Manchester - Liverpool Electrification

[AM9]

I am delighted that Paul Gaskell has kindly submitted some more photos for publication, as well as supporting info.

I have added them to his album here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157649792560381/

I have also added them to the Combined Volume, with a dollop of my own from our joint jaunt today, here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648494725811/

Thank you Paul

Those loops at either end of the droppers, I assume are to reduce the chance of coronas from spiky ends.
Great pictures, - thanks to all contributors.

 

[LDECRexile]

Good news

There are two wires, one above the other, over the eastbound track from Roby Junction to the Henry roughly half way along the green Public Open Space to the north of the tracks west of Bridge Road bridge, Roby.

The eastward march has begun.

 

[Dixie]

Nothing obvious extra I could see at Huyton, though

 

[DJH1971]

Good news

There are two wires, one above the other, over the eastbound track from Roby Junction to the Henry roughly half way along the green Public Open Space to the north of the tracks west of Bridge Road bridge, Roby.

The eastward march has begun.

And may it gather momentum.

 

[LDECRexile]

Nothing obvious extra I could see at Huyton, though

I agree

 

[Bevan Price]

Originally Posted by driver_m View Post
Went past St Helens Junction earlier by road today and it looks like the wiring at the Eastern end of the station has now been finally done. Couldn't say whether its finished but there is also an issue with the path at the back of the Liverpool platform. Its cordoned off and it appears to have reinforcements in place stopping the wall from collapsing. No doubt the OLE installation has caused some serious ground disturbance.

Thank you for this. Does anyone know if the cordoning off is recent, or has it been there for ages?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It was not there in late December, but has been there for at least 2 weeks.

 

[DJH1971]

Justhe looking at a new post on Skyscrapercity and a date of 2nd March has now been mooted for the start of electric services.

 

[budge]

Lots of activity yesterday / today putting road/rail vehicles in position at Lowfield Lane bridge access point. (West of new Lea Green station)
Orange army out in force too.

 

[LDECRexile]

Good News from Roby and Huyton

A wire is up over the eastbound track from Roby Junction to Huyton Junction.

I couldn't tell where the eastern limit was, as things are complicated by the foliage, lack of access to the junction itself and, above all, by the tremendous activity over the section Huyton Station to Huyton Quarry which involved at least one catenary wire going up whilst I was there.

Quote of the day from one of the characteristically friendly Orangemen I met today:

Me "You aren't Tom Needham are you, by any chance?"
Orangeman "No, I don't know him I'm afraid, but there's hundreds of people drafted in to this job at the moment."

Photos later.

 

[Billyblue]

Good News from Roby and Huyton

A wire is up over the eastbound track from Roby Junction to Huyton Junction.

I couldn't tell where the eastern limit was, as things are complicated by the foliage, lack of access to the junction itself and, above all, by the tremendous activity over the section Huyton Station to Huyton Quarry which involved at least one catenary wire going up whilst I was there.

Quote of the day from one of the characteristically friendly Orangemen I met today:

Me "You aren't Tom Needham are you, by any chance?"
Orangeman "No, I don't know him I'm afraid, but there's hundreds of people drafted in to this job at the moment."

Photos later.

I've just been on Platform 3 at Huyton. The eastbound wire streches as far as one can see both from the platform and from the footpath.
An orangeman, who was waiting for a cherrypicker to pick him up, said they hoped to get a second eastbound wire up, overnight. He said he'd been seconded up here, for 2 weeks, from the Birmingham area. His last day is Sunday 15th Feb and he understood they hoped to be in a position to test the system, then.
Three orangement were on a cherrypicker alongside the footpath fixing the dividers between the upper and lower wires ( over tracks 1&2) and there was plenty of activity in the distance, towards Huyton Junction, .
I can vouch they were working overnight; I could hear various power tools and metal on metal (mallets?) at well gone 2 am!!!

 

[mcnw35282]

Had a little jaunt out myself yesterday from St Helens Jcn to Liverpool (via Earlestown), and I noticed that the contact wire is missing from a point just after St Helens Junction station to a point about 3 masts short of Sankey viaduct. It's a bit strange tho because the catenary wire is in place and has droppers attached to it. Has it been stripped out?

 

[LDECRexile]

Can someone please help?

I took some films today, as well as stills.

I took some films in Portrait (ie tall and thin) but I can't figure out how to rotate them through 90 degrees to display in flickr (or even how to rotate them within Windows).

Can anyone please tell me what to do?

