DISTRICT line and Hammersmith and City line services in East London are now up and running again after London Underground engineers worked around the clock to repair damage caused by a trackside fire in Barking last Friday. The 50 year old signal cables
DISTRICT line and Hammersmith and City line services in East London are now up and running again after London Underground engineers worked around the clock to repair damage caused by a trackside fire in Barking last Friday.
The 50 year old signal cables and others supplying traction power in the area, were destroyed by the blaze causing a suspension of services between Plaistow and Dagenham East, and further disruption on other parts of the District and Hammersmith & City lines.
The heat was so intense that cables and equipment melted and specialist in house engineers, some apprenticed nearly 40 years ago, were called in to form a 24 hour engineering team, tracing the old cable routes by hand and splicing in hundreds of metres of new cabling.
They were joined by engineers from EDF Powerlink and Thales, who carried out crucial and complicated electrical work.
London Underground said signalling and power is now restored and operating as normal.
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