East London Line

[iands]

Hi All,

 

As suggested by "4630" from a post in the "Third-Rail EMU Photo" thread, I've started a new topic on the East London Line that may be of interest. Most of the photos will be of the infrastructure, but a few shots of rolling stock (mostly Class 378s) will also be included.

 

First, a little bit of the background as to how I came to be involved with the ELL.

 

I'll start by saying that I was made redundant from Network Rail in November 2003 (after 30 years with BR, Railtrack then NR), I specialise in railway Telecoms. In the January of 2004 I started in the railway division with my current employer, which is essentially a "design house" for just about anything related to railways (e.g. Civils, P.Way, Signalling, Telecoms, Traction Power, Non-Traction Power, etc.). Things were going a bit "slow" for me for the first 18 months or so, some very interesting little projects but nothing that required much more than 2 or 3 weeks input from me. Because of this I was a little apprehensive when my manager came to see me, I thought I was going to be "let go" because there wasn't a huge amount for me to do. Not so, he asked if I would be interested in a 6-month secondment to help with the preliminary designs for the proposed new East London Line. Needless to say I said yes! I started in July 2005 - just one week after the terrible London Tube bombings.

 

We completed the preliminary designs (for all disciplines) by the end of December 2005. in early 2006 the design team were then required to assist TfL (the Client) with the review process of the designs. Basically this involved answering lots of questions and assisting with the production of a "Requirements" document and tweaking our designs to make them more suitable for inclusion in an ITT document.

 

The upshot of this was that the TfL ELL Project at the time didn't have an in-house Telecoms Engineer (the previous incumbent had left). I was asked if I would like to cover the post of Telecoms Project Engineer for the foreseeable future - Yes please I said! So I effectively moved (still under secondment) from the "contractors" side to the "client" side.

 

WARNING: Beware of 6-month secondments - it is now 2017 and I'm still undertaking Telecoms Project Engineering roles for TfL London Overground!

 

In all seriousness, I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. To be able to see a project through from concept to revenue earning services (and subsequent additional routes and enhancements) is amazing and I consider myself very fortunate in this respect.

 

Enough of me rabbiting on, time for some photos. There is no chronological or location specific order to any of the photos, I'll just pick them at random - it will stop you guessing what's coming next!

 

A major part of the ELL is the Thames Tunnel section in the middle. After the old LU 4th-rail track had been ripped out and some structural work undertaken, the new 3rd-rail track was laid in the tunnel section - slab track to be precise. I was fortunate enough to have walked though the tunnel section (Surrey Quays to Whitechapel) on three separate occasions.

 

From Wapping station looking into Brunel's original tunnel under the River Thames towards Rotherhithe.

 

 

New slab track in place (with drainage channels), new GRP cable troughing fixed to tunnel wall, but no third-rail yet.

 

 

Miniature signal EL244 (Up ELL) with TPWS 'Stop Sensor' (in the four-foot). The signal is not yet powered. The "white" lights that seem to be lit are just the LEDs reflecting the flash from the camera. The yellow square-ish box on a short post in the left middle distance is what is known as a "mushroom", it is  for Axle Counter equipment. The station in the far distance is Shadwell.

 

 

This is a photo of a wooden 3/4 mile post on the Down side between Whitechapel and Shadwell. I don't know if it is an original form the "steam" days or from when the LU took over operations of the line (I suspect the former). I took some tools with me on the next walkout with the intentions of recovering it and placing it into "safe custody", but sadly it had already gone. I suspect it was removed by the contractors and scrapped (a real pity). However, the photo is at least an historical record of its former existence.

 

 

Finally for today, a bit of a departure. As the project progressed towards the installation of the Comms systems, we were required to ascertain some "usage requirements" for station staff using handheld mobiles on the GSMR system (User Groups, Calling Groups, Lone Worker etc., etc.). Anyway, this involved an away day to Didcot to meet with NR (that is where one of the main GSMR sites is located), so we went along to the museum and I took a photo of a Pannier Tank. Those in the know will no doubt provide all its history, I'm sorry I can't.

 

 

Hope you enjoy this topic and you find it of some interest. I'll post more during the coming week and with more emphasis on the photos and less of my prattle (but I will provide explanations where required but I'll try and keep them brief).

 

Regards, Ian.

 

[jonny777]

Thanks Ian; as an enthusiast it is great to get views from the professional side of the tracks. I know that I may be supposed to subscribe to various periodicals in order to keep me up to date with everything, but TBH I can't afford that - and so a few glimpses into the world of those who do railways for a living is invaluable. 

