The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway

[melmerby]

Hi all

 

Starting on BBC2 at 2100 on Wednesday 16th July is a short series of three episodes on building Crossrail

 

Could prove interesting, watch the trailer here:

 

Keith

 

EDIT some more info here:

http://www.wharf.co.uk/2014/07/bbc-2-documentary-on-the-build.html

 

EDIT check schedule as another source claims it starts on 1 August!

 

Edit to correct time!

Edited July 9, 2014 by melmerby

[melmerby]

Further to my earlier post, I can confirm that the BBC2 schedule shows it starting at 2100 next Wednesday 16th July

 

Keith

[melmerby]

Following up on the original series is another program bringing us up to date,

 

"The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway - The Final Countdown" is on BBC 2 Mon 22nd May at 2100

 

Keith

[melmerby]

More info here:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ry6fy/broadcasts/upcoming

 

http://www.windfallfilms.com/show/7006/the-fifteen-billion-pound-railway-countdown-to-opening.aspx

 

Just two episodes this time, I notice the programme makers give it a different title!

 

keith

 

EDIT maybe there will be a final programme when it opens?

Edited May 14, 2017 by melmerby

[melmerby]

Having watched both episodes I was a little disappointed compared to the original series of three.

There seemed to be less clarity about it.

 

Like X number of weeks to finish the works before the trains arrive, It must be ready for them. (mentioned like a countdown, several times).

Then when the trains did arrive it turned out that they were only for testing between Liverpool Street & Shenfield, hardly part of the Crossrail tunneling!

 

Also the trains have to be compact enough to fit into the tunnels. Aren't the tunnels normal mainline size then?

 

It also seemed to be an unfinished series as Crossrail still has someway to go before it will be open throughout to the public and a lot still needs to be finished.

Maybe they should have waited until they can show the complete railway as "The Elizabeth Line" duly being opened to the public by HM Queen?

 

Keith

Edited May 30, 2017 by melmerby

[chrisf]

It also seemed to be an unfinished series as Crossrail still has someway to go before it will be open throughout to the public and a lot still needs to be finished.

Maybe they should have waited until they can show the complete railway as "The Elizabeth Line" duly being opened to the public by HM Queen?

 

Keith

 

I'm sure it will be repeated ...

 

Chris

[81C]

I fell asleep 5 minutes in, it must have been really interesting. 

[JohnR]

Having watched both episodes I was a little disappointed compared to the original series of three.

There seemed to be less clarity about it.

 

Like X number of weeks to finish the works before the trains arrive, It must be ready for them. (mentioned like a countdown, several times).

Then when the trains did arrive it turned out that they were only for testing between Liverpool Street & Shenfield, hardly part of the Crossrail tunneling!

 

Also the trains have to be compact enough to fit into the tunnels. Aren't the tunnels normal mainline size then?

 

It also seemed to be an unfinished series as Crossrail still has someway to go before it will be open throughout to the public and a lot still needs to be finished.

Maybe they should have waited until they can show the complete railway as "The Elizabeth Line" duly being opened to the public by HM Queen?

 

Keith

The trains are not being tested between Liverpool st and Shenfield - they are in revenue service, carrying fare paying passengers. 

[jwealleans]

I did find myself irritated by the constant need to create some sort of drama and tension - with all respect to the people concerned, it's only a building site at the end of the day. Yes, there are financial penalties in play, but let's keep a sense of perspective? Over 1200 people at Derby involved in the assembly of the trains, but it all depends on one or two individuals?

 

Once you looked beyond that, though, it was an interesting insight into what has been a huge and impressive undertaking. Overall, how are they against schedule and budget? That sort of context was never given.

[melmerby]

The trains are not being tested between Liverpool st and Shenfield - they are in revenue service, carrying fare paying passengers. 

Part of Crossrail? I think not. Eventually they will disappear down the tunnel but the ones they showed were at LS main line station.

They may be in revenue service but not on Crossrail services which was what was inferred.

 

Keith

[Nelson Jackson]

Unfortunately I missed the latest episode but I have watched them all and find them incredibly interesting, crossrail as a project is such a spectacular undertaking.

[Nimbus]

In the current climate, a degree of jeopardy was perhaps warranted at the point when the Leicester Square ticket hall's roof concrete pour was committed to. As this had to be continuously fed, I wonder if there were any contingency plans in place with the police in the event that some murderous fanatic had unleashed mayhem along the delivery route?

 

The Nim.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Nimbus

[Phil Parker]

I did find myself irritated by the constant need to create some sort of drama and tension - with all respect to the people concerned, it's only a building site at the end of the day. Yes, there are financial penalties in play, but let's keep a sense of perspective? Over 1200 people at Derby involved in the assembly of the trains, but it all depends on one or two individuals?

 

 

It IS "just" a big engineering project but unless you want a 1970s Open University programme then some sense of jeapordy has to be built in. No dramatic tension and you just have people in hi-vis doing stuff with concrete. Interesting for men with beards but harder to sell to the average viewer. I'd say that they pitched it about right - everyone who became the focus of attention came out of it a hero. Apart from the bloke in charge of design who seemed to be in charge of the iconic tube map but had to have the history explained to him. I suspect he knows this but it was just telly stuff for the majority of people who don't know the fascinating story.

 

What I came away with was the unbelievable scale of the project. Everything looks hard work and massive. Once built though, it will all be so everyday and normal. You did get the feeling that we can do big engineering in the UK. Perhaps if the NIMBYS could be kept at bay, we could do more of it.

