East Coast Mainline Blockade for Werrington Junction diveunder

[Richard E]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

Is there actually a brook there? One crosses under Hurn road on the other boundary of that property, where the new fence is.

 

It's a newish house, where previously was a horses' paddock.

 

I think it is ditch clearance by the landowner ...

[Crun]

3 hours ago, Crun said:

Views from the Hurn Road bridge.

 

Tree clearance around a brook:

 

 

 

 

 

I have deleted these photographs as they were of a private garden.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Crun

[Donington Road]

48 minutes ago, Richard E said:

 

I think it is ditch clearance by the landowner ...

 

It is the person who owns the property there who has had contractors thining out the bushes and trees along the frontage to Hurn Road.  He has been doing it on and off for a few weeks now.  The ditch that runs along Hurn Road at the front of the property discharges into a ditch that runs parallel to the railway.  This junction was cleaned out by Network Rail a few weeks ago when they put in a new pipe that crosses their old entrance near the footbridge at Hurn Road which goes to the relay room at Werrington Junction.

[Crun]

From Legolash on RailUKforums (railforums.co.uk):

 

I managed to receive a signalling diagram for the the diveunder which allowed me to map the gradient data.

I had to manually draw the tracks but I will receive an NR version early next year to draw more accurate locations.

railmap.azurewebsites.net/Public/GradientsMap
 

 

https://www.railforums.co.uk/attachments/1639683338396-png.107125/

Edited December 16, 2021 by Crun

[Donington Road]

37 minutes ago, Crun said:

From Legolash on RailUKforums (railforums.co.uk):

 

I managed to receive a signalling diagram for the the diveunder which allowed me to map the gradient data.

I had to manually draw the tracks but I will receive an NR version early next year to draw more accurate locations.

railmap.azurewebsites.net/Public/GradientsMap
 

 

Perhaps Legolash might like this piece of information posted by Shwam3

 

From Marholm junction

1:337 falling for 345m

1:271 falling for 165m

1:112 falling for 781m

1:155 rising for 899m

1:124 rising for 330m

Level for 190m

1:370 falling for 135m

To Glinton junction

 

 

[35A]

On 13/12/2021 at 18:08, Crun said:

Views from Hurn Road of the landscaped field

 

Work ongoing in the corner of the site. The field is nearly ready to go back under the plough:

 

A quadruple headed goods train in the background:

 

A new train enthusiast:

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the slow response - first time that I've looked at the thread, this week. Interestingly, I notice that you happen to have captured the movement of the most recent three Eurocargorail Class 66s, that have returned from France and were on their way from Dollands Moor to Toton, via Scunthorpe Trent Yard! Good timing.

Edited December 16, 2021 by 35A
Spelling!

[ess1uk]

On 14/12/2021 at 17:05, 313201 said:

Can I ask please if the diveunder is going to be wired or if there are plans to install OHLE through it

Any OLE would be a solid bar due to clearance 

[Titan]

9 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

Any OLE would be a solid bar due to clearance 

 

Who told you that?.  Sufficient clearance has been built in so that it can be wired with a full catenary system to modern clearances.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Titan said:

 

Who told you that?.  Sufficient clearance has been built in so that it can be wired with a full catenary system to modern clearances.

Agreed

All new construction where there is the remotest chance of electrification will be passively designed to do it properly if required later.

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, melmerby said:

Agreed

All new construction where there is the remotest chance of electrification will be passively designed to do it properly if required later.

I think that that has been  a requirement  since the 1960's.

 

Jamie

[Richard E]

13 hours ago, melmerby said:

Agreed

All new construction where there is the remotest chance of electrification will be passively designed to do it properly if required later.

 

Whilst not strictly relevant to this thread when I asked about the new bridge at Whittlesey on an engineering visit there I was told that it had to be built to allow for conventional OHLE.

 

I seem to recall a question being asked about OHLE on one of the engineering visits I attended at the dive under and it was confirmed that there is sufficient clearance for OHLE in the tunnel.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Richard E
rubbish speeling

[corneliuslundie]

Presumably though any bridges built/rebuilt more than a few years ago will be to the old clearances and no longer allowed to have wiring even though the laws of electricity have not changed.

Jonathan.

[Donington Road]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Presumably though any bridges built/rebuilt more than a few years ago will be to the old clearances and no longer allowed to have wiring even though the laws of electricity have not changed.

Jonathan.

 

The Joint Line, Werrington to Doncaster was upgraded 2012-2014 and overbridges rebuilt to higher clearences for future OHLE.