Dave

 

[8A Rail]

Can someone please help?
I took some films today, as well as stills.
I took some films in Portrait (ie tall and thin) but I can't figure out how to rotate them through 90 degrees to display in flickr (or even how to rotate them within Windows). Can anyone please tell me what to do? Dave

When you initially upload an image on Flickr and you are also adding description, entering into album / group but at the top of the page near the middle is the "rotate" box, just click on it until image is the correct way up.

If your image is already uploaded, click on the image in question - comes up on a black background with all your info details of your image on a white background. On the black background, right hand bottom corner - you will see 4 symbols, first one is a regular box with a mountain and dot in it, the next one is a square box with a pencil cutting into the r/h top - well click on that and the "rotate" option comes up.

There you go - simples! HTH.

 

[LDECRexile]

When you initially upload an image on Flickr and you are also adding description, entering into album / group but at the top of the page near the middle is the "rotate" box, just click on it until image is the correct way up.

If your image is already uploaded, click on the image in question - comes up on a black background with all your info details of your image on a white background. On the black background, right hand bottom corner - you will see 4 symbols, first one is a regular box with a mountain and dot in it, the next one is a square box with a pencil cutting into the r/h top - well click on that and the "rotate" option comes up.

There you go - simples! HTH.

Fab! Thanks Doug

 

[snowball]

I'm intrigued by the calibrations on the tensioners in photos 3066j-k. Some of the text is in Italian so presumably they were made in Italy.

I'd have expected them to be calibrated in units of force but it says "[mm]" so they seem to be lengths. The numbers are successive multiples of 25 but there are un-numbered marks mid-way between them, so they're actually calibrated in multiples of 12.5, rather than 10 or 20 as you might expect. If the figures are indeed in millimetres then that's numbers every inch and marks every half-inch! So are they designed specifically for the UK market and for older engineers who still think in inches?

 

[LDECRexile]

When you initially upload an image on Flickr and you are also adding description, entering into album / group but at the top of the page near the middle is the "rotate" box, just click on it until image is the correct way up.

If your image is already uploaded, click on the image in question - comes up on a black background with all your info details of your image on a white background. On the black background, right hand bottom corner - you will see 4 symbols, first one is a regular box with a mountain and dot in it, the next one is a square box with a pencil cutting into the r/h top - well click on that and the "rotate" option comes up.

There you go - simples! HTH.

Alas, that works perfectly as you describe for stills, but for a video I've uploaded when I click on the Pencil-in-a-box icon it only offers me the option to Delete; rotate doesn't appear as it does for stills.

So I'm stuck again.

 

[8A Rail]

Alas, that works perfectly as you describe for stills, but for a video I've uploaded when I click on the Pencil-in-a-box icon it only offers me the option to Delete; rotate doesn't appear as it does for stills.
So I'm stuck again.

No idea on video's but surely it was filmed in horizontal mode to begin with so why need to change it to vertical? That sounds very strange to be honest.

 

[snowball]

In the caption of photo 3052l, which shows a dropper attached to the contact wire, LDECRexile says

These little things are everywhere, but how ion earth do they get a grip?

The answer is that a cross-section of the contact wire looks like this:

http://www.railway-technical.com/catenary-wire-x-section.gif

So they just clip onto the top part.

 

[LDECRexile]

I'm delighted that Dixie Dean has submitted more photos for publication. I've added them to his album here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157649752701067/

I've also added them to the Combined Volume with a dollop of my own from today.

They are here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648494725811/

Thank you Dixie.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

No idea on video's but surely it was filmed in horizontal mode to begin with so why need to change it to vertical? That sounds very strange to be honest.

Now you can see for yourself.

To photograph it in portrait I hold the camera vertically. Maybe I should stop doing that?

Mighty miffing.

 

[PDG1949]

The answer is that a cross-section of the contact wire looks like this:

http://www.railway-technical.com/catenary-wire-x-section.gif

So they just clip onto the top part.

Aha - no wonder - all is revealed !

I suspected at least that the contact wire would have 180 degree registration grooves to allow the 'holders' to get a stable grasp on the contact wire whilst allowing virtually smooth contact for the panto run. Probably the most enlightening OLE revelation in the last few months !

In the vernacular - "Ta Muchly !"

 

[DJH1971]

I can now confirm that there is now return wiring now in place between Huyton Junction to the Northbound line towards Wigan.

 

[Billyblue]

I can now confirm that there is now return wiring now in place between Huyton Junction to the Northbound line towards Wigan.

Some of the wiring over track 3 at Huyton Station and track 1 just east of platform 1 still has temporary belt and pulley fixings and there's still a few bits to be secured adjacent to the footpath.

