British electrification OHL dates (mainly 25kV plus the most significant 1.5KV DC)

[Justin Smith]

Could you bung it in a cloud location like Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive, and just post a link? No need to upload it to the forum then.

I may see if I can upload it to my website, possibly on the H&S Bollox "Railway Style" page.

 

[A0]

One I couldn't see on the list - Willesden Junc to Latimer Road on the West London Line. Wired at 25kv with a changeover to 750vDC to allow the Silverlink service to be converted from DMU to EMU - mid 1990s ?

 

[Justin Smith]

I may see if I can upload it to my website, possibly on the H&S Bollox "Railway Style" page.

Apparently my site's software (Wordpress) will not allow me to upload an XLR file.

I have uploaded it to Dropbox, can someone check it's OK for public access ?

 

[Ken H]

Apparently my site's software (Wordpress) will not allow me to upload an XLR file.

You could post a .csv file as text in a post here. But you would lose the colours.

 

[jfollows]

Apparently my site's software (Wordpress) will not allow me to upload an XLR file.

I have uploaded it to Dropbox, can someone check it's OK for public access ?

I am able to download it, yes. And use it with Excel no problems.

EDIT And it's Hazel Grove, as it says on my passport and birth certificate, and as in #35 , please!

 

[Justin Smith]

I am able to download it, yes. And use it with Excel no problems.

EDIT And it's Hazel Grove, as it says on my passport and birth certificate, and as in #35 , please!

Thanks for checking that.
I'll get round to updating the Hazel Grove spelling !
Am I right that the link goes to the folder containing the files ? As in if I add an updated version of the database that can be downloaded without me having to change the link address ?

 

[Springs Branch]

If we are talking about energisation dates, (rather date open to services) wasn't the Weaver J-Motherwell project also done in more stages.

I might be getting mixed up, but wasn't Warrington energised before Preston, and Carlisle to Motherwell before the rest. Perhaps they were all done in 73/74 but on different dates ?

I don't have original notices, but O.S. Nock's book Electric Euston to Glasgow indicates as follows for the northern WCML:-

Oct/Nov 1972 - Weaver Jn to Bamfurlong energised
Dec 1972 - Electric-hauled freight begins to/from Arpley yard.
28 May 1973 - Bamfurlong to Barton & Broughton (about 4½ mile N. of Preston) energised.
July 1973 - Electric-hauled passenger services begin south of Preston*
13 Aug 1973 - Motherwell to Carlisle (N. of Kingmoor) energised.
18 Feb 1974 - Barton & Broughton to Carlisle Kingmoor energised.
May 1974 - Electric Scot passenger services begin between Euston & Glasgow.

Between Motherwell & Glasgow there are several lines (e.g. the WCML between Newton Jn and Bridge St via Cambuslang & Rutherglen), to Mossend and the Hamilton loop (?) which were electrified at this time. I don't have dates for powering up of these urban sections.

The energisation of sections of line during construction depends as much on the convenience for the OHLE infrastructure as the location of stations, hence possible confusion and debate upthread about the role of Lichfield / Nuneaton etc.


* - some electric goods trains ran south of Preston in June/July 1973 prior to the start of the passenger service - I remember seeing these from the lineside.

 

[jfollows]

Am I right that the link goes to the folder containing the files ? As in if I add an updated version of the database that can be downloaded without me having to change the link address ?

Presumably, I get what appears to be a folder and I can then download its contents (Safari on Mac if that matters)

 

[Ken H]

I have downloaded it OK to my c: drive and opened it in open office calc. Thanks.

 

[Justin Smith]

I don't have original notices, but O.S. Nock's book Electric Euston to Glasgow indicates as follows for the northern WCML:-

Oct/Nov 1972 - Weaver Jn to Bamfurlong energised
Dec 1972 - Electric-hauled freight begins to/from Arpley yard.
28 May 1973 - Bamfurlong to Barton & Broughton (about 4½ mile N. of Preston) energised.
July 1973 - Electric-hauled passenger services begin south of Preston*
13 Aug 1973 - Motherwell to Carlisle (N. of Kingmoor) energised.
18 Feb 1974 - Barton & Broughton to Carlisle Kingmoor energised.
May 1974 - Electric Scot passenger services begin between Euston & Glasgow.

Between Motherwell & Glasgow there are several lines (e.g. the WCML between Newton Jn and Bridge St via Cambuslang & Rutherglen), to Mossend and the Hamilton loop (?) which were electrified at this time. I don't have dates for powering up of these urban sections.

