Rebuilding the London Extension!

[Butler Henderson]

Okay, its only for the tram extenison in Nottingham but these pictures of a bridge being slid into place across a road next to Midland station brings back happy memories of the GC and GN overbridges that dominated the surrounds of the Midlands establsihment.

http://www.thetram.net/bridge-slide-photography/

[Richard E]

Southern side of the city centre if it is next to the station. Still north of the Trent though.

 

It is exactly where I thought it was but golly the streetview has changed - interesting to compare it with Google streetview, that shows a lot of changes in 4 to 5 years.

[Edwin_m]

Weekday Cross junction was further north but its site has now disappeared under an arts centre.  The existing tram line follows the old GC alignment on a new viaduct from just south of here, to terminate on a few arches of GC viaduct north of Midland station, which I think is the only GC structure that will form part of the tram route.  This bridge will extend it across the Midland station and the streets either side of it.  Further south one of the two branches rejoins the GC alignment for some distance on the other side of the Trent, but mostly at a different elevation. 

[griffgriff]

Weekday Cross is Immediately north of the Midland Station (The tunnel is still in use carrying services to the Victoria Center, what a shame  ), it was on the original tram formation, the extension runs south over the Midland and towards the River Trent (a line across the river towards Clifton, a junction will run a line west towards Toton the hub of the universe  )

[DaveF]

Queens Road runs east west along the south side of the (Midland ) Station.  From the photos the bridge is being moved into position over the station.

 

At present the Nottingham tram system terminus is just to the north of the station, the bridge is for the extension south, across the River Trent to Clifton.

 

The location can be found on Google Earth if you search for "Nottingham Queens Road".

 

Nottingham has changed a lot since I moved away in 1965 - in those days the Great Central bridge was in place, and still seeing use, over the Midland station at the same location.

 

I wonder what the cost of effectively putting it back has been.

 

David

 

Edit - Others got in here before I finished typing!

[DavidBird]

...the extension runs south over the Midland and ... towards Toton the hub of the universe  )

 

Not quite, it's only going as far as Chilwell, ok, park and ride next to Toton Lane, Stapleford, but its still Chilwell

[Butler Henderson]

Further south one of the two branches follows the GC alignment nearly to the Trent, and rejoins it for some distance on the other side, but at ground level rather than elevated. 

Not quite, after crossing the Midland station on the new bridge which is on the alignment of the GC it will drop down to road level and follow the former Queens Drive to cross the Trent on a widened Wilford Toll Bridge, albeit no tolls have been charged since the early 1970s and then in respect of a previous bridge that existed at that point. Once across the Trent it will curve round to run alongside the GC embankment from bridge 290 before climbing up on top of for a short distance, to allow access to be as existing to some allotments (bridge 292), then drops down as the embankment has been excavated to allow for a flat crossing of Wilford Lane rather than the very low bridge (293) that the GC crossed over it by. To the south of that road the embankment is also being removed but some interesting works are being carried out in the vincinity of where Wilford brick sidings were so that it will climb above the height of the GC in order to cross Ruddington Lane on the level, that road crossed over the line on a bridge (295) but presumably insufficient clearance for the wires. It will drop back down to the GC formation to pass under the ring road before curving to the west towards Clifton.

[Richard E]

Crikey, it'll almost run across the back of the road I used to live on then.

[Butler Henderson]

Same here, and having watched the painful death of that bit of the line from the school windows with the daily freights to Ruddington and Hotchley Hill its nice to know that albeit very briefly the route of the Master Cutler will once again be able to travelled on.

Regarding the bridge at the station what has been constructed so far is the first of three sections and this first one will end up being pushed right across the Midland station to link with the existing tram terminus. There is time lapse video of it on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrwt3kRqBL8

[Edwin_m]

Not quite, after crossing the Midland station on the new bridge which is on the alignment of the GC it will drop down to road level and follow the former Queens Drive to cross the Trent on a widened Wilford Toll Bridge

 

Correct, apologies for confusion - I will edit my post.  This is now known as Queens Walk and is parallel-ish to the GC but a couple of hundred metres further west.  The current Queens Drive is further still to the west and the Chilwell route follows Meadows Way which is alongside it. 

