Wilkinstown wrote:I don't get the point about passengers walking from one carriage to another especially if this could be done at leisure, i.e with the train standing clear of the track circuits controlling the level crossing and unimpaired conditions available for operating into and out of the 2nd platform.
There never was the leisure available. It would have taken far longer to detrain a 7-coach train through four carriages, time which did not exist in the path available.
But that wasn't the point. Making passengers detrain through other coaches gives a bad impression, especially since the queues would be very long for the passengers standing in the front two carriages waiting to detrain via the third carriage. Long queues make unhappy passengers.
The diagram gives the impression that the traps work both directions, so don't mind me on that one. It would still be pretty reasonable in the great scheme of things for 495 only to be capable of being cleared once a train was stopped or nearly so at it, given the proximity of the buffer stops, and I don't understand why you object so much to this.
Re the 19 minutes/25 minutes dispute, the remaining 6 minutes are probably for the light engine to clear the crossing and the local train to depart as I've suggested - with the two movements happening so quickly after the level crossing track circuits were cleared, the minimum clear period before the level crossing could be operated again, and the time it takes to lower the barriers, it may have been considered better to keep the barriers down.