Great Western Electrification Progress

[edwin_m]

There are a few very odd masts which are essentially an A-frame at trackside.
What they will be carrying I've no idea (signal gantries perhaps?).

These may be where the end of the wire is anchored, therefore they have to take the force of the tension in the wire. All the other supports allow the wire to move a short distance back and forth as it expands and contracts with temperature. At the other end of the wire is a set of hanging weights or a gas tensioner to keep the tension constant as it moves.

 

[Domh245]

According to F&F, Network Rail specifically requested anchoring over the tracks, and the anchor portals have got some supporting steelwork (proper name eludes me at the moment) in addition to the main masts. Have a look at: http://www.furrerfrey.ch/dam/jcr:98f3522c-51ff-4d89-9fd7-dc16601d1db3/20130717_F+F_Series1_Web.pdf pgs 6 and 7 for more info

However what isn't clear is how overlaps will work, unless I've got the wrong end of the stick completely and the "anchors" are in fact what I'd call overlaps, which is possible given they are fitted with the tensioning devices. My understanding of anchoring was midpoint anchoring, which on mk1 equipment involved attaching the catenary wire to a large portal, or on mk3 equipment involved 3 cantilevers with the centre one fixed to the next 2 by some fixed tension wires. Can anyone clear up what the arrangements will be with this?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

All I can say is the A-frame I am trying to describe is not like the F&F anchors.
There are not many of them, 3-4 perhaps in the 140-odd masts currently up.

There are also some extremely massive anchors (like those in the diagram, only bigger) to the masts which have been up east of Reading station for some time.

The F&F diagram and text does suggest that double TTCs will be used. Portals are also shown.
Must have a better look next time!

 

[swt_passenger]

The F&F diagram and text does suggest that double TTCs will be used. Portals are also shown.
Must have a better look next time!

Ah right, that F&F brochure is a great help. What I was trying to explain earlier is the TTC hooked connector at the bottom of page 3. The lugs and corresponding fittings on the back of the upright are only present on a minority of masts near Pangbourne. That suggests to me that pairs of TTC will not be the usual solution along there, but of course that doesn't necessarily apply to the whole route section...

I also think the A frames you mention are more likely to be for signals.

 

[LexyBoy]

There's a signal gantry installed on the new viaduct which uses the A-frame masts LNW mentions.

 

[59CosG95]

Noel Dolphin's at it again: the first Crossrail West OHLE mast has gone up! https://twitter.com/noeldolphin/status/553104280224542720

 

[Ironside]

A friend of mine who lives bt the railway near Twyford received a letter saying that there would be night work going on between maidenhead and Newbury ( I think was those towns) for the next six months. He said he had already heard some heavy banging so it looks like work is stepping up in that area.

 

[fgwrich]

A friend of mine who lives bt the railway near Twyford received a letter saying that there would be night work going on between maidenhead and Newbury ( I think was those towns) for the next six months. He said he had already heard some heavy banging so it looks like work is stepping up in that area.

A heavy banging sounds like the Piles being driven in. Hopefully this means NR are about to ramp up the Electrification Trains then, They'll need to get on with the Thames Valley sooner than later!

 

[steevp]

The Oxford Mail had a front page article on the early resistance to a flyover at Oxford, but also mentions a possible Didcot flyover in passing:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11..._proposal_for_railway_flyover_by_Port_Meadow/

First published 06:30 Friday 9 January 2015 in News
Last updated 07:39 Friday 9 January 2015 .
Oxford Mail: Photograph of the Author by Reg Little, Oxford Times Chief Reporter. Call me on 01865 425434


A RAILWAY flyover scheme near Port Meadow could cause more anger than the Castle Mill student flats, a councillor has warned.

Network Rail is considering the flyover for the railway junction at Wolvercote to cope with predicted future demand.

But residents fear the scheme would cause massive environmental damage to Port Meadow and affect hundreds of homes.

Wolvercote city councillor Mike Gotch said the plans threatened to provoke more fury than Oxford University’s controversial Roger Dudman Way student flats.

He said: “The furore over Castle Mill will be as nothing compared to that generated when Network Rail reveal the details of the gantries, cables and general paraphernalia associated with the electrification of the main Oxford to Birmingham line alongside Port Meadow and Wolvercote Common.

“Some of the structures will be five metres high. Any suggestion of a much higher flyover alongside the meadow will positively blow the lid off the kettle.”

The work being looked at for the Oxford North railway junction is one option being considered by Network Rail.

