Cab Ride - Wandsworth Road to Staines

We continue the journey started in the last video. This part of the journey is from Wandsworth Road to Staines, via Clapham Junction, Richmond and Twickenham. The journey is aboard 09-type Plasser & Theurer tampers.
The final part of the journey from Staines to Woking Up Yard will be uploaded next

[@martinmarsola6477]

Another enjoyable ride today. Love these videos. See you on the next. Cheers mates! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸

[@emmo999]

Good stuff!

[@ffrancrogowski2192]

This an excellent cab ride. I've never been over any of these lines on this video. These track machine films are really great, and thanks for presenting them.

[@emmo999]

Thanks for the nice comments. Glad you enjoyed the ride!

[@andrewpalm2103]

Another great ride through the maze of routes in the London area, including a tutorial on RIding The Yellows. Cheers from Wisconsin!

[@emmo999]

Frustrating when you’re behind a stopping passenger train, and stations are so frequent. I generally try to always keep at least one yellow in front of me - less danger of a SPAD then

[@rogercarrell]

I used to work an UP Torrington Goods 02:40 from Basingstoke to Feltham Yard back in the 1960s, so it was good to see it in reverse! Thank You.

[@emmo999]

Glad you enjoyed the ride

[@paulmark63]

What a great video I always look forward to these looking forward to the next one. Kindest regards Paul in Kent

[@emmo999]

Thank you for the kind words. Final video in this journey will be up in a few days

[@lesliebradshaw1408]

Thanks very much for the video I realy appreciate all the hard work you put in to producing them and very much look forward to No3 thanks Les

[@emmo999]

Thanks for the nice feedback, Les. It’s appreciated

[@geoffbarry9540]

Am currently re-reading my copy of "The Southern Since 1948" written in the 80s. Interesting that it mentions the establishment of Feltham as the first of the new order of signalling centres that were intended to take the Southern into the new millenium (I think it opened in 1974 but can't be bothered to get up and check). And now it's effectively no more, swallowed up by the behemoth of Basingstoke...such is the march of time.

[@jonathananderson2816]

Compared to another (similar video), you provide more information. And the first video I have watched that has gone straight on at Barnes and not turned right. Thank You Sir

[@emmo999]

I try to provide enough to be informative, but not so much it’s a distraction from the view. I think it’s a fine balance

[@timosha21]

I'm a tram and I approve this video! Great footage!

[@AndyGabrielPowell]

Went to an open day at Stewarts Lane back in the 70's. Always wondered where all those lines went. Now I know! Great stuff as always. I also appreciate the 'bite size' of the videos. Longer ones are fine, but I end up pausing them over a few nights anyway.

[@emmo999]

It’s a complicated web of lines around there, that’s for sure! I think if videos are too short, the journey is too broken. But then too long, and people switch off. So 30-45 mins is roughly what I aim for if I can

[@fredporlock2619]

Many thanks for another absorbing video. The lines south of the Thames always make me think of a bunch of knitting - the result of uncoordinated private enterprise in the nineteenth century, no doubt. I hadn’t realised that the down lines between Clapham Junction and Barnes, which I use a lot, are named what sees to be the wrong way round. Stopping trains generally run on the “fast” line and non-stopping trains on the “slow” line. (The up lines are operated more logically.) Presumably they were originally worked in accordance with the naming and it was then found that the present patters would be more practical operationally?

[@emmo999]

The same is true of the Chatham lines between Swanley and Shortlands - the stoppers use the Fasts, and the expresses use the Slows

[@musicman1514]

Amazing cab ride. Just an FYI Basingstoke ROC took over Richmond, Twickenham and Strawberry Hill lines in April 2021 not 2022.

[@emmo999]

Pretty sure it was April 2022, as I have the resignalling booklet for it that was issued to staff

[@musicman1514]

@@emmo999 2022 was Egham, Virginia Water and Ascot. I work for SWR in the Richmond area.

[@emmo999]

Ah ok, cheers for the clarification

[@stuartfanning]

Since the mid 1960's it's Ashford (Surrey) not Ashford (Middlesex).

[@emmo999]

The Network Rail maps I refer to still name it as Middlesex, although I accept the county has long gone and the station is, indeed, in Surrey

[@anthonyavransom2592]

locals like myself still call it Ashford Middlesex.

[@emmo999]

I live in Bromley, and I still say Kent

[@martinjh999]

2:37 - I was wondering just how extra dangerous it is with the 3rd rail in that neck of the woods for all those trackside workers...

