All Gone West at Ealing

Wednesday, the 13th… Am I superstitious about numbers? – no! 13 is no different to 12 apart from requiring me to use an additional toe when adding up. So, on February 13th I travelled out from Paddington to West Ealing with the intention of photographing some trains and freight trains in particular. I travelled out on the Greenford Donkey – the trains that served the branches off of the Great Western mainline seem to have often been referred to as the ‘Donkey’. The Marlow Donkey particularly comes to mind – It sat in a bay platform at Maidenhead and passengers transferred from a mainline service that stopped there before enduring a slow and tortuous journey via Bourne End. Greenford has always been served from the suburban platforms hidden in the dark depths behind the taxi ramp and below the goods yard at Paddington – the shunting horses saw more daylight than the passengers! The service actually used to be referred to as the ‘Push and Pull’ – a reference to the old Great Western 14xx and Autocoach combination where the locomotive stayed at one end of the train for all journeys and the driver was able to control it from the front of the carriage or the cab of the engine. In BR days the steam service was replaced by a single car diesel unit. Anyway – enough of the history – I will stick with the term Donkey…

So I arrived at Paddington to find that my train – a 2 car class 165 diesel unit – was hiding as expected in the dark depths of the suburban platforms. Major changes to the concourse of Paddington to assist the flow of passengers and improve the ambience have yet to filter through to the abandoned souls beneath the old goods yard – which itself has become a part of the concourse that seems to be tailor made for those who must have a fag before continuing their journey. There are electric ticket gates now – replacing the coffin with the uniformed skeleton that made clutching movements and could sometimes be heard muttering words such as ‘Tickets Please’. And the floor has some nice beige tiles but it’s still as dark as Dracula’s crypt on platform 12 and God help us if there’s a power cut!

The unit itself, 165133, has had a couple of knocks too! The broken fibreglass on the front, testimony to an argument with a Pigeon which the bird almost won – I know these are a lightweight design but… Inside, it was clean and comfortable apart from the occasional vibration transmitted from the engine and transmission – whatever complaints I and other users might have, these are lightyears better than the old Derby Deathtraps! The departure was on time and we set a good pace on the climb up through Royal Oak and Westbourne Park, overtaking an outbound HST on the way.

The purpose of going to West Ealing was to photograph trains, with particular attention to Freight. OK – I understand – there are probably other (better?) reasons to travel to Ealing but Broadway is your best bet if you’re going for the shopping 🙂 I cleared my presence on the station with a member of staff before settling down at the end of platform 3 with my camera. Now, here’s an irony… there are no platform’s 1 & 2 – originally provided on the fast lines they disappeared years ago and, for whatever reason, the old suburban platforms retain their 3 & 4 numbers.

I was pleased to photograph the passing Heathrow Connect services soon after I arrived – the trains are booked to stop at West Ealing at around the same time. If you had any doubts about them serving Heathrow – Check out the pilot with his bags waiting to board! He was a lucky bunny – the next train wouldn’t be stopping…

Not long after the Heathrow Connect’s had departed I heard the announcer (an automated message rather than a human being) warning that the next train on platform 3 was not scheduled to stop. I was somewhat surprised given the announcement to see that the signal at the end of the platform was showing red – Passengers check timetables; Enthusiasts check signals… A couple of minutes later the message repeated itself – a sure sign of trouble as a fast train had passed through just after my arrival and I’d mentally noted that there wasn’t much time between an announcement and the non-stopper running through. Several passengers were waiting on the platform for the Greenford train and were clearly disappointed when there was an announcement that it was delayed due to a broken down train. Then, shortly afterwards, it was announced that it was cancelled – again, due to a broken down train. What wasn’t immediately apparent was that the Greenford Donkey wasn’t the breakdown…

The Heathrow Connect service is booked to pass Acton West at 11:09. A freight that is waiting in Acton yard is booked to start as it passes and should reach Acton West at 11:12. Following the passenger service through Ealing Broadway just a few minutes behind it, the driver of the freight train experienced a failure of the Locomotive and brought the train to a stand halfway between Ealing Broadway and West Ealing. Now nothing could use the relief lines on that stretch.

Around 11:30 the driver arrived on foot at West Ealing, carrying his flag and a canister of detonators to protect his train whilst arranging for a relief locomotive with his control. To his credit and that of his employers, GB railfreight, he explained to passengers on the platform that there would be no more services for the foreseeable future due to the breakdown – and he made a point of intercepting other passengers that drifted down onto the platform despite regular announcements over the speakers regarding the loss of service. The immediate impact of the failure was that no trains could run to Greenford until the blockage was cleared. Passengers wanting to go to Heathrow Airport were advised to catch a train from the London bound platform 4 to Ealing Broadway and catch the Heathrow Connect service from there – the Heathrow Connect trains were diverted onto the fast lines and then back onto the slow further down the line.

So we waited, the driver and I… There was still much to photograph – congestion results in slow running and gives the chance to photograph HST’s and Heathrow Express trains at sensible shutter speeds and ISO ratings.

Relief finally arrived in the form of 66710 which had been working the Crossrail spoil trains from Westbourne Park and bore the evidence in splashes of London Clay on her cab faces. She’d routed round the Greenford loop and into Hanwell before reversing to run wrong line back to West Ealing to meet the driver of the failed train. He Flagged her to a stand and boarded to guide his colleague back to where his train was standing. It was around 12:20 – just over an hour after the initial failure.

You may recall I mentioned Detonators… Once placed on the track, they stay there (at least in these circumstances) – if the relief locomotive driver missed the red flag waved by the driver standing beside the track for any reason, the detonators will certainly alert him to the fact. The passage of 66710 as she wandered wrong line towards the stricken train was accompanied by three very loud bangs. The Pigeons were unimpressed! You could almost hear them threatening to write to their MP’s about illegal hunting in the London boroughs as they flapped off in a huff to seek more peaceful places to roost.

Eventually – having coupled up, 66710 was able to get the train underway again and blasted through West Ealing with the errant 66741 in tow, freeing up the line for normal services to be resumed.

Now, in case some of you think this was induced by the date… on the 12th of Feb I went to Harringay hoping to catch some freight and two trains that I know run every day didn’t turn up. The reason was a failed train before them – another GB Railfreight loco which was rescued by a Freightliner loco. 2 in two days for GBRf – these things happen even to the best of the train operating companies. All’s well that ends well…