The energisation of sections of line during construction depends as much on the convenience for the OHLE infrastructure as the location of stations, hence possible confusion and debate upthread about the role of Lichfield / Nuneaton etc.


* - some electric goods trains ran south of Preston in June/July 1973 prior to the start of the passenger service - I remember seeing these from the lineside.

Interesting data, the problem is putting all that in the database would make it quite complicated, and if it was done for the WCML extension where would one draw the line ? The database, designed to fit one two sheets of A4 would end up end up being pages and pages !

 

[Springs Branch]

Interesting data, the problem is putting all that in the database would make it quite complicated, and if it was done for the WCML extension where would one draw the line ? The database, designed to fit one two sheets of A4 would end up end up being pages and pages !

I didn't expect my last post to be included in your database, rather it was answering a specific point made by @tbwbear.
I understand your objective in making a concise broad-brush summary - it's certainly a very useful thing to have - and the challenges of where to draw the line (and what to quote when the energisation date and 1st public train services are in different years).

The thread seems to have split into two parallel discussions:
(1) The two-page colour-coded summary and how to store and access it.
(2) Various detailed points (possibly pedantic in some cases) around implementation of British OHLE - which do not fit into a top-level summary, but are interesting nonetheless and match the gist of the thread. The Appendix in Garry Keenor's document is more of a "pages and pages" summary, but is still not 100% comprehensive and has some inaccuracies (so can't really be considered a definitive source).

 

[tbwbear]

I didn't expect my last post to be included in your database, rather it was answering a specific point made by @tbwbear.

And I, for my part, appreciated your answer. I thought Warrington was 1972 but I wasn't sure. Nice to have confirmation.

Agree that it is difficult to decide which dates to use - energisation or start of public service.

 

[Justin Smith]

I didn't expect my last post to be included in your database, rather it was answering a specific point made by @tbwbear.
I understand your objective in making a concise broad-brush summary - it's certainly a very useful thing to have - and the challenges of where to draw the line (and what to quote when the energisation date and 1st public train services are in different years).

The thread seems to have split into two parallel discussions:
(1) The two-page colour-coded summary and how to store and access it.
(2) Various detailed points (possibly pedantic in some cases) around implementation of British OHLE - which do not fit into a top-level summary, but are interesting nonetheless and match the gist of the thread. The Appendix in Garry Keenor's document is more of a "pages and pages" summary, but is still not 100% comprehensive and has some inaccuracies (so can't really be considered a definitive source).

Where to draw the line about lines, very good.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

There is some confusion as to when exactly the line from Victoria to Ordsall Lane Jct was electrified. Was it 2013 or 2015 ?

2015.

It was definitely 2015. It was phase 2c of the NW electrification.

Absolutely no question 2015. There is a photographic record on the now closed Manchester-Blackpool electrification thread. @LNW-GW Joint and LDECRExile and myself and others have a photographic record.

 

[Senex]

I don't have original notices, but O.S. Nock's book Electric Euston to Glasgow indicates as follows for the northern WCML:-

Oct/Nov 1972 - Weaver Jn to Bamfurlong energised
Dec 1972 - Electric-hauled freight begins to/from Arpley yard.
28 May 1973 - Bamfurlong to Barton & Broughton (about 4½ mile N. of Preston) energised.
July 1973 - Electric-hauled passenger services begin south of Preston*
13 Aug 1973 - Motherwell to Carlisle (N. of Kingmoor) energised.
18 Feb 1974 - Barton & Broughton to Carlisle Kingmoor energised.
May 1974 - Electric Scot passenger services begin between Euston & Glasgow.

Between Motherwell & Glasgow there are several lines (e.g. the WCML between Newton Jn and Bridge St via Cambuslang & Rutherglen), to Mossend and the Hamilton loop (?) which were electrified at this time. I don't have dates for powering up of these urban sections.

The energisation of sections of line during construction depends as much on the convenience for the OHLE infrastructure as the location of stations, hence possible confusion and debate upthread about the role of Lichfield / Nuneaton etc.


* - some electric goods trains ran south of Preston in June/July 1973 prior to the start of the passenger service - I remember seeing these from the lineside.