Some reading here https://paulbigland.blog/tag/gnge/

Some heavier reading of Lincolnshire railways here https://lincolnshire.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s14719/Appendix A GLLEP Rail Study - January 2016.pdf

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Presumably though any bridges built/rebuilt more than a few years ago will be to the old clearances and no longer allowed to have wiring even though the laws of electricity have not changed.

Jonathan.

If you watched any of the GWR/Paddington station series on C5, in one episode a pigeon gets between the contact wire and a bridge with less than latest spec. clearance.

There was a flashover which roasted the bird but also knocked a small chunk out of the concrete.

[ess1uk]

On 17/12/2021 at 21:25, Titan said:

 

Who told you that?.  Sufficient clearance has been built in so that it can be wired with a full catenary system to modern clearances.

A project manager whilst we were walking through the tunnel.

I had no reason to doubt him

[wasabi]

Apologies if this has been covered before, but are any passenger trains using the diveunder?

 

 

[Richard E]

No passenger traffic is scheduled to do so although some diversions may be routed that way as happened with a Hull trains unit a couple of weeks ago.

[Titan]

30 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

A project manager whilst we were walking through the tunnel.

I had no reason to doubt him

 

Project manager should stick to commenting on his own speciality, not OLE design.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Richard E said:

No passenger traffic is scheduled to do so although some diversions may be routed that way as happened with a Hull trains unit a couple of weeks ago.

You can include the official diveunder opening LNER special to Spalding & back, which was scheduled that way (obviously!)

 

Currently there are no scheduled passenger services that would benefit from using it.

[iands]

If I understand correctly, the dive-under was designed with passive electrification provision in mind for a low height twin contact wire and the beams and members were designed to support one if (when?) required.

 

I believe that a "Conductor Beam" system was considered but provided marginal clearance improvement. IIRC, it was all part of making the required dig for the tunnel push a little shallower to make the planned push feasible.

[Richard E]

32 minutes ago, melmerby said:

You can include the official diveunder opening LNER special to Spalding & back, which was scheduled that way (obviously!)

 

Currently there are no scheduled passenger services that would benefit from using it.

 

You are correct but as that was in the past albeit scheduled (and I was on it) I had discounted it for the purpose of the enquiry.

 

30 minutes ago, iands said:

If I understand correctly, the dive-under was designed with passive electrification provision in mind for a low height twin contact wire and the beams and members were designed to support one if (when?) required.

 

I believe that a "Conductor Beam" system was considered but provided marginal clearance improvement. IIRC, it was all part of making the required dig for the tunnel push a little shallower to make the planned push feasible.

 

As for OHLE Tim Dunn summed it up quite nicely in his video where he said that the beams were designed to allow simple installation of OHLE if required in the future.

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Richard E

[Titan]

24 minutes ago, iands said:

If I understand correctly, the dive-under was designed with passive electrification provision in mind for a low height twin contact wire and the beams and members were designed to support one if (when?) required.

 

I believe that a "Conductor Beam" system was considered but provided marginal clearance improvement. IIRC, it was all part of making the required dig for the tunnel push a little shallower to make the planned push feasible.

 

Yes, it was designed for a low height system, using contact wire as a catenary wire, referred to as contenary,  but a conductor beam was never even considered.  It was designed for a conventional OLE solution right from the start, so conductor beam was never in the picture, let alone considered.

[wasabi]

5 hours ago, melmerby said:

You can include the official diveunder opening LNER special to Spalding & back, which was scheduled that way (obviously!)

 

Currently there are no scheduled passenger services that would benefit from using it.

Thanks - there is a railtour advertised in February which includes it but I assume that normally anything 'going right' at the junction would have stopped at Peterborough and thus be on the eastern side of the formation anyway. 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, wasabi said:

Thanks - there is a railtour advertised in February which includes it but I assume that normally anything 'going right' at the junction would have stopped at Peterborough and thus be on the eastern side of the formation anyway. 

Many freight trains from the SE to the NE go via Spalding, so will often use the diveunder.

 

Passenger services from the Spalding direction terminate on the E side of the station and use the bi-directional up slow.

Passenger services from the Ely direction either terminate at Peterborough, or go straight up the ECML, or go towards Stamford.

 

I don't think there is any passenger service normally scheduled from the ECML mainline that goes towards Spalding.

If the main line north is closed for some reason some passenger trains might use it as part of the diversionary route.

[Crun]

Off topic but Peterborough related:

 

Points upgrades to take place at Peterborough train station this Christmas 

 

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/transport/points-upgrades-to-take-place-at-peterborough-train-station-this-christmas-3501506

Edited December 21, 2021 by Crun