Blackpool - Manchester Electrification

[LDECRexile]

Travelled Bolton-Chorley-Buckshee Parkway-Bolton today, first time for months.

It felt like a railway version of March or thereabouts when you spot a hedge hinted in green and a bush well green and a few snowdrops and lots still fast asleep and a sudden clump of daffs: exciting.

Specifically:

Lots of superstructure on the interchange visible between Bolton station and Town Hall
Bolton station buffet still shut, no signs of life.
Pegs in the cess north of the tracks in the deep cutting by Morrisons in Bolton, may be too close together for mast pegs.
Worksite in approx area of Bullfield West busy, clobber looked like drainage pipes.
Scrapes east of Dean Clough bridge, north side.
Lots of kit at worksite between Lostock station and Beaumont Rd bridge, lots of portacabins, too.
Pallisade fencing being erected north of tracks by the replaced footbridge below the golf course west of Lostock.
Lots of scrapes and new cylindrical piles between Lostock and Horwich, many appear to be replacements for ones installed some months ago by Balfour Beatty.
Scatter of scrapes, pegs and cylindrical piles all the way to Buckshee Parkway (BP), some gaps with no evidence of action.

A new crossover has been installed south of BP, new cylindrical piles immediately north of the station, they also look like BB replacements.

No action visible on any of the foot crossings.

I definitely need to get the Progressometer out and set about the job with a bit of method.

I spent half an hour on Chorley station. I am seriously impressed by the way this has been tackled. As a layman I had never thought through what's involved in "just" lowering the tracks through a station:

lower the tracks for a long way both sides
lower the subway
install a six-car temp platform, with lighting, canopy, security cameras, info screens
lower the platforms then resurface them
keep staff and users informed and safe

and they're just the obvious bits, no doubt drains, cables and goodness knows what are also eminently discombobulatable in the process.

Photos later.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bolton station buffet still shut, no signs of life.

We noticed this when were returning from Blackpool North to Manchester Airport yesterday afternoon. There used to be two ladies who ran the buffet who always had a good range of items like turkey barmcakes not so very many years ago.

Whatever has happened to the withdrawal of the old style service that now sees the buffet in the deserted state it is in.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

The buffet at Bolton has been shut for ages hasn't it? Was closed last time I was there and that's well over a year ago. There was a note up with a specific closure date on it, alas I never made a note of it at the time.

Edit - Was actually last October when I observed it as shut, forgot I'd been there to do the SLW in connection with Farnworth.

 

[childwallblues]

I'm one of the happy Blackpool residents who's looking forward to the day when we've got electric trains to Blackpool North, at least it will rid us of the awful Class 142 Pacers.

And the Liverpool service will return to.

 

[Whistler40145]

Indeed it will, along with Manchester Airport and no doubt Manchester Victoria.

 

[LDECRexile]

I've added today's photos to the Combined Volume here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/albums/72157661069863633

 

[deltic08]

....and I'm not even from Blackpool, I just live here but I still feel compelled to jump to its defence! (Should have known you'd be from Preston).

Would they be insulted enough if you called them Prest onions? I think the correct term is Prestonians and not as Lankyline states Prestonions.

 

[PR1Berske]

I am a Prestonian. I am not a pressed onion.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I am a Prestonian.

Me too - but live mainly in Dayton OH now.

 

[SodTheDrummer]

Me too - but live mainly in Dayton OH now.

Weather gotta be better surely?

 

[Lankyline]

I don't know one simple spelling mistake and everyone is on it like a rash

 

[edwin_m]

deleted

 

[deltic08]

I don't know one simple spelling mistake and everyone is on it like a rash

All light hearted banter.

 

[Joseph_Locke]

lower the tracks for a long way both sides
lower the subway
install a six-car temp platform, with lighting, canopy, security cameras, info screens
lower the platforms then resurface them
keep staff and users informed and safe

and they're just the obvious bits, no doubt drains, cables and goodness knows what are also eminently discombobulatable in the process.

Photos later.

Missed a bit: demolish and rebuild the Down line platform >800mm to the west, lift and slue the Down line to suit, lift and slue the up line 200mm and rebuild the Up platform coper edge, remove the long-timber-in-trough deck off the station subway and replace it with a new two-part precast direct fastened deck on a different track alignment, redeck chapel street for structural reasons.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Missed a bit: demolish and rebuild the Down line platform >800mm to the west, lift and slue the Down line to suit, lift and slue the up line 200mm and rebuild the Up platform coper edge, remove the long-timber-in-trough deck off the station subway and replace it with a new two-part precast direct fastened deck on a different track alignment, redeck chapel street for structural reasons.

Wow - so not Farnworth tunnel proportions but a huge amount of work but hopefully good for at least half a century - I will be fertilizing daffodils by then.

 

[QueensCurve]

Missed a bit: demolish and rebuild the Down line platform >800mm to the west, lift and slue the Down line to suit, lift and slue the up line 200mm and rebuild the Up platform coper edge, remove the long-timber-in-trough deck off the station subway and replace it with a new two-part precast direct fastened deck on a different track alignment, redeck chapel street for structural reasons.

