RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 1, 2014 Perhaps it needed off-site maintenance - to avoid tubes becoming blocked? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 CK said they'd finished pouring Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium HillsideDepot Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 1, 2014 There was a scaffolding lorry parked there not half an hour ago. Great to see such rapid progress, not just here but all along the wall, a real credit to NR and their contractors. It's not just doing the work it's the logistics behind it all too. A planned job of this magnitude would be a huge undertaking, but to do this in emergency conditions, getting manpower, materials and kit there at no notice is incredible. And of course fGW is not only having to maintain bus services long after the initial "adrenaline-rush" for frontline staff has gone, they are also coping with having much of the fleet cut-off from Laira Depot. All round it's proof that the railway is still something special, and the staff clearly feel that too and react accordingly. Well done all - there's a way to go yet! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titan Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 CK said they'd finished pouring I think that may just have been as far as the track base was concerned, I think there is still those L shaped thingys to fit, parapet walls and other finishing off etc. to do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Rather large storm off in the Atlantic heading for the Welsh Borders. If it does follow this track, however the highest winds should be offshore at Dawlish in two days time. Need to keep a watch on it. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 1, 2014 I think that may just have been as far as the track base was concerned, I think there is still those L shaped thingys to fit, parapet walls and other finishing off etc. to do. I believe that is correct, the track base is certainly done now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 1, 2014 Rather large storm off in the Atlantic heading for the Welsh Borders. If it does follow this track, however the highest winds should be offshore at Dawlish in two days time. Need to keep a watch on it. Best, Pete. According to the forecast for Niton there is a low currently filling off SE Iceland with reaching Rockall by midnight on Sunday expected over the Hebrides by midday Monday with another one possibly reaching southern Ireland by Tuesday evening. Strong winds or gales.severe gales for all sea areas (in Niton) during Sunday and for early part of Monday. Most of these are, alas, likely to be southerly in sea area Plymouth although strength 5 to 7 is forecast currently for the area. Translation - there will be waves buffeting the containers again especially at high tides but not as bad (it appears) as previously. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Pannier Tank Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 1, 2014 The new track panels are being assembled with new concrete sleepers between the tunnels to the west of the main breach site. They can't be moved into position yet, due to the amount of further construction work required at the main breach site. What I mentioned in my previous posts about the pre-cast 'L' sections applies. CK are the precast 'L' sections to retain the Ballast? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shedmaster Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Correct. There are still problems with track circuit functionality between Long Rock and Penzance (ballast is contaminated with excess salt etc.). We are still gearing up to reopen at 1900 hrs on Saturday, but will have staff in place for pilot working over the single line to begin with, which I think will actually be required. Hi C.K, Could you please advise what you mean by the ballast being contaminated with excess salt ? Why is it unhelpful to have too much salt here and wouldn't it just be diluted down with rain etc ? I'm not expecting you to say it's an electrical issue with track circuits but I am aware that you can have 'the wrong type of ballast' whereby the tc's can leak away through it ? Many Thanks, Kindest Regards, Shed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 (edited) According to the forecast for Niton there is a low currently filling off SE Iceland with reaching Rockall by midnight on Sunday expected over the Hebrides by midday Monday with another one possibly reaching southern Ireland by Tuesday evening. Strong winds or gales.severe gales for all sea areas (in Niton) during Sunday and for early part of Monday. Most of these are, alas, likely to be southerly in sea area Plymouth although strength 5 to 7 is forecast currently for the area. Translation - there will be waves buffeting the containers again especially at high tides but not as bad (it appears) as previously. Mike, I started writing this then I was called to take daughter to "work"... See attached: For March 3rd http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/qdtm86bw.gif What I like about the US Atlantic forecasts is that you can track the future of each system by the arrows and the "X"'s show where they think it'll be by the next day. I still think the worst winds will be offshore, just to be clear, from the land into the sea. The system in the mid-atlantic (south west) could prove more troublesome towards the end of next week. Our snow forecast for tomorrow into Monday has changed slightly but I hesitate to say which way in case I doom it..... Best, Pete. Edited March 1, 2014 by trisonic 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Hi C.K, Could you please advise what you mean by the ballast being contaminated with excess salt ? Why is it unhelpful to have too much salt here and wouldn't it just be diluted down with rain etc ? I'm not expecting you to say it's an electrical issue with track circuits but I am aware that you can have 'the wrong type of ballast' whereby the tc's can leak away through it ? Many Thanks, Kindest Regards, Shed. I seem to remember about 20 years ago a train carrying salt shed its load along the WCML and a Black 5 with a steam lance was dispatched from Carnforth to evaporate(?) the salt away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 1, 2014 I seem to remember about 20 years ago a train carrying salt shed its load along the WCML and a Black 5 with a steam lance was dispatched from Carnforth to evaporate(?) the salt away. Yes the problem was that the salt with damp atmosphere made the ballast conductive and shorted out the track circuits. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ron Ron Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 CK are the precast 'L' sections to retain the Ballast? CK gave the information on page 58. