Manchester - Liverpool Electrification

[LNW-GW Joint]

A link to the photos I posted over on SSC

Yes, nice pics.
The masts beyond the eastern bridge are baffling.
They are beyond what I took to be the final auto-tensioners.
We'll soon see.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

On a quick visit to Victoria today, all the wiring from Deal St through Victoria seems to be up.
It's now difficult to get a clear view from the footbridge, but the Down Chat Moss (has had a missing length for a while) is certainly now wired into the station.
Inside the station, catenary and contact wires run right through on all four platform lines to the tensioners at the Cheetham Hill Road bridge.
However, most of it is in an unfinished form, often suspended by pulleys.
The two wires run together under the Arena floor, separating out towards the extremities of the station.
Some fixing points are still devoid of wires, so quite a lot of configuring is still needed.
It's still unclear what the four masts east of the road bridge are for.

Inside the new station, the roof now looks complete.
However, they are still working on the interface between it and the old station/Arena structure, leaving rain cascading on to the platform below.
The new barrier line was operational with the manual ticket check withdrawn.

It may be just me, but the new roof seems to be a couple of ribs too short.
The eastern ends of the platforms will still get wet.
Metrolink have had to put up a dinky little section of canopy to cover the end of their platforms, outside the overall roof.
It looks completely out of place.

 

[edwin_m]

Maybe the supports beyond the bridge are because they had a bit of time left in the possession and they'd brought the components for these extra ones just in case things turned out that way? The possession is probably going to be planned with lots of contingency to try and avoid another Kings Cross type incident, so if everything goes well they would otherwise have some valuable track access going to waste.

 

[deltic08]

Yes, nice pics.
The masts beyond the eastern bridge are baffling.
They are beyond what I took to be the final auto-tensioners.
We'll soon see.
Inside the station, catenary and contact wires run right through on all four platform lines to the tensioners at the Cheetham Hill Road bridge.
However, most of it is in an unfinished form, often suspended by pulleys.
The two wires run together under the Arena floor, separating out towards the extremities of the station.
Some fixing points are still devoid of wires, so quite a lot of configuring is still needed.
It's still unclear what the four masts east of the road bridge are for.

From the masts already erected and the bases already cast further east, I would assume they are to cover the ladder junction to allow moves at that end of the station in case there is a blockage at the west end.

I was only able to count three masts with auto tensioners. As there are four platform roads, shouldn't there be four auto tensioner masts? It appears that wires for the missing mast go under Cheetham Hill road bridge anyway,

With eleven nights to go before the Easter blockade, there can't be much more to do to the overheads except connect up with the "live end".

 

[WatcherZero]

It may be just me, but the new roof seems to be a couple of ribs too short.
The eastern ends of the platforms will still get wet.
Metrolink have had to put up a dinky little section of canopy to cover the end of their platforms, outside the overall roof.
It looks completely out of place.

Yeah weve talked about it before but there was a finite budget, the new roof covers exactly the same amount of platform as the old roof did (when it was intact).

Last I was there the end horizontal panels of the roof were still to do and the louvres between the roof anchors had their frames but hadn't been finished.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I was only able to count three masts with auto tensioners. As there are four platform roads, shouldn't there be four auto tensioner masts? It appears that wires for the missing mast go under Cheetham Hill road bridge anyway,

Yes it foxed me until last week.
The fourth auto-tensioner is on a mast out of sight on the east side of the road bridge (and now has wires).
You can see it from the end of Victoria P6.

 

[DJH1971]

Good to see light at the end of the tunnel (sic) where the completion of phase 2 is concerned.

 

[Geeves]

With them already working an OHLE depot at the top of the bank I imagine we will see the wires and masts heading up that way pretty soon.

Isn't Stalybridge and the Philips Park line to Ashburys due to be wired pretty soon anyway despite the delays beyond up into the Pennines? There is no more work left up that way except for masts and wires.

 

[thealexweb]

With them already working an OHLE depot at the top of the bank I imagine we will see the wires and masts heading up that way pretty soon.

Isn't Stalybridge and the Philips Park line to Ashburys due to be wired pretty soon anyway despite the delays beyond up into the Pennines? There is no more work left up that way except for masts and wires.

Yes I believe that work is part of Phase 4 and will go ahead as planned for completion by December 2016.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

The masts beyond the eastern bridge are baffling. Inside the station, catenary and contact wires run right through on all four platform lines to the tensioners at the Cheetham Hill Road bridge.

It's still unclear what the four masts east of the road bridge are for.

See end of my post for my opinion.

Maybe the supports beyond the bridge are because they had a bit of time left in the possession and they'd brought the components for these extra ones just in case things turned out that way? The possession is probably going to be planned with lots of contingency to try and avoid another Kings Cross type incident, so if everything goes well they would otherwise have some valuable track access going to waste.