[unravelled]

I'll be interested in this too. Living close to New Cross Gate I watched as much of the progress as I could, and might add a flickr link or two  later. I was lucky enough to go on a visit  2009, for a walk from Surrey Quays to Wapping and back. One of my stalled projects is to build a gauge 1 (1:32 flavour) model of one the Clayton battery locos.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[iands]

Thanks Ian; as an enthusiast it is great to get views from the professional side of the tracks. I know that I may be supposed to subscribe to various periodicals in order to keep me up to date with everything, but TBH I can't afford that - and so a few glimpses into the world of those who do railways for a living is invaluable. 

 

You're very welcome, glad you find it interesting. I find it strangely therapeutic to share my knowledge/experience in this way with a wider audience, especially with the "enthusiasts" if it helps to clarify some of the mysteries of what perhaps a lot of the professionals take for granted.

 

Regards, Ian.

[iands]

I'll be interested in this too. Living close to New Cross Gate I watched as much of the progress as I could, and might add a flickr link or two  later. I was lucky enough to go on a visit  2009, for a walk from Surrey Quays to Wapping and back. One of my stalled projects is to build a gauge 1 (1:32 flavour) model of one the Clayton battery locos.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

No doubt you may have seen me paddling about the tracks in the NXG area at some point. Re the Clayton battery locos, I was intending to include a photo of them at some point, so I'll include one in my next post, certainly this week but later today if possible.

 

Regards, Ian.

[unravelled]

I hope you don't mind me posting a link to the tunnel walk, I found that I had already posted it in my Flickr photos thread, but here it is again in case anyone wants to see them.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/unravelled/sets/72157673038641946

 

I will be  creating some more albums for other aspects of the work

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Podhunter]

Ian: I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it

 

It's great to read your story.  Sometimes a business reorganisation leads to unusual opportunities!

Edited November 20, 2017 by Podhunter

[iands]

 

Ian: I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it

 

It's great to read your story.  Sometimes a business reorganisation leads to unusual opportunities!

 

 

Hi Podhunter,

 

Indeed. I was absolutely devastated when made redundant. However, I can honestly say I've never looked back since - I am one of the lucky ones!

 

Regards, Ian.

[iands]

Apologies for a bit of a delay in posting some more photos of the ELL, but I think I've got a touch of "Alice", not quite sure what it is but apparently Christopher Robin came down with it!

 

The East London Line is controlled from the OBC (Operations Building Complex) located at New Cross Gate depot. The building is triangular in shape (a bit odd, but as space was at an absolute premium, every bit of ground space was utilised). This is it from the outside (not quite finished). The "operating floor" is behind the row of windows with the orange surround.

 

 

The signallers control desks are shown in this next photo. Two positions are provided, but in general only one is used (the second position is really only used in times of perturbation when there is a lot of disruption). The space beyond the signallers positions is occupied by the TfL Infrastructure Fault Control and the TOC Operations Control (was LOROL but recently changed to Arriva).

 

 

On a nice day you can get some good views of the greater London area from the roof of the OBC. This is a photo of the flyover that takes the Up ELL over the Brighton Lines just to the north of New Cross Gate station (the route to London Bridge is off to the right).

 

 

This is a photo of the GSMR panel antennas located on the roof, complete with obligatory crows atop. These antennas were recently decommissioned in favour of the antennas at the neighbouring North Kent East Junction providing the required coverage (the ELL antennas were in place first as the ELL went operational prior to any of the GSMR in the rest of the south of England). It was always envisaged at the time that "clashes" between the closely located antennas might be a bit of a problem in the future, and so it was found to be - so the ELL antenna was withdrawn.

 

 

Todays rolling stock photo shows the battery locos that were used during the construction phase (Phase 1 - the core route from Dalston to New Cross/New Cross Gate). I don't know much about them other than they had the manufacturers name "Clayton" painted on the sides. I don't where they ended up after ELL, or if they were used anywhere else or scrapped. I have seen other photos (I think on this forum) showing them being stabled somewhere in a bit of a neglected state.

 

As a footnote to those that are interested in such things, at least one class 73 was also used over the ELL route in the latter stages of construction, but I don't know which one. I think it was used on a night shift or two and, apart from a couple of commissioning night shifts, I was only around during the day shifts and missed it.

 

 

Hope you find them interesting. That's all for today. I'll post some more photos either tomorrow or Friday.

 

Regards, Ian.

 

 

[jonny777]

Thanks Ian.

 

On the flyover photo there is a spur from centre to left which seems to be on a very sharp radius curve. Pardon my ignorance, but what is that?

