Stratford Market Depot

[hellocontrol]

A few questions which I hope someone will be able to answer.

1. For trains coming into/out of the depot, are there slots at both ends?

2. When the emergency panels are worked in the tower, does this slow down the operation of the depot dramatically?

3. Where is the backup control for Neasden located, was this the tower itself?


TIA

[drico]

The Tower has to give a slot to allow trains in to the depot.

2 slots at Stratford end. 1 slot at West Ham end.

[hellocontrol]

Drico thanks for that.

[railtechnician]

I can't really say anything about the JLE! All the installation work was done by contractors although many of the contract staff were formerly LUL signal and comms staff. I volunteered to be seconded to JLE signal maintenance when the Northern line took it over from the Bakerloo but was turned down because I was not a signal lineman at the time. As a Picc signal lineman I covered only the original Jubilee from Charing X to Stanmore. I've never been to SMD and only ever travelled the JLE as far as Canary Wharf from Green Park when attending the LUL offices there. My only involvement was in the comms enabling works at London Bridge when the Northern line station was being remodelled for JLE.

[hellocontrol]

When I worked at Neasden there were slots from both Neasden and Wembley IMRs, there was no back control of the line. When operating the emergency panels it made things a lot slower as you had to make sure that the correct route was set up before giving authority to the train in question.

[hellocontrol]

May 16, 2015 23:17:09 GMT railtechnician said:

I can't really say anything about the JLE! All the installation work was done by contractors although many of the contract staff were formerly LUL signal and comms staff. I volunteered to be seconded to JLE signal maintenance when the Northern line took it over from the Bakerloo but was turned down because I was not a signal lineman at the time. As a Picc signal lineman I covered only the original Jubilee from Charing X to Stanmore. I've never been to SMD and only ever travelled the JLE as far as Canary Wharf from Green Park when attending the LUL offices there. My only involvement was in the comms enabling works at London Bridge when the Northern line station was being remodelled for JLE.

When I went to SMD and that was for Operator Work Station training but no other facilities were commissioned at that time. The signalling on the main was still under test.

[railtechnician]

May 17, 2015 12:23:49 GMT hellocontrol said:

May 16, 2015 23:17:09 GMT railtechnician said:

I can't really say anything about the JLE! All the installation work was done by contractors although many of the contract staff were formerly LUL signal and comms staff. I volunteered to be seconded to JLE signal maintenance when the Northern line took it over from the Bakerloo but was turned down because I was not a signal lineman at the time. As a Picc signal lineman I covered only the original Jubilee from Charing X to Stanmore. I've never been to SMD and only ever travelled the JLE as far as Canary Wharf from Green Park when attending the LUL offices there. My only involvement was in the comms enabling works at London Bridge when the Northern line station was being remodelled for JLE.

When I went to SMD and that was for Operator Work Station training but no other facilities were commissioned at that time. The signalling on the main was still under test.

I did get sent to the Transmitton factory at Ashby-de-la-Zouche for training on the Chromos Express computer systems used in Neasden control tower, a nice but very long day out from before 0700 and not arriving home before 2100 (NR was having a bad day on the return journey to Kings Cross !). I never did see the inside of Neasden control tower although I was offered a chance to visit after I retired as two of my former colleagues became Signal Operations Managers there but London is too far away by public transport (a very poor bus service to the station and no direct train services to London) and there is little fun in driving to/from London these days, in fact I haven't been near or by since 2006 and doubt that I ever will again unless Lincoln gets a proper train service to London and Stagecoach run reasonable bus connections from/to my village.

[hellocontrol]

Where I live is totally different from London after 7pm forget about catching a bus and on Sundays one route only does 5 trips for the day. 

I don't go to London very often although the local train service is far better than the bus.

[railtechnician]

May 19, 2015 8:10:13 GMT hellocontrol said:

Where I live is totally different from London after 7pm forget about catching a bus and on Sundays one route only does 5 trips for the day. 

I don't go to London very often although the local train service is far better than the bus.

I think you have a better service than me! I live in the middle of a farm 10 miles north of Lincoln and half a mile from the village which is on the bus route. Last time I checked there were just four or five buses into the city Monday to Friday after the school buses and the last one leaving Lincoln before 6pm.
The cost of a cab to or from the city is prohibitive, so far I have only had to use a cab once in 10 years after my car was kept overnight at the main service dealer to resolve a problem. Fortunately I got the company to come and collect me from home the next day.
If I didn't have a car I would probably have to move into Lincoln sooner or later but I moved out of London to get away from city life although I do own a house there.
When I first began renting here I still had a house in London and so I used to go and collect my mail once a month, I used to do the round trip and be home for breakfast before 0800 after setting off at about 0430. Since 2006 I have hardly ventured out of the county but did do Bath and back in a day in 2007 and last year I went to Manningtree for a family get together which I will be doing again in a few weeks. When I was working and before I moved here I would often nip up to Lincoln on a Monday at 0600 and spend the day before driving back to London to do my nightshift or alternatively do my Friday nightshift and drive straight here immediately afterward to stay with friends at the weekend and then return home late on Sunday night.
These days I can't afford to go gallivanting around as I did when I first moved here, the pension doesn't stretch like it used to but I don't have the inclination these days either since my surgery in 2011. I also have far too many hobbies which keep me busy at home !