SodTheDrummer
Member
You'd think they would announce it and want to get the idiot Bolton News in to report on the breakthrough..?
NR have been a bit crap with photos and updates since the start, they promised more. RailEngineers video was good..
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Blackpool - Manchester Electrification
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You'd think they would announce it and want to get the idiot Bolton News in to report on the breakthrough..?
NR have been a bit crap with photos and updates since the start, they promised more. RailEngineers video was good..
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In such situations, the sensible PR move is to release an operational note to the media marked 'not for publication' telling them that the event is expected to happen at such-and-such a time. That way, if it all goes according to plan, the media are ready and waiting and they get coverage, and if it doesn't, they don't get embarrassed.
Unless NR have enough faith in their social media operation that they don't need the pesky mainstream media.
WatcherZero
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Film crews, photographers, social media and copyeditors, they do have a pretty substantial media relations operation that doesn't require third parties reporters to be present to ensure the moment is recorded and publicised.
Bullfield WEst
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A mate who lives by the station has had a letter through his door stating Fillie will appear over the weekend of October 24th. Yes Today or tomorrow.
It gives expected dates for dismantling, laying of tracks and tamping etc.
I will post more later today when I get dates confirmed.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Further to my last message I've been in touch with the man with a "letter".
Some of the timings and actions don't seem right to me but here they are as stated.
Tunnel breakthrough should be W/E of 24th
Dismantling of Tunneling M/c 9 Days of 24/7 work
Track Replacement (??) Monday 26th.
Tamping 2300 until 0500 Monday 26th. to Thursday 29th.
Ken.
It gives expected dates for dismantling, laying of tracks and tamping etc.
I will post more later today when I get dates confirmed.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Further to my last message I've been in touch with the man with a "letter".
Some of the timings and actions don't seem right to me but here they are as stated.
Tunnel breakthrough should be W/E of 24th
Dismantling of Tunneling M/c 9 Days of 24/7 work
Track Replacement (??) Monday 26th.
Tamping 2300 until 0500 Monday 26th. to Thursday 29th.
Ken.
Track replacement and tamping there seem most unlikely to refer to inside the tunnel. It must mean somewhere on the approaches.
Once Fillie has been removed I imagine the first thing to do will be to dump earth in the tunnel to bring the ground level up to the level of the approaches.
Perhaps this could be done simultaneously with dismantling Fillie but they also have a lot of kit to remove from the Kearsley portal area first.
Once Fillie has been removed I imagine the first thing to do will be to dump earth in the tunnel to bring the ground level up to the level of the approaches.
Perhaps this could be done simultaneously with dismantling Fillie but they also have a lot of kit to remove from the Kearsley portal area first.
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LDECRexile
Established Member
I've been out and about today.
1. Farnworth: Locals and an Orangeman reckon tomorrow (Sun 25th) should be breakthrough day.
Most visible Orangeman activity was on the station (especially creating wheelchair-friendly ramps to the platforms) and Cemetery Road bridge, where a local said the parapets (or part thereof) are having to be replaced 'because they didn't use stainless steel rods'.
I have no idea if this is true, rumour, mistaken or a lie, though I doubt the last, given his general goodwill. The work on the bridge resembled Skew Bridge when its parapets were replaced, but I don't pretend to be knowledgable. Can someone who knows their onions please put the record straight?
2. The concrete decking at Orlando looks ready to walk on. Services still pass through the temporary bridge on the station side.
3. The stone boundary post has been replaced at Ladybridge and looks the biz. The contractors are clearing their worksite. The bridge looks done and dusted. Nice job.
4. Drove over Skew Bridge, fully open to road and foot traffic, but some machinery and building clobber still around, not much.
Photos later.
PS: spoil lorries were beavering away at Farnworth
1. Farnworth: Locals and an Orangeman reckon tomorrow (Sun 25th) should be breakthrough day.
Most visible Orangeman activity was on the station (especially creating wheelchair-friendly ramps to the platforms) and Cemetery Road bridge, where a local said the parapets (or part thereof) are having to be replaced 'because they didn't use stainless steel rods'.
I have no idea if this is true, rumour, mistaken or a lie, though I doubt the last, given his general goodwill. The work on the bridge resembled Skew Bridge when its parapets were replaced, but I don't pretend to be knowledgable. Can someone who knows their onions please put the record straight?
2. The concrete decking at Orlando looks ready to walk on. Services still pass through the temporary bridge on the station side.
3. The stone boundary post has been replaced at Ladybridge and looks the biz. The contractors are clearing their worksite. The bridge looks done and dusted. Nice job.
4. Drove over Skew Bridge, fully open to road and foot traffic, but some machinery and building clobber still around, not much.
Photos later.
