West Kensington

I'm back with a tale of a jaunt I took today (Saturday, although it's already Sunday as I write this) to West Kensington (and a few other places besides.)

Some of you may have noticed that the District line had no service today - Saturday 29 March - between West Kensington and Richmond/Acton Town. This, apparently, was down to track replacement work at Turnham Green. Consequently, the Picc was also part closed, with no service Hammersmith - Ealing Common; although the website does seem to suggest that the Picc will be closed on Sunday as well, but the District won't be. In the likely event that I don't finish this tonight, I'll make sure before I post this :P The Picc was (/is/will be) also part closed between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge. Included in the justification for the Picc closures is point work at Acton Town.

(I do believe the District line continued to be part closed on Sunday. I must apologise for my further tardiness. Something about holidays seems to manage to leave me even more lazy! :P)

So anyway, this is the context. Engineering work gives an excellent chance to go and see rarely used reversing moves, such as reversing west to east at West Kensington. This move is far from unheard of, I'm sure, but I don't believe there are any booked reversals here and, if there are, they aren't common. Usually I don't go and have a look because I can't be bothered really, but also because there's often not much to see, especially if all the 'action' takes place in a siding you can't really see, or a long way down a tunnel. However, I hadn't been on the tube for a while, I had been reading about West Ken only recently and I wanted to go to Foyles bookshop anyway, so I went and had a look.

The other reason to go today was that I was going out to see my grandparents anyway. As a result, I boarded an EAB train at WAN after a nine minute wait having just missed one. Bit of a nuisance at first, but it gave me a nice opportunity to have a good look round WAN, taking in fishplates (relatively substantial blocks of metal on either side of the rails, which hold joints together, making use of four fairly sizeable bolts) and a block marker board and all sorts because I am just that interesting... :P It's a nice station, though, WAN, with lovely tiling and it's really quite bright which just makes it a good place to be:

The rather pleasant WAN station, where I got the opportunity to pass nearly 10 minutes waiting for a train this afternoon. (Image courtesy "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

The EAB took me out into the sunlight at LES (always a nice experience coming out of a tunnel into the bright sunlight, particularly on a day as nice as today) and then onto MIE, where I changed for a District line train to West Kensington. This was shown on the platform indicators as a Wimbledon service, so we must assume that these indicators cannot display West Kensington. I would have thought use could be made of the "check front of train" message instead, though.

As I say, it was a gorgeous day today and a fine one to be on the District line. Along the way, I took the chance to see again the sights I mentioned looking out for on my C stock runs on the Circle and H&C. I could write about the District line all day (and who knows, maybe I just might write more in the future), but I could never do it justice. For now, though, I'll be brief. The first thing to keep an eye out for is the two crossovers at Whitchapel - one to the east and one to the west. The west end one is looking very rusty indeed, I must say.

Back in the day, before Crossrail got going, there used to be four platforms at Whitechapel. H&C line trains were regularly reversed there and the District could be short turned there as well, especially during disruption. In fact, at LIS, the line diagram of the sub-surface lines still shows the H&C as having a limited (possibly peak hours only?) service between Whitechapel and Barking, although that's just an old map they haven't bothered replacing. The old Central line ones are still there too and, as with many locations, the Ongar branch has simply been covered up :P I don't think the H&C has had that limited a service beyond Whitechapel for a while, though, but all the same it used to be a very regularly used reversing point. The old layout is superbly detailed by the late District Dave. I have been reading through his website over the past few days and it really is wonderful. From what little I've been privileged enough to glean from his posts, I think his untimely death has left so many - even those who did not know him - poorer and I wish he were still here to educate and entertain us about his line.

With, though, Crossrail needing the two reversing roads for the space to create an accessible, modern Whitechapel (I think the space is largely to be used for disabled access, although I'm not sure) many of the reversing facilities at Whitechapel, including its siding, have been lost. They have been replaced, of course, by the above-mentioned crossovers and a reversing siding at West Ham, which is also connected to both tracks at the Plaistow end. That siding doesn't really see much use, though, from what I can see, especially with Plaistow just one stop away and the emergency crossovers at Whitechapel.

