Money for old cable

Cable theft has gained a fair amount of media attention recently, we’ve been told to be extra vigilant for suspicious looking types hanging around and on a few occasions over the recent weeks we’ve been asked to go Coded through an area as there are staff and/or BTP trackside investigating reports of trespassers on the line.

They’ve also reduced the amount of power supplied into a section after 10pm, feeding one end rather than both as apparently this makes detection easier though I’ve no idea how this works, I just drive ‘em. The noticeable effect is that we are moving at greatly reduced speeds, mostly out on the extreme of the EPP branch with the 3 minute trip up the hill from THB to EPP taking around 10 minutes.

All this seems to have been in vain as the ne'er-do-wells struck again Sunday morning, cutting the cable that fed Plat.1 at EPP. As all the early trains leave from Plat. 2 it wasn’t detected until one went over the rail gap at the crossover, coasted into the platform and the TOp had changed ends to find that there was no juice. The train had to sit there all day until the current was switched off at the close of traffic, the cable could be replaced and the night spare could bring it back down.