Great Western Electrification Progress

[HowardGWR]

That certainly is a contributing factor Edwin but the trial hole process checks if a location is clear to pile, be it clear of cables, lengths of old rail, drains, culverts etc. In areas where there are a lot of cables shown on the records we excavate a slit trench and once a clear spot if found we can ask for the foundation to be redesigned and located in the clear spot, it's not always possible but it's the first and best option. In Swindon we found the timber supports of the original station, they're pretty substantial and would most definitely cause an issue if you tried to drive a pile through without checking first.

Good to get these contributions from the horse's mouth, so to speak, thank you. Makes one wonder why the issue of buried cables was cited so prominently by the NR CEO a while back. In any event, the late Mr Cardani's record stands intact and that is very pleasing.

 

[Unclepete]

Hi,
thought it would be good to post a couple of pictures showing progress at the western end of the Berks & Hants. These are 2 from Thatcham, looking east & west, then one from the Racecourse, looking back towards Thatcham. Masts are slowly appearing as you can see.

 

[Unclepete]

Sorry, here's the other one.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Newport up to Paddington today.
The first surprise was to find piled bases on the Hereford curve at Maindee West Jn.
Maybe the Maindee triangle will be wired.
16/13 masts up past Llanwern (Down/Up).
0/12 masts between Severn Tunnel and Pilning, 16/13 between Pilning and Patchway.
No bases Patchway-Badminton, then intermittent to Wootton Bassett.
Signs of recent piling west of Swindon station.
Masts start at Uffington, quickly followed by registration gear.
2 lengths of earth wire up through the Wantage loops.
Bit of a gap west of Milton, then full wiring starts.
Rapid progress Reading-Maidenhead, including in Sonning Cutting.
Registration gear starts at Ruscombe, and wiring at Maidenhead.
The Up Main is wired over Maidenhead Bridge.
Good lengths of wiring past Slough, and they appear to be wiring the "join" between old and new systems at Stockley.
Very impressive.

 

[Class 170101]

Would Maindee wiring be to prevent a wrong routeing becoming a train off wires though?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Would Maindee wiring be to prevent a wrong routeing becoming a train off wires though?

Almost certainly but it has the extra effect of making future electrification to Gloucester somewhat easier.

 

[59CosG95]

Almost certainly but it has the extra effect of making future electrification to Gloucester somewhat easier.

Surely you mean Hereford? The junction for Gloucester is much further east, at Severn Tunnel Junction.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Surely you mean Hereford? The junction for Gloucester is much further east, at Severn Tunnel Junction.

I actually meant Gloucester - but you are correct I made a mistake. Of course I hope the stub is wired when they come to do the junction for Gloucester also, making it easier for the future.

 

[reddragon]

Travelled up to Paddington today and took notes as best as I could on progress as so much is going on.

Acton Dive under

Track & catenary appears connected at both ends.

West from Hayes

Relief lines are wires west to the east end of West Drayton Station apart from a gap in the UR.

One short section of UR done between West Drayton & Iver.

Iver – Langley

Wired bits on all tracks with most on DR

Langley – Slough

A lot of wires up on all tracks with reliefs wired through Slough Station

Slough – Maidenhead

Mains are mostly completed, including over the bridge and 1m west of Maidenhead. Small gaps exist west of Slough and between Maidenhead Station & bridge.

Reliefs only patchy wires Slough to Taplow

Maidenhead – Reading

Most masts & fittings are up. Lots of piles still awaiting installation in Sonning cutting and near Twyford Station

Reading

Fittings slowly going up

Reading – Tilehurst

Reliefs are wired east of Scours Lane to alongside depot.

The UPL and depot are now fully connected to the west now allowing a class 387 to run from the depot to Didcot on any track, but earthing straps in place.

UPL wiring gang was working today, with the UPL mostly wired up to the station end.

B&H

Still no work around Theale

 

[jimm]

Newport up to Paddington today.
The first surprise was to find piled bases on the Hereford curve at Maindee West Jn.
Maybe the Maindee triangle will be wired.