Next up there is the crossover at Aldgate East and, of course, Minories Junction, where the Circle and District diverge/converge. The District also leaves the H&C behind, of course (at Aldgate East junction), which then converges with the Circle line at Aldgate junction. In the middle of all of this is Aldgate station itself, of course, which is always worth a look and is clearly visible from passing District line trains. Then you've got the bay roads at Tower Hill and Mansion House. This time I did get to see the crossover at Embankment and the one at South Kensington to boot.

Now it was at South Kensington that things began to get really interesting. Some of you may recall from my Wimbleware post that at Gloucester Road there are three platforms. The District line gets westbound platform 1 all to itself:

A diagram showing the track layout at Gloucester Road and the triangle it forms with High Street Kensington and Earl's Court

The Circle line trains cannot use this platform and should they end up here will presumably require an involved shunt procedure to get them back to their own metals. As I have discussed before, LU signals are equipped with junction indicators which let a T/Op know what route has been set and, therefore, where their train will end up if they carry on. If a signal is showing that an incorrect route has been set, the T/Op must stop the train and query the signal by getting on the train radio and contacting the control room. It may be that there has been a change of destination (e.g. a Central line T/Op at LES expecting to go to HAI via NEP may see the route set for EPP and query it, only to be told that there's been a change of plan) or that the train can be put back on its correct path further along the line. In this case, the T/Op will be told to carry on. If, however, a mistake has been made and needs to be corrected, the signaller will "take a release" and the signal will return to danger. The route is then locked for 2 minutes and only then can it be set correctly. Often it's the signalling computer or programme machine that's at fault, but if the route was incorrectly set by the signaller, it will be his responsibility. However, observing the signals is the T/Ops responsibility and if they accept a "wrong route" then that's their responsibility and there will be some trouble. I refer you again to District Dave who wrote a highly entertaining and informative account of such an event which happened to him here.

Anyway, platform 2 at Gloucester Road is usually used by the Circle line, but the District can use it too and will then carry on to Earl's Court using the crossover immediately outside the platform. However, it is much more common for the District to use its own platform and the maps and signs refer to platform 2 only as a Circle line platform.

Now, the District line track to platform 1 branches off to the left not at all far outside South Kensington station and runs alongside the (predominantly) Circle line tracks to Gloucester Road. There is what's called an "advance starter" which is visible from the westbound platform at South Kensington and this is the signal which controls the junction. Usually T/Ops will wait for this to clear with the appropriate route before departing South Kensington. This saves a 2 minute stand at the signal in the tunnel if a release needs to be taken on the route.

It was with some surprise, therefore, that I noticed that we didn't seem to be crossing over to the District line's usual tracks as we left South Kensington and I soon saw that we were heading for platform 2, which confused the destination boards on the platforms as well as a punter or two. The T/Op was very good and made the necessary announcements, but I don't know why we ended up there. It might have been a wrong route, but judging by the absence of an appreciable delay I'm mildly tempted to think that there was some wit and reason behind it, or the irregularity was spotted at South Ken and the T/Op was told to carry on to Gloucester Road and the train could then be quickly and seamlessly routed back onto the District line.

Anyway, after that, we had the fun of passing the point where the Circle line diverges and of passing the triangle sidings and heading on to Earl's Court. At Earl's Court, of course, there was plenty of confusion and I tried my best to point a few people in the right direction before we headed off. London Underground passengers don't listen to announcements you see, let alone check before they travel, they just look at a map, or head off on their normal journey, plug in their headphones and then wonder why they can't get where they want to go. Still, good fun is Earl's Court and I noted "the yard" as we went by, which is essentially just the length of track (shunt signal at one end, limit of shunt sign at the other) sometimes used for mainline shunt moves to reverse east to west.