Spokeswoman Victoria Bradley said a flyover at the Didcot East junction was also being looked at.

She added: “Further capacity will be required to accommodate predicted passenger demand by 2043.”

 

[TheKnightWho]

The Oxford Mail had a front page article on the early resistance to a flyover at Oxford, but also mentions a possible Didcot flyover in passing:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11..._proposal_for_railway_flyover_by_Port_Meadow/

First published 06:30 Friday 9 January 2015 in News
Last updated 07:39 Friday 9 January 2015 .
Oxford Mail: Photograph of the Author by Reg Little, Oxford Times Chief Reporter. Call me on 01865 425434


A RAILWAY flyover scheme near Port Meadow could cause more anger than the Castle Mill student flats, a councillor has warned.

Network Rail is considering the flyover for the railway junction at Wolvercote to cope with predicted future demand.

But residents fear the scheme would cause massive environmental damage to Port Meadow and affect hundreds of homes.

Wolvercote city councillor Mike Gotch said the plans threatened to provoke more fury than Oxford University’s controversial Roger Dudman Way student flats.

He said: “The furore over Castle Mill will be as nothing compared to that generated when Network Rail reveal the details of the gantries, cables and general paraphernalia associated with the electrification of the main Oxford to Birmingham line alongside Port Meadow and Wolvercote Common.

“Some of the structures will be five metres high. Any suggestion of a much higher flyover alongside the meadow will positively blow the lid off the kettle.”

The work being looked at for the Oxford North railway junction is one option being considered by Network Rail.

Spokeswoman Victoria Bradley said a flyover at the Didcot East junction was also being looked at.

She added: “Further capacity will be required to accommodate predicted passenger demand by 2043.”

No doubt the first to complain when their rail services are delayed.

 

[mr_moo]

All I can say is the A-frame I am trying to describe is not like the F&F anchors.
There are not many of them, 3-4 perhaps in the 140-odd masts currently up.

There are also some extremely massive anchors (like those in the diagram, only bigger) to the masts which have been up east of Reading station for some time.

The F&F diagram and text does suggest that double TTCs will be used. Portals are also shown.
Must have a better look next time!

Can you let me know exactly where one of these is?

I commute this route daily (Swindon to Paddington) and should be able to tell you what they are when I know what you are referring to.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Can you let me know exactly where one of these is?
I commute this route daily (Swindon to Paddington) and should be able to tell you what they are when I know what you are referring to.

I'm afraid I did not note the locations, I was just aware of them as they flashed past.
One will be next to the Up Relief around Pangbourne I think.
There may be another next to the Down Main near Twyford.
Sorry not to be more helpful!

I'm also out of date on the GW resignalling (ie how much is new and how much is the old RRI stuff recontrolled, together with how much still has to be renewed before electrification).
I am guessing the Reading area is brand new and the rest is recontrolled from Didcot pending renewal?

 

[fgwrich]

Had a fairly interesting trip through and to Reading yesterday as the Flyover was closed for Engineering work. So the Cross Country's were running around the east curve as usual, through Platform 7 and out to the loop near Sonning, before reversing there and crossing to access the through lines through Platforms 10 + and stopping in those platforms. Added an extra 10 minutes mind, but certainly an unusual effect of closing the viaduct without the Festival Line in use.

 

[swt_passenger]

Had a fairly interesting trip through and to Reading yesterday as the Flyover was closed for Engineering work. So the Cross Country's were running around the east curve as usual, through Platform 7 and out to the loop near Sonning, before reversing there and crossing to access the through lines through Platforms 10 + and stopping in those platforms. Added an extra 10 minutes mind, but certainly an unusual effect of closing the viaduct without the Festival Line in use.

You can do a similar reverse move during the week, the train that will form the 1220 to Southampton arrives on the up relief and runs through to Kennet Bridge Loop (was that not where you reversed?) and then runs across the mains and through P7 where it calls for passengers. I caught it from Reading early last week, might have been Monday.

RTT shows it as a normal WTT move until Easter:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P30695/2015/01/13/advanced

 

[steevp]

I noticed piles (half driven in) on the main line west of Didcot Parkway today. There have been piles driven in between Didcot and Oxford for some time but first time I have noticed them just after the junction so I think they are recent

 

[59CosG95]

More masts up outside Pangbourne, as Noel Dolphin's just posted. http://twitter.com/NoelDolphin/status/558563209838608384/photo/1

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

More masts up outside Pangbourne, as Noel Dolphin's just posted. http://twitter.com/NoelDolphin/status/558563209838608384/photo/1

That photo neatly demonstrates the nature of the booms - a mix of full and half portals.
I think they look quite elegant.

