Island Line Upgrade updates

[Chris125]

I think it’s probably an effect of the light as @fgwrich mentioned. Your first photo of Lake’s platform in post #424 shows the real colour of the prefab units, with the line in the same relative position.

In fact the Lake platform also has a “shadow line” on the opposite side of those lighter sections to the yellow, I wonder if that’s a join or overlap?

The wide, pale coloured strip is the tactile surface with the yellow line behind it - photos of Sandown suggest this can be attached either side but it seems they've decided to go with the larger gap.

 

[swt_passenger]

The wide, pale coloured strip is the tactile surface with the yellow line behind it - photos of Sandown suggest this can be attached either side but it seems they've decided to go with the larger gap.

I think if there is a line the NR standard design is to have it behind the tactiles (as seen from a train), Sandown may therefore be wrong.

Of course the same standards also read that a slow speed railway with no passing freight doesn’t need yellow lines at all...

 

[Chris125]

More progress at Brading, the second track has been laid:

Brading by Chris, on Flickr

 

[pompeyfan]

Anyone else thought there were seagulls on the sleepers at first?

 

[221101 Voyager]

Anyone else thought there were seagulls on the sleepers at first?

I did for a very brief second, until I did a double take!
Mind you, seagulls are no doubt cheaper and are more apt for the location, being near the sea!

 

[DelW]

Of course the same standards also read that a slow speed railway with no passing freight doesn’t need yellow lines at all...

Especially as I'd have thought that on Island Line it would be extremely rare for a train of any sort to go through a station non-stop. ECS or p-way workings are presumably the only possible ones?

 

[swt_passenger]

Especially as I'd have thought that on Island Line it would be extremely rare for a train of any sort to go through a station non-stop. ECS or p-way workings are presumably the only possible ones?

I don’t believe there are any ECS services as we usually know them. In the normal weekday timetable trains enter and leave service at St John’s Rd, so the only empty moves are shunts between depot and station. I don’t think there’s any maintenance traffic in normal circumstances.

 

[Journeyman]

Especially as I'd have thought that on Island Line it would be extremely rare for a train of any sort to go through a station non-stop. ECS or p-way workings are presumably the only possible ones?

I'm not sure anything on Island Line normally operates ECS, it doesn't have to. The first and last trains go in and out of service at St. John's Road, and that's it.

 

[Gloster]

The only occasions when trains run non-stop through a station is at Smallbrook when the Steam Railway isn’t operating. And there shouldn’t be anybody on the platform then.

 

[BayPaul]

Yellow lines still make sense even when every train stops - they still help keep people away from the drop to track level, and from arriving /departing trains. As they must cost pence to provide, why wouldn't you. They are provided and used on the underground after all, where every train stops at (almost) every station.

 

[mcmad]

More progress at Brading, the second track has been laid:

Brading by Chris, on Flickr

Is the new line not being electrified as the lighter sleepers in the background don't seem to have the 'extension' to support the 3rd rail chairs?

 

[PeterJ]

Short ended sleepers to help achieve clearances through the platform. The 6ft ends are all pre drilled and awaiting 3rd rail pots

 

[hermit]

I did for a very brief second, until I did a double take!
Mind you, seagulls are no doubt cheaper and are more apt for the location, being near the sea!

Brading is now the Island Line station furthest from the sea (with the possible exception of Smallbrook). However, the sea used to come up right to the site of the station before Brading Haven was reclaimed, in stages between the 16th and 19th centuries.(The causeway for the Bembridge branch put the final touch to the process).

About 20 years ago, I had the weird experience of standing on the platform and being able to see two P&O ferries quite close by. It was Christmas, and the ships were moored off St Helens for the holiday, but looked as though they were floating in the marshes. I think the growth of vegetation would now block that view.

 

[D365]

Is the new line not being electrified as the lighter sleepers in the background don't seem to have the 'extension' to support the 3rd rail chairs?

Third rail is definitely being retained, else the 484s would be no use in their current form.

 

[Rail Ranger]

Do we know how the Brading loop will be signalled?

 

[Journeyman]

Do we know how the Brading loop will be signalled?

Could you use spring-loaded points for something like that, as per loops on the West Highland?

 

[davetheguard]

More progress at Brading, the second track has been laid:

Brading by Chris, on Flickr

Excellent to see this progress. Are there any plans to give the canopies a lick of paint while no trains are running? It seems a heaven-sent opportunity, and would save an occupation some time in the future.

