On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 17:36:11 +0100, Peter Masson wrote:

In the mid-1970s as part of the London Bridge resignalling a new Up
Passenger Loop was created asjacent to the platform 6 (renumbered from 7)
track. At the same time platform 6 was renumbered 5. The Up Passenger
Loop
and platform 6 line converge immediately beyond the station, with an
overlap
measured in inches rather than metres. Around 1990 platforms were again
extended to 12-car length, and the opportunity was taken to set the
starting
signals back to provide a slightly more satisfactory overlap.

That doesn't sound quite right. There must have been plenty of twelve-
coach trains through London Bridge before 1990 (although they used to
hang over the end at Charing Cross at 5 and 6, and couldn't have
fitted in the others).

There were plenty of 12-car trains *through* London Bridge before the 1990s
platform lengthening, but they didn't stop. Moving the stop board further
back on London Bridge platform 6 may have had a side benefit of stopping
passengers running up teh ramp and opening doors of slammers after the right
away had been given, but it dodn't stop passengers running down the
footbridge and doing the same thing. The real reason was, as I stated, to
increase the overlap before the fouling point of platform 6 line and the Up
Passenger Loop.

There's a similar unused length of platform on platform 5. This adds
an (apparently) unnecessary extra walk from the ramp to the train.
Does this exist purely because of slammers?