East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[corneliuslundie]

Thanks for the regular updates, very useful to see it from "inside" so to speak.

Jonathan

[kryten65]

Well this is the last Bletchley flyover update from me, as we delivered and the team installed the final beam, you can't walk all the way through just yet but there has been an unofficial handshake between the two sides! 

Edited August 18, 2021 by kryten65
More pictures

[Davexoc]

Couple of pages of pictures showing the progress along the line in the September issue of Rail Express if anyone is interested.....

[VarsityJim]

On 19/08/2021 at 22:01, Davexoc said:

Couple of pages of pictures showing the progress along the line in the September issue of Rail Express if anyone is interested.....

Is there an online version to see?

[Davexoc]

13 hours ago, VarsityJim said:

Is there an online version to see?

 

Website not up to date yet, still showing August issue.....

[TylerTrainFan2001]

Hey everyone I decided to take some pictures today whilst walking underneath the flyover. 

[Nearholmer]

In the same spirit, a random photo just on the Newton Longville side of the bridge over the Newton - Bletchley Road, snapped as I was on an errand there a couple of days ago.

 
Noticable how the embankment has been re-profiled, widening it, to compensate for slumping.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by Nearholmer

[1E BoY]

Work is progressing on installing parts of the new high level platforms.

 

Taken around 1730 this evening from the top of the footbridge which leads to platform 6. Looking east towards the town centre.

[kryten65]

Here's a brief update from the Bicester end of the project, bridge oxd27 at station Road, Poundon. Today saw us deliver the cill beams that the steel U decks sit on. 

[Ryde-on-time]

Just had this video come up as a suggestion on Youtube - about the new station at Winslow

 

 

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Ryde-on-time said:

Just had this video come up as a suggestion on Youtube - about the new station at Winslow

 

 

Some excellent 3D modelling and incomparable to the original station.  If I was being paid for it though, there's a few bits I'd have sorted, like why the railway apparently just stops a hundred yards off the platform ends.  Also interesting why the three people at the drop off point are having an animated conversation while everyone else in the station is doing the Mannequin Challenge!

[corneliuslundie]

The stairs seemed rather narrow though.

At least they have been sensible, as far as I could see, to avoid having a flat roof.

But I bet the building won't last 150 years like many older ones have done.

Jonathan

[Davexoc]

4 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Some excellent 3D modelling and incomparable to the original station.  If I was being paid for it though, there's a few bits I'd have sorted, like why the railway apparently just stops a hundred yards off the platform ends.  Also interesting why the three people at the drop off point are having an animated conversation while everyone else in the station is doing the Mannequin Challenge!

 

It does look good, but what about the houses and school that neighbour the station too?

Right domestic going on there by the looks, and the woman with the wheeled case going through the ticket barrieres must have fallen out with her twin sister on the platform. Are there problems in Winslow we should know about?...

[Nearholmer]

There's a lot of detail to be knocked-out on that model, an instance being the colour of the stairs, which doesn't work. It needs contrast between the treads and the tread-edges, otherwise people will fall down them on a daily basis.

 

Main message to me, though, is: road traffic. The station is obviously intended to serve Buckingham, plus a large hinterland, and if there are half-decent connections at Aylesbury or Bletchley it will generate a lot of trips into London, all starting with a car journey.

 

Anyway, it will be weirdly out of keeping with Winslow, which has managed to remain almost entirely old-fashioned in terms of buildings. I'm surprised the locals haven't badgered NR to provide something a bit less stark.

[Vecchio]

This station reminds me about Brackley Great Central - streel level on the top, flush with the footbridge, and then stairs down to the platform. Only difference is Brackley had one central platform and the tracks went left and right (probably cheaper than 2 staircases...).

 

brackley station old 2

 

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Vecchio said:

This station reminds me about Brackley Great Central - streel level on the top, flush with the footbridge, and then stairs down to the platform. Only difference is Brackley had one central platform and the tracks went left and right (probably cheaper than 2 staircases...).

 

brackley station old 2

 

IIRC the GC used the island design so that fast lines could be added outside the platform roads relatively  easily.

