Preston area works

[boing_uk]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what exactly is going on around Preston at the moment?

First of all there has been the clearing of the old sidings south of Preston station and clearance of some other land near Lostock Hall.

The junction has just been re-aligned (I presume to increase line speed on the turnout) but what I cant understand is all the floodlighting thats been installed there?

Is there a major scheme in the offing around Preston or something? Ive asked NR and got a preliminary holding response but that was months ago now. Can anyone on here provide any more clarity?

 

[driver9000]

The site of the old Ribble goods yard was cleared towards the end of summer last year, and the story ranges from a storage point for RRVs to being reinstated as a goods yard for intermodal freight. So far nothing has been done since the initial clearing of the site.

Farington curve junction was relayed over easter weekend and is now slightly closer to Preston making it a gentler turn off towards Blackburn and Ormskirk, linespeeds remain at 30mph (East Lancs) and 20mph (Ormskirk) there was a plan to increase speeds to 40mph and 30mph but this hasnt happened. Quality of work wasnt brilliant initially with the ride being very poor and a 'snatch' where old rail met new rail on the East Lancs line. This has now been sorted and the ride quality has improved. The floodlighting was installed for this work to take place and an access ramp from the roadway was built.

The other land at Lostock Hall is the site of the former engine shed and was up for sale recently and was cleared for this, Im not sure if the land has been sold yet.

I dont know of any major works in the Preston area, platforms 3 and 4 were rerailed in the last few days, the slow lines need sorting out as they have been subject to a 20mph TSR for the last 2yrs hopefully this wont be too far off.

 

[boing_uk]

Quality of work wasnt brilliant initially with the ride being very poor and a 'snatch' where old rail met new rail on the East Lancs line.

Yes I remember that... was quite pronounced on a pacer and fairly noticable on 158's depending on unit/driver.

Id noticed that 3&4 had been re-railed last week. Ive also noticed that there have been an increase in possessions during the day on those lines. The other day for example, while P3 was showing as expecting traffic, there was a possession starting from the platform end right through the station approach on all but the farthest two main lines and the two Kirkham lines.

Looked like three or four PW crews with handheld ultrasound? Looked a bit like the handheld sandite trolleys.

It would be nice if NR could simplify some of the track layouts on my journey to increase linespeeds (Kirkham in particular) and get rid of those two TSR's - is the southern approach TSR still in place? - either side of Preston that have been there for ages.

But hey, thats just me being selfish

 

[driver9000]

Currently around Preston the Down Slow has a 30/50 between Farington Curve and Skew Bridge and through the station on the Slow lines has a 20mph TSR they dont seem to be in a hurry to lift them as they arent impacting on the service.