PS: spoil lorries were beavering away at Farnworth
So if tomorrow Sunday is breakthrough day can anyone estimate a time ish so we can all go on mass 
, would be nice to be there although i'm guessing we would only get that info from Orangemen on site, think i may head up there around dinner time 
, would be nice to be there although i'm guessing we would only get that info from Orangemen on site, think i may head up there around dinner time
LDECRexile
Established Member
So if tomorrow Sunday is breakthrough day can anyone estimate a time ish so we can all go on mass
No-one I spoke to today had any more idea than "probably tomorrow."
I've wanged today's shots onto the Combined Volume here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648767927083
Video 5188m, uploaded Oct 18, shows a section of parapet being craned in. Was this taken recently or does it date from the main works to put in the new bridge a few weeks ago?
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It was originally reported that a walkway at the bottom would be left in the foamed concrete used to fill the old tunnel, partly for ventilation reasons. We noted later that that didn't happen. However 5228m and 5228k show a ventilation pipe entering the top of the old tunnel. This suggests that the void above the foamed concrete, commented on in relation to the recent Rail Engineer video, is deliberate.
ironstone11
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I think this is mistaken. I am not aware that stainless steel reinforcing is used in general construction. In a nuclear reactor perhaps, but not here.
Re: The Cemetery Road bridge parapets. Were they ever there? I was aware that pre-fabricated parapet sections were dropped in by crane (picture 5188m). I took this to be part of the wing wall parapet rather than the main bridge.
What appears to be happening on the bridge parapets themselves is that the reinforcing cage has been fabricated and the inner and outer brick work is being built up either side of the reinforcing. The brickwork acts as formwork for the concrete which will be poured into the gap. This saves having to construct wooden formwork and it makes it easier to tie the brickwork to the concrete. I may be wrong, but this is what picture 5228r conveys to me. Generous numbers of expansion joints are also being built in.
LDECRexile
Established Member
Oops, sorry. For some reason flickr doesn't automatically display the date films (as opposed to photos) were taken, I have to add this manually and I missed that one. The film was taken the same day Joe sent it and I published it - 18th October.
swt_passenger
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I think this is referring to a matter of hidden detail. The anti climb coping stones (or concrete blocks) on the top of the various brick walls are drilled on the underside, and some sort of dowel pin is fastened into both the wall and the coping stone, presumably to stop them sliding off/apart if the mortar course fails.
Whether the dowel pins are supposed to be stainless steel or some other material I'm not really sure, but I do suspect that if the contractor used random offcuts of bolts or rebar or some such, and it was discovered, then re-work would be insisted upon.
ironstone11
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The use of stainless for dowel pins is quite probable. However picture 5228r shows that the parapet is nowhere near ready to accept the anti climb coping stones, so the dowel pins are not yet an issue.
swt_passenger
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I was thinking more of the prefabricated wing wall sections, if fitting the copings to them may have been intended to happen already?
Nevertheless, it doesn't really seem to be a show stopper. However, didn't they have to change the copings on another bridge somewhere else in the wider area?
Are you thinking of Skew Bridge (on the A673 adjacent to its junction with the A6 at Heath Charnock near Adlington)? There the original ready-made, ready-faced parapets, not just the copings, were demolished and replaced by new ones using reinforced concrete cast in situ. Manually laid brick walls served as both facing and formwork for the concrete.
[Edited to correct A684 to A673.]
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Bullfield WEst
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Just been informed that Fillie is on the last 4 feet of tunnel... won't be long now!
Howardh
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Pity we won't get the "Thatcher Moment" of the passing of flags when it breaks through! Hope Fillie doesn't get to the end, look out and says "Kearsley?? No thanks, I'm going back..."!
Hopefully there will be a video of the moment it finishes the job!
85 days, overall average rate (including the stopped period) 3.17m a day.
If the information was up to date when it was said on 6 Oct that 105 rings out of 190 were in place, she has done about 120m since then in 19 days, about 6.3m a day, close to the rate estimated before she started, and much better than the 4m/day quoted in the Rail Engineer video.
If the information was up to date when it was said on 6 Oct that 105 rings out of 190 were in place, she has done about 120m since then in 19 days, about 6.3m a day, close to the rate estimated before she started, and much better than the 4m/day quoted in the Rail Engineer video.
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LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
Trains running through the new tunnel by the end of November then?
Fits in nicely with the 13 December timetable change.
NR and the contractors deserve considerable praise for overcoming the problems and limiting the delay in completion.
adsteamfan
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There's a couple of videos on Youtube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG3D28ysNCY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqMhBzI_YqY
Ploughman
Established Member
I thought that the A684 ran from Northallerton to Kendal through Hawes and Leyburn?
LDECRexile
Established Member
Sorry, I've edited the post to correct it to A673. I'd been thinking about the A684 becasuse of the BALB (Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar) bypass which is under construction.
CAF397
Member
After following the news on this forum, I drove past today to check on progress, and was delighted to see the tunnel wall demolished, with parts of Fillie visible.
LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
CAF397
Member
Those pics show the current operational tunnel like the "mousehole" it is.
I soon won't have to close my eyes driving through the small bore! Hate it, keep expecting the roof to collapse, and 15mph makes it even worse!
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