INEOS To Spearhead Formula 1 Hydrogen Fuel Technology Initiative With Mercedes
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
It’s an interesting concept to promote hydrogen-powered cars, trucks and specialist vehicles.
On the plus side, there would be all the environmental benefits.
But on the negative side there would be no noise and probably no smell.
If trials avowed it could be as exciting as Formula One today on a good day, I do feel it could be a way for the sport to progress.
What Does Novak Djorkovic Tell Us About The Covids?
If you search the Internet for “coeliac disease and Novac Djokovic, you get a lot of posts linking to gluten-free diet and some to coeliac disease.
Some say he is coeliac and others say he is just gluten-free.
There are also reports on the Internet of Novac Djokovic having Covid-19.
So does that tell us anything about gluten-free diets, coeliac disease and Covid-19?
As there are no reports of him spending a long time in hospital, it doesn’t disprove my theory, that coeliacs on a gluten-free diet don’t get serious doses of the Covids!
I’d love to hear more stories of coeliacs on a gluten-free diet, who have caught Covid-19.
It Was Once Called The Only Rear-Engined Front-Wheel-Drive Car In Captivity!
A friend has just moved to Ainsdale and I once went to see cars racing on the flat sandy beach.
One of the cars I saw was the Cooper-Buick, which was a 1964 Mini-Cooper with a 3.5-litre Buick V8 engine in the boot, driving the front wheels, through the back axle of an E-type Jaguar.
This page on the Road and Track web site gives more details.
It certainly threw a lot of sand about!
Perry Barr Station – 7th May 2021
Birmingham will be hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Perry Barr station is to be rebuilt for the games.
This page on the West Midlands Railway web site explains what will happen.
This is the first two paragraphs.
From Monday 10 May 2021, Perry Barr Railway Station will be closed for a large refurbishment project. This means trains will not call at the station during this time, and passengers will not be able to get on or off trains from this station.
The closure is part of a large regeneration plan for the area, being built on the existing site. The current station will be demolished to make way for a new, modern and more accessible station for Perry Barr, scheduled to reopen in May 2022.
I took these pictures on a visit.
Note.
- The station certainly needs a lot of improvement.
- The stairs are steep.
- The information displays are total crap.
- There are ramps.
- Crossing the main road outside the station is difficult.
This article on the Construction Enquirer indicates the following.
- There will be a bus and train interchange for the Athletes Village.
- Pictures in the article clearly show lift towers.
It will be a great improvement.
Trump And The Open
This BBC story today, which was entitled Trump National Stripped Of 2022 US PGA Championship.
The Times also has an article today, saying that Trump has been lobbying hard to get The Open allocated to his course at Turnberry.
I have a feeling that the access and the fact that in 2024, the Open will go to Troon will scupper Trump’s ambitions.
Good crowds will need good transport access and preferably by rail to a large population centre with lots of hotels.
- 2021 – Royal St. Georges – The nearby Sandwich station is being lengthened to take high speed trains from London, especially for the tournament.
- 2022 – St. Andrews – Perhaps too short a time to put in the long-promised rail link to Leuchars, but the train service to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow from Leuchars is good.
- 2023 – Royal Liverpool – The course has a nearby station at Hoylake and Merseyrail are getting new fleets of classy Swiss trains. Enthusiasts could always take the ferries part of the way from Liverpool.
- 2024 – Troon – The rail line to Glasgow goes past the course and there’s time to build a temporary station if needed.
The other courses on the active rota for the Open are.
- Carnoustie – The nearby Golf Street station is used during major golf tournaments.
- Muirfield – This course has had other problems. But the rail links are not good.
- Royal Birkdale – Like Royal Liverpool, it has a nearby Merseyrail station.
- Royal Lytham and St. Annes – This course has a station and it looks like the rail link will be upgraded soon.
- Royal Portrush – The nearby railway station was rebuilt for the 2019 Open
There is no rail line anywhere near Turnberry.
I feel that the R & A have enough excuses to avoid giving the Open to Turnberry.
It looks to me that Trump bought the wrong golf course.
A London Mongrel Gets Ready For Christmas
I constantly, refer to myself as a London Mongrel, as my father did.
This extract from a previous post, explains why I do.
On the other hand, I’m a London Mongrel of German Jewish and French Huguenot roots, with quarters of stubborn Devonian and solid Northants yeoman stock thrown in. A large proportion of my ancestors are also real East Enders and of course my father was a genuine Cockney.
The older I get, the more I think, the Devonian genes of my Dalston-born maternal grandmother are asserting themselves.
I was going to my son’s house for Christmas Dinner, but we felt last night, that it was best to call it off, as although, what we had planned would have been within the rules, it would be better not to take any chances.
Yesterday, there was an article in The Times about how Michelin-starred chefs were doing Christmas meals in a box for home warming through!
