East Coast Mainline Blockade for Werrington Junction diveunder

[Donington Road]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

I imagine some of those involved may be regretting taking notice of those who rejected a flyover on aesthetic grounds.

Take care.

And try to have a happy Christmas. I believe brandy can help!

Jonathan

 

I know whisky does

 

They did their homework on flood assessment, but did they get it right

Bit of reading here nr14 - volume iii - es - appendix n_water resources.pdf

 

If you want heavier reading of everything associated with the project, from different schemes to bats and birds then this heavy tome will send you to sleep

nr14 - volume ii - es impact assessment (main statement).pdf

Edited December 24, 2020 by Donington Road

[Richard E]

The first document shows a spillway to Brook Drain from Marholm Drain. I don't see that on the ground though. Or am I mistaken?

[Donington Road]

10 hours ago, Richard E said:

The first document shows a spillway to Brook Drain from Marholm Drain. I don't see that on the ground though. Or am I mistaken?

 

Yes, it shows one in Fig. 1.5.

I presume it is still to be built but cannot be done until a later date because where it will go is being used as an access road.  In my opinion Morgan Sindall were too premature in removing the existing land bridge they had over the new Brook Drain north.

There was (what I would call) a temporary overflow pipe put in place after last years flooding, first photo.

 

Since then the old land bridge (photo below) was taken out and the new access is now via the side of Brook Drain south culvert (last photo).  A consequence of making that the access for heavy construction equipment necessitated the removal of the temporary overflow pipe.  So we are back to square one and have the same problem as last year.  What is their answer this year, cut a channel to let the water flow into Brook Drain where the temporary overflow pipe was.  Once the water level has dropped this will be re-filled until the next heavy rain when nothing will be done until it floods again.

 

[Crun]

Christmas Day views from Hurn Road bridge:

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Crun

[Crun]

Christmas Day views from Cock Lane bridge. I could hear the flood water still.  Work appeared to be going on during the night.

 

Looking north:

Looking south:

Edited December 27, 2020 by Crun

[Donington Road]

A joint update from Trackside ECML and myself of yesterday and today.

Yesterday the Up Stamford had been severed where we expected the new switch to go.  The trackbed was then excavated out from there to just beyond the old brick building south of Walton footbridge.  As well as new track and switch, new drainage sumps and pipes were also being installed.  We both took a bit of video but it was not very good viewing as most of the things happening were hidden by trains and Walton footbridge is caged in which is not very good.

 

The severed track yesterday with excavators working beyond the bridge filling the third spoil train.  Two other spoil trains had moved up to Hurn Road and just before Woodcroft Crossing north of Hurn Road.

 

New track and drainage has been laid overnight south of Walton.  The ballast train awaits in the background.

 

 

Now looking at the other end (Marholm Junction) the switch have not been installed!  It is just plain track all the way.  We are a bit unsure what is going on but believe there may be a problem

with the switch.

 

The track alignment has been slewed further to the right to accommondate the new drainage.  It is looking very close to those switch panels.  With what appears to be a shallower curve we wonder if there has been a miscalculation with the curvature of the switch.

 

Later this morning the ballast train passed through on the new track.

 

 

That is as much as we can report at the moment, time to get back to family commitments and the rest of the holiday.

In other news, the overflow of Marholm Brook was still inevidence yesterday although the water level in Brook Drain north had lowered slightly.  Today extra help has been put in place with the addition of a pump.

 

Thank you to Trackside ECML for all the photographs above.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Donington Road

[melmerby]

I was wondering how they were going to fit the switch with the current up Stamford still in place as the switch geometry has to be compatible with the current track and later, the new alignments of both the Up Stamford and Up dive-under. Not an easy task.

 

Logically I was expecting to see a new up line in place, ready and waiting before installation of the switch, at which time they could have severed the old up line completely at both ends.

As construction on the dive-under has progressed that scenario was looking less likely.

Edited December 26, 2020 by melmerby

[ess1uk]

3 hours ago, Donington Road said:

A joint update from Trackside ECML and myself of yesterday and today.

Yesterday the Up Stamford had been severed where we expected the new switch to go.  The trackbed was then excavated out from there to just beyond the old brick building south of Walton footbridge.  As well as new track and switch, new drainage sumps and pipes were also being installed.  We both took a bit of video but it was not very good viewing as most of the things happening were hidden by trains and Walton footbridge is caged in which is not very good.

 

The severed track yesterday with excavators working beyond the bridge filling the third spoil train.  Two other spoil trains had moved up to Hurn Road and just before Woodcroft Crossing north of Hurn Road.

 

New track and drainage has been laid overnight south of Walton.  The ballast train awaits in the background.

 

 

 

 

They have gone as far as Walton relay room? 
didn’t expect that 

[Donington Road]

4 hours ago, melmerby said:

I was wondering how they were going to fit the switch with the current up Stamford still in place as the switch geometry has to be compatible with the current track and later, the new alignments of both the Up Stamford and Up dive-under. Not an easy task.

 

Logically I was expecting to see a new up line in place, ready and waiting before installation of the switch, at which time they could have severed the old up line completely at both ends.

As construction on the dive-under has progressed that scenario was looking less likely.

 

1 hour ago, ess1uk said:

They have gone as far as Walton relay room? 
didn’t expect that 

 

I expected the existing line to be severed approximately where they did it yesterday and fit the new switch into it on the curve with a very short stub going towards what will be the new Up Stamford alignment.  Much like they have done with the Glinton Junction.