Presumably to align the track for higher speeds.

The fact that it is difficult to discern why this would be needed from Google maps presumably ties in with it only needing to be slewn by 200mm.

 

[edwin_m]

Isn't it a question of the spacing between the tracks being sub-standard, which would be that much more difficult to sort out after the wires go up?

 

[cool2005]

when do they start doing the blackpool north line? will they be doing anything with the blackpool south line?

 

[Geeves]

I believe there are some weekend closures of the line starting from the middle of this month. This is the lead up to the monster 18 week long closure later next year. I dont think there are any plans for works on the south line besides the connection at Kirkham being fettled.

 

[snowball]

There was a press release last week, linked and quoted by Mordac in post #3149 on page 210.

 

[Joseph_Locke]

Presumably to align the track for higher speeds.

The fact that it is difficult to discern why this would be needed from Google maps presumably ties in with it only needing to be slewn by 200mm.

Not speed; it was fit for 75mph anyway (which is the speed Hub is proposing) - its clearances. The new electric rolling stock would have clashed with both platform front walls, there was no safety roll space in front of the platform (a requirement which is triggered by doing "significant works") and the sixfoot was substandard (just).

To provide a compliant roll space both sides and widen the sixfoot by at least 100mm without moving both platform walls meant that (after some thought) the project made the narrowest (Up) platform 250mm wider (leaving the front wall where it was), slued the Up line to suit, corrected the sixfoot and moved the Down platform front wall 800mm (and put the copings back to provide a compliant safety roll space on this side. This meant that the subway deck had to be replaced, but that would have been required by raising the speed from 50 to 75 anyway.

Chapel Street subway deck had longitudinal beams and plate diaphragms that weren't in the right places for the new alignment, so that went too. Simples!

BTW - slue, sluing, slued. Slew is what cranes do.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I believe there are some weekend closures of the line starting from the middle of this month. This is the lead up to the monster 18 week long closure later next year. I dont think there are any plans for works on the south line besides the connection at Kirkham being fettled.

I gather the Kirkham-Blackpool South line will be resignalled, along with the whole Fylde Jn-Blackpool North line.
No point in having an island of old signalling at Kirkham just for the South line.
The platforming arrangements at Kirkham will also change, with P1 dedicated to South, P2 for both and a new P3 for Up trains from North (with the avoiding lines abolished).

"Work" of some sort is certainly starting imminently, but there is still a huge amount of electrification work to do via Bolton before they start on the Fylde line (unless there are different contractors).

 

[YorkshireBear]

I gather the Kirkham-Blackpool South line will be resignalled, along with the whole Fylde Jn-Blackpool North line.
No point in having an island of old signalling at Kirkham just for the South line.
The platforming arrangements at Kirkham will also change, with P1 dedicated to South, P2 for both and a new P3 for Up trains from North (with the avoiding lines abolished).

"Work" of some sort is certainly starting imminently, but there is still a huge amount of electrification work to do via Bolton before they start on the Fylde line (unless there are different contractors).

Don't think there are different contractors for electrification but there may be for some of the trackworks.

 

[SodTheDrummer]

there is still a huge amount of electrification work to do via Bolton before they start on the Fylde line (unless there are different contractors).

Wonder if there's an official 'scratching head trying to work out how to get wires under Trinity St' team within NR.. ? Not sure what can be done apart from rebuilding the bridge.. which would be very pricey and disruptive...

 

[edwin_m]

I gather the Kirkham-Blackpool South line will be resignalled, along with the whole Fylde Jn-Blackpool North line.
No point in having an island of old signalling at Kirkham just for the South line.

The South line is a long siding with one locally-monitored level crossing, so there will only be a handful of signals, all within a mile or so of Kirkham. Re-signalling it just means replacing those and transferring supervision of the line to the ROC.

 

[snowball]

Wonder if there's an official 'scratching head trying to work out how to get wires under Trinity St' team within NR.. ? Not sure what can be done apart from rebuilding the bridge.. which would be very pricey and disruptive...

According to post #3015 on page 201 they've decided it's not a problem after all.

 

[LeylandLen]

I know its not officially part of the Manchester Blackpool electrification scheme, but Leyland station now upgraded with lifts so it has 'step-free' access for all under the £5.4 million ' Access for all ' project funded by Dep of Transport and was officially opened by local dignitaries yesterday. Ive yet to try it but hope to this week.

Also , I notice some Northern trains being stabled overnight in new temp sidings known as 'Leyland B Leyland '

 

[Senex]

Not speed; it was fit for 75mph anyway (which is the speed Hub is proposing) - its clearances.

Why only 75 -- is it a tighter curve than it looks?

 

[Joseph_Locke]

Why only 75 -- is it a tighter curve than it looks?

The curve south of Chorley Tunnel is only good for 75mph and most trains call at Chorley, so there's no point pushing the 75MU95 north of the station as it would mean higher cant or cant deficiency through the station.

The existing 50 and 60 are due to level crossings that aren't there any more ...

 

[Chrisyd]

Latest video from Network Rail, via Northern Programme twitter account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSz-biYYPPQ