What is the purpose of Neasden to Neasden 'turning trips'?

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

" said:

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Evens out wheel wear

" said:

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Some A stock units (which were 4 cars) only had a driving cab at one end. They were coupled in pairs with the cab at opposite ends, or with double-ended units, to make 8 car trains.

If a cab-at-north unit goes for maintenance and the only spare is a cab-at-south unit, that will need to be turned round.

" said:

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Some A stock units (which were 4 cars) only had a driving cab at one end. They were coupled in pairs with the cab at opposite ends, or with double-ended units, to make 8 car trains.

If a cab-at-north unit goes for maintenance and the only spare is a cab-at-south unit, that will need to be turned round.

" said:

" said:

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Some A stock units (which were 4 cars) only had a driving cab at one end. They were coupled in pairs with the cab at opposite ends, or with double-ended units, to make 8 car trains.

If a cab-at-north unit goes for maintenance and the only spare is a cab-at-south unit, that will need to be turned round.

Technically, not quite correct. A Stock cars are handed - you couldn't just couple 2 souths together to make an 8 car, the non-cab ends wouldn't couple, and you'd end up with 2 souths you couldn't use. Turning trips for A Stock were normally used to either undo the reversals that occured naturally in the timetable (services booked via Watford N Curve), or to turn double-enders in order to have them the correct orientation to form an 8 car with another 4 car.

The S Stock turning trips, as featured in both the included and updated v7 Marylebone TTs aren't for cabs being at the wrong end - the units are all double ended and reversible, so turning the for this purpose would be uneccesary. Wheel wear struck me as the only sensible reason why they'd bother with it now, as operationally it really doesn't matter which way round you stick an S Stock. Perhaps metcontrol could post and shed some light as to why these still run?

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Quote:

Evens out wheel wear

That's only an issue for trains running round the Circle.

" said:

" said:

Simple question - what is the purpose/need to reverse LUL sets via these services?

Some A stock units (which were 4 cars) only had a driving cab at one end. They were coupled in pairs with the cab at opposite ends, or with double-ended units, to make 8 car trains.

If a cab-at-north unit goes for maintenance and the only spare is a cab-at-south unit, that will need to be turned round.

Technically, not quite correct. A Stock cars are handed

To me this is the most sensible explanation, however I would imagine it would be more likely that we would see S7's doing the turning moves rather than S8's? I say this as the S7's would be far more likely to experience uneven wheel wear from Circle Line use than the S8's which pretty much always go out and back, and the Ricky - Watford ECS moves would balance them out naturally anyway.

The turning moves are still carried out - though not as regularly. There is still maintenance equipment which is "side" dependant (don't ask me what that equipment is!) and cannot be accessed if the train arrives in depot a certain way round.

The C-stock turning - with regard to wheel wear - was more of a myth than anything. Yes in theory if the stock was left for long period on the same Circle Line direction they could suffer wheel wear, but the varied nature of the operation of the stock meant that it was rare for any one train to be left in that way.

The turning used to occur by scheduled timetable trips which normally utilised the Aldgate/Minories Junction triangle. The most common would be for a train to start service in the morning by running Barking-Tower Hill then round the Circle to Edgware Road. Then after running "clockwise" round the circle for most of the day they then form onto another Barking service that evening. By the time the stock goes back to Barking it is turned. However, as mentioned, it was unlikely a train would remain on its correct path all day, and often trains which were meant to be turned would end up staying the same way around!

Turning C-stocks was more to ensure we didn't have too many units "facing east" and nothing "facing west."

Unsure what you mean by west or east facing units? Could you expand on that please?

Slightly off topic, but I have memories of the silly mileage involved in turning 1M44 in the mid 1980s:

1M44 was the up Glasgow to Euston TPO (Travelling Post Office) - still running under same headcode then as it was on August 8th 1963 (Great Train Robbery).

By the 1980s, the clever 'retrieval of lineside bags at speed' system was long gone, but postal carriages still had doors (indeed letterboxes) on one side only. This meant that train had to be signalled into correct platforms on the up run and turned before following nights 'down' run - I forget the headcode.

At the start of my time working in North London, the ECS came back out of Euston and reversed round the complex of lines in the Willesden area.

This seemed to cause congestion in morning peak so it then went as far north as Birmingham to turn round the Soho/Perry Barr route.

After this it was timetabled to turn on the Gresty Lane triangle at Crewe - a silly 158 miles north of Euston (from memory) - just to turn a train every day!

And I thought The Canadian had a lengthy turnaround...

" said:

And I thought The Canadian had a lengthy turnaround...

Since we're on the subject, what do they do at the Vancouver end - are the wyes around Pacific Central large enough? The lengths seem to just about work out, depending on how many coaches they throw on for the summer season.