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HS2 Old Oak Common

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Snow1964

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A schedule has been published of dates and times of overhead wiring work in Old Oak area during April, May, June. Generally from 22:00 Saturday to either Sunday or Monday morning depending on dates as per schedule


A second one covers overhead wiring, signalling, drainage, track work, cabling etc, and has more areas (colour coded) on a map, with dates and times for each of the coloured map areas

 
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Nicholas Lewis

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Travelled past a few hours ago and a number of masts and portal structures erected at the West end of the new station area despite no track installed yet. Also look like construction now in earnest for the new approach bridge over the Underground lines.
 
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Snow1964

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Nicholas Lewis said:
Travelled past a few hours ago and a number of masts and portal structures erected at the West end of the new station area despite no track installed yet. Also look like construction now in earnest for the new approach bridge over the Underground lines.
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There is a road closure scheduled 10pm Friday 17th to 5am Monday 20th April, which includes demolition of the abutment walls of former bridge on lines via Greenford. Notice is mainly about noise during demolition.

The railway bridges on Old Oak Common Lane between our site entrance and Minster in the south are gradually all being demolished and will be rebuilt as part of the programme to construct Old Oak Common station. The new bridges will carry the realigned Great Western Main Line and other railways into the station. These works are scheduled to take place from 10:00pm Friday 17 April until 5:00am Monday 20 April, we will remove the supporting walls (called ‘abutments’) of the former Wycombe line bridge between our site and the remaining bridge on Old Oak Common Lane.
Click to expand...

Update: Demolition of bridge support walls on Old Oak Common Lane

Weekend road closure for demolition and removal of Wycombe bridge supports – 10pm Friday 17 April to 5am Monday 20 April The railway bridges on Old Oak Common Lane between our site entrance and Minster in the south are gradually all being demolished and will be rebuilt as part of the programme...
www.hs2.org.uk www.hs2.org.uk

Maybe will be lifting in new bridge sections that weekend too.

The current rail bridge has 5 tracks, formerly 7, as 2 decks are now trackless, then alongside on southern side, there is the 2 toilet emptying tracks which were built when Eurostar depot was constructed
 
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Snow1964

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Snow1964

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The May update from HS2 CEO Mark Wild includes a few seconds of inside Old Oak Common station where majority of platforms have been installed in HS2 part of station.
Starting about 2:08 minutes in the video

 
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Snow1964

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New video with views of HS2 Old Oak station.

It is actually a promotion for use of Leca light weight aggregate for fill, but the various drone shots and views inside and around the site give indication of how far construction has got

 
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Geogregor

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Geogregor

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Fresh drone video.


Very little progress with bridges over the Old Oak Common Lane and over the Central Line. When do they plan switching the mainline tracks to the new alignment? Xmas 2027 blockade?
 
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Nicholas Lewis

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Geogregor said:
Fresh drone video.


Very little progress with bridges over the Old Oak Common Lane and over the Central Line. When do they plan switching the mainline tracks to the new alignment? Xmas 2027 blockade?
Click to expand...
Great video thanks for uploading. I do like the token bit of track and OLE gantries at the West end of the site with nowhere to go all seems a bit premature.
 
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swt_passenger

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GraphitProjekt said:
Yeah what is that about? Just practicing or something?
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I think what‘s already there replicates the track layout drawings. (Post #107 in this thread.)

You can draw a smooth curve (apologies for my hopeless attempt though), from the leftmost track to the up relief. Then there’s two tracks that align with the up and down relief loops, ie the central terminating platforms, they continue as two of the three reversing sidings, and the fifth piece of track counting from the left is the third of the reversing sidings. There’s a set of points to provide a route for an up relief train to reach the up relief loop platform. In the down direction there’s a set of points for a route from down relief loop back to the down relief.

1782761428207.jpeg

I also expect the dark rails on the right are a stockpile of short sections to lay elsewhere on site. They’re not going to cope with long welded rail sections yet.
 
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Nicholas Lewis

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swt_passenger said:
I think what‘s already there replicates the track layout drawings. (Post #107 in this thread.)

You can draw a smooth curve (apologies for my hopeless attempt though), from the leftmost track to the up relief. Then there’s two tracks that align with the up and down relief loops, ie the central terminating platforms, they continue as two of the three reversing sidings, and the fifth piece of track counting from the left is the third of the reversing sidings. There’s a set of points to provide a route for an up relief train to reach the up relief loop platform. In the down direction there’s a set of points for a route from down relief loop back to the down relief.

View attachment 206900

I also expect the dark rails on the right are a stockpile of short sections to lay elsewhere on site. They’re not going to cope with long welded rail sections yet.
Click to expand...
Its all a bit premature especially with a lot of dust floating around at the moment but more than likely they let the contract before all the slippage occurred and getting on where they can.
 
OLEngineer

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Nicholas Lewis said:
Its all a bit premature especially with a lot of dust floating around at the moment but more than likely they let the contract before all the slippage occurred and getting on where they can.
Click to expand...
The existing arrangement was planned to be changed into the new Config 1 arrangement this christmas but was delayed to 2029. The OLE structures will definitely be in use for both arrangements so no reason not to install now. More structures expected by the end of the year
swt_passenger said:
I think what‘s already there replicates the track layout drawings. (Post #107 in this thread.)

You can draw a smooth curve (apologies for my hopeless attempt though), from the leftmost track to the up relief. Then there’s two tracks that align with the up and down relief loops, ie the central terminating platforms, they continue as two of the three reversing sidings, and the fifth piece of track counting from the left is the third of the reversing sidings. There’s a set of points to provide a route for an up relief train to reach the up relief loop platform. In the down direction there’s a set of points for a route from down relief loop back to the down relief.

