Tees Valley area improvements

[darloscott]

So this weekend has seen the resignalling of some of the Tees Valley area to York ROC, with the closure of Urlay Nook & Bowesfield signalboxes, indeed Urlay Nook has been demolished with the crossing receiving lights and new barriers which will be CCTV controlled from York.
Buses have replaced trains between Middlesbrough and Darlington, Northallerton and Hartlepool this weekend so presumably there have been other works going on at the same time?

Is there any date for the rest of the line (Middlesbrough-Saltburn) to be signed over to York?

There is a few other potential enhancements that we could add to this thread, including the potential new Nunthorpe Park & Ride station under the A171 with an improved service frequency into Middlesbrough which has started to be looked at.

 

[edwin_m]

Any plans to re-model the out-of-date and inflexible layout at Middlesbrough?

 

[ainsworth74]

Buses have replaced trains between Middlesbrough and Darlington, Northallerton and Hartlepool this weekend so presumably there have been other works going on at the same time?

I don't think so. It's just not possible to run an effective service with those two boxes out of commission due to the area that they control.

Is there any date for the rest of the line (Middlesbrough-Saltburn) to be signed over to York?

How long is a piece of string? I'd assume at some point in the next twenty to thirty years. The boxes that have gone have done so because they had modern tech that could just be unplugged from their existing box and then plugged back in at the ROC. Something which is not the case with any of the boxes from Middlesbrough to Saltburn (and Crag Hall on the Boulby branch).

Any plans to re-model the out-of-date and inflexible layout at Middlesbrough?

Possibly. The project to revamp Middlesbrough station and install a platform three is still kicking around so that could be an opportunity to redo the entire station layout. But I don't believe it's within the scope of the Local Authority backed scheme so would depend on Network Rail signing on to do extra work.

Otherwise I don't think we'll see the layout change substantially until re-signalling in which case see my previous answer.

 

[ainsworth74]

Sorry correction to the above regarding the boxes. Urlay Nook was a gate box rather than a full signal box (I believe it's signals had been re-controlled to Bowesfield) and the crossing equipment was heritage Eastern Region gates that swing across the road (powered by a motor and rubber wheel) rather than up and down. So with that no doubt being utterly life expired I can only assume they took the opportunity to re-do the crossing and move its control to the ROC at the same time as they were doing Bowesfield.