[iands]

Thanks Ian.

 

On the flyover photo there is a spur from centre to left which seems to be on a very sharp radius curve. Pardon my ignorance, but what is that?

Hi Jonny,

 

It's the "Back Road" that serves the 4-road Maintenance Service Facility (a modern term for a "shed"). Due to severe space constraints the Up ELL actually cuts NXG depot in two. I'll dig out a diagram of the depot that will show the relationship of the Up ELL and the depot and post on here.

[iands]

Hi Jonny,

 

It's the "Back Road" that serves the 4-road Maintenance Service Facility (a modern term for a "shed"). Due to severe space constraints the Up ELL actually cuts NXG depot in two. I'll dig out a diagram of the depot that will show the relationship of the Up ELL and the depot and post on here.

 

2nd attempt, 'tinterweb seems to be playing up a bit this afternoon. I've attached a word document that hopefully everyone can open (the original sketch was produced in Excel, pdf'd then inserted into a word document - what a crazy world we live in!) . It shows the "Back Road" passing under the Up ELL, and the rest of the depot layout. The "EL SCC" is the OBC I referred to earlier, I know I said it is triangular in shape, it is, it's just drawn incorrectly as a square in this sketch.

 

NXG Depot Sketch extract.docx

 

Regards, Ian.

[iands]

I hope you don't mind me posting a link to the tunnel walk, I found that I had already posted it in my Flickr photos thread, but here it is again in case anyone wants to see them.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/unravelled/sets/72157673038641946

 

I will be  creating some more albums for other aspects of the work

 

Thanks

 

Dave

Hi Dave,

 

Some very good and interesting photos - did you take them all yourself? I particularly like the close-up of the axle-counter heads, something I didn't manage to do myself!

 

Regards, Ian.

[unravelled]

Hi Dave,

 

Some very good and interesting photos - did you take them all yourself? I particularly like the close-up of the axle-counter heads, something I didn't manage to do myself!

 

Regards, Ian.

All my own work, and a lot  more semi duplicates. I might revisit the set and add some more. If there are any pics you'd like to use to illustrate a point, please use them.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[iands]

All my own work, and a lot  more semi duplicates. I might revisit the set and add some more. If there are any pics you'd like to use to illustrate a point, please use them.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

Okay Dave,

 

Many thanks for your kind offer.

 

Regards, Ian.

[jonny777]

2nd attempt, 'tinterweb seems to be playing up a bit this afternoon. I've attached a word document that hopefully everyone can open (the original sketch was produced in Excel, pdf'd then inserted into a word document - what a crazy world we live in!) . It shows the "Back Road" passing under the Up ELL, and the rest of the depot layout. The "EL SCC" is the OBC I referred to earlier, I know I said it is triangular in shape, it is, it's just drawn incorrectly as a square in this sketch.

 

NXG Depot Sketch extract.docx

 

Regards, Ian.

 

 

 

Thanks Ian. 

 

This is fascinating. 

[iands]

Thanks Ian. 

 

This is fascinating.

 

Hi Jonny,

 

No problem. If you have any other questions just ask away and I'll do my very best to provide an answer for you.

 

Regards, Ian.

[iands]

Just to clarify a point from my post on Wednesday, there were actually 4 battery locos in use on the ELL, but my photo only captured 3 of them.

 

For today's offering I thought I'd head north to Dalston (and Haggerston). Although the ELL is in east London (as its name would suggest), it would be reasonable to assume that the line is fairly flat with not much to shout about in the way of gradients - not so.

 

The first photo is taken on a cab ride, at Haggerston looking towards Dalston. The falling gradient in this direction is quite evident in this shot, at its steepest it is 1:43, but even this is not the steepest gradient on the ELL. On the section of line between Shoreditch High Street and Whitechapel the gradient is 1:30, albeit for only a few hundred metres.

 

 

The second photo is a view from platform 2 at Dalston looking towards Haggerston, a different view of the gradient and the point work just outside the station.

 

 

The third view is from the lineside (Down side) looking up the gradient during the construction phase.

 

 

The conductor rail on the ELL is an aluminium and steel composite (aluminium "body" and a steel "cap"). I thought it might be of interest to show a "Tester Lamp" (or perhaps for obvious reasons it is know colloquially as an "Egg Box"). It is used to indicate if the third-rail is "live" or not (usually on "floating" rails around switches and crossings when maintenance is being carried out). The "egg box" is clipped on to the third-rail, and the "lead" is clipped onto the running rail (which is the return leg for the traction current). If the lamps are lit, the rail is "live", and with the lamps extinguished, it indicates that the third-rail has been isolated. The reason for the 6 lamps is that you can afford for two of them to have "blown", with the other four providing the indication. A lot safer than having to rely on just one or two lamps for the indication!

