East Coast Mainline Blockade for Werrington Junction diveunder

[Crun]

Views from Cock Lane bridge, looking south with freshly laid ballast and 'beach' shades:

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Crun

[Crun]

Views from Marholm Road bridge looking south with tamper:

 

 

Views from Marholm Road bridge looking north, taking in sun shades:

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Crun

[iands]

1 hour ago, Crun said:

Sunday 18th July morning and early afternoon

 

Views from Lincoln Road bridge with empty ballast trucks:

 

 

 

 

No more concrete bridge supports left:

 

Signal P867 and associated SPT are slowly disappearing into the undergrowth. 

[corneliuslundie]

I'll bet the sunshades weren't included in the contractor's bid. Just wellies and waterproofs.

Jonathan

[ess1uk]

bet it's a nightmare laying track in this heat, i'd hate to be doing the maths for the stressing

[Fat Controller]

I like the wind-propelled trolleys for the welders....

[rodent279]

13 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

bet it's a nightmare laying track in this heat, i'd hate to be doing the maths for the stressing

Is it possible that they'll wait until cooler weather before final connection?

[melmerby]

Anyone know why the tracklaying machine finished so far back, leaving a longish stretch to be manually done?

I thought that when on the up line it went much further.

[Donington Road]

 

1 hour ago, ess1uk said:

bet it's a nightmare laying track in this heat, i'd hate to be doing the maths for the stressing

 

It is bad enough being outside.

I think I read somewhere that a certain ambient air temperature is desirable for the stressing.

[Richard E]

There is a point at which the rail is under no stress which is known as the 'rail neutral temperature'. That temperature is, I understand, in the UK is 81ºF, note that is the temperature of the rail, not the ambient temperature which can be as much as 20ºF lower.

 

The installed length of the rail is adjusted so that when it is above that temperature the rail will be under compression and when below that temperature under tension. Whether the rail needs to be heated or cooled at all on installation so that it is at that neutral point I don't know.

 

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/why-rails-buckle-in-britain/

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/looking-after-the-railway/delays-explained/buckled-rail-and-summer-heat/

[Donington Road]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

Anyone know why the tracklaying machine finished so far back, leaving a longish stretch to be manually done?

I thought that when on the up line it went much further.

 

The first visit of the track laying machine did both the Up and Down lines equally from Glinton Junction laying (about the third of the overall distance) using about 1500 sleepers on each line.

The second visit saw the continuation of the Up line to Marholm Junction laying a further 3000 sleepers.

This weekends finishing of the Down Line again laying about 3000 sleepers was done manually.  I can only presume that once an opposite line is in place it is much cheaper to lay the adjacent line manually instead of hiring in the track laying machine.

[melmerby]

34 minutes ago, Richard E said:

There is a point at which the rail is under no stress which is known as the 'rail neutral temperature'. That temperature is, I understand, in the UK is 81ºF, note that is the temperature of the rail, not the ambient temperature which can be as much as 20ºF lower.

 

 

Surely all temperatures would be in Celsius?

Hardly any businesses apart from the odd "Metric Martyr" greengrocer uses Imperial these days.

[Donington Road]

1 minute ago, melmerby said:

Surely all temperatures would be in Celsius?

Hardly any businesses apart from the odd "Metric Martyr" greengrocer uses Imperial these days.

 

I'll pass on your nice cooling pint of beer I poured for you to one of the orange gang.

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, ess1uk said:

bet it's a nightmare laying track in this heat, i'd hate to be doing the maths for the stressing

Surely they have a set of tables to work from?

Allowing a human to calculate the actual figure is asking for trouble.

[melmerby]

Just now, Donington Road said:

 

I'll pass on your nice cooling pint of beer I poured for you to one of the orange gang.

But everything else in the pub is Metric: Wine, bottled beer, spirits & mixers, pop etc.

[Richard E]

15 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Surely all temperatures would be in Celsius?

Hardly any businesses apart from the odd "Metric Martyr" greengrocer uses Imperial these days.

 

OK, 27ºC then. The article I linked quotes both actually.

 

And I'll try ordering 568ml of beer tonight in the pub shall I? What about my milk delivery, that's in a pint bottle. Milk is sold in pints in the supermarket too.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Richard E

[melmerby]

3 minutes ago, Richard E said:

 

OK, 27ºC then. The article I linked quotes both actually.

 

And I'll try ordering 568ml of beer tonight in the pub shall I? What about my milk delivery, that's in a pint bottle. Milk is sold in pints in the supermarket too.

Try buying a pound of sugar or a 2lb loaf or a quarter of licorice allsorts.

 

Everything else apart from a few "cherished" measures is metric*. Even supermarket milk comes in both Metric & Imperial containers. (we don't have a milk round here so I know only supermarket "bottle" sizes).

