Swindon - Kemble re-doubling

[Great Western]

How does, if at all the deferral of the additional blocks towards Standish effect the engineering possession ?

 

Grest Western

[The Stationmaster]

From those pictures, it looks like the line has been slewed into the centre of the formation in some places. Presumably a bit of unslewing will be necessary to got the second line back in...

I think it has almost completely been slewed across the formation over the years with now possibly only odd bits of curvature now being towards the edge of the formation.  Incdentally dooes teh re-doubling mean the end of block bells at Swindon?

[Captain Kernow]

How does, if at all the deferral of the additional blocks towards Standish effect the engineering possession ?

 

Grest Western

If you mean the additional signals, then it doesn't affect the possession at all, fortunately.

[Captain Kernow]

I think it has almost completely been slewed across the formation over the years with now possibly only odd bits of curvature now being towards the edge of the formation.  Incdentally dooes teh re-doubling mean the end of block bells at Swindon?

Here are a couple of photos taken by colleagues, showing the on-going slewing at the Bremhill site yesterday:

 

 

[andy stroud]

Does that machine effectively pick the track up and slide it across into the required new alignment?

[Fat Controller]

'Coachman' could do with one of those if he moves his track again..

[Gary H]

Does that machine effectively pick the track up and slide it across into the required new alignment?

yes, they're  known as 'Plums' in the trade, don't ask me why though!

There will be a few of these in operation at the same time so as to allow a fair length to be moved in one hit.

They also come in handy for moving S&C into position after its been built up.

[Southernman46]

yes, they're  known as 'Plums' in the trade, don't ask me why though!

 

Pick Line Up Machine...............?  

[jamie92208]

yes, they're  known as 'Plums' in the trade, don't ask me why though!

There will be a few of these in operation at the same time so as to allow a fair length to be moved in one hit.

They also come in handy for moving S&C into position after its been built up.

Yes, during the reconstruction of the approaches to Leeds in 2000 I watched in awe and wonder one night as about 7 of them picked up a long concrete sleepered piece of pointwork and walked it across two tracks before laying it in the correct position.  Each had an operator on it and there was a guy who I christened 'The Conductor' controlling the whole process with hand signals.  Very very impressive to watch.

 

Jamie

[jeff mcghie]

these are actually a newer 'remote controlled' version called PEM's which come with similarly remote controlled trollies (LEM's) removing the need for a loco to push the units down the track.

 

From memory the original manufacturer is french and while they are acronyms, they're french ones!

 

cheers

jeff.

[Captain Kernow]

I think we've actually got most of the country's PEM LEMs working in this blockade at the moment!

 

There is a lot of slewing being done!

 

Here is a selection of photos from todays site visits...

 

66138, forming light loco 0W78 from Bescot to Kemble, waits in the Up platform at Kemble, for the empty FGW unit to complete it's shunt from Up to Down platform with the Pilotman on board. The unit will then form 2Z33 departure back to Gloucester, conveying passengers off the bus connection from Swindon (which arrived as I was descending the footbridge steps!)...

 

A few minutes later, the Pilotman had obtained authority for the 66 to pass the protecting signal at Kemble at danger from the signalman, and the loco moved off cautiously into the tunnel, with the Pilotman on board. At the other end, the loco came to a stand just short of the protection. Here you see the protection handsignalman lifting the protection, having been given permission by the PICOP for the loco to enter the engineering possession. The loco would then run forward to the Oaksey worksite, where it would attach to a set of spoil wagons from an earlier train, and work it back to Bescot later that afternoon:

 

Here is said train, 6W77, being loaded with spoil at Oaksey. The track has been slewed here to a temporary alignment, to allow excavation of the new formation and laying in of a new single line. The new second line will be laid in between autumn and next Easter:

 

 

Closer to Swindon now, here is the Bremhill relaying site. Bottom ballast has already been laid and 'whacked' flat, and train 6Y69 is seen in the photo, conveying 'Salmon' wagons with new concrete sleepers, which are currently being unloaded

[Joseph_Pestell]

As always in these cases, including station re-openings, I wonder how much money has actually been saved over the last 30 years by the line being singled. And is that saving anything like enough to compare with the price of re-instatement?

[Danemouth]

Please keep it coming CK - as somebody who has absolutely no knowledge of this type of operation I find this thread fascinating

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[dvdlcs]

I like the final picture (2 FL 66s top and tailing). The man in orange on the platform emerging from the greenery looks rather incongruous. Would make a good vantage point for people photographing birds ... or trains? :-)

[eastwestdivide]

these are actually a newer 'remote controlled' version called PEM's which come with similarly remote controlled trollies (LEM's) removing the need for a loco to push the units down the track.

 

From memory the original manufacturer is french and while they are acronyms, they're french ones!

 

cheers

jeff.

Thanks to your French connection, I found (long link on google books):

 

Portique Leger Universal Manutention or Lightweight Universal Handling Gantry, the faster lightweight successor to the PUM Panel Lifting Equipment produced by Geismar

 

Although it's not listed on geismar.com, so maybe it's an old model and the PLUM name has stuck to similar products in the UK.

 

I'd have thought the English abbreviations could be mangled round to produce something on the lines of LUG, as that's what they do.

 

Edit: probably should be Léger with an acute E, but not in that source.

