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Platforming & pathing into London Victoria (Eastern)

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Bald Rick

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Points are either 'normal' or 'reverse'. Normal being the direction they 'normally' lay if not commanded to move, usually (but not always) the busier route.

Points that swing a lot are usually more reliable than those that see occasional use, in a similar way that my car is less reliable in winter if I use it twice a month.

Points can fail 'no normal' 'no reverse' or 'out of correspondence', the last of which means no train can pass until they have been clamped in the preferred direction, and trains are then talked past the protecting signal at danger. In the other two scenarios trains can be signalled normally on the unfailed route.

A wrong side points failure is when they lie normal when commanded reverse (or vice versa), the nterlocking fails to detect this, and thus the signal routes the train along the incorrect route. The only times I have ever known this happen is when a set of points detection is incorrectly wired.

As for the rails near London Bridge, yes they get a lot of traffic, but it is all low speed and EMUs. Junctions on the WCML, and GEML for example, get fewer trains but at high speed and with heavy freight, so take an absolute hammering. They need much more TLC.
 
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DJL

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25 Oct 2013
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Points are either 'normal' or 'reverse'. Normal being the direction they 'normally' lay if not commanded to move, usually (but not always) the busier route.

Points that swing a lot are usually more reliable than those that see occasional use, in a similar way that my car is less reliable in winter if I use it twice a month.

Points can fail 'no normal' 'no reverse' or 'out of correspondence', the last of which means no train can pass until they have been clamped in the preferred direction, and trains are then talked past the protecting signal at danger. In the other two scenarios trains can be signalled normally on the unfailed route.

A wrong side points failure is when they lie normal when commanded reverse (or vice versa), the nterlocking fails to detect this, and thus the signal routes the train along the incorrect route. The only times I have ever known this happen is when a set of points detection is incorrectly wired.

As for the rails near London Bridge, yes they get a lot of traffic, but it is all low speed and EMUs. Junctions on the WCML, and GEML for example, get fewer trains but at high speed and with heavy freight, so take an absolute hammering. They need much more TLC.



ahh that makes sense.
So I guess what I probably meant was "no normal".

A wrong side points failure sounds like very bad news!
I think I read about something similar to what you describe - only with signals not points - happening near Clapham Junction after some maintenance causing a rather nasty accident early one morning.
 
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