Are you sure we're on the right track?
Revised Description: I initially offered this lineside picture from the Easter Monday Reading diversions because I was puzzled by the highly unusual wrong-line working.
Thanks to Nicholas Dalton, who quoted a railway employee at Banbury (it was also reported by Radio Oxford, two days later), it turns out that the driver boarded the wrong HST at Banbury, discovered his mistake at some point down the line - possibly at Aynho Junction when he found himself being sent in the wrong direction.
The point at which he was allowed to stop and go back to Banbury wrong line is as yet unknown. He could have been transferred on to the right line via the crossovers just north of Aynho Jc but it would seem that delaying traffic on the Up line was less serious than on the Down line (where the signals were continuously at amber) - so that's the way he was allowed to go back same way as he came.
We can all chuckle about this but I went straight from the above location to Banbury station for most of the evening and as further pictures I took there will show, things at Banbury were really stretched. The station only had 2 available platforms to cope with all the extra traffic to and from Paddington. And that meant having to stable each train and then return it on another line. When I asked on the day which platform an HST would run into, I was told that the decision was made by the signalmen. With so many conflicting trains and movements, and times when both available platforms were holding HSTs, is it that big a surprise that the driver boarded the wrong one?
Details: 43134 at this end.
© Copyright Steve Banks, no unauthorised use.
Are you sure we're on the right track?
Revised Description: I initially offered this lineside picture from the Easter Monday Reading diversions because I was puzzled by the highly unusual wrong-line working.
Thanks to Nicholas Dalton, who quoted a railway employee at Banbury (it was also reported by Radio Oxford, two days later), it turns out that the driver boarded the wrong HST at Banbury, discovered his mistake at some point down the line - possibly at Aynho Junction when he found himself being sent in the wrong direction.
The point at which he was allowed to stop and go back to Banbury wrong line is as yet unknown. He could have been transferred on to the right line via the crossovers just north of Aynho Jc but it would seem that delaying traffic on the Up line was less serious than on the Down line (where the signals were continuously at amber) - so that's the way he was allowed to go back same way as he came.
We can all chuckle about this but I went straight from the above location to Banbury station for most of the evening and as further pictures I took there will show, things at Banbury were really stretched. The station only had 2 available platforms to cope with all the extra traffic to and from Paddington. And that meant having to stable each train and then return it on another line. When I asked on the day which platform an HST would run into, I was told that the decision was made by the signalmen. With so many conflicting trains and movements, and times when both available platforms were holding HSTs, is it that big a surprise that the driver boarded the wrong one?
Details: 43134 at this end.
© Copyright Steve Banks, no unauthorised use.