Thameslink stopping at Forest Hill

There appears to be a Brighton train stopping at Forest Hill this evening at 21.13

(according to Live Departures)

I was tempted to get on board just to see it’s for real.

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This was on Thursday as I was trying to get myself down to Brighton during the signalling rubbish…
No idea whether is actually stopped anywhere or whether it was a gremlin.
There seemed to be one going back too.
There are none now of course and none next week at similar times either.
Spooky!

Yes have spotted this a couple of times in the live departures over the past 2 weeks. All stops Bedord to Brighton was the last I saw.

Surely an aberration! Would be dead handy if a permanent fixture. Don’t see the downside really if the core service is running below peak capacity anyway.

It would be a much appreciated service - direct train to Gatwick, and direct train to the beach!

Yes and the City & Kings Cross/St Pancras!

Must be the hot weather, making everything go haywire ha ha!

Wrong sort of sunlight on the line?

Last week the evening trains from Caterham were additionally stopping at Norwood Junction (rather than being ‘fast’ to London Bridge after East Croydon) though the drivers and passenger information systems seemed to be surprised each time leading to a bit of a passenger hokey-kokey as conflicting things were announced.

It did make for a much nicer commute, not having to dash from East to West Croydon in the heat, but still not as good as the previous door to door service.

It’s all about money, or lack of it. Apparently other countries use a more expensive construction technique that makes for stronger rails. Or if they don’t do that, the rails can be adjusted before winter and summer to vary the safe operating temperature range.

The UK doesn’t do either of these things and just paints the sides of some rails white to reflect a bit of sun at known vulnerable sections.

I thought we used to build gaps in the rails, which was why you heard a peculiar sound.

Back in the Network Southeast days, there were occasions when Bedford to Brighton trains would be diverted to the slow lines to provide a stopping service between London Bridge and East Croydon. I remember getting on one myself as a teenager to Forest Hill.

Personally I’d like the Bedford to Gatwick stopping services to stop at our stations, but the issue would be slotting them in between the Overground services, if they’re late, it’d disrupt the ELL as well.

According to Real Train Times, the train went fast through our stations.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W64535/2018/07/05/advanced

I used that train to commute from my flat in Dartmouth Road to my skate shop concession in Jean Martket in Brighton back in the 80s. GOOD TIMES!

It looks like the morning Caterham & Tattenham Corner service, which used to stop at all stations to East Croydon (ECR) but was then made fast to ECR in the changes, is now stopping at Norwood Junction.

If this is a permanent change it at least means that a morning jaunt from West to East Croydon isn’t needed and we are only 1 change from destinations on that old route.

Now if Southern could make sure all the information systems on the trains knew this, everything would be a bit easier still. At least the national rail app seems to be up to date as the timetables keep subtlety shifting.