Ron Ron Ron

All that track appears to be outside the depot area. Reception sidings or whatever, on the NR side of the new complex. The depot itself is yet to be built. As well as being the main base for HS2 track infrastructure maintenance, This depot will be a construction hub for the installation of the HS2 track system. Presumably why the E-W rail side of things is being installed, in readiness? .

. E-W Track laying on the approaches to the bridge over HS2 and the future HS2 infrastructure depot. The infrastructure depot will be built just beyond the bridge in the foreground. The bridge carrying E-W Rail over HS2, can be seen in the background. .

There are rules governing the jettisoning of fuel. The UK CAA say… Where possible over water (meaning large bodies like the sea). When it’s not possible over water, fuel dumping should be carried out above 10,000 ft agl. (note: agl and not altitude) Exceptionally, if fuel dumping at this level, or over water, is operationally impracticable or inconsistent with safety, fuel may be jettisoned above 7000 ft agl in winter and above 4000 ft agl in summer. For fuel to be jettisoned below these levels, the situation must be unavoidable. .

“Lydia”, was previously used as “ Jessica”, on the Crossrail project, where it bored two sections of the tunnels, totalling 3.5 km….. Limmo Peninsula in Canning Town, to the Royal Victoria Dock…. Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney Green. A new shield and cutting head have been used for this new job, along with other re manufactured components. .

It’s not a shaft, but a logistics tunnel. We’ve covered and talked about this a number of times in recent weeks and months. The 853 metre long logistics tunnel will run from the Atlas Road logistics compound, in North Acton, to the eastern end of the OOC station box. This tunnel is currently being bored (by TBM “Lydia”) and due to reach OOC in the new year. This will provide a route not only for taking the excavated spoil away, but also for delivering tunnel segments and other construction materials into the Euston tunnels.. It’ll be the main access route to the Euston tunnels, as they are being dug. .

Geoff Marshall at OOC..... .

Why has it taken them something like 3 weeks to push out such a PR bulletin? Construction has progressed beyond the half-way point and the viaduct has now reached and connected to the span over Moorhall Road. That HS2 Ltd video is itself, mostly made up of clips from previous videos. Some going back months and even back to the start of construction. The PR department for this project is a bit of a joke. They post on their X (Twitter) feed, sometimes daily and sometimes a few times a day, with mostly regurgitated posts, that are repeated over and over again for months. The extensive HS2 public web site is also updated in a very random fashion. Reports of tunnelling progress are just one example. .

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Maybe a little basic understanding of DCC would help, if you don’t mind? Sorry if it’s teaching you to suck eggs and all that. The basic components. 1. A user interface, where you make control inputs (move, stop, speed up/down, sound a whistle, switch lights on and off etc, etc,) This would be in the form of a handset, or console, or smartphone/ iPad; with what Americans call a throttle and we traditionally would refer to as a controller. 2. A DCC Command Station ( the electronic brain that runs the system”). 3. A Power Station, often called a Booster, outputting to the track. This primary system Booster, is often combined in the same housing, as the Command Station. ( note: the ZTC console based system has the throttle, Command Station and Booster, all combined in the console unit.) 4. Decoders ( the actual DCC controllers) in locos (mobile decoders), or stationary track side decoders to operate points, signals and other accessories. DCC = Digital Command Control. It does what it says on the tin. You issue control instructions through your input or control device and the Command Station sends out DCC “commands” to the recipient decoder, which in turn “controls” the loco, or accessory device. There can only be one Command Station, generating and transmitting the control signals that will be sent out to the locos, via the track, or to DCC accessories. It’s all to do with how the DCC signal is generated and timed ( sync’’d) as encoded digital instructions, then amplified in the Booster to provide an electrical data stream of sufficient electrical power (amps and volts), that not only carries instructions to the decoders, but can also be “ harvested” by the decoders to obtain traction power. The Command Station also manages all the system components and data transfer to and from the throttles and other system modules. Two Command Stations would interfere with each other and will be damaged if they were connected to the same track, or each other. DCC systems, however, usually allow multiple throttles (what you might call controllers) and other input devices, to be used with the single Command Station. If the ZTC system allows another console to be used as an additional throttle (i.e. as a “slave” ), that “slave’s” internal Command Station and Booster will be bypassed and redundant in such a configuration. Do not attempt to use the 511 as a separate fully functioning system, on the same layout, at the same time as the 611. .

Unless you are talking about using a 511 as an additional throttle for the 611 (if that’s even possible with ZTC kit?), in other words, as a “slave” to the 611 …….then, no, you cannot connect two DCC “systems” to the same layout. If the ZTC kit allows the 511 to be used an additional throttle, then you couldn’t use the track output from the 511 system to be connected to anything. .

