GWML Electification

[lmsforever]

I seem to have rattled a few cages with my post but it is my personal opinion and in answer to the post no I have no knowledge of the design of said ole but it does seem over engineered regardless of the line speed.Will trains ever run at 140mph on this route ?   But we are all allowed our opinions are we not trite replies are not required.

[Zomboid]

Assuming ETCS is eventually implemented (and that is the plan, I believe) then there will be 140mph trains on the route.

It's fine to say that the OLE is ugly, but unless you're an OLE design engineer and you've seen the detailed designs and the specification then "over engineered" is not a valid criticism.

[Edwin_m]

I seem to have rattled a few cages with my post but it is my personal opinion and in answer to the post no I have no knowledge of the design of said ole but it does seem over engineered regardless of the line speed.Will trains ever run at 140mph on this route ?   But we are all allowed our opinions are we not trite replies are not required.

The Daily-Mail-style loaded aside about the EU rankles somewhat, especially at the current time and particularly as you now admit you have no knowledge from which to make an informed comment. 

[woodenhead]

Over engineered also covers for storms - something the UK is getting good for and no-one wants another ECML OHLE lite solution

[The Stationmaster]

I seem to have rattled a few cages with my post but it is my personal opinion and in answer to the post no I have no knowledge of the design of said ole but it does seem over engineered regardless of the line speed.Will trains ever run at 140mph on this route ?   But we are all allowed our opinions are we not trite replies are not required.

 

I think part of the reaction might have been a consequence of your taking Didcot (which presumably is all you have seen up close?) as typical of what is being installed rather than the fact that it is atypical.  As pictures I have posted in this thread show the vast majority of the boom and gantry horizontal components are much smaller and lighter than those installed through DIdcot station platforms - and not beyond the platform area.  I have presumed (and I am by no means an engineer) that the larger section used at Didcot is a consequence of the span and also the fact that some are cantilevered although there night be another explanation.

 

Overall, judging by just about everywhere else, the boom/gantry cross members are of far lighter section than any previously used  although some cantilevers are very similar to - if not the same as - earlier BR designs.  The method of attaching the contact and catenary wires, and tensioning them, is visually considerably neater than anything I have previously seen in Britain apart from those places where a catenary wire is not used (e.g. Paddington station).  Overall the steelwork arranged horizontally is far less visually intrusive than that used on the original WCML scheme but equally it is far more obvious, although less complex, than the more flimsy and prone to damage headspan arrangement used on many late BR schemes.

 

If anything is more intrusive, generally, of the GWML scheme it is the masts which are of much larger overall section (as far as I can see) than any previously used in Britain although I presume (possibly incorrectly) that is a consequence of aiming for an overall more robust arrangement.

 

Thus the GWML scheme is to me something of a curate's egg - apart from the fact that ohle is more visually intrusive than no ohle it has it good points (especially a remarkably simple means of carrying the catenary and less intrusive booms in most places) and its bad points (large masts in most places plus the sort of girderwork used at Didcot).  Whichever it is a form of progress whether we like it or not and will reduce emissions in the Thames Valley - where they are prone to remain at low level for an extended time because of the topography).

[The Stationmaster]

Swiss overhead structures and wiring -

 

RhB (narrow gauge) - actually in Italy but a Swiss railway company

 

 

BLS standard gauge station area

 

 

GWML Tilehurst - high line speed and higher voltage than Switzerland

 

 

[Zomboid]

In Switzerland, as well as the technical differences, the OLE is not silhouetted against the sky. Which impacts how you process the image and react to it. That and a sunny day in the alps is a different prospect to an overcast one in the Thames valley.

Putting that aside, it is by and large very similar, you can see the family resemblance.

[D1059]

I think a large part of the problem with the visual intrusion of the OLE is that we are suddenly seeing views at locations changed radically that we have been used to seeing unimpeded all our lives

 

No, I don't like the OLE either, but I'd also like to see the main car park at Didcot removed, the transfer shed put back where it belongs and the provender store rebuilt - somehow I think I'm going to be disappointed :)

Edited June 20, 2016 by D1059

[Geoff Endacott]

The OLE through Chippenham is so unobtrusive that you can't even see it.

 

Geoff Endacott

[Arun Sharma]

For what it's worth D1059, I'd also like to see the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway re instituted so that I wouldn't have to mix it with car transporters on the A34 or have to go all the way from Oxford to Reading first en-route to Andover. Perhaps one day....

[D1059]

For what it's worth D1059, I'd also like to see the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway re instituted so that I wouldn't have to mix it with car transporters on the A34 or have to go all the way from Oxford to Reading first en-route to Andover. Perhaps one day....

 

Amen - what was it they said about the DNS ? - 'Turn right at Didcot, off the timetable and onto the calendar'

Edited June 20, 2016 by D1059

[D1059]

Found this on Flickr - a moment of reverence please

 

This is where it all started for me (albeit with green and maroon locos and stock)

 

 

1069 Western Vanguard rolls into Didcot with the 08:53 from Swansea, December 31 1973 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr

[Edwin_m]

For what it's worth D1059, I'd also like to see the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway re instituted so that I wouldn't have to mix it with car transporters on the A34

Well you wouldn't have to, because large chunks of the A34 would have to be removed to make way for it! 

