East Coast Mainline Blockade for Werrington Junction diveunder

[40F S & T]

Hi  What photos.  It makes the job look a lot bigger from above.  They must be near the tunnels at the start end. hope we get more photos like the ones from the air. 

[iands]

2 hours ago, rodent279 said:

Contact wire can be joined with a splice, at least it could in the original southern section of the WCML electrification. My dad was given one, polished up and mounted on a piece of wood when he retired. Whether it's still done or not I don't know. Maybe it's frowned upon where line speeds are high.

Just had a quick look through the Overhead Line Electrification for Railways (by Garry Keenor) - a most excellent reference book - and it refers to two types of contact wire splices. One (the modern type) is a Butt Splice  which replaced the splendidly named Battleship Splice (named allegedly because it looked like a Battleship in profile). 

[Donington Road]

2 hours ago, 40F S & T said:

Hi  What photos.  It makes the job look a lot bigger from above.  They must be near the tunnels at the start end. hope we get more photos like the ones from the air. 

 

Yes, the piling has has been taken away in front of the box and the two guide tunnels can just be seen either side to the rear of the excavator, the two grey areas in the dark soil.

 

[melmerby]

12 hours ago, iands said:

Just had a quick look through the Overhead Line Electrification for Railways (by Garry Keenor) - a most excellent reference book - and it refers to two types of contact wire splices. One (the modern type) is a Butt Splice  which replaced the splendidly named Battleship Splice (named allegedly because it looked like a Battleship in profile). 

Like this?

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by melmerby

[melmerby]

46 minutes ago, Donington Road said:

 

Yes, the piling has has been taken away in front of the box and the two guide tunnels can just be seen either side to the rear of the excavator, the two grey areas in the dark soil.

 

What happens to the guide tunnels?

Are they dismantled down to the bottom segment as the box proceeds?

[Donington Road]

33 minutes ago, melmerby said:

What happens to the guide tunnels?

Are they dismantled down to the bottom segment as the box proceeds?

 

The last page of the attached article should answer your question.

 

dive under box article.pdf

[rodent279]

10 hours ago, iands said:

Just had a quick look through the Overhead Line Electrification for Railways (by Garry Keenor) - a most excellent reference book - and it refers to two types of contact wire splices. One (the modern type) is a Butt Splice  which replaced the splendidly named Battleship Splice (named allegedly because it looked like a Battleship in profile). 

Yep, that'll be the one, I can picture the one dad was given. Not in a position to take a photo at the moment, but as it's been stuffed and mounted, it's not the best representative of it's species. A battleship isn't the first thing that springs to mind, but I can see where they're coming from.

This is the best a Google search could come up with.

 

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2020/09/02/bad-splices-point-to-fundamental-problems-at-muni/

 

 

[ess1uk]

I can’t work out why NR have not put a webcam on the GSMR mast next to the dig.

ready made IP network and wouldn’t have taken long

[iands]

1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

Yep, that'll be the one, I can picture the one dad was given. Not in a position to take a photo at the moment, but as it's been stuffed and mounted, it's not the best representative of it's species. A battleship isn't the first thing that springs to mind, but I can see where they're coming from.

This is the best a Google search could come up with.

 

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2020/09/02/bad-splices-point-to-fundamental-problems-at-muni/

 

 

Hi Rodent, yep, the article you posted shows the two splices referred to in the book I mentioned (didn't want to reproduce the photos here in fear of breaching copyright).  

[iands]

9 hours ago, melmerby said:

Like this?

 

 

 

Sorry Keith, but the second image in your post doesn't seem to work.

 

[melmerby]

16 minutes ago, iands said:

Sorry Keith, but the second image in your post doesn't seem to work.

 

Strange that, as I could see it on my other computer.

Anyway I have copied the image on the page as I see it, deleted the original and re-pasted it.

 

Try it now.

 

[iands]

11 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Strange that, as I could see it on my other computer.

Anyway I have copied the image on the page as I see it, deleted the original and re-pasted it.

 

Try it now.

 

Thanks Keith, can see that works okay now. That is an image of the Butt Splice. The article posted by Rodent279 shows an image of the Battleship Splice.

