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[email protected] · January 7th 14, 09:23 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Aurora) wrote:

On Mon, 6 Jan 2014 16:12:44 -0000, "Peter Masson"
wrote:

"Robin9" wrote in message ...

Graham Nye;140397 Wrote:

In the early 70s I used to commute between Woking and Surbiton on 12
car trains. In the afternoons I could see 16 car expresses heading
down through Surbiton.

I'm very surprised to hear that. You're sure they were
passenger-carrying trains and not empty stock movements? I didn't know
there were any platforms sufficiently long for 16 car trains.

I'm quite sure they weren't passenger-carrying. At the time the only
passenger trains on the SR longer than 12 coaches were some Victoria -
Dover/Folkestone Boat Trains, which had 14, including a MLV and a BG, and
the Night Ferry which could have 17 vehicles behind the loco, including
wagons-lits and fourgons. It had to use platform 2 at Victoria; the
14-car Boat Trains could use 2 or 6.

IIRC Back in the 1960s and 1970s Waterloo's platform 19 was about the
longest. It sat next to a former cab road that had become an area
used by the Royal Mail. I doubt that platform could accommodate more
than say 12 Mk 1s and a Western or Warship for the Exeter service.

You can't mean 19 at Waterloo. That was a Windsor Lines platform not used
for West of England expresses and not by the taxi road either. Did you mean
9?

On the Brighton side of Victoria, I recall at least one very long
platform. At the City end its opposing platform was the normal two
tracks away. At the Country end there were three tracks between the
two platforms. At some mid-point theplatform in question narrowed.
The adjacent track had a turnout to the central road.

The described platform could accommodate one very long train or two
shorter ones. A short train at the buffer end could exit thru the
center road, passing another short train at the country end. The LBSC
always was rather innovative.

I think arrangements like that were quite common. Crossovers in platform
roads used to be far more common of course when they were needed for engine
release purposes.

--
Colin Rosenstiel