The installation of the drainage seems a bit odd too.  It has been installed between the Up and Down lines rather than to the ECML side of the Up line.

The curve of the Up line has been eased away from the Down line as far back as 50 yards beyond the relay room.  I guess this has been done to make a better flow into the toe of the switch.  The switch to be fitted at this point is a right hand turnout so the difficulty I see is putting a straight line (of the switch, which will eventually be the Up Joint from the dive under) into the existing curve and still allowing the existing Up Stamford to be connected to it.  What I envisaged was a tightening of the curve to fit the new switch on a temporary basis between the access crossing south of Cock Lane and the new switch until the whole new Up Stamford line is installed.

 

Maybe they should have played around with a bit of Peco flexitrack and a couple of points for longer than they did.

 

The next couple of days may shed some light into what is really happening.  At the moment it is all speculation on my part and perhaps there was no intention of fitting switches (even though they are onsite) and it was only to get the drainage sorted at this stage and existing track curvature re-aligned to accept the switches at a later date.

[Richard E]

I think, to some extent, you're reading too much into this. they are now relaying/renewing the down Stamford to some way south of the Walton relay room. My view is that this is just part of a normal renewal cycle other than a slight slew to take account of the new alignment now rather than having to do it all over again in a matter of a few weeks time.

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Richard E

[melmerby]

Must still be some work going on on the Stamford lines as there is bustitution for XC services between Melton Mowbray & Peterborough today.

[Richard E]

9 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Must still be some work going on on the Stamford lines as there is bustitution for XC services between Melton Mowbray & Peterborough today.

 

Yes, the down Stamford doesn't exist and the up Stamford is in use by plant and machinery.

 

[Donington Road]

13 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Must still be some work going on on the Stamford lines as there is bustitution for XC services between Melton Mowbray & Peterborough today.

 

The possession is for 24th -29th December inclusive.

Tomorrow 10:00-22:00 is movement of OHE on the Down Slow.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Donington Road

[Crun]

On 21/12/2020 at 01:05, Donington Road said:

 

These might interest you

https://www.youtube.com/c/RichardClifford1111/videos

http://www.tilbury2.co.uk/

CGI film of King's Cross post work undertaken during the Christmas Holiday and other periods:

 

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Crun

[Richard E]

As I was passing it seemed silly not to stop for a couple of minutes and grab a couple of pictures on the phone.

 

It looked as if they were changing the drop arm to sit on the other side of the OHLE wires as it was being moved to the right towards the open end of the gantry. Note the 'ratchet' type strap to temporarily support the wires.

 

 

 

Interestingly both NR and Morgan Siddall involved.

 

 

Seems I WAS wrong about normal track renewal although the switches will be going in later on.

 

That's it from me for today.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Richard E

[corneliuslundie]

Re that "video", definitely a sense of deja vu - you can tell how long ago I first used the KX line.

Interesting that despite the attention to detail the actual track is very poorly modelled.

Presumably quite a lot of money was spent on the video. Why? Not just to entertain the likes of us.

Jonathan

[s182ggu]

There is some terrific coverage of the ongoing works being provided in this thread, so a BIG THANK YOU to the contributors for providing us with these regular updates.

 

Bearing in mind that this is only a part of the current ECML upgrades, I'm surprised not to have seen an equivalent thread for the upgrade works at Kings X - or have I not been looking in the right place?

Edited December 29, 2020 by s182ggu

[melmerby]

Maybe there isn't anyone close to KX that can post anything on the updates?

[Donington Road]

A bit of christmas work.

 

 

[Crun]

8 hours ago, s182ggu said:

There is some terrific coverage of the ongoing works being provided in this thread, so a BIG THANK YOU to the contributors for providing us with these regular updates.

 

Bearing in mind that this is only a part of the current ECML upgrades, I'm surprised not to have seen an equivalent thread for the upgrade works at Kings X - or have I not been looking in the right place?

 

East Coast Upgrade on Twitter: "Now that the first tracks have been re-installed at London King’s Cross, the tamper has ensured they’re correctly aligned and the new ballast is even. We’re using 648 tonnes of new ballast during our #EastCoastUpgrade work to replace the Camden Sewer beneath the tracks here. https://t.co/bgMX5nqebL" / Twitter

Edited December 29, 2020 by Crun

[Crun]

9 hours ago, s182ggu said:

There is some terrific coverage of the ongoing works being provided in this thread, so a BIG THANK YOU to the contributors for providing us with these regular updates.

 

Bearing in mind that this is only a part of the current ECML upgrades, I'm surprised not to have seen an equivalent thread for the upgrade works at Kings X - or have I not been looking in the right place?

Off topic but includes engineering works in Eastern Region:

 

Network Rail Anglia (@NetworkRailAng) / Twitter

 

Network Rail Anglia on Twitter: "Site update from (just outside) Norwich station: job done. We have replaced four sets of points, as well as the timbers underneath that support the rails The work will help to keep trains running safely and reliably @greateranglia @EastMidRailway https://t.co/MmwPzXNkIv" / Twitter

Edited December 29, 2020 by Crun

[Crun]

New Year's Day views south from Cock Lane bridge:

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2021 by Crun

[96701]

On 28/12/2020 at 14:50, Richard E said:

Note the 'ratchet' type strap to temporarily support the wires.

 

Called a Pul Lift, rather like vacuum cleaners are called Hoovers.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Crun said:

New Year's Day views south from Cock Lane bridge:

All quiet on the Werrington Front.

[Crun]

Saturday January 2nd 2021, views south from Hurn Road bridge:

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Crun