday evening, although I spend something like zero time waiting; I had to leg it across the footbridge from platform 1 (where my connection from Harrogate deposited me) all the way to platform 16, where I caught the train with about a minute to spare. I suspect this was not advertised as a connection, as it’s less than the regulation ten minutes that’s supposed to be allowed.

Of course, I missed the connection to Cheadle Hulme at the other end, and had to kill 30 minutes at a Manchester Piccadilly that was absolutely crawling with police, presumably because of the bloody football. I wonder who comes up with these timetables? It’s roughtly a half-hourly service on all three legs of the journey, but each change involves the maximum possible wait at both interchanges, in both directions. Presumably not many people travel from Cheadle Hulme to Harrogate and back.

On my regulation half-hour wait on the way out, I had the first opportunity to sample the rebuild Leeds station, which was still a building site on my last visit about five years ago. It’s a steel and concrete ‘New Brutalist’ style edifice; as Norm says, not a patch on the superb Manchester Piccadilly. At least they’ve gone for a proper train shed and avoided the temptation of a Birmingham New Street style underground car park. Unfortunately, the platform facilities are a little lacking, even in the buffet, where there are virtually no seats.