View attachment 206900

I also expect the dark rails on the right are a stockpile of short sections to lay elsewhere on site. They’re not going to cope with long welded rail sections yet.
Click to expand...
The left most track will not be operational until post 2033, the two pairs of track in the centre will run trains through the platform post 2029, fingers crossed.
 
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Geogregor

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OLEngineer said:
The existing arrangement was planned to be changed into the new Config 1 arrangement this christmas but was delayed to 2029. The OLE structures will definitely be in use for both arrangements so no reason not to install now. More structures expected by the end of the year
Click to expand...

Yep, delays, delays, delays, the story of the HS2.

It was inevitable for a while for anyone watching (slow) progress in the area. But I didn't expect that things has slipped that much.

Was it officially announced anywhere?
 
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stuving

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Geogregor said:
Was it officially announced anywhere?
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This is from the Old Oak Common Lane HS2 newsletter March – July 2026 (itself updated in July).
Old Oak Common Lane long-term closure

The programme for the long- term closure of Old Oak Common Lane has been reviewed, and we can now confirm that it will not take place before the beginning of 2028.

This newsletter contains information on the current and future works that need to take place on Old Oak Common Lane. There is also information about the engagement and community support we will put in place during the long-term closure.

We need to close the road so we can build new railway bridges, widen the road and new retaining walls are constructed. The level at which the road runs will be lowered to allow double-decker buses to pass under the bridges.
Click to expand...
Building the new bridges north of the current GWML is a precondition of the realignment of all tracks further north to run through the part-built station. I would have thought that timing would allow the realignment to be done at Christmas 2028, not 2029, but maybe it will take that long ...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Further to the above; if you look at HS2's more general neighbour information pages they all contain this paragraph:
HS2 is undergoing a comprehensive reset to ensure it can be built efficiently and for the lowest reasonable cost. This work is being carried out in stages and will be completed in 2026. We will provide you with updates on the reset and what this means for our plans to build the railway in your area.
Click to expand...
That reset process has still to produce a new schedule with dates for everything, but some things are already happening so must have working dates and these have been updated as needed. In this case it's been obvious for some time the realignment could not possibly happen at Christmas 2026, and the date has been understood as sometime after that - TBD. Now "it will not take place before the beginning of 2028" is a clarification of that statement, but the final date is still (in terms of public information) TBD. We await the results of this reset later this year ... unless it too is delayed of course!
 
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trivran

trivran

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GraphitProjekt said:
Unfortunately there's already at least 2 threads dedicated to AI slop on rf
Click to expand...
Luckily I don't know what they are. I will continue to ignore them and hope that it doesn't continue to permeate the parts of the forum that I do read.
 
59CosG95

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Geogregor said:
It is just a drone video. And a good one for that.
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I think the AI Slop allegations refer only to the graphic design of the text splashes(?) on the thumbnail. The stylings of them do look as if they've been created by an algorithm in a data centre, rather than the person behind the drone actually typing in the letters on an illustration programme.
That might not necessarily be the case, but at the same time, the lines are getting so blurred it's harder to tell.
 
reddragon

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We now use AI for writing & reviewing reports, designs, risks etc. Saves a lot of time, finds lots of gaps, improves quality, saves £££.

Those who don't use & accept it are falling behind.

Of course that doesn't stop poor or misuses of AI, but its like when everyone hated computers, the internet or mobile phones or whatever now all find them indispensable.
 
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jazzy

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reddragon said:
We now use AI for writing & reviewing reports, designs, risks etc. Saves a lot of time, finds lots of gaps, improves quality, saves £££.

Those who don't use & accept it are falling behind.

Of course that doesn't stop poor or misuses of AI, but its like when everyone hated computers, the internet or mobile phones or whatever now all find them indispensable.
Click to expand...
Like any tool, you need to know its strengths and weaknesses as well as recognising whether output is of the required quality.
 
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artrdr

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Geogregor said:
A few shots from walk along the Grand Union Canal:

P1119328 by Geogregor*, on Flickr

Ventilation for Euston tunnels visible:

20260614_173301 by Geogregor*, on Flickr


P1119333 by Geogregor*, on Flickr

Those cranes are impressive:

P1119332 by Geogregor*, on Flickr


20260614_173354 by Geogregor*, on Flickr


20260614_175757 by Geogregor*, on Flickr

So far not much to photograph from those vantage points as not much yet visible above the ground. We have to wait for roof steelwork.
Click to expand...
Interesting pics
 
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Nicholas Lewis

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stuving said:
This is from the Old Oak Common Lane HS2 newsletter March – July 2026 (itself updated in July).

Building the new bridges north of the current GWML is a precondition of the realignment of all tracks further north to run through the part-built station. I would have thought that timing would allow the realignment to be done at Christmas 2028, not 2029, but maybe it will take that long ...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Further to the above; if you look at HS2's more general neighbour information pages they all contain this paragraph:

That reset process has still to produce a new schedule with dates for everything, but some things are already happening so must have working dates and these have been updated as needed. In this case it's been obvious for some time the realignment could not possibly happen at Christmas 2026, and the date has been understood as sometime after that - TBD. Now "it will not take place before the beginning of 2028" is a clarification of that statement, but the final date is still (in terms of public information) TBD. We await the results of this reset later this year ... unless it too is delayed of course!
Click to expand...
Lets hope they dont encounter the same issues that has bedeviled the Oxford bridge lowering to accommodation double deck buses.
 
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