This is true - but not the whole case IMHO

From the masts already erected and the bases already cast further east, I would assume they are to cover the ladder junction to allow moves at that end of the station in case there is a blockage at the west end. It appears that wires for the missing mast go under Cheetham Hill road bridge anyway

Again - this is true - but not the whole case IMHO

Yes it foxed me until last week.
The fourth auto-tensioner is on a mast out of sight on the east side of the road bridge (and now has wires).You can see it from the end of Victoria P6.

With them already working an OHLE depot at the top of the bank I imagine we will see the wires and masts heading up that way pretty soon.

Isn't Stalybridge and the Philips Park line to Ashburys due to be wired pretty soon anyway despite the delays beyond up into the Pennines? There is no more work left up that way except for masts and wires.

Agree with all points. Although delays, Manchester - Staly and beyond is approved - only a suicidal politician would cancel at this stage. You have a possession - it is going to get wired anyway - why not do this bit now. That is why IMHO the masts are at the east end of the bridge. It makes total sense and good planning to me.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Agree with all points. Although delays, Manchester - Staly and beyond is approved - only a suicidal politician would cancel at this stage. You have a possession - it is going to get wired anyway - why not do this bit now. That is why IMHO the masts are at the east end of the bridge. It makes total sense and good planning to me.

Approaching Salford Central from Salford Crescent there is a Balfours depot which has done the electrification work in the area.
You can see spare sets of the plate-like concrete base slabs near there, evidently destined for more sites on the viaducts not yet wired, to the east and west of Victoria.
East of Miles Platting there is the semaphore signalling and its lineside kit to worry about towards Stalybridge.
That will have to be replaced while they do the wiring, as at Huyton.

 

[snowball]

With them already working an OHLE depot at the top of the bank I imagine we will see the wires and masts heading up that way pretty soon.

Isn't Stalybridge and the Philips Park line to Ashburys due to be wired pretty soon anyway despite the delays beyond up into the Pennines? There is no more work left up that way except for masts and wires.

Yes I believe that work is part of Phase 4 and will go ahead as planned for completion by December 2016.

It's the main part of Phase 5 but on the latest official figures is due for completion simultaneously with phase 4 (Manchester-Euxton) and slightly before phase 3 (Preston-Blackpool).

 

[deltic08]

See end of my post for my opinion.



This is true - but not the whole case IMHO



Again - this is true - but not the whole case IMHO






Agree with all points. Although delays, Manchester - Staly and beyond is approved - only a suicidal politician would cancel at this stage. You have a possession - it is going to get wired anyway - why not do this bit now. That is why IMHO the masts are at the east end of the bridge. It makes total sense and good planning to me.

In that case why are the mast bases only up the RHS and not matched by bases on the LHS up the bank.

 

[edwin_m]

In that case why are the mast bases only up the RHS and not matched by bases on the LHS up the bank.

Perhaps they got a possession on the right hand pair but not the others? If this is the bit alongside Metrolink then they might have taken advantage of one of the Metrolink shutdowns.

 

[driver_m]

Northwest sparks has posted some pendo timings over the chat moss on the 31st March/1st April. Must be doing the overloading tests like the ones last year.

 

[Statto]

Northwest sparks has posted some pendo timings over the chat moss on the 31st March/1st April. Must be doing the overloading tests like the ones last year.

There are some VT Pendolino London-Liverpool services near the end of May[already posted on Realtime Trains] routed via Chat Moss, route is London-Stoke-Manchester-Liverpool.

 

[driver_m]

There are some VT Pendolino London-Liverpool services near the end of May[already posted on Realtime Trains] routed via Chat Moss, route is London-Stoke-Manchester-Liverpool.

They'll need to prove the route first electrically before then so these runs should highlight any problems. That's why there's 2 passing each other like they did at Eccles last year.

 

[Class 170101]

Times below.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...1/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=VT

Pendolinos are more power hungry than the Class 319s that currently operate on the route.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There are some VT Pendolino London-Liverpool services near the end of May[already posted on Realtime Trains] routed via Chat Moss, route is London-Stoke-Manchester-Liverpool.

Will that add even more pressure on platform 14 at Manchester Piccadilly station, which I suppose will be the through platform used?

 

[LDECRexile]

I've added photos and films I took yesterday to the Combined Volume here:

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

I'll caption the Man Vic ones in due course.

I decided it would be simplest and safest just to take shots there as if the fab material shown the other had hadn't happened. People can ignore duplicates.

 

[PDG1949]

Times below.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...1/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=VT

Pendolinos are more power hungry than the Class 319s that currently operate on the route.

This was flagged up to me recently by another accquaintance on a local (St. Helens) forum and I equally surmised that because of the Pendo's higher power consumption (and thus was equally twin run used last year on N-le-W to Castlefields), this would be a test of the ATF on the Earlestown - Edge Hill section (which one hopes would be complete by then ! ).

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...15/03/31/0000-0500?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Also, not quite on topic on this forum, but on the current (sorry ! ) UK electrification scene, I see that 'Christopher 125', I believe, an occasional poster on this forum, has also started a flickr photo record site on the GWML electrification scheme, similar to ours.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=electrification gwml&sort=date-posted-desc

Have fun and thanks Chris!