So last night, I bought one for sixty-one pounds from Roasted by Jack and Scott.
I’ve already got the beer in, as this picture shows.
But then it’s all gluten-free, low-alcohol beer from Adnams, that tastes just like the halves from the same brewery, that my father used to buy for me sixty years ago.
My father didn’t want me to be the alcoholic his father was, so he introduced me to beer in social settings at an early age and now at seventy-three, I can honestly say, that, there are few times in my past, where I’ve got really drunk. So thank you, Dad!
But then my father was unconventional and didn’t follow the rules.
A year or so ago, I was reminded of a story about my father by someone I was at school with at Minchenden.
My father had ordered a new Vanden Plas Princess 1100 from a garage near the school. So one morning over breakfast, he asked the seventeen-year-old me, if I wouldn’t mind picking up the car after school and bring it home.
So after school, I picked up the car and took it home.
I can’t remember, if I gave any of my school-mates a lift. But I may have done!
Football
The one problem, I have is not being able to watch Premier League football on television, except on Match of the Day.
The Premier League have sold the Christmas rights to Amazon, which is a company, I don’t do business with!
Anyway, as the pictures come by broadband, I doubt I’d be able to watch it, as my broadband is crap.
BT told my MP, it’s because I’m too close to the exchange!
Conclusion
I’ll be OK. But then like my father, my sons and my granddaughter, we all seem happy in our own company.
I am also lucky in being coeliac on a gluten-free diet!
The more I research my health, the more I’m convinced that my genes have given me a strong immune system and that is protecting me from the covids.
But then, self-isolating by habit is not a bad trait in these terrible times.
£100m Station Revamp Could Double Local Train Services
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Northern Echo.
This is the opening paragraph.
Officials behind plans for a £100m-plus transformation of Darlington’s Bank Top Station have confirmed it will remain the only one on the East Coast Mainline without a platform specifically for the London to Scotland service.
Darlington station has made various appearances in my life, all of which have been pleasurable ones.
I went several times to ICI’s Wilton site on Teesside in the 1970s, when the route to London was worked by the iconic Class 55 locomotives or Deltics.
I wrote about one memorable trip home from Darlington in The Thunder of Three-Thousand Three-Hundred Horses.
Over the years, I also seem to have had several clients for my computing skills in the area, including the use of my data analysis software; Daisy at Cummins Engines in the town.
And lately, it’s been for football at Middlesbrough to see Ipswich play, where I’ve changed trains. Sometimes, Town even won.
The improvements planned for the station are two-fold.
Improvement Of Local Services
This paragraph from Wikipedia, sums up the local train services on the Tees Valley Line between Saltburn and Bishop Auckland via Darlington, Middlesbrough and Redcar.
Northern run their Tees Valley line trains twice hourly to Middlesbrough, Redcar and Saltburn (hourly on Sundays), whilst the Bishop Auckland branch has a service every hour (including Sundays). The company also operates two Sundays-only direct trains to/from Stockton and Hartlepool.
If ever a route needed improvement it is this one.
This paragraph from the Northern Echo article, outlines the plans for Darlington station.
The meeting was also told the overhaul, which will see new platforms, a new station building, parking and an interchange for passengers, alongside other improvements, would also double capacity on Tees Valley and Bishop Auckland lines, meaning four trains an hour on the former and two trains an hour on the latter.
I also believe that the route is a shoe-in for zero-carbon services; hydrogen or battery electric.
Hydrogen Trains On Teesside
In Fuelling The Change On Teesside Rails, I discuss using hydrogen powered trains for the lines in the area and they could certainly provide services on more than just the Tees Valley Line.
- Teesside certainly has big plans for hydrogen to fuel its chemical industry.
- Hydrogen powered transport in the area has been backed by the Government, as I wrote about in Tees Valley Wins £1.3million Project To Bring Hydrogen Vehicles To The Region.
- Plans are advancing for a depot for hydrogen-powered trains at Lackenby.
The hydrogen powered trains would probably be this Alstom Breeze.
They would appear to be in pole position to change the image of Teesside’s trains.
Battery Electric Trains On Teesside
But I suspect. that an Anglo-Japanese partnership, based in the North-East could have other ideas.
- Hitachi have a train factory at Newton Aycliffe on the Tees Valley Line.
- Hyperdrive Innovation design and produce battery packs for transport and mobile applications in Sunderland.
The two companies have launched the Regional Battery Train, which is described in this Hitachi infographic.
Note than 90 kilometres is 56 miles, so the train has a very useful range.
Hitachi have talked about fitting batteries to their express trains to serve places like Middlesbrough, Redcar and Sunderland with zero-carbon electric services.
But their technology can also be fitted to their Class 385 trains and I’m sure that Scotland will order some battery-equipped Class 385 trains to expand their vigorous electric train network.
Both Scotland and Teesside will need to charge their battery trains.
Example distances on Teesside include.