 

[swt_passenger]

Excellent to see this progress. Are there any plans to give the canopies a lick of paint while no trains are running? It seems a heaven-sent opportunity, and would save an occupation some time in the future.

The press announcement about the project delays (posts #446/7) said they would use the extra time to paint the stations...

 

[hermit]

The stations are not in too bad a condition decoratively, as it’s not that long since they had their heritage green repaints.
But I wonder whether, to match the ‘new train’ image, Island Line will now go in for a more modern look.

 

[pdeaves]

But I wonder whether, to match the ‘new train’ image, Island Line will now go in for a more modern look.

I hope so. That will give more purpose to the line, that it's not 'just' a heritage ride. Still, it's not my money paying for it...!

 

[D6130]

Could you use spring-loaded points for something like that, as per loops on the West Highland?

I would imagine so. They have been in use at Sandown since 1987.

 

[swt_passenger]

Could you use spring-loaded points for something like that, as per loops on the West Highland?

There are a couple of pictures of what’s actually been fitted at Brading, the 1st and 4th pics in post #448, looks like a pretty normal point machine?

 

[Bigfoot]

There are a couple of pictures of what’s actually been fitted at Brading, the 1st and 4th pics in post #???, looks like a pretty normal point machine?

Post 448. A very normal points motor is pictured.

 

[Jan Mayen]

Regarding non stop trains, I wonder if BBC South would want to do a short based on the 'London to Brighton in four minutes' of 1953. Pier Head to Shanklin in 30 seconds?

 

[swt_passenger]

Post 448. A very normal points motor is pictured.

My fault, forgot to add the post number. Now edited...

 

[pdeaves]

There are a couple of pictures of what’s actually been fitted at Brading, the 1st and 4th pics in post #448, looks like a pretty normal point machine?

Modern passenger railway systems tend not to have true 'spring' points. They can have powered ones that effectively act like spring points, but they are more secure for trains in the facing direction. So yes, it's possibly a 'spring' point with a motor.

 

[davetheguard]

The press announcement about the project delays (posts #446/7) said they would use the extra time to paint the stations...

Thanks swt_passenger. Sorry about my short attention span!

 

[D6130]

Modern passenger railway systems tend not to have true 'spring' points. They can have powered ones that effectively act like spring points, but they are more secure for trains in the facing direction. So yes, it's possibly a 'spring' point with a motor.

The points at Sandown (and at many locations on RETB lines in Scotland, the Whitby branch, etc.) are hydro-kinetic. Basically there is a small reservoir at each side of the switch blade ends filled with hydraulic fluid at equal pressure to keep the points set into one or other of the loops in the facing direction. When a train departs from the other loop it pushes through the points in the trailing direction, considerably increasing the fluid pressure in one of the the reservoirs, which then pushes the swith blades back to their normal position as soon as the train has passed through. In the event of a failure (usually a fluid leakage), the points can be pumped across manually using a special handle kept in a secure location nearby and accessible to drivers who are issued with a designated key. Because these points are not fitted with facing point locks in the conventional sense, they are subject to a maximum permissible speed of 15 mph. They are electrically-detected in combination with a yellow 'points set' light on the approach. If this is not illuminated, drivers must stop, walk forward to examine the points and check that they are correctly-set (using the emergency pumping handle if necessary) before proceeding into the loop.

 

[michael8]

Anyone else thought there were seagulls on the sleepers at first?

I thought Egrets at first, since it is next to the RSPB reserve

 

[mcmad]

The points at Sandown (and at many locations on RETB lines in Scotland, the Whitby branch, etc.) are hydro-kinetic. Basically there is a small reservoir at each side of the switch blade ends filled with hydraulic fluid at equal pressure to keep the points set into one or other of the loops in the facing direction. When a train departs from the other loop it pushes through the points in the trailing direction, considerably increasing the fluid pressure in one of the the reservoirs, which then pushes the swith blades back to their normal position as soon as the train has passed through. In the event of a failure (usually a fluid leakage), the points can be pumped across manually using a special handle kept in a secure location nearby and accessible to drivers who are issued with a designated key. Because these points are not fitted with facing point locks in the conventional sense, they are subject to a maximum permissible speed of 15 mph. They are electrically-detected in combination with a yellow 'points set' light on the approach. If this is not illuminated, drivers must stop, walk forward to examine the points and check that they are correctly-set (using the emergency pumping handle if necessary) before proceeding into the loop.

they're also now obsolete and there are limited spares so new installations are unlikely. I believe there is a project ongoing in Scotland to remove them by linking the RETB tokens to point machines.