 

[Statto]

Will that add even more pressure on platform 14 at Manchester Piccadilly station, which I suppose will be the through platform used?

No, heres the times, first VT using P13-14 is after 3pm. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/MAN/2015/05/23/1500-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

This was flagged up to me recently by another accquaintance on a local (St. Helens) forum and I equally surmised that because of the Pendo's higher power consumption (and thus was equally twin run used last year on N-le-W to Castlefields), this would be a test of the ATF on the Earlestown - Edge Hill section (which one hopes would be complete by then ! ).

Still missing between Huyton Quarry and Roby station on Monday...
It wasn't complete for the previous Chat Moss Pendolino test; not sure ATF is operational at all yet.

 

[snowball]

I've added photos and films I took yesterday to the Combined Volume here:

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

You have a good turn of phrase. I liked some of the terminology yin the captions such as "head of copper", "Graham's Grab" and "Black Rod".

 

[LDECRexile]

You have a good turn of phrase. I liked some of the terminology yin the captions such as "head of copper", "Graham's Grab" and "Black Rod".

Thank you; I trust you saw Black Rod in the context of the preceding photo.

Kind regards

Dave

PS: any luck with a camera?

 

[childwallblues]

This was flagged up to me recently by another accquaintance on a local (St. Helens) forum and I equally surmised that because of the Pendo's higher power consumption (and thus was equally twin run used last year on N-le-W to Castlefields), this would be a test of the ATF on the Earlestown - Edge Hill section (which one hopes would be complete by then ! ).

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...15/03/31/0000-0500?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Also, not quite on topic on this forum, but on the current (sorry ! ) UK electrification scene, I see that 'Christopher 125', I believe, an occasional poster on this forum, has also started a flickr photo record site on the GWML electrification scheme, similar to ours.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=electrification gwml&sort=date-posted-desc

Have fun and thanks Chris!

Pardon the ignorance but what is ATF?

 

[LDECRexile]

Times below.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...1/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=VT

Pendolinos are more power hungry than the Class 319s that currently operate on the route.

Thank you for sharing this fab research.

I've attempted to work out what it means.

It looks as if IQ01, IQ02, IQ05, IQ06, IQ07 and IQ08 are 'sequential', by which I mean they run one after another without crossing.

IQ03 ( http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U10734/2015/03/31/advanced )

and

IQ04 ( http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U10735/2015/03/31/advanced )

appear to be set up to cross under maximum load.

IQ03 stops at Wavertree Technology Park 01:24-01:29 heading east.
IQ04 stops at Broad Green 01:27-01:29 heading west

Looks like they'll get on the blower, count down 5-4-3-2-1 and set off simultaneously, foot hard down, crossing in Olive Mount Cutting about 01:30.

Will the lights stay on in Pighue Lane in the early hours of next Tuesday and Wednesday?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Pardon the ignorance but what is ATF?

Auto-Transformer Feed - an improved 50kV power supply to support higher levels of traffic (number of trains in section etc).
It has been installed on the WCML and is part of the spec for the Chat Moss route (but not the Wigan branch).
It's normally a separate wire running at a high level, with big insulators.
It needs additional switchgear at the lineside - these are at Astley and Huyton Quarry on the Chat Moss route.
Its absence does not mean traffic can't run, just that the power spec is reduced to the normal 25kV level.
The clue is that the high-level insulators between Huyton Quarry and Roby have no wire connected yet.
I assume it will be installed on all main lines eventually. It will be part of the GW spec, and is planned for the ECML.
This is speaking as a lay-person. I struggle to change a plug

Edit: Here's a technical explanation someone posted earlier, from the WCRM project:http://www.meridianbs.co.uk/File.as... Briefing Document_Full Version_Rev C (3).pdf

 

[8A Rail]

Auto-Transformer Feed - an improved 50kV power supply to support higher levels of traffic (number of trains in section etc).
It has been installed on the WCML and is part of the spec for the Chat Moss route (but not the Wigan branch).
It's normally a separate wire running at a high level, with big insulators.
It needs additional switchgear at the lineside - these are at Astley and Huyton Quarry on the Chat Moss route.
Its absence does not mean traffic can't run, just that the power spec is reduced to the normal 25kV level.
The clue is that the high-level insulators between Huyton Quarry and Roby have no wire connected yet.
I assume it will be installed on all main lines eventually. It will be part of the GW spec, and is planned for the ECML.
This is speaking as a lay-person. I struggle to change a plug

I actually appreciate that explanation and now has solved a puzzle of observations in the last 12 months of why a "high level" wire has appeared on the WCML in some places, (as well as the L&M line) were there was none before. Thank you again.

 

[LDECRexile]

I actually appreciate that explanation and now has solved a puzzle of observations in the last 12 months of why a "high level" wire has appeared on the WCML in some places, (as well as the L&M line) were there was none before. Thank you again.

Me too.

Thank you

 

[budge]

Electrical Infrastructure article here..


http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Featured-Articles/protection-testing-associated-with-the-north-west-electrification-autotransformer-system-phase-1