On Feb 4, 7:00*pm, MIG wrote:

On 4 Feb, 18:48, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Thu, 4 Feb 2010 01:34:05 -0800 (PST), MIG
wrote:
All fences gone and a 378 parked at New Cross today.

When you say "fences" do you mean whatever was in place to cordon off
the ELL bay [1] platform at New Cross?

[1] assuming it is a bay, I can't remember.

Yes, it was all annoyingly hidden by hordings for ages, and then for
the last couple of weeks there were some sections with those metal
mesh things in concrete blocks, but now there seems to be free access
to the platform.

I was wondering if the train was there for some kind of preview for
dignitaries. *It seemed to be there all day.

I've only just noticed that the potential pantograph coach seems back
to front, ie the dent in the roof isn't at the middle end. *I was
wondering if it was a made-up unit, but now I look at pictures and
they are like that.

It is a bay platform, and I think any platform in that location always
must have been (Peter Masson will know better). *It's New Cross Gate
that had a through platform effectively used as a bay due to the
limits of electrification.

It wasn't just because of the limits of [LU fourth rail]
electrification, it was the limits of the track too - i.e. there
wasn't any track that connected the ELL with the Southern network, not
in recent years at least - see Clive Feather's photo he
http://www.davros.org/rail/photos/p002.html

Obviously this has changed once again in the past year, and the
connection has once again been restored.