 

[BritishRail83]

I have noticed in the last few months that the platform canopy at West Drayton has been removed presumably in preparation for the electrification works? Does anyone know if they will be reinstated?

 

[Unclepete]

Hi All,
Got the chance to travel from Newbury over to Reading on Sunday & there has been progress, with a lot of piling between Thatcham & Theale. I counted about 30 tubes in situ, with others lying by the trackside. There does appear to be lots of markers in place ready for them as well. None have been filled as yet though.

Cheers,

 

[mr_moo]

I'm afraid I did not note the locations, I was just aware of them as they flashed past.
One will be next to the Up Relief around Pangbourne I think.
There may be another next to the Down Main near Twyford.
Sorry not to be more helpful!

Hi,

Sorry for not getting back to you before - I've had a frantic few weeks.

The A-frames are now up in several places. They are the supports for signalling gantries. Eventually there will be these frames on both sides of the tracks with a portal over the top.

I'm also out of date on the GW resignalling (ie how much is new and how much is the old RRI stuff recontrolled, together with how much still has to be renewed before electrification).
I am guessing the Reading area is brand new and the rest is recontrolled from Didcot pending renewal?

The area currently controlled by Slough PSB, which is the stretch from about West of West Drayton (14.25miles) to around Ruscombe Junction (29.5miles), is to be transferred to TVSC this coming Easter. It's 're-lock and re-control', i.e. a lot of the signals themselves wont change but most of the associated trackside equipment will. The area is changing from track circuits to axle counters and vast swathes of cables are being renewed. This is partly simply because Slough PSB is life expired and partly to facilitate the electrification immunisation. The old system is not AC immune so electrification cannot be done until the resignalling is done.

Swindon should be being decomissioned at Easter too for the same reasons, although I don't know the current status of this project so can only assume it's still good to go. This, plus the comissioning of the final layout at Reading station, is why there is such a huge possession over this coming Easter, of pretty much everything between Swindon and London, although HeX will still be running most of the time.

Further West I don't know much about.

I have noticed in the last few months that the platform canopy at West Drayton has been removed presumably in preparation for the electrification works? Does anyone know if they will be reinstated?

West Drayton station is due for a substantial rebuild under Crossrail to bring platform 5 into passenger use. There's an area to the East that has been built up with various buildings being demolished - this is to make way for the longer and faster platform as 4/5 will be extended towards London and a section at the East end is to be demolished to reduce the sharp curvature here.
Some of the station buildings at the East end will be demolished too.

 

[FenMan]

An interesting comment added by "Railrunner" to a story on The Independent website about complaints to TOCs via Twitter, that may shed some light on the slower than expected progress.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/disgruntled-commuters-sent-more-than-400000-angry-tweets-to-train-companies-last-year-10054778.html

FGW is trying to work through a 120 mile long building site as the electrification goes on. Nearly every signal failure is because as they put the new electrification masts in around Slough and Maidenhead the vibration is destroying the ancient signal cables laid by BR in the 1960s, and which BR lost the diagrams for. They have had to resort to manually digging the foundations as the only way to avoid destroying these cables.

 

[Techniquest]

Wow that must be extremely frustrating for the guys dealing with it all!

 

[mr_moo]

That's slightly OTT but also semi-true. The top metre or so is indeed being dug manually but after that it's back to standard piling methods.

Many years ago, as an anti-crime measure, someone somewhere had the bright idea that if the cables were buried, they would be a lot harder to steal and thus the signalling system would be much more reliable. Great idea, and mile upon mile or cables were direct biuried at varying depths along the track in the cess.

Unfotunately, record keeping of where these cables were and how deeply they were buried was a bit less great (!), meaning we now have big problems when trying to install OLE piles as we keep finding them in the way.

Note that we do already dig the top bit manually and make extensive usage of CAT scanners to find the cables before we disturb them, which is why we're not having the signalling system go down every night, but ocasionally the CAT scanners don't pick up a cable or the vibrations from a pile being instaled nearby cause the cable to break even though the pile itself did avoid it, which is why we've had a few instances of the signalling system going down.

This should get a lot better when most cables are made redundant at Easter, when slough PSB is decomissioned. However, there are still some cables direct buried that are not being decomissioned as part of the Slough PSB works, such as some power and some telecoms, so it's not all plain sailing after Easter, but the problems should decrease substantially.