On the other side of Earl's Court it's always fun heading past West Kensington East junction, where trains for Kensington (Olympia) branch off and then we finally reached West Kensington. West Kensington is surely worth a post all to itself and that's what you'll receive. For now, suffice it to say I got out onto the platform on a beautiful day, watched the train reverse and then took it back to South Ken where I changed for the Picc to Leicester Sq and then took the Northern one stop to TCR.

The Northern line's TBTC is still shockingly awful and it was really noticeable on that trip after the delightfully smooth journeys I had enjoyed on the manually operated District and Picc. This isn't a campaign against ATO and while I would much much prefer a refined, sophisticated ATP system network-wide to ATO (and definitely to UTO), I don't think it's inherently impossible to design a really good, really effective ATO system. Heck, for all of its many many problems, at least when the Central line ATO is working, it's quite a comfortable experience. But anyway, I bring it up mainly to point out that NMA5 (Oval to Morden) is now live, so the whole Northern line apart from Chalk Farm to Edgware (NMA6) is now ATO. NMA6 is, of course, reputed to be the most challenging area and is to come last. As much as I don't like the system, I have to take my hat off to those who've rolled it out. Final testing was scheduled to take place over the whole weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of March, with the line shut down south of Kennington (I believe) for the purpose. It was then due to enter passenger service on the 24th, assuming all went well, or earlier if all went really well. In the end, it entered passenger service at 15:00 on the 22nd and the line was open for the rest of the weekend. This closure is built in as a kind of safety, to make sure that a service isn't promised which then can't be run (memories of the Jubilee line upgrade are still fresh). It's a fine achievement getting it all working, though, in as much as it does work.

Anyway, after a fairly unpleasant, but mercifully short, Northern line journey I arrived at Tottenham Court Road and made my way to Foyles. Whilst there I bought a couple of books and also found a very likely and interesting looking book on cell biology, which I quickly replaced when I discovered it was on sale for over £180! It wasn't even particularly large, or a special edition or anything, it was just a biology textbook! Good job I don't actually do biology, huh?

The journey home saw me just miss a DEB so I took a HAI via NEP to LES and changed for the EPP. It wasn't a particularly eventful journey, but it was nice to get another look at the reversing siding at HOL and the crossover west of LIS. Exiting the tunnels outside STR and LEY was also very nice in the last of the daylight and it was not at all a bad journey to WOO. At WOO I was disappointed to see that there was no train in 21 road and then discovered that the HAI would be reversing off platform 2. I duly made my way over and was delighted to be able to enjoy another novelty. I watched the wrong road starter on platform 2 turn white and then green and then we were on our way over the crossover and off to ROV. Don't know why this train was reversed off 2, though, the usual suspect is late running and that seems fairly likely. At ROV I noticed that the next HAI was 14 minutes behind the one I'd just left, when it's usually more like 19 or 20, so it looks like this train was still 5 down. Still, some of that was probably recovered at HAI, where there is usually a significant dwell.

So, West Ken

One can hardly talk about West Ken without discussing the area around it:

A diagram showing the track layout around West Kensington. The tracks leading towards Lillie Bridge Depot from West Kensington cross above the tracks towards Earl's Court on a bridge

So we return, on this blog, to the hub that is Earl's Court. As I discussed in my post about the Wimbledon-Edgware Road branch, Wimbleware trains from High Street Kensington can head to West Brompton from platform 4. Trains from Gloucester Road, having passed through the city, can also head to West Brompton from platform 3 or 4. Trains for Richmond and Ealing Broadway (and any intermediate destinations where trains can be short-tripped), meanwhile, head on to West Kensington from either platform 3 or 4. These trains will, of course, generally arrive from Gloucester Road, although it's not unheard of for Wimbleware services to be diverted towards Richmond and Ealing Broadway. Back in the old days you would occasionally see a C stock heading that way. Makes a nice change :P The Olympia shuttle (again only very rarely are Olympia trains not from High Street Kensington) will also pull into platform 4 and head to Olympia from there.

