East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[rodent279]

1 hour ago, KingEdwardII said:

Use a garage to store a car!?! What a quaint idea.

 

Garages are for almost anything but storing cars - storage for many other things, for sure, and maybe to hold the occasional model railway. Converting garages into habitable rooms seems like a very small step to me - and it makes them far more suitable for model railways...

 

Yours, Mike.

 

[corneliuslundie]

So did you push it in or climb out through a window, or are you extremely thin? No room to open the doors very far.

And that is a very small car by today's standards. The 16 ft by 8 ft garage is simply too small for most modern cars because they are much wider than older ones thanks to increased safety provision built in.

But back on topic, good to see some progress on the line even if not beyond Bedford.

Jonathan

[rodent279]

9 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

So did you push it in or climb out through a window, or are you extremely thin? No room to open the doors very far.

And that is a very small car by today's standards. The 16 ft by 8 ft garage is simply too small for most modern cars because they are much wider than older ones thanks to increased safety provision built in.

But back on topic, good to see some progress on the line even if not beyond Bedford.

Jonathan

On that occasion, I had to push it in, as the engine was out! The doors on the passenger side do open, but not fully. I'm skinny enough to slide out, but I'll admit it'll be a challenge if I don't stop eating the pies!

[1E BoY]

12 hours ago, melmerby said:

The mountings are not exactly symmetrically placed!🙂

 

The new structure will be joined to the existing footbridge and will need to cross the remaining line in what used to be Field Sidings at an angle. The top picture was taken from the top of the stairs to the current Platform 6 (8 in old money) and gives the direction that the new footbridge extension will need to take to join up the two.

 

I also took this view which shows the former L&NWR goods shed which now serves as an aggregates terminal (lots of building work on-going in Milton Keynes). This line is used by the stone trains for daily deliveries.

 

Platform 6 which one housed various buildings including the old signing on point for train crews has been cut back to provide clearance for the new footbridge foundations.

[melmerby]

1 minute ago, 1E BoY said:

The new structure will be joined to the existing footbridge and will need to cross the remaining line in what used to be Field Sidings at an angle

I realise that but the fixings on the left of the block are very close to the edge, almost as if the block has been positioned about 150mm too far to the right

[Davexoc]

I noticed that there was a train under the Whaddon Road (Mursley) bridge yesterday morning, Freightliner as usual, but I didn't see what it was hauling.

I wonder if work has moved back to the Bletchley side of HS2 again???

[corneliuslundie]

Noted yesterday on Big Jim's thread:

"a change of job tomorrow, a couple of trains off the east west link at Bicester to Hinksey"

One for you locals to look out for.

Jonathan

[just fishing]

An Interesting topic on the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-63216578

[jonhall]

3 hours ago, just fishing said:

An Interesting topic on the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-63216578

 

or https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/13/climate-groups-legal-action-milton-keynes-road-scheme which is on a similar axis

 

Jon

[Trog]

Probably because the nose to tail traffic jams on the A1 north of the Black Cat roundabout in the mornings, from the Bedford direction in the evenings and on the single carriage way from the A1 to Caxton gibbet morning and evening must be so fuel efficient.

[Pete the Elaner]

10 hours ago, jonhall said:

 

or https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/13/climate-groups-legal-action-milton-keynes-road-scheme which is on a similar axis

 

Jon

 

None of the media has the balls to say that new road or rail schemes which will produce the CO2 exist mainly because the population keeps growing.

We all need to collectively accept responsibility. If the population keeps growing, people will need & want to move around.

[corneliuslundie]

Big Jim has posted some nice photos of his trip to the East West link in Bicester with engineering trains.

 

Jonathan 

[Bernard Lamb]

Is the eastern section now dead?

How long before we get an oficial announcement?

Bernard

[Nearholmer]

4 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Is the eastern section now dead?

No, no, …….. it’s just restin’! See, there, look ….. it moved!

[jamie92208]

I think that they now need to wait for HS2 to finish the bit in the middle.  It will probably be one of the first overbridges to be completed on that route. I have a feeling that a date in 2023 was mentioned for completion.

 

Jamie

Edited October 16, 2022 by jamie92208

[rodent279]

31 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Is the eastern section now dead?

How long before we get an oficial announcement?

Bernard

Just before or just after the next election. Depending on who the government feels it needs to appease most.

[RJS1977]

On 12/10/2022 at 08:46, KingEdwardII said:

Use a garage to store a car!?! What a quaint idea.

 

Garages are for almost anything but storing cars - storage for many other things, for sure, and maybe to hold the occasional model railway. Converting garages into habitable rooms seems like a very small step to me - and it makes them far more suitable for model railways...

 

Yours, Mike.

 

Some years ago I came up with a plan to get a 009 layout of the entire Festiniog Railway in a 16' x 8' garage - and still be able to get a small car in there!

[Davexoc]

Big Jim has put an update on his thread

 

 

[big jim]

I had a look at my location with the google map distance measuring tool, the current end of the line is now about 2.25 miles from gavray jn which is about 3.75 miles from Claydon jn so certainly cracking on with it

 

out in the country now! 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by big jim

[lmsforever]

Reading this thread has reminded me that in the early sixties  Quainton to  Verney junction was used to store wagons for scrap plus some very old coaches of uncertain age all nose tail and surprisingly not vandalised 

[Pannier Tank]

30 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

Reading this thread has reminded me that in the early sixties  Quainton to  Verney junction was used to store wagons for scrap plus some very old coaches of uncertain age all nose tail and surprisingly not vandalised 

 

Some old Euston to Watford EMU's were stored there at that time.

[Pannier Tank]

I found this article http://www.traintesting.com/Research74.htm the early part of  which describes the condition of the track near Verney Junction in 1974.

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Trog]

On 11/11/2022 at 16:21, lmsforever said:

Reading this thread has reminded me that in the early sixties  Quainton to  Verney junction was used to store wagons for scrap plus some very old coaches of uncertain age all nose tail and surprisingly not vandalised 

 

Hardly surprising as when I worked out there in the 1980's (including on a derailment at Verney Junction). It was still so far out in the sticks that even the cows looked bored and lonely. In fact it was so much the middle of no where that we were able to just pile up all the smashed up sleepers from the derailment hundreds of them in a big pile and set light to them without getting any complaints. All though that may have been partly due to us being hidden by the smoke screen generated by burning wet sleepers in the pouring rain.

[big jim]

Ballast dropped on the down line between launton lane and Claydon jn today

 

A train in both the up and down line!