 

The thing that anoyed me were the weird smoke effects that followed the cartoon train on the diagram. What was that about?

[Pint of Adnams]

I did find myself irritated by the constant need to create some sort of drama and tension - with all respect to the people concerned, it's only a building site at the end of the day. Yes, there are financial penalties in play, but let's keep a sense of perspective? Over 1200 people at Derby involved in the assembly of the trains, but it all depends on one or two individuals?

Jonathan,

 

If in a dull moment you trawl across the n other channels on Freeview that have programs about mighty ships (did I spell that correctly?), bridges, tunnels, foreign railways, aircraft, whatever, there is an imported transatlantic desire to overblow the slightest potential hiccup into a major dose of gastro-enteritis. I guess it's because simple minds need to be fed something thrilling since the subject matter per se cannot be deemed to be worthy without a regular slice of drama and suspense.  Unfortunately it's affecting some otherwise really interesting and informative output on the mainstream channels.

 

On the other hand I do remember only too well how absolutely boring those amateurish OU programmes were in the 1970s... and having to wake up to watch them at 3 a.m. because video-recorders hadn't been invented. Life seemed so simple then.

[jjb1970]

There are some huge and technically demanding engineering programs in this country. Unfortunately celebrating these programs doesn't fit either with a society which is seemingly more interested in celebrity tittle tattle and TV talent shows or with a political narrative that seems to be either disinterested or more concerned with belittling down our engineering capabilities.

[peter220950]

Interesting for men with beards but harder to sell to the average viewer.

Careful or I'll bring the boys round on Thursday night!

 

 

Peter (and his beard)

 

P.S.

I'm still wondering how much cheaper the project would have been if they didn't tip all the excavated spoil and concrete into Olympic sized swimming pools instead of landfill. They seemed obsessed by how many it would fill, yet there's only about ten in the country.

[Edwin_m]

Careful or I'll bring the boys round on Thursday night!

 

 

Peter (and his beard)

 

P.S.

I'm still wondering how much cheaper the project would have been if they didn't tip all the excavated spoil and concrete into Olympic sized swimming pools instead of landfill. They seemed obsessed by how many it would fill, yet there's only about ten in the country.

While cheaper than swimming pools, landfill itself is an expensive resource.  A lot of the spoil went by train and barge to the Thames estuary where it was used to reclaim some land for a nature reserve. 

[melmerby]

We've had a couple of mentions on here about OU programmes and AFAIK this programme had OU input as they have produced a pamphlet to go with it.

 

If you were really flush you could have a VCR in the 1970s. The first Philips ones (1972) preceded the VHS by some years.

 

Keith

 

EDIT

Link to OU:

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/crossrail

Edited May 31, 2017 by melmerby

[BlackRat]

Pity they couldn't spend a little bit of money on the railways of the south west.

[kernowtim]

Pity they couldn't spend a little bit of money on the railways of the south west.

.

Newly refurbished footbridge in Camborne

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

It IS "just" a big engineering project but unless you want a 1970s Open University programme then some sense of jeapordy has to be built in. No dramatic tension and you just have people in hi-vis doing stuff with concrete. Interesting for men with beards but harder to sell to the average viewer...

 When I began studying for my A levels and thinking proper beardly engineering thoughts about a career path, there was the opportunity to attend various summer school lecture courses hosted by universities. One such was memorable for the contrast drawn between the behaviour of those test flying rockets and aircraft. Prototype rocket flew, hysterical applause and self congratulation amongst the team. Prototype aircraft flew, the assembled team watching from the apron quietly satisfied, a few handshakes and they trooped back into the office to resume work. The latter it was explained to us was the mark of engineering competence: quietly confident because the work had been done thoroughly and well. There should be no drama... which doesn't suit general TV programming at all.

[alaneggleston]

P.S.

I'm still wondering how much cheaper the project would have been if they didn't tip all the excavated spoil and concrete into Olympic sized swimming pools instead of landfill. They seemed obsessed by how many it would fill, yet there's only about ten in the country.

 

The Media and the BBC in particular seem not to understand standard units of measurement,  its either Olympic sized swimming pools, lengths of football pitches or the height of double deck buses, in particular London buses which they clearly believe are different in size from those around the rest of the country!

[Hroth]

I miss those OU programmes when Men With Beards explained how a vector has direction and magnitude with a piece of string on a board, or rambled through conic sections with added algebra...

 

On the other hand, it wasn't to do with railways, but last night the BBC rebroadcast a programme about the 50th anniversary of the building of the first Severn road bridge in the Timeshift series, which I bumped into through exasperation with the "Election Debate", the tedium of Britain Has "Talent" and various other unmemorable stuff.  It celebrated engineering, it interviewed engineers and workers who were there, it showed how it was made, it had human interest by the Olympic Swimming Pool, it was gripping, informative television.  But because it didn't have thrills and teasing dramatic suspension, I'm sure it would be seen as dull and uninteresting.

 

I think the problem is that everything is now recorded in colour.  If everything was filmed in grainy black and white, it would all seem so much more authentic and authoritative.  I won't even comment on the mimsy narrators they employ nowadays.....

[Welly]

The thing that anoyed me were the weird smoke effects that followed the cartoon train on the diagram. What was that about?

I noticed it too but I have just worked out that whoever made the graphics probably thinks that Crossrail will be worked by Cravens DMUs rather than 345 EMUs!

[Phil Parker]

I noticed it too but I have just worked out that whoever made the graphics probably thinks that Crossrail will be worked by Cravens DMUs rather than 345 EMUs!

 

*Cough* Pacers