SaturdayVariety

New Tunnels Open

If you were able to hang over the parapet of the A40 Westway near Royal Oak station, you would now be able to see trains entering and leaving a tunnel. Here is the same location on Google Earth ...

... and this is the same area on the Carto map of London's railways.

Over to the east of central London,. you could make your way along Marshgate Lane. You would be very close to Pudding Mill Lane Docklands Railway Station.

There you would find a tunnel staring on an overbridge.

We can look down from above, again via Google Earth ...

... and again on the track diagram.

From Pudding Mill Lane, Elizabeth Line line (a k a Crossrail) trains from Shenfield now plunge into the bowels of the earth and continue in tunnel to Paddington.

Back at Royal Oak, trains from Reading and Heathrow do their plunge and continue to Abbey Wood.

Yes, folks, the Elizabeth Line line is now joined up! But not quite - another change is due in May 2023.

But it gives country bumpkins like fbb a chance to visualise this wonder of the modern age as its planners intended rather than in three separate bits. There is only blog room for an extract of the Monday to Friday repeat pattern on the full timetable, but it will show what is happening very clearly.

There are EIGHT trains an hour from Shenfield to Paddington 

(only three shown above)

There are EIGHT trains an hour from Abbey Wood to Paddington

(only three shown above)

FOUR of the Abbey Wood trains continue westwards

TWO to Maidenhead and 

TWO to Reading

(only one of each shown)

FOUR from Abbey Wood run to Heathrow (terminals 2,3)

TWO run on to terminal 4

TWO to terminal 5

(only one shown)

There are extra trains at peak periods.

fbb is anxious to "do" the Elizabeth Line line but decisions are pending until the consequences of the impending first eyeball stabbing are known. Folk that have been stabbed say it is both painless and straightforward if a little scary at first. That excitement happens on Monday.

New Tunnel Opens (Maybe)

With double rail breaks? 

Double what?

Wiring a two rail model railway ought to be simple. You stick one wire on one rail and one wire on the other; power up and away you go. Hmmm, if it were only that simple.

The double rail breaks are shown in red on the above sketch. You need them because of what happens to the electric in a set of point blades. With the points both set for straight on (as above), take a look at what happens. On the upper point, the black goes down BOTH rails of the crossover but on the lower point RED goes down both rails. Without the double rail breaks RED and BLACK meet and poof - a short circuit, a cut out on the controller cuts out and thus sends no electricity to the track.

Without the automatic cut out, by the way, the short circuit gets back to the controller and, poof, no controller, just a blackened biscuit!

Double rail breaks are easy peasy. You replace the metal fishplates with plastic ones.

But the plastic fishplates are soft and flexible so pushing track together from both ends of fbb's tunnel ...

... proved a real challenge even without the lid. You join one bit and another but falls apart. Aaaaasrgh!

How about sticking the lengths of rail together with good'n'strong Duck Tape?

No, not enough bite! The joints still fall apart. In the end fbb stuck the ends of each chunk of track together with strips of plastic glued with two-part epoxy resin and slid the whole assembly into place.

Trains ran on both sides of the loop during a testing session yesterday!

Note the light coloured tabs holding it all together! Just!

The next job is to fit a solenoid point motor so that point at the end of the loop that can be operated remotely from the control panel (not yet built!) at the other end of the baseboard. Once it is all operating smoothly, the top of the tunnel and its scenery can be replaced ... (below, the old tunnel top scene under development) ...

... then something will surely go wrong with the track below!

Contravision Controversy

Would you like to ride in this?

What message? 

"You won't enjoy the ride because of spots before the eyes! So don't use the service!"

Daft!

Günstige Bahntarife in Deutschland

Sehr Gut!

Now that is a good idea to help with climate change!

Snippet

fbb receives swathes of pictures from Pinterest. Over the years they can become irritating and repetitive; but a few topics remain of interest.

One in particular is the design of train, tram and bus publicity posters/ This is an art form that has almost totally disappeared from the UKs transport system - which is much the poorer as a consequence.

This little gem (from the 1930s ???) amused the old man.

How many of today's commuters would consider their Underground journey as being in the lap of luxury?

 Next aroiety blpg : Snday 13th November