[The Stationmaster]

As always in these cases, including station re-openings, I wonder how much money has actually been saved over the last 30 years by the line being singled. And is that saving anything like enough to compare with the price of re-instatement?

Over 30 years it will almost certainly have paid for itself.  Most of the WR singling schemes were costed on a 25 year basis although as far as I can recall I think they began to achieve net saving within a couple of years although those would have been lost if relaying had been deferred (and lots of relaying was deferred).  However over a couple of decades they would have definitely avoided relaying costs plus they would have produced a real saving on maintenance.  However against that there would almost certainly have been some theoretical, and actual, train delay costs and possibly some impact on business levels if operational reliability had not been good.

 

The cost of re-doubling is in many respects a spurious argument because the railway is now in a completely different from situation from that it was in when the singling schemes took place - traffic has increased, financial circumstances have changed drastically, and costings are done differently.  When I produced the scheme to reinstate quadruple track between Wantage Road and Challow in the early 1990s the traffic situation (and what was proposed to change) was totally different from that of the 1960s when the quadruple track had been reduced to double line plus there was a financial package involved which made it an even better proposition - a very different world from the 1960s.

[Southernman46]

and now it will have to serve as a diversion whilst the South Wales main line is electrickeried too.............

[Captain Kernow]

and now it will have to serve as a diversion whilst the South Wales main line is electrickeried too.............

That's one reason why it's being done now, of course...

 

More good progress today, I think (will post a few photos later, when I've reviewed them)...

[Fat Controller]

Out of interest, where is the spoil being despatched to, now that Patchway and Honeybourne tips are closed?

[phil-b259]

Out of interest, where is the spoil being despatched to, now that Patchway and Honeybourne tips are closed?

 

Being recycled in some way I imagine because any 'tipping' is subject to the landfill tax these days (chucking stuff in the nearest hole in the ground is unacceptable these days) so there is a big financial advantage on separating out the bits. Clean soil can be used for landscaping while contaminated ballast will be cleaned before either being returned to railway use or be sent on to other construction projects and vegetation can be sent to make compost (amusing it doesn't have any 'nastys' in it like Giant hogweed). Only those bits deamed to contaminated will be sent for landfill at one of the approved waste sites.

[Captain Kernow]

Out of interest, where is the spoil being despatched to, now that Patchway and Honeybourne tips are closed?

On the Western there is still an operational tip at Appleford, which is where non-contaminated spoil from the southern part of the site (eg. Bremhill) is probably being taken. I believe there is a facility to deal with contaminated waste in the Carlisle area. The trains departing from the north end of the site run to Bescot, so I'm not sure where that spoil is taken (although it could end up at Appleford as well).

[Captain Kernow]

OK, here are some photos from todays activities.

 

Empty sprinter starting it's shunt at Kemble, into the tunnel and back into the opposite platform:

 

Here is train 6W81, still on site at Oaksey, having been loaded with spoil from the southern part of that particular site. The train was running very slowly towards the site of Oaksey station, prior to being given authority to run to the worksite marker boards a couple of miles further north:

 

66717 'Good Old Boy' heads 6W81, as it passes through the site of Oaksey Halt:

 

6W81 has now received permission to exit the possession, and having picked the pilotman up at the protection, it is now running slowly through Kemble tunnel towards the station:

 

 

 

The next train out was 6W80, the 1100 Kemble to Bescot (both 6W81 and 6W80 were running approx one hour late at this point). The train is stood at the worksite marker boards, a couple of miles from the Oaksey site and only about half a mile from the possession protection just south of Kemble Tunnel. It stood here for approx 10 mins, as the Engineering Supervisor and driver had to climb the path up from the bottom of the cutting to the road bridge above, to get a good mobile phone signal, for permission to proceed to the possession protection:

 

 

Meanwhile at Minety, work was on-going to complete the temporary alignment of the single line, which had just been slewed over the its current position, creating room on the left hand side for the second line to be laid in, using new materials:

 

 

Now to Bremhill, where yesterday we saw the sleeper train 6Y69 about to start unloading sleepers. These were laid in position overnight and the new rails put in place. When we were there, a man and a machine were clipping the rails to the sleepers:

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, back to Oaksey, and from the site of the halt, looking north, we see trains 6W83 & 6W84 unloading bottom ballast from side tippers. Sand was also in some of the opens:

 

Another GBRF loco was on the rear of 6W84:

 

 

A 'triple whacker', used to compact the bottom ballast:

 

Looking along the length of 6W84, we see the rear sidetippers of 6W83 in the distance:

 

[Steadfast]

Top stuff Tim, thanks for sharing those.

I notice on Realtime Trains there's an 1110 and 1214 departure tomorrow, presumably similar operationally to today? I may pop along to Kemble tomorrow before work if I can

 

jo

[rob D2]

My fellow N Swindon residents getting a flap on about train horns being tested at night.......blaming the poor old swindon and cricklade railway.

I have re educated them via FB about the engineers trains and possible horns from them

[Gary H]

For anyone interested in the plant we use in this type of activity, here's a link to Geismar's web page, lots of PLUM's, PEM's an LEM's etc.

http://www.geismar.no/index.cfm?tmpl=butikk&a=list&b_kid=191896

Geismar do make some dam good kit it has to be said.