Ely to Peterborough Line

[CockneySparrow]

NR are currently doing some sort of work for the next few weeks on this stretch on Saturdays, just heard that it will closed for a week sometime in May

They are supposed to be installing a third track somewhere along the line

 

[tel]

I think its to do with installing more track at Ely station and Ely Nth Junc

Tel

 

[GB]

Couple of longer goods loops IIRC

 

[fsmr]

Couple of longer goods loops IIRC

Yeh needs it judging by the containers coming through Oakham these days to and from Felixtowe
wouldnt have minded if it had been 25 years back and they had class 37s 47s or even 40s on the front but no just the same old 66s:cry:

 

[High Dyke]

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/8512.aspx

Capacity enhancements between Ipswich and Peterborough:
1.A new 1km stretch of track, or chord, north of Ipswich goods yard linking the East Suffolk and Great Eastern lines
2.Two 775m sections of track east of Ely station to enable better regulation of trains through the junctions at Ely
3.Signalling works at Kennett/Bury St Edmunds

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Wasn't there something about the addition of loops near Ely that would make reopening Soham station much more of a possibility as it eases timetable constraints? I'm certain I've read that the two are related.

 

[Tomnick]

Yeh needs it judging by the containers coming through Oakham these days to and from Felixtowe
wouldnt have minded if it had been 25 years back and they had class 37s 47s or even 40s on the front but no just the same old 66s:cry:

At least they come in different colours! I'd imagine there'll be a lot more coming our way before too long anyway - it's relatively quiet at the moment, with just 4M04 and 4M21 on the Down in the morning, and 4L02 bright and early followed by 4L18 and 4L07 mid-afternoon on the Up. Our goods lines are plenty long enough anyway - I've had three in the Down Goods at once!

 

[fsmr]

At least they come in different colours! I'd imagine there'll be a lot more coming our way before too long anyway - it's relatively quiet at the moment, with just 4M04 and 4M21 on the Down in the morning, and 4L02 bright and early followed by 4L18 and 4L07 mid-afternoon on the Up. Our goods lines are plenty long enough anyway - I've had three in the Down Goods at once!

Yeh i must post some footage of a 60 leaving the up goods way back in the mid 90s I think

Now if i had had a video back in the 70s especially when a class 20 threw a rod in Oakham station and a passenger ended up in hospital and engine oil all over the platforms

 

[Bald Rick]

Wasn't there something about the addition of loops near Ely that would make reopening Soham station much more of a possibility as it eases timetable constraints? I'm certain I've read that the two are related.

Doubling the line through Soham makes stopping trains there easier, as the timetable for the sinle line is pretty full.

However the business case for a station at Soham is still dreadful.

 

[Tomnick]

Yeh i must post some footage of a 60 leaving the up goods way back in the mid 90s I think

Funnily enough, 'twas a 60 on the early Corby steel on Wednesday - and it went into the Up Goods! Had various 20s and 37s over the last couple of days too.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

all the roadways and bridge that was put in for the loops at Ely have been removed...
Something to do with ground not good enough to support the weight of a freight train standing for any length of time...

SO, just double the bloody line to Soham then!!

 

[a good off]

Work is finally being done to make Ely West Curve bi-directional which will enable trains from March to access the Lynn and Norwich lines. Its only 21 years this month since they singled it...

 

[David Goddard]

Work is finally being done to make Ely West Curve bi-directional which will enable trains from March to access the Lynn and Norwich lines. Its only 21 years this month since they singled it...

I remember it well:
A month long closure of Ely station to include building out of Platform 1
New lighting and platform resurfacing.
The provision of "Ely Temporary Station" at Chettisham where the Peterborough line crosses the Ely-Littleport road.
Replacement buses operating a network of routes linking Ely with Temp Station, Downham Market, Shippea Hill, Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge.
Rationalisation of Ely North Junction including singling the West Curve
Demolition of at least three signal boxes (Ely North, Ely North Junction and Ely Dock Junction)
Resignalling throughout of the areas covered by these boxes.

 

[tsr]

Replacement buses operating a network of routes linking Ely with Temp Station, Downham Market, Shippea Hill, Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge.

How frequent was the train service which needed replacing? That seems a bit of an overreaction!

 

[fsmr]

Funnily enough, 'twas a 60 on the early Corby steel on Wednesday - and it went into the Up Goods! Had various 20s and 37s over the last couple of days too.

yeh i was next to oakham LC about 1730 today with my son buying a new Ford ST off the ford dealer and heard the unmistakable sound of a 20, went out to see not one but four class 20s and some tank waggons top and tailed dissapearing under the footbridge heading towards Manton jnctn
was that the weedkilling train?
If so summer must be comming

That red class 60 really gives off a low frequency engine noise, you can hear it a mile away

 

[David Goddard]

How frequent was the train service which needed replacing? That seems a bit of an overreaction!

Trains ran hourly from Norwich to Shippea Hill for bus connections to Ely and Ely Temp (for Peterborough and beyond). They had the initiative to get trains as close to the disruption as possible. If it was today, buses would have to run out to Thetford and March, with much longer road journeys.