That's interesting. As an example of getting more by bringing together different sources, in 1981 the Electric Railway Society produced a small booklet A Chronology of the Electric Railways of Great Britain and Ireland (Brian Hardy, Iain D O Frew, & Ross Willson) (to which there was already a brief 4-page supplement). The dates there are:
Weaver Jn to Bamfurling 19.3.1973 (freight only)
Bamfurlong to Preston 11.6.1973 (freight only)
Weaver Jn to Preston 23.7.1973 (passenger)
Preston to Carlisle Kingmoor 25.3.1974 (freight only)
Preston to Carlisle 22.4.1974 (electric operation in diesel timings; full electric service from 6.5.1974)
Carlisle - Carstairs - Motherwell - Mossend Yard and Glasgow Central via Holytown and Cambuslang 22.4.1974 (electric service in diesel timings; full electric service 6.5.1974)
This publication also notes that, "Following a derailment at Longsight an emu set operated between Wilmslow and Mauldeth Road on 20.1.1959, this being the first revenue service with a modern ac unit on British Railways."

 

[Justin Smith]

I have just uploaded an updated version, just minor additions.

 

[Taunton]

Carlisle - Carstairs - Motherwell - Mossend Yard and Glasgow Central via Holytown and Cambuslang 22.4.1974 (electric service in diesel timings; full electric service 6.5.1974)

I actually went on Preston to Glasgow in April 1974, about three weeks before full electric service started, and was surprised there were no electric locos around at all, and we were hauled by a Class 50 (one, not the scheduled two). Reading this, maybe the power was not even switched on. Three weeks later it was all fully electric.

Nowadays it seems to take years between one and the other.

 

[Springs Branch]

Nowadays it seems to take years between one and the other.

Exactly. One thing that struck me when looking into dates of the Weaver Jn - Glasgow scheme (220-odd route miles) was the speed of the whole thing:-

Feb 1970 - Minister of Transport authorises electrification.
Dec 1972 - first electrically-hauled freights running between Crewe & Warrington Arpley Yard.
May 1974 - all wires up & full electric service throughout - including 36 new electric locos (well, maybe not the full fleet by May '74)

I guess nowadays there would need to be extensive driver training using various electric locos (81-87) on different classes of trains over the actual route before public service can start.

I was out and about around the area at the time of electrification and don't remember seeing any obvious training runs with the new traction. Maybe it was more a case of a few days traction training south of Crewe or Edge Hill, then off you go over Shap & Beattock.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Golborne Jn-Castlefield Jn wiring, allowing Manchester-Scotland electric operation by 350/4s, went live quickly at the end of 2013.
The OHL was plainly incomplete at the Manchester end just a short while before the due timetable date, but they made it in time for the top brass to open it.
I think there was still a lot of finishing work to do behind the scenes though, including things like long stretches of new fencing along the route.
There was even an incident of service disruption caused by OHLE problems before the line went live (because of faulty temporary installation).

All electrification projects will have different characteristics, depending on things like whether new technology or a new contractor is involved, or whether the power supply system is being altered (eg the Stalybridge Great Extension Lead).
Approval of the Edinburgh-Falkirk-Glasgow wiring was delayed because it did not meet ORR standards (adopted after the project started).
I don't know how BR authorised its electrification into service, but it feels more like a case of marking its own homework that today's setup.
Going back a bit, I think the St Pancras-Bedford wiring stood idle for months while the EMUs bought to use it were stuck in sidings because of a manning dispute.

 

[yorkie]

Reopened to enable @Justin Smith to post an update

 

[zwk500]

Apologies for jumping in but looking back through the thread I couldn't see any links to this site: http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/electrification/dates.shtm which may have information to assist the OP. I believe the maintainer of that site is a member on these forums but alas I don't know which username to tag.

 

[Justin Smith]

Apologies for jumping in but looking back through the thread I couldn't see any links to this site: http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/electrification/dates.shtm which may have information to assist the OP. I believe the maintainer of that site is a member on these forums but alas I don't know which username to tag.

That'd be handy, if it worked !

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Sep 2023 ==

I was just about to add to the database the fact that Muir House Jct to Barrhead has just been electrified but also wondered if I'd missed any other lines since the last entry (which was Bedford to Corby in 2020).

Also can I just check the OHL electrification date for south of Drayton Park to Moorgate ? I have it that section was never OHL electrified (it was only third rail) and the Moorgate was electrified from Dock Junction in 1982, but the route was closed in 2009 ?

Any help will be appreciated.

Database (in colour) here :
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v0epk849hso8vky/AAB7Q8xRHLfDrpi5cjf67q98a?dl=0

 

[zwk500]

That'd be handy, if it worked !

Link works for me, or google 'railway codes'

I was just about to add to the database the fact that Muir House Jct to Barrhead has just been electrified but also wondered if I'd missed any other lines since the last entry (which was Bedford to Corby in 2020).

Crossrail, Barking Riverside, and various Cardiff Valleys lines.