[Richard E]

A couple more from Twitter today.

 

An overhead view of the jacks at the back of the box. the block against which each jack pushes can be seen on the left hand one, these blocks are, from documents published in the past, lock into keyways in the floor of the platform on which the box was built.

 

 

And another view of the complete box, again the 'push blocks' can be seen in place behind two of the jacks with another pair to either side of the platform ready to be slotted in once the jacks currently in use have reached the limit of their push.

 

 

I have also seen that the environmentalists are now bleating about this project causing global warming due to the amount of CO2 released in casting an 11000 tonne box and saying it should have been done using carbon neutral building methods ...

[Manitoba]

6 minutes ago, Richard E said:

I have also seen that the environmentalists are now bleating about this project causing global warming due to the amount of CO2 released casting an 11000 tonne box and saying it should have been done using carbon neutral building methods ...

 

Was Wattle and Daub not considered?

[jamie92208]

3 minutes ago, Manitoba said:

 

Was Wattle and Daub not considered?

But think of all the methane produced by the suppliers of the daub.

 

Jamie

[melmerby]

Should have used a mole plough:

 

[Donington Road]

For Keith

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1351498626997088258

 

[Richard E]

And a site visit too, oddly bumped into my ex's other half and my kids half brother whilst there. Other half's aunt lives on Hurn Road right by the site. Only concession they've had is triple galzing in the side of the property that faces the site.

 

Anyway, Lincoln Road to start.

 

Let's start with the water main from the Werrington side (south). This is looking towards the joint line and is how they are bringing it up to connect to the pipes over the new bridge.

 

 

And at road level.

 

 

 

Under the bridge is a lone bricky working away on a single skin of cladding.

 

 

And on the other side of the bridge we seem to have found yet another pipe buried in the road.

 

 

And there is still the remains of one of the concrete pillars that carried the water main over the joint.

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by Richard E

[Richard E]

Moving on from Lincoln Road the LNER Azuma is using the up Stamford running on diesel thus proving Realtime Trains wrong as they reckon they are working on electric through here.

 

 

The water levels are up again.

 

 

There are OHLE road/rail vehicle parked on the fast lines, one is loaded with a couple of reels of contact wire.

 

 

 

A view north from the footbridge, there are no closure notices about so it seems as if the local rag have just published dates that are reserved for future works.

 

 

[Richard E]

And finally from Hurn Road there are some new track panels stored on the down fast.

 

 

The Kirow crane is still on site.

 

 

And so is this plastic chappie - whilst not a crane it seemed a suitable point to pop his picture.

 

 

And looking north there were a number of NR folk working alongside the down fast.

 

 

Also visible is the rebuilding of Mount Werrington with the spoil coming out of the pit across the ECML which, according to posts on twitter, has reached the 2/3rds point across the lines!

 

 

[Donington Road]

22 minutes ago, Richard E said:

 

There are OHLE road/rail vehicle parked on the fast lines, one is loaded with a couple of reels of contact wire.

 

 

 

 

They must be working overnight on the OHE, wonder what they are doing?  All those cherry pickers have moved and the lorry has turned around since I took this photo yesterday afternoon.

[melmerby]

48 minutes ago, Richard E said:

Moving on from Lincoln Road the LNER Azuma is using the up Stamford running on diesel thus proving Realtime Trains wrong as they reckon they are working on electric through here.

 

 

 

Railcam's diagrams disprove RTTs listing as you can follow LNER southbound trains from the down slow at Tallington on to the up Stamford and then each signal berth until they either reach Peterborough on the "Midland" side (weekends whilst ECML is closed S/B) or cross to the up fast at New England junction (weekdays)

Edited January 19, 2021 by melmerby

[Crun]

Film of diggers opening up the guide tunnels:

 

 

[Richard E]

2 minutes ago, Crun said:

Film of diggers opening up the guide tunnels:

 

 

Unfortunately posting it that way the links don't work for me. Donington Road posted it further up the page as well albeit in a form I can follow.

[melmerby]

2 minutes ago, Richard E said:

Unfortunately posting it that way the links don't work for me. Donington Road posted it further up the page as well albeit in a form I can follow.

Works both ways on Windows