[Richard E]

Mention of Wiford Toll Bridge bring memories as well as used to use it for my daily commute to work on Maid Marian Way (the building is long gone now but it's replacement contains an office occupied by Reuters).

[JeffP]

Incredible. I was at College in Clifton from 1973-5, happy years. Many of the students were afraid of the Clifton Estate, but, coming from a huge council estate myself, I loved the place and it's people.

 

Wilford toll bridge, and Clifton Grove are both mentioned in D H Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers". Anyone who knows Nottingham well will love his works.

 

Will the new tramline go all the way IN to Clifton, if so where will it terminate? Or will it?

[Edwin_m]

Into Clifton and out the other end at a Park and Ride which is supposed to catch people on the A453 before they enter the urban area.  Similarly for the other route with the A52. 

 

http://www.thetram.net/pdfs/phase2Map/clifton-via-wilford.pdf

[JeffP]

Brilliant. When's it to be finished by?

I shall go over for a ride, it goes right past the chippy we would go to at night to buy Savaloy and Chips,.

[Butler Henderson]

BBC coverage of further progress on the bridge over the Midland Station

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-22553700

[Butler Henderson]

The construction of the new bridge over the Midland station is to feature in tonights One Show on BBC1.

[great central]

The construction of the new bridge over the Midland station is to feature in tonights One Show on BBC1.

 

Missed it, did they mention the little 'incident' with the bridge last week?

[Butler Henderson]

Primarily focused on the sliding abilities of washing up liquid, anyway what incident?

[great central]

Primarily focused on the sliding abilities of washing up liquid, anyway what incident?

 

Apparently there was some issue with the jacks or something. There was talk of it nearly coming off, lots of orange suits about very early one morning last week. Obviously keeping quiet about it.

[Butler Henderson]

The on line drawings now show that south of the Trent it will not use any part of the GC embankment north of Wilford Lane, merely running adjacent to the east side of it before joining the alignment at ground level for the tram stop and the crossing of that road.

 

Heres a picture on Flickr of the old GC bridge across that road and it looks impossible that the bus had managed to get under it. The bridge was signed as having a clearance of 13ft 6in although it was measured by Nottingham City Transport as having a clearance of 13ft 11in so they ordered some buses in 1971 which were 13ft 7in high, the South Notts vehicle in this photo was probably 13ft 2in high as their depot had been built at the same height as the bridge!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61279840@N03/8245664388/

 

Topic edited, typed "south of " in error instead of "north of "

Further edited to read, south of the river north of Wilford Lane

[griffgriff]

Considering the treads title I suppose this piece of news might be of interest, although I doubt a tram will ever see it.

 

http://www.gcrn.co.uk/news/bridge-to-the-future/#sthash.VT9c6Pmh.dpbs

 

If they have construction contractors lined up then things must be getting serious.

[Richard E]

The on line drawings now show that north of the Trent it will not use any part of the GC embankment south of Wilford Lane, merely running adjacent to the east side of it before joining the alignment at ground level for the tram stop and the crossing of that road.

 

Topic edited, typed "south of " in error instead of "north of

Interesting - when I lived in Nottingham Wilford Lane was south of the Trent, the embankment ran from Wilford toll bridge down to Wilford Lane where there once was a bridge, and then on past the back of my house. I assume they have moved one of them then ....

[Edwin_m]

Having eventually found the drawing on the NET website, I think these comments should relate to the section north of Wilford Lane and south of the Trent. 

[Richard E]

Right, looking at the map it will cross the Trent on the old toll bridge on Main Road Wilford, then turn left and right to pick up the old GCR formation which it will use to cross Wilford Lane as it goes south and then continue until it has passed under the A52 when it will turn right to serve Silverdale and Clifton. It will, therefore, run along the old GCR embankment at the back of where I used to live. The proposed tram stop on Compton Acres seems to be 150 yards or so from what was my front door!

 

I assume that the embankment at the north end near the river will be tapered down to the flood plain level for access to the river bridge crossing.

[Edwin_m]

I think most of this part of the tram line will be lowered to ground level by bulldozing part of the embankment.  This is certainly the case at Wilford Lane which is crossed on the level.  Doing this makes space either side for visual screening and noise reduction.