Donington Road

A bone shaking ride too and hardly first class comfort.

It would actually make an interesting diaorama with the sleeper transfer carraige operating back and forth.

It is time I calmed down Richard. I watch my video clips over and over whist putting them together, rendering and publishing and still miss the obvious. How many times did I look at that end video clip and notice that those clips were holding the rail but didn't connect the fixing of them with the main machine.

I know, talking to Trackside ECML last night we were discussing the same. It became apparent that some clips get missed being fixed, some get knocked off the sleeper and so on. So the conclusion was that the hand machine was the backup to fix those clips not done by the machine. It was then that I went looking for the operation on the machine. There it was in his video as plain as day. I went back to my video clips and sure enough there it was as well albeit from a long distance and in shadow, not being a good video clip it didn't make the final version. It is a bit embarrassing really that such an essential part of the operation has been totally missed on my part.

What do you think they are Jagguk? I am only the videographer, making bold statements about the intricacies of railway operations has got me in a right old muddle lately, as witnessed in the last few posts. I'll put it down to the recent excitement of unusual equipment coming to our local area. I think the above question is a safe one to answer to which I declare, it looks like the one in the picture below!

I stand corrected. The hand machine does do some clips but there is also a device on the blue wagon pushing the clips in. Have a look at Trackside ECML's video at 5.09 minutes in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EezlYAQU280 Look in the bottom left and you will see a hydraulic pusher plate pushing the clips in. Maybe the hand machine is to do the ones that got missed after they had been knocked out. I even videoed the clips being pushed in (without noticing what I had done). It wasn't a close up and I didn't bother including the video clip as it was just a general shot of nothing in particular.

The clips are put in afterwards by a hand machine that follows the track laying machine. Now, why didn't I spot that and video it? Here is a photo showing it https://www.pandrol.com/product/clip-driver-cd200-iq/

Both being brought into use together is the plan. The site is not due to be handed over to Network Rail until 1st November, then there will be driver training, so it is unlikely so see trains in service through the dive under this year. If someone knows differently I stand to be corrected.

As far as I know it is an access road for the Environment Agency which joins up with Network Rail's access road near to where Brook Drain goes across the railway between the dive under and Hurn Road. The small track between the two fields that have the horses in at Hurn Road will be extended further southwards then split between the EA and NR. Both companies will have their own access gates at the point of the split. This also suggests to me that there may never be any public access to the east side (railway side) of the new Brook Drain. Whether public access will be possible down the old track from Hurn Road to near the retention pond remains uncertain.

That is a good question. This may help https://www.pandrol.com/product/clip-driver-cd200-iq/ I have seen those hand operated machines in the link on the site before but never took a lot of notice or knowingly photographed them. I can only assume the clips are done after the track laying machine has retreated or they follow way behind as laying takes place. I didn't notice any at the weekend.

Laying flexi-track made easy, no more double sided tape, pva or track pins, just follow the orange line.

About time we had a look around the Cock Lane end. Some photos and screen grabs from video taken today. To the right of the green fence where the bulldozer is will remain and become the access road for Network Rail. To the left of the fence the employees footpath alongside Brook Drain North and the area beneath the electricity pylons is being stripped of hardcore and soil brought in for landscaping. On to the dive under. Most of the rail has now been brought through from Hurn Road. The track laying machine comes again this Saturday night. Judging by the progress I am assuming that only the Up Line will be installed this time and not both lines done together as they were at Lincoln Road. The reason I say this is that only the Up Line has the tracks laid out for welding together, only the Up Line has had its centre line marked on the ballast. Assuming the track has been welded through the dive under and as far as the southern entrance where you can just see the welding taking place in the next photo there is just enough time to complete the welding up to Marholm Junction. The track laying machine came with around 3000 sleepers last time. That would be enough to do two tracks from where they finished at Hurn Road and through the dive under or enough to do the single track through to Marholm Junction. Anyone who would like to place a bet on the outcome please don't contact me. The tracked dumper was going at walking pace while the chap in the white helmet was unloading and spacing out the bases and poles ready for the floodlights to be fitted.

