I think if there is a line the NR standard design is to have it behind the tactiles (as seen from a train), Sandown may therefore be wrong.
I did for a very brief second, until I did a double take!
Especially as I'd have thought that on Island Line it would be extremely rare for a train of any sort to go through a station non-stop. ECS or p-way workings are presumably the only possible ones?
I don’t believe there are any ECS services as we usually know them. In the normal weekday timetable trains enter and leave service at St John’s Rd, so the only empty moves are shunts between depot and station. I don’t think there’s any maintenance traffic in normal circumstances.
I'm not sure anything on Island Line normally operates ECS, it doesn't have to. The first and last trains go in and out of service at St. John's Road, and that's it.
I did for a very brief second, until I did a double take!
Mind you, seagulls are no doubt cheaper and are more apt for the location, being near the sea!
Third rail is definitely being retained, else the 484s would be no use in their current form.
Could you use spring-loaded points for something like that, as per loops on the West Highland?
The press announcement about the project delays (posts #446/7) said they would use the extra time to paint the stations...
I hope so. That will give more purpose to the line, that it's not 'just' a heritage ride. Still, it's not my money paying for it...!
I would imagine so. They have been in use at Sandown since 1987.
There are a couple of pictures of what’s actually been fitted at Brading, the 1st and 4th pics in post #448, looks like a pretty normal point machine?
Post 448. A very normal points motor is pictured.
My fault, forgot to add the post number. Now edited...
Modern passenger railway systems tend not to have true 'spring' points. They can have powered ones that effectively act like spring points, but they are more secure for trains in the facing direction. So yes, it's possibly a 'spring' point with a motor.
The points at Sandown (and at many locations on RETB lines in Scotland, the Whitby branch, etc.) are hydro-kinetic. Basically there is a small reservoir at each side of the switch blade ends filled with hydraulic fluid at equal pressure to keep the points set into one or other of the loops in the facing direction. When a train departs from the other loop it pushes through the points in the trailing direction, considerably increasing the fluid pressure in one of the the reservoirs, which then pushes the swith blades back to their normal position as soon as the train has passed through. In the event of a failure (usually a fluid leakage), the points can be pumped across manually using a special handle kept in a secure location nearby and accessible to drivers who are issued with a designated key. Because these points are not fitted with facing point locks in the conventional sense, they are subject to a maximum permissible speed of 15 mph. They are electrically-detected in combination with a yellow 'points set' light on the approach. If this is not illuminated, drivers must stop, walk forward to examine the points and check that they are correctly-set (using the emergency pumping handle if necessary) before proceeding into the loop.
I thought Egrets at first, since it is next to the RSPB reserve
they're also now obsolete and there are limited spares so new installations are unlikely. I believe there is a project ongoing in Scotland to remove them by linking the RETB tokens to point machines.
