GWML Electification

[The Stationmaster]

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/articles/first-electric-wires-for-crossrail-programme-switched-on-in-thames-valley

 

Simon

 

Think what could be achieved if those resources were now to transfer straight onto the GWML scheme.  Mind you it still looks like it will have taken 12 months or thereabouts from installing the first sections of catenary (in the week following Christmas last year) to actually going live on just over 48 track miles of ohle.

[Zomboid]

But how extensive is "the first section"?

[jamie92208]

But how extensive is "the first section"?

 

Agree with that is it just a mile or two past airport junction or is it more extensive.  Also there's no mention of the crossrail extension to Reading.

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

Agree with that is it just a mile or two past airport junction or is it more extensive.  Also there's no mention of the crossrail extension to Reading.

 

Jamie

 

The Crossrail works and electrification extends only to Maidenhead; west of Maidenhead is the GWML scheme as far as physical works are concerned.  Electrification from Airport Jcn to Maidenhead is roughly 12 miles (it varies slightly between the Main and Relief Lines but being very precise it is 12m 01ch from the previous limit of Main Lines electrification, just west of Airport Jcn, to Maidenhead station platforms, the Relief Lines distance is a bit further and presumably the Crossrail works will take in the reversing and stabling sidings to the west of Maidenhead station so the actual track mileage is probably a bit nearer 50 than 48.

 

Cross rail extension to Reading involves - AFAIK - no physical works against the Crossrail scheme although no doubt they'll want to splatter some of their rather daft  (when considering that they would be in Berkshire) 'Elizabeth Line' signs around the stations at Reading and Twyford.

[Zomboid]

They haven't said that Maidenhead is live yet, just that some new OLE has been turned on.

[Northroader]

Up to Reading today, so inspecting works while doing a ton on a HST. I formed the opinion that, yes, the Didcot- Reading stretch is about there., no bits of blue string, no temporary bonds. The wires go into the new depot, but nothing there with a pan on the roof, just the usual turbos and a sprinter. The Swindon side of Didcot, things are happening, sort of. The wires give up at Milton, and structures to the A34 overpass, then there's the black hole of Steventon. Do they intend to turn the diesels on to shoot the crossings? Out into the country past there, Wantage Road, Challow, and the structures are coming on well, posts, brackets, dangly bits, and quite long stretches of earth wire, nearly all the way to Uffington. Thinking back, a year ago, the earth wire was just starting to appear around Pangbourne, and now we're getting to Uffington. Progress in a year, eh?, old Brunel would be spinning in his grave. West of Uffington, there's a few posts and that's it.

[Geoff Endacott]

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald reports this week that work will be undertaken in the Chippenham area over Christmas. Apparently the masts are being erected every 40 to 60 centimetres. No wonder the job is taking so long.

 

Geoff Endacott

Edited December 11, 2016 by Geoff Endacott

[RJS1977]

One of the 800s has been undergoing test runs on the main line between Reading and Didcot this afternoon - I must have seen it about 7 or 8 times today!

[D1059]

then there's the black hole of Steventon. 

 

I understand, from a source, that the issue is still the ongoing argument about rebuilding the bridge or retaining it and lowering the track (and whether sufficient clearances are possible by doing this). Was it nearly 2 years ago (or late 2015 ?) that NR proposed closing the bridge for nearly a year for rebuilding ? That would have been intolerable considering the local road geography and the gridlock that already occurs when there is a problem on the nearby A34 (which in winter can be nearly every week at times). NR apparently initially suggested diverting traffic using the byway down to Stocks Lane LC, and then through the village with traffic lights on the single track byway - yeah, for a road with 10000 traffic movements a day, that would have been amusing to watch.

Since then there has been no work on the section through Steventon and I believe the argument may be swinging back in favour of rebuilding again - gawd help us living in the area if they close it with no temporary bridge provided

[HillsideDepot]

If diesel power is good enough for Bath Spa and Bristol TM, then maybe Steventon will be diesel too....

[Arun Sharma]

Living in Abingdon, I have heard that part of the problem with the Steventon bridge is that it is one of IKB's early listed structures [He lived in/around Steventon]. When the question of rebuilding first arose, the A34 was currently being intensively rebuilt at the Milton Interchange and it was proposed to divert traffic towards and over the bridge by the Volunteer PH to the north of Grove/Wantage which would have put a fairly intolerable load onto the A338.

 

I assume that the question of rebuilding has reared its head again now that the Milton Interchange works are completed.

 

Not having gone through past pages in detail, I suspect this topic has been aired in these pages previously.

[unravelled]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but experiments are being, (or about to be) made to examine the possibility of stabilising and jacking up arch bridges to increase clearances.

 

http://freyssinet.co.uk/elevarch-masonry-arch-jacking-trial/

 

I wonder if results will come in soon enough to be of use for the GW main line?

 

Dave

[nightstar.train]

It seems the jacking trial happened in October and was a success. So hopefully this technique can be used in the future.

 

http://freyssinet.co.uk/elevarch-masonry-bridge-arch-lift-trial-moco-farm-buckinghamshire/

[Siberian Snooper]

What a marvelous devlopment this is, with suitable bricks made too match the exsisting masonry after a year or two, nobody would notice the arch(es) had been jacked up.