Also can I just check the OHL electrification date for south of Drayton Park to Moorgate ? I have it that section was never OHL electrified (it was only third rail) and the Moorgate was electrified from Dock Junction in 1982, but the route was closed in 2009 ?

Any help will be appreciated.

Drayton Park to Moorgate 1976, converted from Underground so third rail. Farringdon to Moorgate in '83, route closed '09.

 

[Snow1964]

There are a few odd bits in Welsh Valleys now, although more for testing than full service currently

Also Swindon - Langley Burrell (about mile east of Chippenham) is missing from the list

There was a short extension from Mitre bridge to near Kensington around 1993 too

 

[Justin Smith]

Link works for me, or google 'railway codes'

View attachment 143421
Crossrail, Barking Riverside, and various Cardiff Valleys lines.

View attachment 143420
Drayton Park to Moorgate 1976, converted from Underground so third rail. Farringdon to Moorgate in '83, route closed '09.

Brilliant, and it works now (for some strange reason) !#

Electrification dates

A list of all known UK railway electrification dates

www.railwaycodes.org.uk

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Sep 2023 ==


Latest colour coded version, in two parts to enable printing out on two sheets of (landscape) A4 is on this post

 

[Magdalia]

There are some date errors for some of the Eastern schemes.

Fenchurch Street-Shoeburyness was all 1961. Pitsea-Shoeburyness was energised first in May 1961. Non rush hour services were electric from November.

Chelmsford-Colchester was 1962. The 1962 Whitsun weekend additional trains between London and Clacton/Walton were electric. The full electric service should have started in September 1962 but was delayed by late delivery of the AM9 EMUs.

Kings Cross-Royston was 1977, the first electric trains running in October.

Hitchin-Huntingdon was 1986, the first electric trains running in November.

Track that might count as missing include Hitchin flyover in 2013 and St Pancras-Belle Isle via the Canal Tunnel in 2018.

I think Stratford-Coppermill Junction is also missing, possibly 2005 but I don't have good sources to check that.

In the pedantry corner, Coppermill Junction (1969) should read Clapton Junction, Shepreth Junction (1988) should read Shepreth Branch Junction, and there's a typo for Stansted Airport (1990).

 

[Railsigns]

On the North London Line, Camden to Stratford is shown as 1988, but I believe it was converted to 25 kV OLE in stages in 1986 and 1987. The conversion of Acton Central to Camden Road to 25 kV OLE in 1996 seems to be missing.

Muirhouse Jcn (Glasgow) to Barrhead: This is SW Glasgow, not E Glasgow.

The correct way to write "kV" is with a lower case "k" and with a space separating it from the number.

 

[Helvellyn]

For Preston to Glasgow in 1974 you probably need a note for when the Carlisle freight avoiding line closed after the Freightliner derailment in 1984.

 

[MadMac]

Major one that seems to have slipped the net, so to speak, is the reopening of the line through Glasgow Central Low Level from Rutherglen-Partick in 1979.

One more “infill“ is Shields-Terminus Junction which was done when the third track from Arkleston-Shields was reinstated (should that count also?).

(Edited to remove the ones I’d already mentioned 2 years ago…..)

 

[Justin Smith]

There are some date errors for some of the Eastern schemes.

Fenchurch Street-Shoeburyness was all 1961. Pitsea-Shoeburyness was energised first in May 1961. Non rush hour services were electric from November.

Chelmsford-Colchester was 1962. The 1962 Whitsun weekend additional trains between London and Clacton/Walton were electric. The full electric service should have started in September 1962 but was delayed by late delivery of the AM9 EMUs.

Kings Cross-Royston was 1977, the first electric trains running in October.

Hitchin-Huntingdon was 1986, the first electric trains running in November.

Track that might count as missing include Hitchin flyover in 2013 and St Pancras-Belle Isle via the Canal Tunnel in 2018.

I think Stratford-Coppermill Junction is also missing, possibly 2005 but I don't have good sources to check that.

In the pedantry corner, Coppermill Junction (1969) should read Clapton Junction, Shepreth Junction (1988) should read Shepreth Branch Junction, and there's a typo for Stansted Airport (1990).

Thanks for your comments, I have started updating the database with some of them

The thing is as I am trying to keep it concise *, and there are differing dates for some lines (plus what constitutes "electrified" ! ) so there are some simplifications. For instance, Hitchin to Peterborough is given as 1987 despite your observation that Hitchin to Huntingdon had electrified services from Nov 1986. Particularly as that's very late 1986 I condensed that into 1987 !

* I print it out and keep it in my Cobbs atlas.