There's a third wire eastwards over track 3 starting from the stanchion next to the BT car park/bus station; the stand alone stanchion with the 2 pulley wheels on it. This wire is the single one which is usually quite high up. I'm not a wiring expert, as you can probably gather. Is it an earth wire?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There's a third wire eastwards over track 3 starting from the stanchion next to the BT car park/bus station; the stand alone stanchion with the 2 pulley wheels on it. This wire is the single one which is usually quite high up. I'm not a wiring expert, as you can probably gather. Is it an earth wire?

I expect it is the autotransformer ("AT") wire.
It will have a beefy insulator on the mast.
Only being installed on the main line (not the Wigan branch).

 

[Billyblue]

I expect it is the autotransformer ("AT") wire.
It will have a beefy insulator on the mast.
Only being installed on the main line (not the Wigan branch).

If it's not on the Wigan line what does it do on the Manchester line?

 

[snowball]

It allows more power to be delivered to the track with reduced losses, so more and heavier trains can be run, by doubling the voltage to 50kV for transmission along the line, while trains still only receive 25kV.

It has already been retrofitted to much of the WCML.

The Wigan line has a traditional return wire instead, on small insulators.

 

[mcnw35282]

Notice on customer information screen at St Helens Junction:

"Northern Rail is pleased to announce that we will soon be running bigger, faster electric trains between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Airport"

Possibly gearing up for the March start date someone mentioned not long ago?

 

[Billyblue]

It allows more power to be delivered to the track with reduced losses, so more and heavier trains can be run, by doubling the voltage to 50kV for transmission along the line, while trains still only receive 25kV.

It has already been retrofitted to much of the WCML.

The Wigan line has a traditional return wire instead, on small insulators.

Thanks for that.

 

[DJH1971]

Notice on customer information screen at St Helens Junction:

"Northern Rail is pleased to announce that we will soon be running bigger, faster electric trains between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Airport"

Possibly gearing up for the March start date someone mentioned not long ago?

Looking hopeful from the sound of things!

 

[WatcherZero]

Airport fourth platform now opened, still not planned to be used before May.

 

[LDECRexile]

I've been out and about today, by car.

1. Yesterday's photos showed the single wire over the eastbound line from Roby Jct to Huyton Jct. It now has a wire underneath (ie Catenary and Contact Wire pair?) at least as far as the eye can see east of Roby.
2. Adverts at WTP and Roby (may well be elsewhere, too) saying electrics are coming. Nicely done I reckon.
3. No changes visible at Carr Mill or Sankey Viaducts.
4. I examined the wires over Penkford Lane bridge at Collins Green. All looked kosher to me, the removed wire reported yesterday must have been reinstated. (The dead horses have also been removed.)
5. St Helens Junction was good news, bad news for me.
5.1 Bad news is the scale of the preventive/remedial work under way towards the eastern end of the westbound platform. There seems to be something of a saga there. Plan A appeared to be a portal or pair of masts, one on each side of the tracks. Bases were duly constructed. Plan B then emerged, with the base on the northern side being abandoned (it is now tarmaced over) and a TTC being erected on the southern base. Plan C (which might have been part of Plan B) involved a crew putting significant reinforcement underground around the southern base (I stumbled across them doing this and photographed it.) Now Plan D involves further reinforcement. I hope to goodness it is preventative rather than remedial. The retaining wall doesn't show obvious signs of disturbance, but the affected area is largely obscured by the props which appear to be in place to support what will be a substantial concrete block. Please note this is all my lay observations, not something someone with a brain cell has told me.
5.2 Good news is that everything else looked ship-shape, notably the wires all seemed 'finished', the fencing seemed 'sorted' and the foliage seemed 'fettled'. Not very quantified and scientific, but a clear contrast to my last visit not long ago.
6. The three headspan mast pairs at Rainhill which were in process of being fixed now look as near as dammit done.
7. The lifts at Roby remain out of use, but, oddly, they appear to be 'working'. I was standing near the one on Platform 3 when the recorded voice said 'Platform'. I whizzed round to see the lift ascending to the platform, where it stopped, unoccupied, and sat there, doors closed, lights on. Is it undergoing some sort of 'mileage accumulation' or is it just a cockup? The buttons are covered over, so no-one can have triggered it by hand.
8. Quite a sprinkling of orange around all parts. Three senior looking Balfour Beatty Orangemen were touring St Helens Junction when I was there.
9. The fence being constructed yesterday west of Roby looks done and dusted.

Photos later.