 

The "egg box" has fairly recently been superseded by a more modern tester/indicator, but I've not yet come across one personally.

 

 

 

For today's rolling stock shot, it's back to the maintenance facility and a close up of the rail-wheel interface and a few bits bolted to the bogie such as the traction current pick-up shoe and the "guard iron".

 

 

Once again, hope they are of some interest.

 

Regards, Ian.

 

 

 

[Siberian Snooper]

Great photos, from some unusual angles, they also give an insight to the day to day stuff.

[jim.snowdon]

Re. the "egg-box" live line indicator, my understanding was always that the lamps were wired in two parallel strings of three in series, ie 250 volts across each lamp. The use of two parallel strings of lamps meant that the failure of one lamp didn't result in a wrong indication. Safety then depended on the failed lamp being replaced promptly, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons for their being taken out of use as live line testers. Another is that the legal regulations concerning the use of such testers require the device to be proved capable of giving a correct "live " indication before and after use, and with the box of eggs, the standard method used to be to apply it to a section of conductor rail that was known to still be alive. That is now considered unsafe as it usually means going onto a track that is still operational, with all the perceived risks of being struck by a train. Present day safety elves are much more sensitive folk, perhaps as a result of being hounded by money grabbing lawyers, than the pragmatic ones that were about when I started my railway career.

 

Jim

[iands]

Re. the "egg-box" live line indicator, my understanding was always that the lamps were wired in two parallel strings of three in series, ie 250 volts across each lamp. The use of two parallel strings of lamps meant that the failure of one lamp didn't result in a wrong indication. Safety then depended on the failed lamp being replaced promptly, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons for their being taken out of use as live line testers. Another is that the legal regulations concerning the use of such testers require the device to be proved capable of giving a correct "live " indication before and after use, and with the box of eggs, the standard method used to be to apply it to a section of conductor rail that was known to still be alive. That is now considered unsafe as it usually means going onto a track that is still operational, with all the perceived risks of being struck by a train. Present day safety elves are much more sensitive folk, perhaps as a result of being hounded by money grabbing lawyers, than the pragmatic ones that were about when I started my railway career.

Jim

Hi Jim,

 

Thanks for the info, I've not examined one closely enough to see how it is wired up internally, but your description makes sense.

 

Regards, Ian?

[bécasse]

Present day safety elves are much more sensitive folk, perhaps as a result of being hounded by money grabbing lawyers, than the pragmatic ones that were about when I started my railway career.

 

 

Which instantly took me back half-a-century and more to an official visit to an almost new Upminster Depot. Crossing some tracks at the throat end it wasn't possible to place ones feet between the rails (I forget why now, wet concrete perhaps) so our guide showed us how to step from rail to rail - including the two raised conductor rails, which rather went against the grain for someone raised on the Southern. Inevitably, once we had reached the other side of the tracks, someone asked "What do you do when the juice is on?" which elicited the response "What do you mean? The juice is on.".  Which proved to be my introduction to the LT practice of having floating voltages on conductor rails!

[iands]

Apologies if anyone has been waiting for the next ELL photo instalment. I'm currently twixt chemo and radiotherapy and my Hickman Line decided to throw a spanner in the works by introducing an infection into the body, so I was admitted to hospital on Monday. Good news, the offending Hickman Line has now been removed and the infection treated with antibiotics which means I can now get back on-line.

 

The first two photos show the contractors 'setting out' the slab-track components before the concrete is poured. These shots are taken at Whitechapel.

 

 

 

The third shot shows how the concrete was pumped down to track level from above the station platforms.

 

 

Some more shots from the cab. The first one is leaving Shoreditch High Street station heading towards Whitechapel. In an earlier post I provided some photos of the gradient between Haggerston and Dalston, but said that that wasn't the steepest gradient on the ELL. This one shown here is the steepest at 1:30, and shows bridge GE19 which takes the ELL over the GEML, Liverpool Street station is to the right and Bethnal Green to the left.

 

Shoreditch High Street station is built on the former Bishopsgate Goods Yard, elevated above street level - but contained within a huge concrete box encompassing the full length of both platforms. It was built this way as a bit of "forward planning". The rest of Bishopsgate Goods Yard (well most of it, I believe a small area has been given "listed status") is ripe for future development. So in order to allow any future developments to go ahead without having any impact on the running of the ELL, a huge "crash deck" was constructed around the station (the concrete box). This will allow construction of whatever is being developed in the future to progress unhindered. Should anything fall from a crane, for example steel girders, then the crash deck will prevent them from falling on the station/tracks.