 

Jamie

Edited October 2, 2021 by jamie92208

[Nearholmer]

And, if you are in a cutting, it is a relatively cheap design to construct, especially if you can combine the support for the station building with that for an adjacent road. Watford High Street is a good example away from the GC.

[31A]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

And, if you are in a cutting, it is a relatively cheap design to construct, especially if you can combine the support for the station building with that for an adjacent road. Watford High Street is a good example away from the GC.

And, with an island platform layout like that you only need one set of facilities (waiting rooms, toilets, lifts, staff) to deal with both directions of traffic, rather than them being duplicated on the Up and Down sides.

[phil-b259]

20 hours ago, Vecchio said:

This station reminds me about Brackley Great Central - streel level on the top, flush with the footbridge, and then stairs down to the platform. Only difference is Brackley had one central platform and the tracks went left and right (probably cheaper than 2 staircases...).

 

The downside being Luggage - or these days persons of reduced mobility are harder to cater for requiring lifts or a platform wide enough for a huge sloping walkway.

 

A side platform setup is easier to have as (depending on ground levels) you can have shorter ramps or ramps made from earth + retaining structures as opposed to huge metal structures and lifts while also prevent the need for the tracks to splay out.

[Welly]

Another downside of island platforms is the sense of being isolated/unsafe once the station became unstaffed. But this was never anticipated when they were built!

[Edwin_m]

Just now, phil-b259 said:

The downside being Luggage - or these days persons of reduced mobility are harder to cater for requiring lifts or a platform wide enough for a huge sloping walkway.

 

A side platform setup is easier to have as (depending on ground levels) you can have shorter ramps or ramps made from earth + retaining structures as opposed to huge metal structures and lifts while also prevent the need for the tracks to splay out.

Indeed.  That splay can get pretty long, almost certainly needing more land than if two platforms had been constructed in the first place, and also acts as a constrain on speed of non-stop trains if it isn't long enough.  

 

I believe the intent of the Great Central was to concentrate all staff activities including ticket sales at a single island platform at most stations, so reducing the number of staff needed to operate them.  This doesn't seem to have been the case at Brackley though, as there's a building at street level.  Surviving minor stations are now almost all unstaffed, so this benefit no longer exists, and there's nobody about to help PRMs and those with luggage so it need to be easier for them to use the station without assistance.  

[phil-b259]

1 hour ago, Edwin_m said:

Indeed.  That splay can get pretty long, almost certainly needing more land than if two platforms had been constructed in the first place, and also acts as a constrain on speed of non-stop trains if it isn't long enough.  

 

I believe the intent of the Great Central was to concentrate all staff activities including ticket sales at a single island platform at most stations, so reducing the number of staff needed to operate them.  This doesn't seem to have been the case at Brackley though, as there's a building at street level.  Surviving minor stations are now almost all unstaffed, so this benefit no longer exists, and there's nobody about to help PRMs and those with luggage so it need to be easier for them to use the station without assistance.  

 

Brackley station was built like it was because the local council refused planning permission (or whatever that was back in the 1900s) for the station entrance to be built into the road bridge* - the GCR originality planning a scaled down version of Rugby for the site.

 

This required the main station building to be sited at the side of the cutting with its own approach road.

 

* I believe it was something to do with safety and traffic congestion, a far sighted position to take given the road became part of the A43 as motor vehicles developed

[corneliuslundie]

Surely with a station building that large they are not expecting an unmanned station? Or is that to get the public on-side before it is replaced by a glorified bus shelter?

And it will be high maintenance anyway with two lifts etc, no use having been made of the cutting (which I can't see anyway in the image) to allow sloped access paths.

Jonathan

[Nearholmer]

Is there a suggestion that it is to be unstaffed? That wasn’t my impression, and other comparable stations nearby are staffed. I get the impression that the intent is that this should be quite a busy station, serving a fair radius that is currently having houses built on it at a tremendous rate, rather than a ‘wayside halt’.

 

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Edwin_m]

I wasn't suggesting Winslow would be unstaffed.  But even if staffed, it would be highly unlikely to have the sort of staff levels of a wayside station in the early 20th century, which was what the Great Central was building for.  When there aren't routinely staff on the platform, it removes one of the justifications for having an island station.