Kensington (Olympia) is a curious little station:

Kensington (Olympia)'s single District line bay platform. On the right, you can see the London Overground platforms, which are shared with National Rail. Although not easily visible, there are three tracks on the right, with the outer two used for stopping services and the middle road available for fast trains and freight. (Image courtesy "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

Routing trains for Olympia through the busy Earl's Court is an operational nightmare, which is the main reason why the service is a shuttle which no longer operates during the week. The shuttle is, of course, operated by D stock for now (although S stock will, of course, take over in time) and runs from High Street Kensington - Kensington (Olympia). It is no longer common for C stock to end up at Olympia but, again, they can do. I should have a look at the timetable, I think very early on and very late in the day trains will end up there and I think the S7 still serves it throughout the week, but a regular service is essentially no longer operated during the weekdays. The Olympia branch is also single-track for much of its length (the other factor behind the shuttle service) and I do believe there's no starter, so T/Ops control their own departure from Olympia.

The other key thing to notice about the area is Lillie Bridge Depot. Lillie Bridge used to be the District line's main depot, but it was eventually superseded by Ealing Common at the west end of the line. Little Ilford was also built to serve the east end of the line (Little Ilford has now itself been superseded by Upminster and the Little Ilford site is now used by C2C). When Ealing Common largely replaced Lillie Bridge, it was used for a while by the Piccadilly line, before being largely handed over to the engineering trains. This is its major use today, although I believe some District line trains do still stable at Lillie Bridge and do head to Olympia where they enter service or run empty from there onwards.

Now, after all of that, onto West Kensington itself and isn't it pretty:

West Kensington station. We are looking east (from the westbound platform) and the track to Lillie Bridge depot is visible diverging off to the left immediately after the starter. The shunt signal you can see has, in fact, now been replaced by a fibre-optic shunt signal. (Image courtesy "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

Now, obviously the first thing to point out is that trains can terminate at West Ken and head to Lillie Bridge depot from platform 2, using the track which heads off to the left immediately after the platform.

On Saturday, however, the crossover to the west of the station was employed. Now, on Saturday, trains were being reversed west to east. The trains arrived on the westbound platform, detrained and proceeded out of service to the limit of shunt sign, which is quite far out of the station (presumably due to the length of the S7s which are coming to this part of the line soon). The T/Op then changed ends, waited for the shunt signal to clear and headed back into platform one and on towards the city (I believe my train was going to Barking).

It is, of course, also possible to reverse east to west and there is a wrong-road starter to allow trains to terminate at platform 2 and then head back towards Barons Court. However, even with the D stock, I do believe the trains stop in platform 2 without fully clearing the crossover and the signal. Therefore, trains have to move forwards slightly and stop ahead of where they normally would when continuing east, before the T/Op can change ends and head west.

Back in the day, although this hasn't happened for a while, the Picc used to very occasionally reverse at West Ken (and, obviously it went here frequently when its depot was at Lillie Bridge). I believe that early morning trains and staff trains used to be timetabled to serve West Ken until as late as the '80s (although towards the end, only two trains did so). Nowadays, Picc drivers aren't trained on the route, I believe, but in cases of severe disruption, Picc trains can be diverted to West Ken to reverse, although they'll probably have to have a District line I/Op (Instructor Operator) on the front.

Tubeprune tells a story of a memorable incident in the late 60s. In those days (as now) Picc trains were also a bit too long for West Ken and its crossover and they also had to stop a little way past the usual stopping mark in order to ensure that the train was clear of the crossover. One new Picc T/Op forgot to do this one day, changed ends, and promptly headed back the way he had come, despite not having a clear signal (in fact he couldn't see any  signal when he departed West Ken, since the signal was behind the cab, because of where he had stopped). Since his train had not cleared the points, they could not have been set for westbound and he, of course, did not crossover onto the westbound and instead headed west along the eastbound tracks towards a District line train standing in the eastbound platform at Barons Court. Fortunately, the Picc T/Op eventually noticed his mistake when he saw that the Picc tracks were emerging from the tunnel on the wrong side!