Why is it a surprise? It has long been UK practice to wire short sections beyond junctions on to lines that are not part of wiring schemes - or lines that will be tackled at a later date. The GWML project is no different.

Piling work alerts for the Newport area on the Twitter feed for contractor consortium ABC Electrification https://twitter.com/ABC_Elect show various satellite view with pins on to mark piling locations on the west to north curve at Maindee triangle and around the pointwork at the north end of the triangle but I can't see one indicating piling being done on the north to east curve.

 

[leomartin125]

Travelled up to Paddington today and took notes as best as I could on progress as so much is going on.

Acton Dive under

Track & catenary appears connected at both ends.

West from Hayes

Relief lines are wires west to the east end of West Drayton Station apart from a gap in the UR.

One short section of UR done between West Drayton & Iver.

Iver – Langley

Wired bits on all tracks with most on DR

Langley – Slough

A lot of wires up on all tracks with reliefs wired through Slough Station

Slough – Maidenhead

Mains are mostly completed, including over the bridge and 1m west of Maidenhead. Small gaps exist west of Slough and between Maidenhead Station & bridge.

Reliefs only patchy wires Slough to Taplow

Maidenhead – Reading

Most masts & fittings are up. Lots of piles still awaiting installation in Sonning cutting and near Twyford Station

Reading

Fittings slowly going up

Reading – Tilehurst

Reliefs are wired east of Scours Lane to alongside depot.

The UPL and depot are now fully connected to the west now allowing a class 387 to run from the depot to Didcot on any track, but earthing straps in place.

UPL wiring gang was working today, with the UPL mostly wired up to the station end.

B&H

Still no work around Theale

The Up and Down Mains are wired through Maidenhead station.

 

[ANP1990]

B&H

Still no work around Theale

There are masts up immediately west of Theale station.

 

[reddragon]

There are masts up immediately west of Theale station.

Ah!

I only see east of Theale Station, perhaps I should start exploring that route.

Completion isn't due until December 2018

 

[Unclepete]

There are lots of masts up in various places along the route now, either side of most if not all the stations. I did post a couple of pics around Thatcham the other day & will try to do the others soon.

I think DEC2018 is very conservative when looking at progress so far, so will keep an eye. Also, the new bridge at Ufton Nervet is due to open end of November, according to local press.

 

[YorkshireBear]

There are lots of masts up in various places along the route now, either side of most if not all the stations. I did post a couple of pics around Thatcham the other day & will try to do the others soon.

I think DEC2018 is very conservative when looking at progress so far, so will keep an eye. Also, the new bridge at Ufton Nervet is due to open end of November, according to local press.

Probably wise for the next date to be conservative and take account of any future unknown problems. It certainly seems the teething troubles GWML has suffered have been learnt from and now progress is roughly in line with what was expected, even potentially ahead.

With a bit of luck they will beat deadlines for the rest of the programme.

 

[Thatcham Xing]

The new bridge at Ufton Nervet is due to open end of November, according to local press.

I drive past this on the A4 frequently, and the progress does seem to have been commendably rapid over the last few months.

In terms of OHLE on the B&H, my observations are that there are plenty of uprights in place between Newbury Racecourse and Theale, though notable gaps are between Aldermaston and Ufton Nervet (there is a quite long down loop in that area) and still nothing through the stations themselves or to the east of Theale.

I also believe there is a Contract in place to extend platforms at Thatcham and Theale (to accommodate 8-coach EMU's AFAIK), but no sign of any work on that either.

Taking a ride into London tomorrow, so will update if any changes to above noted.

 

[leomartin125]

Are there any balise's on the side of the track on the newly electrified segments yet, at Neutral Sections? How would the driver deal with neutral sections in the IEP's, would he still have to power down or is this done for him now?

 

[Phil from Mon]

Noticed a few masts up on the down side between Cardiff and Newport yesterday - can't see that this has been mentioned before plus plenty of bases on both sides. Also lots of work going on around bridges.

