East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[Arun Sharma]

56 minutes ago, 2750Papyrus said:

I have to say I am surprised that this has escaped previous comment from both local politicians and those who follow this thread.

It hasn't. See  comments by Staionmaster, others and myself on the topic of level crossings/signalling distances on this line 07-09 March 2020.

The topic is regularly raised.

 

[2750Papyrus]

10 minutes ago, Arun Sharma said:

It hasn't. See  comments by Staionmaster, others and myself on the topic of level crossings/signalling distances on this line 07-09 March 2020.

The topic is regularly raised.

 

I think you misunderstood my post. The public consultation relating to options ran from 31 March - 9 June 2021.  My post related to the apparent lack of comment following publication of the preferred option.

[Arun Sharma]

2 hours ago, 2750Papyrus said:

I think you misunderstood my post. The public consultation relating to options ran from 31 March - 9 June 2021.  My post related to the apparent lack of comment following publication of the preferred option.

OK - Whoops!

[keefer]

16 hours ago, melmerby said:

But that three minutes is extremely important to those people.🙂

They'll complain about 3 minutes added to their journey via that route, but sit for at least 3 mins at the LC anyway!

[The Stationmaster]

16 hours ago, melmerby said:

But that three minutes is extremely important to those people.🙂

But when you area waiting at a level crossing time becomes very different from sitting waiting at traffic lights on the road.  Firstly it doesn;t matter how long it actually is but the brain automatically doubles it.  Short passenger trains , of -s ay - two cars, become 'lom ng passenger trains' and freight trains become 'huge things'.  The latter of course is a description emanating from those people who say all freight should be moved off the roads onto the railways - this will presumably include deliveries to their local supermarket.

 

And of course you can double or treble the times and superlatives if said level crossing hasn't had trains over it fira year or more.

[rodent279]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

But when you area waiting at a level crossing time becomes very different from sitting waiting at traffic lights on the road.  Firstly it doesn;t matter how long it actually is but the brain automatically doubles it.  Short passenger trains , of -s ay - two cars, become 'lom ng passenger trains' and freight trains become 'huge things'.  The latter of course is a description emanating from those people who say all freight should be moved off the roads onto the railways - this will presumably include deliveries to their local supermarket.

 

And of course you can double or treble the times and superlatives if said level crossing hasn't had trains over it fira year or more.

Time flows a lot slower when you are waiting for a train than when you are simply stuck in a traffic jam.

Especially slowly if you are a reader of certain D@!|¥ tabloids....

Edited June 21, 2023 by rodent279

[Siberian Snooper]

Shouldn't be a problem, if Google Maps, directs them over the bridge, in the first place.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Rails approaching the HS2 crossing section......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Davexoc]

5 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

Question. Can or will they just demolish the road bridge and incorporate it into the embankment to go over HS2?

 

The green answer is yes, but is that acceptable in the structural specification of things these days?

[VarsityJim]

14 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

Great pics. Any chance of marking up this one so I can tell what’s what?

Many thanks!

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, Davexoc said:

 

Question. Can or will they just demolish the road bridge and incorporate it into the embankment to go over HS2?

 

The green answer is yes, but is that acceptable in the structural specification of things these days?

As far as I know there is A new road  underbridge just the other side of HS2  so that will replace the old one. The tack being laid is alongside what wil become the Infrastructure maintenance depot for HS2 and the onlyconnectioto tnennational network on this section. It will probably

Be used for rail and sleeper panel deliveries.  The latter are due to come

Jamiefrom Merehead. 

[Ron Ron Ron]

6 minutes ago, Davexoc said:

 

Question. Can or will they just demolish the road bridge and incorporate it into the embankment to go over HS2?

 

The green answer is yes, but is that acceptable in the structural specification of things these days?

 

I'm no civil engineer, but I assume that the days of just tipping a pile of any old stuff, to make an embankment, are long gone.

My understanding is that these earthworks are properly structured and engineered.

 

 

.

[Nearholmer]

There was a garish, bright orange loco with a track train trying to hide behind the hedge when I cycled past Swanbourne yesterday. Is track nearly to Calvert from both directions now?

 

I was intending to have a nose at Verney Junction too, but believed the “road closed” notices so went another way. Later, I met another cyclist (an 81 year old lady, no less) who had ignored the signs and made her way through, she said that a great deal of work was going on just west of VJ.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Nearholmer

[Davexoc]

37 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

I'm no civil engineer, but I assume that the days of just tipping a pile of any old stuff, to make an embankment, are long gone.

My understanding is that these earthworks are properly structured and engineered.

 

 

.

 

The first two pictures look to have been taken from the new bridge in the background of the third, which is just west of the old Claydon station/level crossing, so nearly joined up. There will be some pointwork to go in soon for the junction to Aylesbury and access to the HS2 infrastructure yard I guess.

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, Davexoc said:

 

The first two pictures look to have been taken from the new bridge in the background of the third, which is just west of the old Claydon station/level crossing, so nearly joined up. There will be some pointwork to go in soon for the junction to Aylesbury and access to the HS2 infrastructure yard I guess.

