On Sat, 26 Jan 2008, Neil Williams wrote:

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:29:24 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

You could make 12-car trains, and lock the rear 4 cars OOU on the
southbound leg. You could even unlock them once you were past Bletchley
and into 12-car land (if that's possible, and if it is indeed all
12-car-clear south of there).

Is there a feasible way of locking 4 cars out of use on 321
formations, without having to open the above-door panels and lock each
door out manually? The reason I ask is that there is an element of
that takes place on the 0735ish which starts from Bletchley (with the
rear 4 off the platform but unlocked, such that you can't get to
them), and it seems surprising that they wouldn't think of it. That
said, you don't see 12 cars on any of the Tring slows, and they
probably load the heaviest

Well, if hanging unlocked cars off the platform does the trick, then that
would be a way of doing it all along the route, perhaps.

- is there another short platform, e.g. Apsley/Kings Langley?

According to Quail, Apsley's 10 cars long; King's Langley is 10 on the
fasts, but 12 on the slows! Everywhere else has platforms suitable for 12
cars on the slows, apart from stations that don't matter, like Wembley
Central (7 cars) and Queen's Park (8 cars). Apsley would surely be a
doddle to extend, although obviously this rules out doing this right now.

Also, Quail says Bletchley has a 9-car platform on the down slow too.

tom

--
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