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Scottish Electrification updates & discussion

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oldman

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A local authority decides to continue to ban HGVs from a road through the central shopping district, which has a motorway a short distance away, and this is evidence of corruption, fraud and cronyism brought about by Blairites. Brilliant satire!
 
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jopsuk

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Quite. Some drivers really can't accept not being able to drive on every bit of tarmac.

Anyway, away from that: power successfully on yesterday? What testing is taking place? First electric train run into Queen Street High Level yet?
 

snowball

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Anyway, away from that: power successfully on yesterday? What testing is taking place? First electric train run into Queen Street High Level yet?
According to a post upthread, IIRC, energisation was not actually due until the early hours of this morning. Yesterday was just the publicly advertised date.
 

Mag_seven

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In a piece of related trivia does this mean that for the time being the most northerly station with live 25kv OLE through it will now be Falkirk High rather than Balloch?
 

LNW-GW Joint

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In a piece of related trivia does this mean that for the time being the most northerly station with live 25kv OLE through it will now be Falkirk High rather than Balloch?

No, Balloch is 38 arcsec of latitude north of Falkirk High (about half a mile).
Falkirk Grahamston is just about level with Balloch, and Camelon is a bit north of it.
Stirling, Alloa and Dunblane will be decisively north of Balloch.

Helensburgh Central will still be the westernmost 25kV outpost by some margin when electrification reaches Cardiff (or even Swansea).

PS No it isn't Helensburgh of course.
The Largs line is further west, probably Fairlie is the most westerly electrified station. ;)
PPS No, wrong again, it's Wemyss Bay!
 
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gsnedders

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In a piece of related trivia does this mean that for the time being the most northerly station with live 25kv OLE through it will now be Falkirk High rather than Balloch?

Balloch is still further north (even compared with the northern most point just west of Falkirk High).

[Edit: bah, beaten by seconds!]
 

jopsuk

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Stirling, Alloa and Dunblane will be decisively north of Balloch.

With, of the three, Dunblane by a considerable margin being the furthest north. It would still be so were the Fife Circle (but not the line north through Markinch) electrified.

And the only Scotish south west station west of Wemyss Bay is Stranraer, unlikely to be wired any time soon.

In Wales, the only stations west of Wemyss Bay are Pembroke , Pembroke Dock and all stations down both branches from Clarbeston Road (including that station), in Cornwall it is Truro and west of there plus St Columb Road, Quintrell Downs and Newquay.

And for completion, on the Oban Line Dalmally is the first station to the west of Wemyss Bay, on the main West Highland Line it is Spean Bridge. On the Kyle line, Achanalt.

Turns out there's very few stations west of Wemyss Bay, and other than Truro-Penzance they really are only minor (if long) branch lines
 
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92002

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Quite. Some drivers really can't accept not being able to drive on every bit of tarmac.

Anyway, away from that: power successfully on yesterday? What testing is taking place? First electric train run into Queen Street High Level yet?

Power may be switched on, but no electric trains allowed to run till October for testing to take place. So patience is a virtue for the first Queen Street High level train.

Similarly Cumbernauld to Greenhill Lower expected to go live in October.
 

InOban

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Since they will already have tested it for geometry etc, they must now be testing it under load, which would need some kind of train to draw power from the OHL. Presumably NR have a special test train for this, but I would expect that the spotters must be out at night....
 

mcmad

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Initial testing is as mentioned above to make sure that all the insulators are in place correctly and the switches work as designed. Only once the basics of the system are checked and confirmed as working correctly will live testing using pantographs be allowed.
 

Blindtraveler

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With the amount of time this is all taking one wonders if they are simply dismantling and re errecting a portercabin at various points along the route and powering the coffee machine inside it on the OHL for the purposes of *cough* testing.

Anyway sinic hat back in the cupboard, glad to hear of some progress, the delay isnt good PR for the EGIP project as a whole but the Queensferry Crossing is grabbing so many headlines just now that the media havnt got to hunting around for reasons to bash the Scottish Govds transport stratogy of which this is a part.
 

ScottDarg

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LNW-GW Joint

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By contrast, the initial NW electrification switch-on in 2013 (Manchester-Newton-le-Willows) seemed very rapid, with trains running within days of energisation.
One minute the route was clearly not ready (missing cables etc), the next it was operational (for 1tph 350 and the odd 390).
The full load testing with passing Pendolinos on full power happened quite a few weeks later.
The design was Series 2, much the same as EGIP and the Cumbernauld/Whifflet schemes.
The AT feed was not operational for another year or so, when the full route to Liverpool was completed.
 

gsnedders

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I see that several workings between Eastfield, Linlithgow and Queen St have appeared on RTT from yesterday, link here:- http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...17/09/04/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

RTT has them running between yesterday (04/09) and 08/12. Are these test/training paths for when electric trains can run? All of them were activated and cancelled yesterday and the same has happened today.

I'd expect so; I also expect them to be activated and cancelled to make sure they don't lose the paths.
 

mcmad

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NWR test train with the mentor OLE coach was sitting in Cadder Up Loop this evening, not sure if its in connection with the testing or just somewhere convenient to dump it for a few hours.
 

PaulLothian

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I see that several workings between Eastfield, Linlithgow and Queen St have appeared on RTT from yesterday, link here:- http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...17/09/04/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

RTT has them running between yesterday (04/09) and 08/12. Are these test/training paths for when electric trains can run? All of them were activated and cancelled yesterday and the same has happened today.

They have been in the system for over two months as in my post of end June.

I had just noticed that they seem to have put a whole series of these services into the system. Eastfield - Queen Street - Linlithgow UPL and return. Every one cancelled so far. For testing electrics or training drivers?
 

signallerscot

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NWR test train with the mentor OLE coach was sitting in Cadder Up Loop this evening, not sure if its in connection with the testing or just somewhere convenient to dump it for a few hours.
Failed with an air leak earlier, awaiting fitters attending from... Derby!
 

mcmad

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Hadn't noticed until today that the system is still gapped from the existing wires so short of dragging one in there is no way to get a 385 in to test yet
 

mcmad

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Gaps between the EGIP run offs and both sides of the Cowlairs triangle on the springburn side that were wired up under a previous project. The masts and SPS are all up so its a deliberate gap presumably until the initial section proving is completed. Don't know about the Newbridge end, not been out there in the train recently.
 
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