*Same with Miles

[Donington Road]

12 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Try buying a pound of sugar or a 2lb loaf or a quarter of licorice allsorts.

 

Everything else apart from a few "cherished" measures is metric*. Even supermarket milk comes in both Metric & Imperial containers. (we don't have a milk round here so I know only supermarket "bottle" sizes).

*Same with Miles

 

 We are going completely off topic here and into a minefield in the heat of the day, not good.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Donington Road

[Mark Saunders]

12 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Try buying a pound of sugar or a 2lb loaf or a quarter of licorice allsorts.

 

Everything else apart from a few "cherished" measures is metric*. Even supermarket milk comes in both Metric & Imperial containers. (we don't have a milk round here so I know only supermarket "bottle" sizes).

*Same with Miles

How does 4mm to the 1’ foot sound?

[melmerby]

20 minutes ago, Donington Road said:

 

 We are going completely off topic here and into a minefield in the heat of the day, not good.

There wasn't an answer to my original query.

Surely the railway is built & maintained to metric these days?

IIRC Even the gauge is quoted in metric and not 4' 8½" anymore.

 

Years ago (in fact too many years ago) at work (PO/GPO/BT) we used coefficent of expansion in calculations and we were by then using celsius and metres/mm etc.

[Trog]

On 19/07/2021 at 12:22, ess1uk said:

bet it's a nightmare laying track in this heat, i'd hate to be doing the maths for the stressing

 

No maths to do if the temperature is over 27'C you just record it, so it is known that the track will need re-stressing before the winter sets in. It will not be a big problem immediately as the range of rail temperatures will be at the warmer end of the yearly cycle. So not much difference between an over stressed rail on a cooler summer night and a normally stressed rail on a frosty winters night. Won't have been pleasant out there though as in the sort of weather we have been having bending down to look at a rail feels quite a bit like bending down to take something out of an oven. 

[Trog]

On 19/07/2021 at 16:37, melmerby said:

There wasn't an answer to my original query.

Surely the railway is built & maintained to metric these days?

IIRC Even the gauge is quoted in metric and not 4' 8½" anymore.

 

Years ago (in fact too many years ago) at work (PO/GPO/BT) we used coefficent of expansion in calculations and we were by then using celsius and metres/mm etc.

Up until I stopped doing rail stressing due to moving jobs, we used tables of extension that gave you the required rail extension in mm's for each combination of degree C per hundred yards of rail, so knowing the unclipped length of rail and having read your minimum of three thermometers, you just looked up the required extension for the number of hundreds of yards, looked up the number of tens of yards on the same table divided the answer by ten and added it to the hundreds figure, added 7/8" for the welding gap and marked up the rail for cutting. You would also put a mark against a rail housing just clear either side of where the welders would be working so that you could check that as the rail was pulled up it was moving in proportion to the length of unclipped rail on each side of the pulling point. The best thing to mark the rail with was a pale green or red crayon, shows up way better than pencil.

 

I did once receive a stressing form a contractor that was alleged to be in a WR standard format where the length of work done was recorded in metres past the milepost. ie 83Miles 300m to 83Miles 560m. Thinking that forwarding this to be entered into the ex LMR Miles and yards system was asking for trouble I had them resubmit it in LMR English.  (WR always were mad as a box of frogs.)

[JeffP]

On 19/07/2021 at 16:34, melmerby said:

Surely all temperatures would be in Celsius?

Hardly any businesses apart from the odd "Metric Martyr" greengrocer uses Imperial these days.

Reminds me of a conversation I had with a Frenchman who was mocking the idea of feet and inches.

I simply asked him what size the wheels were on his car, and on his mountain bike.

[PenrithBeacon]

On 19/07/2021 at 16:37, melmerby said:

There wasn't an answer to my original query.

Surely the railway is built & maintained to metric these days?

IIRC Even the gauge is quoted in metric and not 4' 8½" anymore.

 

Years ago (in fact too many years ago) at work (PO/GPO/BT) we used coefficent of expansion in calculations and we were by then using celsius and metres/mm etc.

I think that the NR part of the network is still miles and chains, but TfL changed to metric a number of years ago. Mind you they measured from Ongar which they then closed!

[Trog]

15 minutes ago, PenrithBeacon said:

I think that the NR part of the network is still miles and chains, but TfL changed to metric a number of years ago. Mind you they measured from Ongar which they then closed!

 

Was once given a copy of the output from the Undergrounds track recording train to compare with our own results for Queens Park to Harrow and Wealdstone. Had to work out conversions to equate Kilometres from Ongar with miles from Euston Via Stonebridge Park (57 yards further than the mainline for Wembley Central to Bushey and Oxhey. (Not a lot of people know that)). I also had to convert the date as at that time the early 2000's their recording train was running with the clock put back by ten years as a year 2000 computer bug avoidance measure.