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| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 18/06/2013 at 20:05 #45799 | |
Humorist
102 posts |
Does anyone know about the working arrangements for ScotRail's GolfLink to and from Drem in connection with The Open Championship at Muirfield? What units are going to be used, single/multiple? Where will they turn back? Has it been tried out before going live? Log in to reply |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 18/06/2013 at 21:17 #45801 | |
Peter Bennet
5362 posts |
The on-line booking engines have the trains in them so you can see the passenger timetable. It's probably too early to know what the diagrams are. At a guess the trains may stop in the up loop and in any event reverse at Sig EF821 on the Up main. An alternative would be to go to Dunbar and reverse there. [Edit] Just thought, realtime trains - have checked that site and they are listed - turnaround appear to be a matter of minutes on those looked at so EF821 must be the favourite. [Edit 2] Yes some go via the loop and indeed it looks like at least one (1Z10) goes off to N Berwick, coming back as a service train 2Y03. If you have a pencil and paper you could draw up the diagram(s) from this if you were so minded. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Last edited: 18/06/2013 at 21:31 by Peter Bennet Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Humorist |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 18/06/2013 at 21:25 #45802 | |
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UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
Many of them are doing just what Peter said, but some are going onwards to Dunbar before heading back to Edinburgh Waverley.
Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Log in to reply |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 18/06/2013 at 21:27 #45803 | |
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UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
On Wednesday 17th July 2013, many of them are doing just what Peter said*, but some are going onwards to Drem to reverse there and head back to Edinburgh Waverley. * = Some, e.g.: 5Z16, make a brief stop in the UPL to allow other trains to pass. 5Z51 reverses at North Berwick. 5Z61 goes straight to Dunbar to reverse. Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Last edited: 18/06/2013 at 21:50 by UKTrainMan Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Humorist |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 18/06/2013 at 22:13 #45805 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
The answer is "all of the above":(Thursday/Friday workings) Last edited: 18/06/2013 at 22:16 by Danny252 Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Humorist |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 19/06/2013 at 10:19 #45809 | |
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Humorist
102 posts |
Thank you, all three, I felt sure that someone should know. As Peter suggests, I'll go and do the diagrams, which might point to how much extra stock is needed.
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| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 19/06/2013 at 15:12 #45818 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
What quite amused me was the rather optimistic turnarounds at Drem (2 minutes station time, usually) - either they don't expect huge crowds, or the big railway is far better at emptying/filling trains than I am used to!
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| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 19/06/2013 at 16:26 #45827 | |
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kbarber
1712 posts |
" said:What quite amused me was the rather optimistic turnarounds at Drem (2 minutes station time, usually) - either they don't expect huge crowds, or the big railway is far better at emptying/filling trains than I am used to! As I recall from my days doing football working, tipping them out at the venue really isn't a problem. (In slam-door days preventing them emptying before the train was below a fast trot would've been a far bigger problem but to be honest we never tried!) There isn't usually too much of a problem loading after the event either - everyone wants to get home/to the pub as quick as they can. In BR days there would invariably be a management presence on the station, with authority to hold trains until they were fully-loaded so you didn't have too much of a crowd building up on the platform without a train there waiting for them. My usual practice if there was a biggish crowd was to hold each train either until it was suitably full or until the following one was likely to be approaching - the ideal was to get it away just in time to keep the next one running on greens, although this was much more art than judgement before the universal presence of computer terminals connected to train describers. The same general principle applied at Wembley Central the one time I did a cup final there (albeit as one of a very large team of supervisors, with a much more senior manager in overall charge) - Man U vs Brighton meant some serious numbers of extra trains. Quite frankly, the objective at that kind of event is to shift people in the largest numbers possible and keeping to a timetable that wasn't written for that specific purpose came a rather poor second. Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Humorist |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 19/06/2013 at 16:54 #45828 | |
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Humorist
102 posts |
Thanks, KBarber. What interests me is, given the very limited space at Drem, UPL and DPL, with a "one engine in steam" branch to North Berwick, how is this all to be managed? If you have Quail Maps, it is on page 11B, which shows platform lengths of six cars (up) and seven (down), so presumably the maximum is a double 334. East Coast will expect to be able to fly through at their usual 110 to 115 mph. I agree with Danny that two minutes for turnround seems quite optimistic. Anyway, rail was reckoned to have been a success at previous Opens, at Carnoustie and at Leuchars (St Andrews), so we'll see what happens. Log in to reply |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 19/06/2013 at 17:54 #45830 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
The trains to/from North Berwick seem to be replacements for normal ECS/service trains, otherwise it seems to be a case of "hide the train in a loop until there's a path".
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| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 19/06/2013 at 20:14 #45834 | |
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kbarber
1712 posts |
" said:<snip> it seems to be a case of "hide the train in a loop until there's a path". That's what the manager should be there to arrange/authorise. Of course nowadays it's probably m'learned friends armed with copies of the Performance Regime :angry: Log in to reply |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 13/07/2013 at 06:01 #47065 | |
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Peter Bennet
5362 posts |
According to a scot-rail posting the trains are 4 car 380/1s supplemented by a 170 or 2x158 in the peaks. Apparently there is also the "Northern Belle" running from Aberdeen to Presonpans on Friday (1Z80 if you want to look it up). Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Humorist |
| Open Golf Championship - GolfLink to Drem 03/08/2013 at 19:25 #47892 | |
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Humorist
102 posts |
To close this thread, what I saw of the GolfLink rail arrangements worked superbly. Had we driven to the Open, we would have parked right beside Drem station anyway, and travelled to Muirfield in the same clapped-out First Group double-deckers, so, why drive. There was usually space on the trains, 380s, though once, we elected not to push on to an already full train, and rather to get a seat on the next one in less than 20 minutes, and this arrived in Waverley less than five minutes after the train we disdained, because it made the stops, and ours did not. Good work, Scotrail! Log in to reply |