How about a video I made from Google Maps? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_n1wUrmqKT14gW56tewboVVMX-aZYU-Y/view?usp=sharing It is better quality when you download the file to your computer and use a player to view it rather than letting your browser play it.

It is a deflection wall to protect the bridge abutment should there be a derailment. Why is it stepped on the top? I have no idea. Traffic cones have been used all over the site, most seem to be abandoned now. Do you notice the sheet of metal on the top of the bridge with the sloping bottom? That is to stop people from walking along the ledge to get over the railway beneath. Can't have razor wire instead incase it cuts the idiots that want to jump.

You have caught the first bit of action on the southern ramp for weeks Richard. To think all that rail has been manhandled from as far as Foxcovert Road. That has been a lot of labour intensitve work to get it there.

It is small things like this that tend to get done during nighttime closures when we are all tucked up in bed. Sometimes interesting aspects of what goes on get missed during the day as well, unless by luck we happen to be there at the right time. Since a lot of personel around the site have now left the project our sources of information of what was going take place at a particular time have diminished so it is now a game of second guessing what might happen on a particular day. Even Network Rail's newsletters can be a bit ambiguous at times. Crun got lucky today photographing the tamper as that was not due come until the 16th July weekend. Stressing of the rails is due to take place during the week of 16th - 19th July, then again at the end of the month. Here is the schedule that we have to go on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8EZ6pEAyLc Further reading: https://www.trackopedia.info/encyclopedia/maintenance-of-way/tools-and-small-machines/rail-pulling-devices https://www.thepwi.org/technical_hub_journal_technical_articles/pwi_journal_october_2017_vol_135_part_4/pwi_journal_1017_vol135_pt4_-_rail_thermal_force_calculations_for_jointed_track-_article_3

It is all the rail that was stored on the Joint Line for months. They started dragging the rails down to the dive under in stages at the end of May, quite a laborious task. Here is a link to the post where it shows them in the process. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/110286-east-coast-mainline-blockade-for-werrington-junction-diveunder/&do=findComment&comment=4458969

Crun, will you please delete your post of my video. Videos and photos of normal daily trains going about their business are not relevant to this topic. Thank you.

The supports for the old temporary footbridge are being broken up at Lincoln Road. It would have been nice to have had a railing put around them and the platform used by photograhers videoing trains. The one on the Werrington side is still untouched.

Thanks Andy, the local equipment/connection maybe something else that we can look into at our end. It is a good job I like doing a bit of detective work

Andy, after a lot of experimenting with the options in the Content I Follow page trying to irradicate the time out issue Martin and I have reached a conclusion that the Time Period setting is causing the problems we have had. I am using a setting of 28 days, Martin is using 14 weeks. At a setting of 28 weeks the time out issue re-appeared for him. As Martins says in the scanned post below, the problem lies somewhere between 28 weeks and 14 weeks. I hope this information is helpful in tracing the problem that maybe effecting other people too.

Forgot to add to the previous post. Werrington Junction should be completed by the 1st November. It is mostly a case of track laying which started last weekend and carries on for the next month or so. I missed it all but one of my friends managed to get some video of the track laying machine in action. The link to his video is below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EezlYAQU280

It is usually at the beginning of the process when you take the photos Mike. When you take your photos in either landscape or portrait orientation your particular device, either camera of phone, uploads all those photos to your computer in landscape orientation only. The software on your computer knows the difference and orientates those that should be in portrait mode so you see them correctly on your computer. Sometimes if you open a folder containing a lot of photos you have taken of both orientations you can see the portrait ones being turned as the computer builds the thumbnails of the photos in the folder. Some software will save those photos that have been turned automatically so they will always be in portrait from then on, but other software doesn't which seems to be your case. So when you uploaded those photos to RMweb you were uploading the original files that came to your computer in landscape orientation and not the portrait orientated ones you see on your computer because your software has not saved the original after it was turned for you to view.

My neck feels so much better