[D1059]

What a marvelous devlopment this is, with suitable bricks made too match the exsisting masonry after a year or two, nobody would notice the arch(es) had been jacked up.

 

No one will notice the bridge has been raised, but they will sure notice the ugly concrete or metal parapet extensions that will inevitably be added

[APOLLO]

Great Western electrification debate in Parliament this afternoon. Should be interesting.

 

2.30 pm

Public Accounts - Oral Evidence Session
The Great Western Railway

Philip Rutnam, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport
Brian Etheridge CBE, Director of Network Services, Rail Group, Department for Transport
Mark Carne, Chief Executive, Network Rail

Location: Room 6, Palace of Westminster

 

Looks like its on Parliament live TV

 

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/82c1a5d8-2053-46d3-9c91-603307f24407

 

Brit15

Edited December 14, 2016 by APOLLO

[The Stationmaster]

Some evidence of progress, er sort of (as ever)

 

2 x very shiny Class 387 electric sets noted at Reading depot today.

 

Still one or two bits of yellow tape wrapped around various things on the Reliefs between Scours Land and Didcot.  

 

Register arms appearing on some structures west of the 'limit of electrification' near Milton.

 

The Steventon gap is even more obvious than ever with all masts on the Up side erected further west between (approx) Lockinge East and the road overbridge immediately east of Uffington with most booms seemingly in place and register arm assemblies present on many including a new, and very neat, design being used on the single line masts.  there are still sme masts missing on the Down side particularly around Challow and towards Uffington.

 

The Up side masts resume, for a few, just west of the former points into Uffington Up Loop and then continue on something of a hit and miss basis most of the way to Knighton.  the expensively cleared and levelled work/storage site at Knighton appears to have been abandoned.  then virtually no masts and not many bases all the way to Shrivenham but I think a lot of this section might covered using masts only on the Down side with a boom to carry the kit for both lines.  

 

Very little sign of any activity at all on the Up side between Marston East and Swindon and no progress since I last passed that way on the Down side.

 

Later in the afternoon I noticed a section of the 'high output' train leaving Swindon heading west - it was carrying two (yes 2) masts; no wonder this job is taking so long and costing so much if they are sending off 'high output' kit solely to deliver two masts    Overall compared with previous ohle schemes progress on this one seems to continue at a snail like pace and it is equally clear that attention is not being paid to clearing surplus material away from sites with bits of foundation tube lying around in various places.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I see no problem with the Steventon Gap.

 

Westbound, just add a steam pilot from Didcot.

Eastbound, likewise from the steam museum at Swindon.

 

Sorted!

[Banger Blue]

387130 & 387131 are at the depot for scheduled exams, they didn't arrive under their own power, they were dragged to Reading by Class 37 37884 (a Rail Operations Group move, 5Z38 London Paddington - Reading TCD) after having previously moved ECS from North Pole.

 

Shonky phone vid of the consist moving on the depot:

 

[The Stationmaster]

387130 & 387131 are at the depot for scheduled exams, they didn't arrive under their own power, they were dragged to Reading by Class 37 37884 (a Rail Operations Group move, 5Z38 London Paddington - Reading TCD) after having previously moved ECS from North Pole.

 

Shonky phone vid of the consist moving on the depot:

 

 

They'd have had to coast an awful long way to get there under their own power  

[Christopher125]

An interesting video this, showing the 387 drag including the coupling procedure at Paddington.

 

Edited December 17, 2016 by Christopher125

[simon47603]

I travel up the A420 (Swindon to Oxford Road) fairly regularly. I've been keeping a lookout for the arrival of the first masts as the road passes under the GWML. Not a sausags. Anyway this Thursday Night, I travelled up towards Oxford. Again no change. However when I returned 5 hours later. There were Masts on the line to Swindon on either side of the bridge. Can never remember which is the Up or Down line though!

[Banger Blue]

An interesting video this, showing the 387 drag including the coupling procedure at Paddington.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkqj2DoBiiI

Ha ha, the end of that video catches me stood outside the depot filming the video I posted at #2757, obviously filmed from the turbo that flies past right at the end of my video

[The Stationmaster]

I travel up the A420 (Swindon to Oxford Road) fairly regularly. I've been keeping a lookout for the arrival of the first masts as the road passes under the GWML. Not a sausags. Anyway this Thursday Night, I travelled up towards Oxford. Again no change. However when I returned 5 hours later. There were Masts on the line to Swindon on either side of the bridge. Can never remember which is the Up or Down line though!

 

South side of the bridge is the Down Line - that is the one on your left hand side as you approach the bridge driving from the Swindon direction.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Finally got round to watching the Public Accounts Committee session on GW Electrification - as mentioned by Apollo above.

Really interesting and worth a look - if you like that sort of thing.

 

They mentioned Thingley Jn a number of times, indicating that electrification from Thingley - Bath - Bristol TM - Bristol Parkway would be deferred until the next Control Period.

 

Does this mean that the Wootton Bassett Jn - Thingley Jn has/will be electrified in this Control Period?

Or are they mixing-up Thingley with Wootton Bassett?