 

[SamYeager]

Many years ago, as an anti-crime measure, someone somewhere had the bright idea that if the cables were buried, they would be a lot harder to steal and thus the signalling system would be much more reliable. Great idea, and mile upon mile or cables were direct biuried at varying depths along the track in the cess.

What's happening with the replacement cables? Are they also being buried, with better documentation this time, or is NR leaving them above ground?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

That's slightly OTT but also semi-true. The top metre or so is indeed being dug manually but after that it's back to standard piling methods.

Many years ago, as an anti-crime measure, someone somewhere had the bright idea that if the cables were buried, they would be a lot harder to steal and thus the signalling system would be much more reliable. Great idea, and mile upon mile or cables were direct biuried at varying depths along the track in the cess.

Unfotunately, record keeping of where these cables were and how deeply they were buried was a bit less great (!), meaning we now have big problems when trying to install OLE piles as we keep finding them in the way.

Note that we do already dig the top bit manually and make extensive usage of CAT scanners to find the cables before we disturb them, which is why we're not having the signalling system go down every night, but ocasionally the CAT scanners don't pick up a cable or the vibrations from a pile being instaled nearby cause the cable to break even though the pile itself did avoid it, which is why we've had a few instances of the signalling system going down.

This should get a lot better when most cables are made redundant at Easter, when slough PSB is decomissioned. However, there are still some cables direct buried that are not being decomissioned as part of the Slough PSB works, such as some power and some telecoms, so it's not all plain sailing after Easter, but the problems should decrease substantially.

Excellent information - thank you very much for posting.

 

[mr_moo]

What's happening with the replacement cables? Are they also being buried, with better documentation this time, or is NR leaving them above ground?

They are going back into on-ground cable troughs, for which you can also currently see miles and miles of new troughs being installed along both cess's.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

What are we to make of the following statement which appears on Page 90 of the CP5 Enhancements Delivery Plan (December 2014 update, but only published last week):
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/publications/delivery-plans/control-period-5/cp5-delivery-plan/

GRIP 3 missed for Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway to Cardiff Central. The new date is subject to change until the programme has been re-examined, revised and communicated to the stakeholders. It is acknowledged that this section of the main line includes relatively complex locations that require further and greater study to deliver the best whole-life cost solution. This is supported by the client. The locations agreed in this category – and required to complete GRIP 3 Single Option Selection and fully signed-off Integrated AiP – is limited to Bristol Temple Meads Station and Bristol Parkway Station.

As far as I can see the main milestones have been maintained (however unrealistic they seem based on current progress), but this paragraph suggests there are new design problems at Bristol (TM and Parkway).
These will surely affect all electric routes via Bristol?

The "stakeholders" have been notified and "the client" supports the plan - I assume this is code for FGW and ORR/DfT.
When will they come clean about the project and its completion?
My guess it will be when a new Transport Secretary is appointed after the election (of whichever party).

 

[Olaf]

What are we to make of the following statement which appears on Page 90 of the CP5 Enhancements Delivery Plan (December 2014 update, but only published last week):
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/publications/delivery-plans/control-period-5/cp5-delivery-plan/



As far as I can see the main milestones have been maintained (however unrealistic they seem based on current progress), but this paragraph suggests there are new design problems at Bristol (TM and Parkway).
These will surely affect all electric routes via Bristol?

The "stakeholders" have been notified and "the client" supports the plan - I assume this is code for FGW and ORR/DfT.
When will they come clean about the project and its completion?
My guess it will be when a new Transport Secretary is appointed after the election (of whichever party).

Yes, that new GRIP3 has been put back by 10 months, is only provisional, and is for Approval in Principle only (AiP) - not a GRIP3 delivery milestone. So I am guessing the the GRIP4 for October 2015 will be under pressure now that only one month is allowed vs 11 months previously, though the work items could have been re-distributed as part of the re-plan, and the new GRIP3 date could be defined as 'very conservative' on the actual time to completion of the tasks.

 

[Ploughman]

From the BBC local news for Hampshire

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31610849

Plans to modernise railways in the Thames Valley are a year behind schedule after they proved to be "dramatically more expensive" than first thought.

The predicted cost to transform the old Great Western route has climbed from £640m to £1.74bn, the BBC has learned.

Senior industry executives have said the plans to complete the work by the end of 2016 will not be met.

 

[Rapidash]

Bugger.