[caradoc]

I seem to have rattled a few cages with my post but it is my personal opinion and in answer to the post no I have no knowledge of the design of said ole but it does seem over engineered regardless of the line speed.Will trains ever run at 140mph on this route ?   But we are all allowed our opinions are we not trite replies are not required.

 

You are of course fully entitled to your opinion, but calling for someone to lose their livelihood because (on totally non-technical grounds) you don't like the design of the OLE is very much over the top. 

[lmsforever]

Not really look at the monumental cock ups that various members of the civil service,upper echelons of NR I think we have to be wary of these decisions made by these people who mostly are not accountable to us.I still think that the catenary looks overbearing but I do like the actual arms that support the wire they are a very good design lets hope it all works and is completed on time it will be a great benefit when its all working.

[Jonboy]

I think a large part of the problem with the visual intrusion of the OLE is that we are suddenly seeing views at locations changed radically that we have been used to seeing unimpeded all our lives

 

No, I don't like the OLE either, but I'd also like to see the main car park at Didcot removed, the transfer shed put back where it belongs and the provender store rebuilt - somehow I think I'm going to be disappointed :)

 

with a 6 storey car park due to be built where the current station car park is, the overall effect will not be far off the provender...

[APOLLO]

Interesting article here on electrifying the Severn Tunnel

 

http://www.railengineer.uk/2016/06/02/preparing-for-severn-tunnel-electrification/

 

Seems a solid overhead "rail" is to be installed.Quote 

 

A training school has been set up in Cardiff and, using local people wherever possible, a process is being developed that will enable materials, equipment and a skilled workforce to construct the Furrer and Frey Rigid Overhead Conductor Rail System (ROCS) as if they were on an assembly line. AMCO, as specialist suppliers to ABC, is delivering and carrying out this phase of the work.

 

Brit15

[The Stationmaster]

Well you wouldn't have to, because large chunks of the A34 would have to be removed to make way for it! 

 

Plus a significant chunk of both Didcot and Newbury.  While journey times today vary but seem to average around the 55minutes or thereabouts there are far more trains than the latterday 4 trains per weekday direct from Didcot to Newbury

[bodmin16]

with a 6 storey car park due to be built where the current station car park is, the overall effect will not be far off the provender...

The latter taken this afternoon and the former approx 22 months ago.

[talisman56]

The latter taken this afternoon and the former approx 22 months ago.

 

That train has moved backwards a little bit in the intervening period...

 

Seriously, the OHLE structures look a bit heavy and cumbersome, even for a station area/long span requirements. There looks to be about four different types, shapes and sizes of horizontal pieces, and IMO looks an even more frightful mess than in other places I have seen.

Edited June 21, 2016 by talisman56

[billbedford]

Any OLE is going to look heavy and cumbersome in photos taken at portal level.

[Richard E]

Add the foreshortening impact of a long lens and it makes it look even more cluttered - the only real way is to use the Mk1 eyeball to make the comparison and not all of us are close enough to do that.

[Zomboid]

It's a complicated junction. You need a lot of skyhooks in places like that.

[The Stationmaster]

It's a complicated junction. You need a lot of skyhooks in places like that.

 

Hence too the different types of structure through the junction and immediately beyond it.

[HillsideDepot]

I've been out and about Rail Roving again (Freedom of the South West this time) and tried to have a look at progress west of Swindon today. I say 'tried' as spotting piles at HST speed given the way the grass is growing at the moment isn't easy - I certainly don't have The Stationmaster's skill for it.

 

Anyway, there are now more masts on Dauntsey Bank, mainly on the Down side, and not a consistent run, but a number of groups. There are a few near Wootton Bassett Incline Signal Box (which is still standing), again on the Down side, as well as those previously noted near Vastern. There are some piles on position between Wootton Bassett Junction and Swindon, but no masts. I'd say there are areas of piling, rather than the whole section with odd "difficult" ones missing - but the growth of lineside vegetation may be giving a false impression. There are some piles in the Christian Malford area, but again several short lengths rather than a continuous row from Dauntsey. There are also a couple of occupation bridges between Dauntsey and Christian Malford which haven't been rebuilt, nor do they seem to have raised parapets. So one or the other will be needed.

 

I then went via Gloucester to Cardiff (just because I can on a Rover). I am much less conversant with locations in South Wales, but there are several bridges being rebuilt, including the big one at the west end of Newport station which must have featured in thousands of photos over the years. There are piles at various locations, but no masts until England and the split level section east of Pilning where there have been a few groups for a while now.

The new depot at Stoke Gifford Tip appears to be complete, but not all the connecting point work is in place. My first impression is that it is very squashed in, the sort of thing we might be guilty of a modellers trying to squeeze something in on the corner of a layout! I didn't see a SET either.

On the South Wales Main Line most of the bridge work appears to have been done, although a few sites are still active. The bridge at Farleaze which will be known to photographers now has a big "car park" in the field, which I assume will become a work base for the Road-Railers once they finish in the Thames Valley. There is a fairly long section of piling (on the Down side, at least, couldn't see the Up side) in the Little Somerford area, and it is notable that the piles there are all filled with concrete. 

 

And that's that. I might do Swindon - Bristol Parkway in the Down direction to see the Up side works, but my main focus for the Rover will be, as it's name suggests, South West.