The photo is of a 737 Max-8 ! .

Construction progress on the Colne Valley viaduct is past the half-way mark. The launching girder, "Dominique" has almost reached the recently installed viaduct section, that spans Moorhall Road. This is just past the half way point. .

The Colne Valley viaduct photos ? Taken just over a week ago apparently. .

That's just a typical bi-lateral agreement, where there's no deregulation. The surprising thing is that there's any direct links at all, considering the official political stances of each nation. .

A good point. I might be wrong about the compatibility of mainland UIC gauge trains though. Academic though it is. .

I don't know for sure, but I've always presumed they'd have to be. Incidentally, I understand that with a HS1 to HS2 linked being ruled out, it allowed for the HS2 platforms to be built as there are. In practice, that now prevents European HS trains such as the French TGV's to DB ICE, from operating on HS2...not that they could ever reach it in the first place ! .

That surprises me too. A quick Google (flights) shows that both EVA Air and Air China serve the direct Beijing - Taipei route. .

Some gratuitous photos of the Colne Valley viaduct..... .

4 points. 1. Stop thinking of HS2 being the same sort of railway as the classic network. HS lines are a different type of beast. It's also being built to the larger UIC GC gauge. 2. As originally conceived, i.e. the full route(s) to Manchester and Leeds, HS2 was to be a predominantly closed network, with its own captive train fleet. The additional capacity made available on the HS2 line, was meant to allow some services to run off and beyond the end of HS2, to Scotland, Liverpool and a limited number of other destinations. A second, "classic compatible' fleet was to ordered, to serve those "off-HS2" destinations, as well as being used as the initial operational HS2 fleet, until the whole route was completed. 3. All that has changed, with Phase 2A, Phase 2B and the eastern branch (which also came under Phase 2B, originally), being cancelled. The curtailed route is now only going to be provided with a "classic compatible" train fleet. These are the only trains that have been ordered and they are being designed ....and production is being planned, right now as we discuss this. They are electric only. 4. The HS2 Phase 1 route is still being built to UIC GC, that allows for wider and taller trains to be used, than can be operated on the classic network. The platform heights are designed to a hybrid standard, that can accommodate both UIC GC gauge trains and the "classic compatible" fleet, as well as meeting the latest standards for level boarding and accessibility. Additionally, platform edge doors will be used at the intermediate stations ......now limited to only OOC and Birmingham Interchange. That's before the signalling and route control issues are added to the equation. In essence, trains designed to run on the classic network, e.g. Class 390 Pendolinos, or Class 805's, will not be compatible with HS2. All this further emphasises the complete b*ggers muddle, the government, the DafT and the Treasury have created, by cancelling HS2 beyond Handsacre. . .

With the Treasury holding back on spending and all the promises of infrastructure projects in “the North” etc, I wouldn’t hold your breath. .

Steering yokes are most likely not suited to cars used on road network like those in European countries, such as the UK. Too many narrow and twisty roads, tight turns and roundabouts to contend with, compared with North America. For similar reasons, the dropping of indicator stalks in favour of steering wheel mounted indicator buttons, will not be popular. I'm surprised a safety approval issue hasn't been raised on this. .

Initially, when the facelift model S came out with the yoke steering wheel, Tesla offered a normal round steering wheel as an option, but it wasn't long before they reversed that and made the normal steering wheel a standard fit, with the yoke becoming an option. Silly idea all round (forgive the pun). .

WonderWorks website...... https://www.wonderworksmargate.co.uk/?xnpe_tifc=bIPs4dQuxkoDOIQuOkQNhypsafeWaeiWhFWZVdJsR_B8bfLvaZ8.aZ8JRjXj4dYJx.Vl4uU_4knZOfh.&utm_source=bloomreach&utm_campaign=Hornby - The WonderWorks - launch email week31 23%2F24&utm_medium=email .

Do you mean at 5:30 mins into the video, where the camera drone turns around at Berkswell Station (Balsall Common) and starts to go back? If so, it looks like the piers are being built, for a viaduct to carry HS2 over the railway. At Burton Green, the old railway bridge, spanned the disused railway cutting. The cutting has been widened and the cut and cover ('green tunnel") is being constructed below the base of what was once the old railway alignment. The old railway bridge is to be demolished to allow construction of the tunnel, hence the temporary diversion being built alongside. When complete, the cutting will be partially filled in to create a green park and woodland area, along which a new stretch of the Kenilworth Green Way will be laid. The road (Cromwell lane) will cross over the Green Way, on a new low level bridge. Artists impressions below (taken fro the HS2 web site).... .

A couple of views of progress at the north portal of the Chilterns tunnels, at South Heath. .