 

The thing in the centre hanging down vertically over the 6-foot is a GSMR antenna pointing towards the Whitechapel.

 

 

This next shot is in the vicinity of Trahorn Close on the approach to Whitechapel (Down direction) showing the banner repeater for signal EL237.

 

 

The last shot for today shows the train passing through platform 6 at Whitechapel, roughly in the same location as where the concrete was being pumped in the third photo above. I believe the Crossrail developments in this area have effectively covered-in this whole area now.

 

Although the track, signalling, trackside comms, traction power, etc., were complete by October 2009, the station platforms and buildings were far from finished. The ELL train service not being scheduled to start until May 2010, this gave us the opportunity to run a number of "trial" trains for infrastructure testing and driver route learning. A slightly different approach to normal "testing" as the ELL was effectively still under the direct control of the contractors (rather than London Overground) as a construction site. Suffice to say we had a full scale model train set to play with for about 6 months and needless to say I took every opportunity going to have a cab ride (and it was quite a few!).

 

 

Hope you find them interesting. I hope to post a few more photos in the next couple of days.

 

Regards, Ian.

 

[Mike Storey]

Indeed! 

 

Re. the "egg-box" live line indicator, my understanding was always that the lamps were wired in two parallel strings of three in series, ie 250 volts across each lamp. The use of two parallel strings of lamps meant that the failure of one lamp didn't result in a wrong indication. Safety then depended on the failed lamp being replaced promptly, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons for their being taken out of use as live line testers. Another is that the legal regulations concerning the use of such testers require the device to be proved capable of giving a correct "live " indication before and after use, and with the box of eggs, the standard method used to be to apply it to a section of conductor rail that was known to still be alive. That is now considered unsafe as it usually means going onto a track that is still operational, with all the perceived risks of being struck by a train. Present day safety elves are much more sensitive folk, perhaps as a result of being hounded by money grabbing lawyers, than the pragmatic ones that were about when I started my railway career.

Jim

 

Indeed! When I was on the SR(Ops), we were trained to use these, but were never supplied with any. Only the linemen had them. So when we had to throw a couple of hook-switches in emergencies (derailments or bodies on the line mainly), our only assurance that the con rail was dead, was confirmation from the ECR (Electrical Control Room) chaps. This was usually sufficient, but on one occasion P/Way turned up to the incident, plonked their egg box on the con rail, which lit up like a Christmas tree. Apparently I had opened the wrong hook switches, on instructions from the ECR (it was close to a junction), both on the same side of a TPH (track parallelling hut, which equalised the DC current between substations), which continued to feed from the other end. ECR had obviously not checked properly when confirming the isolation. Words were spoken.......

 

The advent of more modern testing devices would still not prevent that kind of error, especially if you did not have access to one.

[bécasse]

Indeed! 

 

 

Indeed! When I was on the SR(Ops), we were trained to use these, but were never supplied with any. Only the linemen had them. So when we had to throw a couple of hook-switches in emergencies (derailments or bodies on the line mainly), our only assurance that the con rail was dead, was confirmation from the ECR (Electrical Control Room) chaps. This was usually sufficient, but on one occasion P/Way turned up to the incident, plonked their egg box on the con rail, which lit up like a Christmas tree. Apparently I had opened the wrong hook switches, on instructions from the ECR (it was close to a junction), both on the same side of a TPH (track parallelling hut, which equalised the DC current between substations), which continued to feed from the other end. ECR had obviously not checked properly when confirming the isolation. Words were spoken.......

 

The advent of more modern testing devices would still not prevent that kind of error, especially if you did not have access to one.

 

When I was given a very thorough grounding in third-rail isolation by a friendly SM back in the very-early 1960s (when I was still a schoolboy but that is another story), not only was I taught how to pull hook switches safely (and made to keep pulling them until my tutor was satisfied that I had the technique right - they were pulled live in those days which could give some interesting pyrotechnics if you didn't get it right) but I was also taught to always apply a short-circuiting bar to prove that the section had been isolated (and, yes, I was made to practice that on a live third rail too, with more pyrotechnics). Some decades later when it was decided that I should have personal track safety training (on the basis that it was considered desirable for all senior management to have it in case they had to take charge in an emergency), my then Ops Manager was astounded to find that I knew more about the realities of third rail isolation than he did!