A sort of Führerbunker for Donald Trump, then?

CfN.

 
Would have been a problem if I wasn't going home early (via bus) to watch the eclipse

 

I very much doubt that there will be any serious consequences for electricity supply.
The eclipse has been known about for a long time, and any shortfall in generating capacity will be met by pumped storage generation, or by quick starting OCGT plant. Demand is reduced at this time of year if compared to winter.

 
... erm, Trowres: you may want to revise the date in this topic heading?

CfN. 

 
I recently watched one of those TV programmes following revenue protection officers (it featured Nottingham Trams and London Underground). You can see why officers get rather conditioned to not believing excuses.

However, ticket issuing systems are not perfect...

The scenario: the time is 11:32 on 12th August 2026 and you are trying to buy a ticket online for immediate travel Westbury to Exeter St Davids. It should be easy - the timetable says there's an 11:58 direct to Exeter. Let's start with the front-end gateway, National Rail:

Problem 1: the 11:58 is cancelled. Helpfully, you can click on an option to find alternatives "real time".
Wonderful: it shows the 10:48 to Torquay is running late and is expected WSB at 11:53; pretty close to the time of the cancelled train. You can make that!
Problem 2: National Rail says it is unable to find a valid fare. "Please replan your journey".

Let's try GWR instead:
Problem 3: The GWR website has a drop-down for time that only allows increments of 30 minutes. 11:30 is disallowed as in the past, so 12:00 has to do...
Problem 4: The train options given are all after 12:00 and the delayed train you are seeking isn't shown.
Problem 5: The "earlier" option does nothing.
Aha! brilliant idea... "arrive by" 15:00 is allowed, works, and shows the delayed train.
Problem 6: Trying to select the delayed service has no effect (clicking on later train options gives the fares).

Now YOU know the fares system and that you could select any later service with the right fare and just buy a ticket for that. But for the average traveller?

Maybe today the WSB ticket office was open, or the ticket machines working (I've been there when neither was available). If they were not, it would be an... interesting... experience to board the delayed train and try explaining to the revenue protection that it was not possible to buy a ticket before boarding. (For a start, it would be nigh-on impossible to replicate the problems).

[ The circumstances are referenced in https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32355.0 ]

 
Succinct case for building HS2 phase 2 now: includes the perspective that the workforce for certain sorts of work on HS1 and also on Hinckley Point are coming to the end of that employment and their very real skills will not simply transfer to the remainder of the tasks on HS2 as that's of a different nature.

Mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emxyFNvaVFw

 
On the opposite end of that see-saw, the eclipse lands bang in the middle of the evening peak: electricity generation vs consumption data is going to be... absorbing**.

Mark

** Varies by individual and also, various different values of 'Absorbing'.

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:45 Swindon to Westbury due 18:26
17:45 Swindon to Westbury due 18:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

...............and another one - Ladbroke Grove this morning, Southall this afternoon 

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 17:30 12/08.

Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
Some axle counters, part of the signalling system, have stopped working in the Southall area. This is affecting all GWR services between London Paddington and Reading.

 
Now kicked out until 15.30 (so shortly to become ‘end of the day’)

 

The decline should not be that serious, as it is towards the end of day when solar power declines in any case.

 

Isn't that what he is trying to build under his "beautiful, beautiful ballroom" ?

 
Hey....at least you'll keep your local train paths if they can't find staff to divert trains!

 


I know, I know ... but don't you just wish that where there's a shortage of trains, the crew that would have driven them could be redeployed to where there's a shortage of staff.

Apparently, from a very recent discussion, one of the problems with closing the line at Limpley Stoke because os bridge hits is the problem that creates finding enough staff who actually know the diversion route via Melksham, Chippenham, Corsham and Box.  "Fair weather railway" planning has thinned out route knowledge such that dealing with the sorts of problems that happen too-often becomes difficult.

 
Perhaps Trump should have stayed in America, in deep bomb  resistant shelter, with plenty of guns.

 
This morning there was a track safety inspection on the down line between Lavington and Westbury. This trapped the Paddington-Newquay (1C99) that was eventually allowed on its way with a 72 minute delay.