According to the latest Modern Railways the Aylesbury spur will just have passive provision so could be left without pointwork. We can only wait and see. 

 

 

Jamie

[simon b]

39 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

According to the latest Modern Railways the Aylesbury spur will just have passive provision so could be left without pointwork. We can only wait and see. 

 

 

Jamie

I understood the junction pointwork and signals are going in now to save disruption later. It would be available for freight use, but not for passenger trains until the entire line between there and aylesbury was rebuilt. It will probably be used for getting material trains up to the maintenance depot site.

[david.hill64]

1 hour ago, simon b said:

I understood the junction pointwork and signals are going in now to save disruption later. It would be available for freight use, but not for passenger trains until the entire line between there and aylesbury was rebuilt. It will probably be used for getting material trains up to the maintenance depot site.

If that is the case it would be eminently sensible.

 

Twenty five years ago (doesn't time fly?) I was involved with the Taiwan High Speed Rail project. This project included some intermediate stations that would be added later. I persuaded the management that it would be much cheaper and safer to lay in the tracks, signalling and overhead during the initial design and construction. A decision that was proven correct.

[big jim]

12 hours ago, VarsityJim said:

Great pics. Any chance of marking up this one so I can tell what’s what?

Many thanks!

 

blue line is HS2 pointing north 

 

Red line is east/west pointing toward Bletchley 

 

Yellow is the former Claydon curve pointing toward Aylesbury, the intersection of the red and yellow is where Claydon jn box used to be 

 

The GBRf loco in the 3rd pic down in @Ron Ron Ron post is stood roughly where the red arrow starts, im struggling to place where the freightliner locos are sat though

 

[rodent279]

2 hours ago, david.hill64 said:

If that is the case it would be eminently sensible.

 

Twenty five years ago (doesn't time fly?) I was involved with the Taiwan High Speed Rail project. This project included some intermediate stations that would be added later. I persuaded the management that it would be much cheaper and safer to lay in the tracks, signalling and overhead during the initial design and construction. A decision that was proven correct.

Shame DfT aren't as responsive to well thought out rational thinking.

[Ron Ron Ron]

3 hours ago, big jim said:

 

blue line is HS2 pointing north 

 

Red line is east/west pointing toward Bletchley 

 

Yellow is the former Claydon curve pointing toward Aylesbury, the intersection of the red and yellow is where Claydon jn box used to be 

 

The GBRf loco in the 3rd pic down in @Ron Ron Ron post is stood roughly where the red arrow starts, im struggling to place where the freightliner locos are sat though

 

The GBRf loco is indeed near the start (base) of the red line, to the top left of the photo.

 

The Freightliner locos are off to the right of the photo, well beyond the arrow head of the red line.

The new road bridge (with the red, zig-zag), is just off to the right of the aerial photo.

 

The widening of the formation in those first two photos, is where the lines into the HS2 depot, feed off the East-West rail lines.

 

In the aerial view, the area between the red and blue lines, to the right of their intersection, is the site of the main HS2 infrastructure depot.

This will be the only location, between London Euston and the end of Phase 1, north of Birmingham, where there’ll be any rail access to HS2, from the classic, National rail network.

 

 

.

[big jim]

It was the road bridge that was throwing me, that and the telephoto Lens making it look a lot more compact area than it is 

 

I take it the bridge in the photo is ‘Addison road’ and you took the pics from the new ‘Queen Catherine road’ bridge

 

in your first l couple of pictures you can see a fence across the site before the new bridge, that was roughly where the gates were placed  when they mothballed the line toward Bletchley, one weekend back in 2014 I had to leave a loco and the wagon from the sleeper/rail delivery train behind them to clear the track circuit for Claydon loop, NR cut down all the trees growing in the trackbed for me to be able to do it, it was the first train on the line toward Bletchley for about 30 years! 
 

Edited June 28, 2023 by big jim

[VarsityJim]

16 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

The GBRf loco is indeed near the start (base) of the red line, to the top left of the photo.

 

The Freightliner locos are off to the right of the photo, well beyond the arrow head of the red line.

The new road bridge (with the red, zig-zag), is just off to the right of the aerial photo.

 

And there will still be a line running to the Calvert land fill somewhere?

[big jim]

11 minutes ago, VarsityJim said:

And there will still be a line running to the Calvert land fill somewhere?

the line will run through to Aylesbury as it does now, would be nice if it was upgraded to double track to futureproof it for potential services to MK from Aylesbury (and beyond) 

[lmsforever]

Now that would be a good idea as would the origonal idea of our trains going to  MK but given the current services being provided by Chiltern and the attitude of govt its probably never going to happen .The Parkway station is starting to gain passengers but is nowhere fullfilling its potential  overall at the moment in Aylesbury the private car is king the bus services are underused which is bad because the network is good. So we shall have to wait and hope things change .

[big jim]

When I started with chiltern the parkway was just a platform in the middle of nowhere. I was amazed back in 2020when I had to drive to Aston Clinton for something to see the number of new houses that had sprung up around the station (well the whole town in general really)