 

[swt_passenger]

Are there any balise's on the side of the track on the newly electrified segments yet, at Neutral Sections? How would the driver deal with neutral sections in the IEP's, would he still have to power down or is this done for him now?

Automatic Power Control (APC) magnets are the normal set up, not balises.

 

[Mintona]

Noticed a few masts up on the down side between Cardiff and Newport yesterday - can't see that this has been mentioned before plus plenty of bases on both sides. Also lots of work going on around bridges.

They're on the up side too. I believe there are 35 up in total at last count. I've been updating on this section fairly regularly.

 

[jyte]

Any areas being worked on this weekend or photographs of the progress?

 

[Mintona]

Pilning footbridge almost completely removed over the weekend.

 

[swt_passenger]

Don't recall it being mentioned before, but on a slow run between Radley and Kennington today I noticed electrification piling in place (at least on the on the up side) at fairly regular intervals.

Didcot to Oxford doesnt seem to be on the radar normally, I expect there are still a few bridges to deal with?

 

[JamesT]

Didcot to Oxford doesnt seem to be on the radar normally, I expect there are still a few bridges to deal with?

I was under the impression all the bridges had been sorted as part of the work to allow larger freight trains from Southampton about 5 years ago.

 

[swt_passenger]

I was under the impression all the bridges had been sorted as part of the work to allow larger freight trains from Southampton about 5 years ago.

Some, or even most, will have been - but it isn't correct to assume that any bridge clear for high containers will automatically also be clear for OHLE.

 

[Henbury Loop]

Pilning footbridge almost completely removed over the weekend.

A very sad day indeed.

 

[edwin_m]

Some, or even most, will have been - but it isn't correct to assume that any bridge clear for high containers will automatically also be clear for OHLE.

I'd hope that any rebuilt for containers would also have had OLE clearance provided, as it would be very wasteful to be thinking of re-building them again after less than a decade. Certainly photos of rebuilds around Winchester seem to show loads of room directly above the train, which isn't an area needed for container clearances. But you are correct in that there may be bridges which needed little or no work for containers but would still need re-building for OLE.

 

[furnessvale]

I'd hope that any rebuilt for containers would also have had OLE clearance provided, as it would be very wasteful to be thinking of re-building them again after less than a decade. Certainly photos of rebuilds around Winchester seem to show loads of room directly above the train, which isn't an area needed for container clearances. But you are correct in that there may be bridges which needed little or no work for containers but would still need re-building for OLE.

Most bridge rebuilding for containers involves arched bridges where the top corner has been foul. When rebuilt those bridges would normally be cleared sufficiently for future OHLE.

Girder bridges normally provide sufficient clearance for containers in the top corner. Therefore it is entirely possible that a route previously cleared for containers will need revisiting to lift girder bridges, previously untouched, to enable OHLE.

 

[jimm]

Don't recall it being mentioned before, but on a slow run between Radley and Kennington today I noticed electrification piling in place (at least on the on the up side) at fairly regular intervals.

Didcot to Oxford doesnt seem to be on the radar normally, I expect there are still a few bridges to deal with?

I mentioned the piling a couple of pages back, on October 29th...

Bridges that still need replacement or some other form of clearance work, as far as I am aware, are Walton Well Road, just north of Oxford station, Osney Lane footbridge, just south of the station across the main line and the station car park, and the footbridge at Hinksey Lake that crosses the main line and Hinksey Yard.

The new Aristotle Lane pedestrian bridge has taken care of one of the other outstanding jobs in the Oxford area.

I believe pretty much every other overbridge south of Hinksey is now suitable for 25kv. Not that there are many of them anyway and the old footbridge at Didcot North Junction was replaced a couple of years ago.

 

[swt_passenger]

... But you are correct in that there may be bridges which needed little or no work for containers but would still need re-building for OLE.

Yes, that was basically what I was trying to say, albeit in a different way.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I mentioned the piling a couple of pages back, on October 29th...

Sorry I missed that at the time.