The following train, the 0934 Paddington-Torquay (1C75) was turned back at Newbury and ran via Melksham (waiting briefly for the Swindon-Westbury service to clear the single line - a Weston train behind that being delayed by 9 minutes.

The 1036 Paddington-Exeter (1C77) was cancelled. By a bit of luck, the delay of the Torquay train  (also 72 minutes) resulted in its call at Westbury being around 12:00; just right for picking up passengers for the cancelled train (due WSB at 1158).

However, I noticed some interesting problems for would-be passenger aiming to buy tickets online. As this is a separate issue (though triggered by the disruption) I have put it in the fares thread: https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32356.0

 
Ahead of the leading edge of technology, you have the bleeding edge ... ideas ahead of their time which fail in spite obe being innovative, and coming back many years later.

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co24902/bersey-electric-taxi-cab-taxis

 

I’d have thought the temperatures tomorrow might well scupper that.

 

I'm sure that all the tourists making their way between Bath and Oxford (or versa vice) on this service will be fully informed ahead of time and will need no advice.

 
THe service is brand new & hence needs no advice that its a change at Didcot today. That's always the case, even if the timings don't work on this 'new' service.

 

or in short form
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0p3vzh1


I have a lot of sympathy and respect for Mark / the position he's in.  At the same time he is the person responsible for that very punctuality and reliability that disappoints him.  It will be very interesting to see where we are, and indeed where Mark is, a year from now with GWR being nationalised.  I do hope that the skills, expertise, experieicence, knowledge that so many of the team have is not lost or suppressed, but rather is allowed to productively bloom.

 
Third time lucky tomorrow.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K00923/2026-08-13/detailed

If this train doesn't enter service straight away, then Hopgood's interview meant nothing.

 
No 175s out today. Not yet.

 

Perhaps an unfair snapshot - but half the service cancelled today.  Yes, journey can be made with a changes at Didcot, but no customer advice to let people know that.   

A number of 9 cars down to 5 cars elsewhere (so THAT's where the 5 car unit has gone!) and that may lead to some overcrowding?

 

They are having a third go at getting one from Wolverton tomorrow
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K00923/2026-08-13/detailed

If it is actually usable for service (if it actually makes it) is a different question

 
Yay.

 

 

Yep, I gave up earlier as everything was cancelled. GWR have been pointing people at the Elizabeth Line throughout  despite this.

GWR Journeycheck now saying "disruption" until 1000, National Rail (far more reliable in my experience) have this on their website......

Route(s) affected
Elizabeth line between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead / Reading, and also between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5

All Great Western Railway routes to / from London Paddington

Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5

Description
A fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading means some lines are blocked. Trains running between these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 14:00.

Elizabeth line customer advice:

Customers from Ealing Broadway / Southall travelling to Slough / Maidenhead / Reading are advised to change at Hayes & Harlington for the next service.

 
Hmmmm, not just “delayed” though.  A significant number of GWR services are cancelled and all Elizabeth Line trains are cancelled.

 
Head on Collision, Rhode Island. First railway accident photographed, 12th August 1853.

From Wikipedia




Source / further reading from Train wrecks; a pictorial history of accidents on the main line by reed, robert c. (robert carroll), b 1937, published 1982 online at https://archive.org/details/trainwreckspicto00reed/page/2/mode/2up



There is a significant readership market - is it a morbid fascination? - for pictures of railway accidents as witnessed by a whole series of books on the topic.



One of the well-thumbed volumes on my own shelves is "Red for Danger" by LTC Rolt - however, pictures form only a small part of that book and "the whole" makes a fascinating study showing the history from the early railways, where powered railed vehicles created new dangers that magnified as they got heavier and faster, through the introduction of safety measures, most sadly learned as a result of accidents, through to today where the railways in the UK have an excellent, though still not perfect, running record.

 
Here's a link;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0p3vzh1?fbclid=IwVERDUATo4LFwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlZKBdyFzdqERMzx1fYvo_zR3x7ZhKnHSbtS7OSc1jW5PentamLwNlbs7W-Z_aem_piqPmsB97dk7PJg2bXWxhA