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Liverpool Lime Street cutting wall collapse


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Containers removed last night. The retaining walls are behind and above the failed wall & will need to be removed along with the concrete base & earth underneath before any work can be carried out at rail level etc, as this guy explains. Big job.

 

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailLIV/status/837226958996004864

 

Brit15

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I nice video from the Manchester Evening News.  Great engineering, vertical retaining wall built on the top of the sandstone cutting with soil back fill - and then surcharged!

 

Ray

 

That makes things a lot clearer than the initial BBC video from last night.  It is certainly  tricky job.

 

Jamie

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Some years ago I had to comment professionally on the cracking of a house adjacent to a railway cutting.  The engineering technicalities were dismissed and all that 'people' were interested in was whether the house or the railway came first.  In this instance there was no 'threat' to the railway.

 

Ray

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I nice video from the Manchester Evening News.  Great engineering, vertical retaining wall built on the top of the sandstone cutting with soil back fill - and then surcharged!

 

Ray

 

Indeed, one might wonder how it has survived for well over 100 years.

Regards

Looking at old maps of the area there appears to be a gap between the wall and the built-up ground until recent times. 

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This is on the BBC website this morning.  I didn't realise that there was some sort of tie in between the OHLE and the signalling system.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-39146773

 

However the system works I'm glad that it did.

 

Jamie

 

There is no tie in as such, someone has got their wires crossed. It looks rather like John Tilley is being misquoted, particularly bearing in mind the use of brackets. The only sensing  on the OLE is for fault currents that trip the breakers. It is possible that the way the wires were brought down caused some of the fault current to flow in to the track circuits - presuming it is not axle counters - and possibly blew the relays causing the signals to turn red. Looks very much like creative journalism.

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Indeed. The power to the OLE would have gone off immediately, but the only way it would have automatically set the signals to red would be if it actuated a track circuit or if some kind of signalling kit was damaged by the fall in such a way to cause a right side failure.

My understanding is that if the line light goes, drivers will coast for a bit before considering stopping, and then it's unlikely to be an emergency stop. Perhaps one of our resident actual drivers will come and put me out of my ignorance, though...

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Thanks for those replies.  From the report it sounds as if the Virgin train was just setting off up the cutting from Lime Street and the Pacer was about to enter it from Edge Hill. A short time later and it could have been very different.  If the signals did trip out it may well have been some stray traction currents or even some part of the OHLE shorting out the track circuits. It will be interesting to find out in due course.

 

Jamie

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There is no tie in as such, someone has got their wires crossed. It looks rather like John Tilley is being misquoted, particularly bearing in mind the use of brackets. The only sensing  on the OLE is for fault currents that trip the breakers. It is possible that the way the wires were brought down caused some of the fault current to flow in to the track circuits - presuming it is not axle counters - and possibly blew the relays causing the signals to turn red. Looks very much like creative journalism.

 

And the speed limits are 40 on the Up Slow and 30 on the rest (Down Slow, Up Fast, Down Fast) - not 50mph as quoted on the BBC article.

 

"The only saving grace would have been that it was [only] travelling at 50mph."

 

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This is on the BBC website this morning.  I didn't realise that there was some sort of tie in between the OHLE and the signalling system.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-39146773

 

However the system works I'm glad that it did.

 

Jamie

On a lot of electrified lines the signalling power used to be taken off the OLE power, but rather than signal go to red they would first go black until the standby cut in.

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On a lot of electrified lines the signalling power used to be taken off the OLE power, but rather than signal go to red they would first go black until the standby cut in.

 

Normally only as a temporary back up if the conventional power supply failed. The OLE supply would be less reliable, and it is would be a bit of a pain when isolations are required for OLE maintenance or repairs. I have a feeling that at a few locations it was the primary source, but in those places there must have been a very good reason why the conventional power supply for the signals was impractical.

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Normally only as a temporary back up if the conventional power supply failed. The OLE supply would be less reliable, and it is would be a bit of a pain when isolations are required for OLE maintenance or repairs. I have a feeling that at a few locations it was the primary source, but in those places there must have been a very good reason why the conventional power supply for the signals was impractical.

On the update video it looks like there are steel fence panels off the top of the wall that are sitting on the track, may be more of them buried and making good contact.

Regards

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As an aside to this thread, my son drove to Liverpool today with me as passenger so he would know the route to his Uni, parking etc for next week. We decided to come home via Great Howard Street, up to the container terminal then Dunnings Bridge road & the M58 back to civilisation. We found Great Howard street closed, with a 28 week diversion via the dock road. Not a big deal really, but we noticed a huge pile of old brickwork piled on the closed bit of road. I thought "another collapse", but googling brought the interesting fact that the existing road bridge over the disused Edge Hill - Riverside line was being replaced, and the road made dual carriageway at this point. 

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4155588,-2.9962316,3a,75y,179.16h,78.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAOlxpRha9SXLizvnbilJRQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4152505,-2.9996651,227a,20y,90h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3

 

The reason for bridge replacement rather than filling in is to retain the route for possible future rail use to the proposed deep water docks. If that is the case then I imagine the Costco building will have to be demolished, along with others I reckon - anyway it's a long term plan. Good to see a bit of forward thinking and appropriate spending.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4153466,-3.0112163,780a,20y,90h,44.78t/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Info here

 

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/great-howard-street-closure-begins-11817360

 

http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/news/southport-west-lancs/six-months-traffic-disruption-major-11009404

 

http://liverpool.gov.uk/parking-travel-and-roads/better-roads/better-roads-schemes/great-howard-street-bridge-replacement/great-howard-street-replacement-bridge-plans-and-reports/

 

Brit15

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