[@emmo999]

Depends on what work is taking place. If it’s anything significant, then it will be during an engineers possession, and the electrics will be isolated. Otherwise, there are shrouds they can use to place over the juice rail, if they are unable to guarantee a safe distance from it

[@2H80vids]

An interesting run indeed.👍 Terrible conditions for filming, at least until the rain passed over us; hope you could see more than us.😂 Do you wear hearing protection in the cab of these things? The rattles must give you a headache after a while.

[@emmo999]

To be honest, you switch off from the rattles after a while. They’re just part and parcel of the journey. And you need full senses to deal with the various audible alarms that go off (vigilance, AWS for example) The rain wasn’t great, but at least it was sporadic rather than heavy heavy

[@rwm2986]

Thanks, very enjoyable. I am amazed that you weren't sent around the 'Hounslow Loop' between Barnes and Feltham. But, then it looks like you were behind a 'stopper' between Clapham Junction and Whitton - does the Waterloo to Waterloo (Barnes to Whitton then Hounslow Loop back to Barnes) still run? I am looking forward to the next (last?) part as Staines to Weybridge (Addlestone Junction in this case) is my old stamping ground.

[@emmo999]

Hopefully it should be uploaded tomorrow afternoon. Hoped to get it up today, but time was against me. The route was always planned as Richmond, and yes, somewhat slow going when you’re behind a stopper and stations are so frequent!

[@michaeldupree5801]

Another great video - thank you!! Just out of interest was this journey filmed on a weekend when the Hounslow line was closed for maintenance? I just thought it was unusual for a freight service to be routed via Richmond, they tend to go via Hounslow.

[@emmo999]

No, this was a weekday run, and this was the booked path. So pass!

[@michaeldupree5801]

Very interesting as the Hounslow branch looked clear and it looks like you more or less got stuck behind the all stations Kingston service until Twickenham. Not that I am complaining in anyway, this is the first video I have seen of the Richmond branch since all the new signalling was installed. I am not sure about the new signal at the end of Richmond station just after the underpass, it looked difficult to see because of the darkness/sunlight, I think the old Feltham signal used to be at the end of the platform and I felt it was clearer for train drivers to see but I could be wrong, it may have just been the camera adjusting etc.

[@emmo999]

You’ll note along the route a lot of the signals have moved. Where the journey is still under Feltham, and not yet transferred to the ROC, you can see new posts been installed without signal heads showing the new locations. This was equally true of what has already changed, so we could see the changes in advance of it going live

[@michaeldupree5801]

@@emmo999 Got it!! I have often wondered why the new posts are there for such a duration of time with no signal heads!!

[@emmo999]

I don’t think it’s deliberately for drivers to get to them, but it’s certainly advantageous to take note of these things ready for the inevitable changeover

[@robertturvey2113]

can someone help me please..Just watching the Wandsworth Road to Stains video and inbetween Richmond station and Richmond Bridge there are a construct in between the rails that looks like two circles or shields joined by a length of wood or something. There are two of these and I dont know what they are for. I have only noticed them on SR wideos must not on my local Merseyrail third rail system. Thanks in advance

[@emmo999]

Official name is an impedance bond. What they do is part of the track circuits, which tell the signaller where you are on the line. They are quite old technology and are everywhere all over the network

[@davidpanton3192]

Glad we don't get a test on all these junctions.

[@emmo999]

They’re not too bad if you learn them gradually over time bit by bit

[@mdhazeldine]

Amazing! I've been waiting for like 2 years for a cab ride along this stretch and now we've had yours and one other in the last 2 weeks! Very helpful for my train simulator route build! Which section of line is coming next then? Also, do you ever do the Kingston Loop or Windsor branches in the tamper? Last cab ride I have of those is from 2004!

[@emmo999]

Next route will be Staines to Woking via Virginia Water

[@mdhazeldine]

@@emmo999 Ah. That's the same as the other video. Seems like a common route for freight and non passenger traffic.

[@emmo999]

There’s nowhere else to go. From Staines the only other alternative is Windsor, which is a dead end line

[@mdhazeldine]

@@emmo999 I realise that. I just figured that you might have to tamp on those sections at some point, but perhaps that's a much rarer event.

[@emmo999]

The trouble is we don’t get control of where we tamp, so some bits of line we rarely travel on, especially dead end bits. Whereas obviously through routes get used for general machine movements, not just tamping