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East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line


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Just had notification from NetworkRail that Track Renewal Work on the Bletchley Flyover between Denbigh Hall Jcn to just north of the New Platforms. This work will be carried out continuously from 21:00 Friday 24th December through to 07:00 Monday 27th December. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Toton to Bletchley light engine moves are training runs for a new flow of export cars from Toyota to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel. Trains will reverse at Bletchley for Wembley and the CT. There will be a return trip with cars built in the EU for sale in the UK.

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It's nice to see so much evidence of real progress. Rails on the flyover and now bridges. I suspect that the tracklayin is going to ge south west fro Bletchley.

 

Thanks for the informative photos.

 

Jamie

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8 hours ago, Tirov said:

The Toton to Bletchley light engine moves are training runs for a new flow of export cars from Toyota to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel. Trains will reverse at Bletchley for Wembley and the CT. There will be a return trip with cars built in the EU for sale in the UK.

Ahh! Thanks I was wondering what it was, having spotted in on the Realtime Trains site.  This is one from last Wednesday - 67001 passing Woodleys Farm Crossing, Woburn Sands on the 031N Bletchley to Bedford North Sidings.

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Ralph

Lambton 58

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8 hours ago, Tirov said:

The Toton to Bletchley light engine moves are training runs for a new flow of export cars from Toyota to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel. Trains will reverse at Bletchley for Wembley and the CT. There will be a return trip with cars built in the EU for sale in the UK.

Why would it need to reverse at Bletchley? If it takes the right fork west of Fenny Stratford it could curve round under the flyover and join the WCML facing south. In fact last Wednesday Realtime Trains shows a 6Z42 from Burton-on-Trent to Wembley doing exactly that move:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:99554/2022-01-12/detailed

Good news about the new flow from the Burnaston plant. Where are the cars being loaded as the plant doesn't have a rail siding? Indeed, is it Burton?

 

David

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4 hours ago, Ryde-on-time said:

Some views taken today of the new bridge near Mursley - taken looking towards Mursley. The first photo shows the old and new bridges. The second wider angle shot shows the original road in the foreground which curved around onto the old bridge, this is now fenced off. The final shot is taken from the old bridge. Although Saturday it was a hive of activity with lots of vehicles buzzing about and workers working

 

56DB120D-9835-44DE-872C-816BC2BFCE53.jpeg.37e1484445376bc228192441fa04b50f.jpeg

 

6F9CAE8E-7DA6-4A73-B9A4-E3C29155693F.jpeg.72ac1d8b06e443d103802b266b67b531.jpeg

 

347D2B30-9A16-4AB8-AC60-F7CD70424207.jpeg.8a7606a38dc7d53aaf4b575a824c3b07.jpeg

Great shots. What’s going to happen to the old bridge?

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14 hours ago, DavidLong said:

Why would it need to reverse at Bletchley? If it takes the right fork west of Fenny Stratford it could curve round under the flyover and join the WCML facing south. In fact last Wednesday Realtime Trains shows a 6Z42 from Burton-on-Trent to Wembley doing exactly that move:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:99554/2022-01-12/detailed

Good news about the new flow from the Burnaston plant. Where are the cars being loaded as the plant doesn't have a rail siding? Indeed, is it Burton?

 

David

I wonder if they've looked at the Willington power station site; they'll need a secure, fairly large, location. Burton is already fairly busy with wire coil traffic; there was container traffic there as well, but I don't know if that's finished.

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17 hours ago, DavidLong said:

Why would it need to reverse at Bletchley? If it takes the right fork west of Fenny Stratford it could curve round under the flyover and join the WCML facing south. In fact last Wednesday Realtime Trains shows a 6Z42 from Burton-on-Trent to Wembley doing exactly that move:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:99554/2022-01-12/detailed

Good news about the new flow from the Burnaston plant. Where are the cars being loaded as the plant doesn't have a rail siding? Indeed, is it Burton?

 

David

 

They will be despatched and received at a new facility at Toton. See:

 

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/business/cars-made-toyotas-burnaston-plant-5746867

 

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3 hours ago, Edwin_m said:

Still can't see why the routeing from Toton would require a reversal at Bletchley!  

 

Maybe they are actually going to change traction at Bletchley and run from the juice on the WCML to score some extra environmental brownie points....

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2 hours ago, Davexoc said:

 

Maybe they are actually going to change traction at Bletchley and run from the juice on the WCML to score some extra environmental brownie points....

 

Possibly, but I doubt it, as the loco(s) being utilised will run on vegetable oil, which scores plenty of E points as it is. Unless DB Cargo intend to bring one or more Class 92's out of store (only 5 are currently in operation, primarily committed to other traffic), a further loco change would be needed at Willesden as well as at Dollands Moor.

 

I do not know, but, from previous experience in this field, I would imagine a reversal would enable the cars to be off-loaded in France or the Czech Republic, the right way round. It is much easier to drive cars along a train and off a ramp, than to reverse them. It suggests there is nowhere at the destinations for the loco to be run-round, before reversal on to the ramp (which is exactly what we used to do at Queenborough, but that was just for loading), which does surprise me a little. In which case, it would be simpler for the train to be drawn forward and reversed to the ramp, with the cars facing the right direction. But, that is just a guess.

 

Anyway, Off Topic......

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Quite a bit of the route now looks almost “track ready”, and assuming that both Bletchley and Calvert are used as “heads of steel” the actual track-laying oughtn’t to be a massively prolonged process. There must be a fair bit work to be done on signalling after that, though, so I reckon there’s well over year to go on this unless they completely flood it with resources.

 

What is the currently declared opening date?

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