You've got to admire the old british rail. Put cables(metal) up with no mechanism to tighten then when they expand. They knew steel rails expand, so put expansion gaps in, but neglected to allow for this in overhead lines. Or doing it on the cheap.

Lines droop, catch on the pantograph thing and pull down half a mile before the train stops.

It’s old infrastructure - at least 60 years old. Electrification didn’t reach Chelmsford until 1956 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_East ... ne#History ). That line needs a power supply upgrade, but so far, nothing’s happened.

The problem is that the East Coast line isn’t seen as important, just like the A12 isn’t. The fact that freight trundles up and down both routes to and from Harwich is meaningless. So both are poorly maintained.

I don't recall any mention of the overhead line being caught in the article, where did you see that?

It was in the video...



Leaves cause trains to lose traction, snow causes sections of track to appear occupied thanks to it completing the track circuit (usually completed by the metal train wheels and axle), vandals make things dangerous, and people throwing themselves in front of trains cause serious trauma for a lot of drivers and other support staff...

Leaves and snow certainly shouldn't be a problem, but they are, if you're not happy with it then I guess you should either elect someone who's going to do something about it, or go and fund the teams that go out there and makes the problems as little as possible.

That was mentioned as a possibility. I thought Mike's post suggested it had actually happened.

Anyway why weren't the counterweights taking up the slack?

Hold on what about Rail Track they owned this track for a number of years and they did nothing to improve the situation.

Overhead lines havn't been pulled down this year yet, that is the aim ofd the speed reductions I understand.

On more modern lines there are wieghts which keep up the tension, we are supposed to be getting upgrades on the liverpool st to colchester/ipswich lines, but they are taking their own good time over it.