 

[Tomnick]

yeh i was next to oakham LC about 1730 today with my son buying a new Ford ST off the ford dealer and heard the unmistakable sound of a 20, went out to see not one but four class 20s and some tank waggons top and tailed dissapearing under the footbridge heading towards Manton jnctn
was that the weedkilling train?

They'll have been on their way back to Peterborough from Old Dalby after delivering another S-stock unit - the tanks acting as barrier wagons for such movements. We've seen plenty of them this week!

 

[Bald Rick]

Trains ran hourly from Norwich to Shippea Hill for bus connections to Ely and Ely Temp (for Peterborough and beyond). They had the initiative to get trains as close to the disruption as possible. If it was today, buses would have to run out to Thetford and March, with much longer road journeys.

If it was today we wouldn't be taking 4 weeks!

 

[fsmr]

They'll have been on their way back to Peterborough from Old Dalby after delivering another S-stock unit - the tanks acting as barrier wagons for such movements. We've seen plenty of them this week!

yeh thanks Tom makes sense

 

[CockneySparrow]

How frequent was the train service which needed replacing? That seems a bit of an overreaction!

Shippea Hill is the next stop out of Ely on the Norwich line, quicker to run shuttle buses between there And Ely than Thetford which the do today for some reason

 

[CockneySparrow]

If it was today we wouldn't be taking 4 weeks!

But the closure of Ely for one month included Electrification back then

 

[CockneySparrow]

Doubling the line through Soham makes stopping trains there easier, as the timetable for the sinle line is pretty full.

However the business case for a station at Soham is still dreadful.

I remember a couple of years ago when the bridge colapsed at Ely, would of thought they would of built a makeshift station at Soham and left it there, or even better built one 21 years ago when they done the electrification rather than run buses to Bury

 

[306024]

Trains ran hourly from Norwich to Shippea Hill for bus connections to Ely and Ely Temp (for Peterborough and beyond). They had the initiative to get trains as close to the disruption as possible. If it was today, buses would have to run out to Thetford and March, with much longer road journeys.

The guy that planned the timetable for that engineering block is in his 80's today but still sharp as a knife. I recall doing some of the loco and drivers diagrams - looked odd seeing Chettisham on the diagrams.

On a different occasion I remember the use of Trowse station when Norwich was closed from both the Wymondham and Diss directions too.

Unfortunately it seems to be more difficult to plan like that in today's fragmented railway.

 

[David Goddard]

On a different occasion I remember the use of Trowse station when Norwich was closed from both the Wymondham and Diss directions too.

That was when they closed Norwich for electrification, and also when they replaced the swing bridge at Trowse (essentially so that it could be electrified)

 

[CockneySparrow]

The guy that planned the timetable for that engineering block is in his 80's today but still sharp as a knife. I recall doing some of the loco and drivers diagrams - looked odd seeing Chettisham on the diagrams.

On a different occasion I remember the use of Trowse station when Norwich was closed from both the Wymondham and Diss directions too.

Unfortunately it seems to be more difficult to plan like that in today's fragmented railway.

Network Rail dont like too many points on the network as they cost money to maintain, this has resulted in points being removed coupled with the cost of BI DI signalling its impossible to stop and start trains at Shippea Hill

For the few weekends a year such lines are closed for maintenance work its cost effect to close half if not the whole line and run buses further

 

[306024]

Network Rail dont like too many points on the network as they cost money to maintain, this has resulted in points being removed coupled with the cost of BI DI signalling its impossible to stop and start trains at Shippea Hill

For the few weekends a year such lines are closed for maintenance work its cost effect to close half if not the whole line and run buses further

Perfectly true. Maintaining all sorts of infrastructure on the off chance you may need it one day doesn't make much sense in the long run. Ride quality over points takes a lot of maintaining too. Once a line has to be blocked from A to B NR do try to incorporate other jobs into the same possession where possible.

And while we are under the heading of Ely to Peterborough (which Shippea Hill isn't !) does anyone know why Three Horse Shoes signal box between March and Whittlesea is called Three Horse Shoes? What use is a three legged horse?

 

[a good off]

Apparently after the long standing pub located nearby at Turves.

 

[306024]

Thanks, I know the pub but need to get the bike out for a visit.

It still makes me wonder why they chose the pub name rather than simply call the box Turves, imagine if the practice had been widespread across the network !

 

[Fred26]

Thanks, I know the pub but need to get the bike out for a visit.

It still makes me wonder why they chose the pub name rather than simply call the box Turves, imagine if the practice had been widespread across the network !

Perhaps it's just a more intresting name...

 

[CockneySparrow]

Thanks, I know the pub but need to get the bike out for a visit.

It still makes me wonder why they chose the pub name rather than simply call the box Turves, imagine if the practice had been widespread across the network !

Without checking facts I would hazard a guess that when they origanally built the box one of the workers either builder or origial signalman decided to call it that