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Pannier Tank Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 1, 2014 CK gave the information on page 58. . Many thanks for the link; I completely missed Page 58, don't know how ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandman Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 This story appeared today in the Western Morning News. http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Flood-warning-issued-entire-Devon-Cornwall/story-20735850-detail/story.html Lets hope it's not as bad as it looks and doesn't undo all the work put in place so far. Everybody stay safe please. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 That's the system I mentioned in my post #1505 above (click to link). They have it far more to the south than the Americans do. Because most of the strong winds are coming from the North West quadrant I'm not convinced that the coastal flooding potential will be significant for Dawlish. Other areas, yes, of course, along the north facing shoreline. Still intelligent to keep a watching brief, always. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkie_pudd Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 nice clear day with low tide showing all the wall debris on the beach. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 75C Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 nice clear day with low tide showing all the wall debris on the beach. Nice jigsaw puzzle for someone. I'll bet there's a piece missing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 2, 2014 nice clear day with low tide showing all the wall debris on the beach. camputerb86.jpg I see the spider's legs have been well wrapped up again on the seaward side. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 2, 2014 (edited) Hi C.K, Could you please advise what you mean by the ballast being contaminated with excess salt ? Why is it unhelpful to have too much salt here and wouldn't it just be diluted down with rain etc ? I'm not expecting you to say it's an electrical issue with track circuits but I am aware that you can have 'the wrong type of ballast' whereby the tc's can leak away through it ? Many Thanks, Kindest Regards, Shed. It is simply due to the chemical characteristics and conductive potential of Sodium. Basically in an ideal world you should get the same voltage at the finish or relay end of a track circuit as the voltage you put into it at the start or feed end. In reality of course you will get leakage through the rail fastenings, sleepers and ballast - however just how much will depend on things like the weather, how contaminated the ballast is, how effective the ballast is at draining away water, if the sleepers are timber, how much water they have absorbed. From a S&T perspective all these factors are summarised by the term Ballast resistance - and what we want is it to be as high as possible. The lower the Ballast Resistance goes the lower is the voltage (or current to be precise - as that is what does the work) is at the relay end of the track (because all the current is jumping from rail to rail via the ballast rather than going via the relay). If the relay end voltage gets too low the track circuit will become unstable, repeatedly flicking between occupied and clear with no train present and if it falls to low the track circuit will stay occupied. Axle counters are of course unaffected by this - in fact Penzance has had them as a back up system for ages (given the unstable nature of the track circuits in stormy conditions) although in that instance the back up nature of the installation does limit capacity when they are switched in, but even they are no use when the track (and the signalling kit itself) gets completely submerged under floodwater. As others have said it doesn't always have to be seawater that causes problems. For example road salt contaminating the track through level crossings is a well known problem (gritters should stop gritting over the crossing, but that doesn't help when vehicles naturally bring grit or salty slush onto the crossing from either side). Another example I know of is one winter the p-way engineers were having a problem with ballast freezing together in wagons and not coming out on an overnight job. To solve the problem someone applied a salt solution to the ballast - excellent idea you might think. Not so when the ballast was down and the track circuit resolutely refused to come clear. The S&T were apparently at a bit of a loss - everything they tried wasn't working, then somebody spotted something unusual about the ballast and to confirm their suspicions the went and actually licked a piece - which tasted salty! Apparently even after lots of jet washing it took about 6 months to a year before the rain naturally washed all the salt out of the ballast before the track circuit readings returned to normal and I believe there were still problems whenever the bit of track was tamped in subsequent years so eventually they had to bite the bullet and do a deep dig to get rid of it all and lay fresh non salty ballast. Edited March 2, 2014 by phil-b259 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkie_pudd Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Nice jigsaw puzzle for someone. I'll bet there's a piece missing! oh if you have took 1 and I nipped down and took 10 so don't think they will notice and I`ll keep it just between us lol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Belgian Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Nice jigsaw puzzle for someone. I'll bet there's a piece missing! Worse - they'll have one piece over! JE Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Bet the jigsaw won't be as hard as some of Andy Y's Christmas ones! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 2, 2014 That's the system I mentioned in my post #1505 above (click to link). They have it far more to the south than the Americans do. Because most of the strong winds are coming from the North West quadrant I'm not convinced that the coastal flooding potential will be significant for Dawlish. Other areas, yes, of course, along the north facing shoreline. Still intelligent to keep a watching brief, always. Best, Pete. We still seem to have the problem of high sea levels on this side of the Atlantic, coupled with several recent "spring" tides meaning normal sea walls being swamped on a regular basis. We need a prolonged period of calmer weather for everything to get back into equilibrium again. Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 (edited) That's not likely right now. Luckily as soon as the wind drops water starts calming (See Yorkie Pudds link of today). Fortuitively Dawlish doesn't have a long reach in front of it like the Pacific Ocean.........so one day it can be very rough and the next fairly calm. Believe me with a wind coming off the land at Dawlish the trend would be to "push" the water away from shore. Let's hope so anyway. [edited for rotten English...] Best, Pete. Edited March 2, 2014 by trisonic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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