- Darlington and Saltburn – 28 miles
- Darlington and Whitby – 47 miles
- Darlington and Bishop Auckland – 12 miles
The last route would be possible on a full battery, but the first two would need a quick battery top-up before return.
So there will need to be strategically-placed battery chargers around the North-East of England. These could include.
- Hexham
- Nunthorpe
- Redcar or Saltburn – This would also be used by TransPennine Express’s Class 802 trains, if they were to be fitted with batteries.
- Whitby
If Grand Central did the right thing and ran battery electric between London and Sunderland, there would probably be a need for a battery charger at Sunderland.
It appears that Adrian Shooter of Vivarail has just announced a One-Size-Fits-All Fast Charge system, that has been given interim approval by Network Rail.
I discuss this charger in Vivarail’s Plans For Zero-Emission Trains, which is based on a video on the Modern Railways web site.
There is more about Vivarail’s plans in the November 2020 Print Edition of the magazine, where this is said on page 69.
‘Network Rail has granted interim approval for the fast charge system and wants it to be the UK’s standard battery charging system’ says Mr. Shooter. ‘We believe it could have worldwide implications.’
I believe that Hitachi and Hyperdrive Innovation, with a little bit of help from friends in Seaham, can build a battery-electric train network in the North-East.
The Choice Between Hydrogen And Battery Electric
Consider.
- The hydrogen trains would need a refuelling system.
- The battery electric trains would need a charging structure, which could also be used by other battery electric services to and from the North-East.
- No new electrification or other infrastructure would be needed.
- If a depot is needed for the battery electric trains, they could probably use the site at Lackenby, that has been identified as a base for the hydrogen trains.
Which train would I choose?
I think the decision will come down to politics, money and to a certain extent design, capacity and fuel.
- The Japanese have just signed a post-Brexit trade deal and France or rather the EU hasn’t.
- The best leasing deal might count for a lot.
- Vivarail have stated that batteries for a battery electric train, could be leased on a per mile basis.
- The Hitachi train will be a new one and the Alstom train will be a conversion of a thirty year old British Rail train.
- The Hitachi train may well have a higher passenger capacity, as there is no need for the large hydrogen tank.
- Some people will worry about sharing the train with a large hydrogen tank.
- The green credentials of both trains is not a deal-breaker, but will provoke discussion.
I feel that as this is a passenger train, that I’m leaning towards a battery electric train built on the route.
An Avoiding Line Through Darlington
The Northern Echo also says this about track changes at the station.
A meeting of Darlington Borough Council’s communities and local services scrutiny committee was told a bus lane-style route off the mainline at the station would enable operators to run more high-speed services.
Councillors heard that the proposed track changes would enable very fast approaches to Darlington and allow other trains to pass as East Coast Mainline passengers boarded.
Some councillors seem to be unhappy about some trains passing through the station without stopping.
Are their fears justified?
This Google Map shows Darlington station.
Note.
- The station has two long platforms and two South-facing bay platforms.
- There is plenty of space.
- There already appear to be a pair of electrified avoiding lines on the Eastern side of the station.
Wikipedia also says this about how Darlington station will be changed by High Speed Two.
The new high speed rail project in the UK, High Speed 2, is planned to run through Darlington once Phase 2b is complete and will run on the existing East Coast Main Line from York and Newcastle. Darlington Station will have two new platforms built for the HS2 trains on the Main Line, as the station is built just off the ECML to allow for freight services to pass through.
This would appear to suggest that the two current avoiding lines will be turned into high speed platforms.
Current High Speed Services At Darlington
The current high speed services at Darlington are as follows.
- LNER – two trains per hour (tph) – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh
- Cross Country – one tph – Plymouth and Edinburgh or Glasgow
- Cross Country – one tph – Southampton and Newcastle
- TransPennine Express – one tph – Liverpool and Edinburgh
- TransPennine Express – one tph – Manchester Airport and Newcastle
Northbound, this gives eight tph to Newcastle and four tph to Edinburgh
East Coast Trains
East Coast Trains‘s services are not planned to stop at Darlington.
High Speed Two Trains
Darlington is planned to be served by these High Speed Two trains.
- 1 tph – Birmingham Curzon Street and Newcastle via East Midlands Hub, York and Durham
- 1 tph – London Euston and Newcastle via Old Oak Common and York.
Both will be 200 metre High Speed Two Classic-Compatible trains
Northbound, this gives ten tph to Newcastle and four tph to Edinburgh.
As the Eastern Leg of High Speed Two has some spare capacity, I suspect there could be other services through Darlington.
Improvements To The East Coast Main Line
If you look at the East Coast Main Line between Doncaster and Newcastle, the route is a mixture of two and four-track railway.
- Between Doncaster and York, there are two tracks
- Between York and Northallerton, there are four tracks
- Between Northallerton and Darlington, there are two tracks
- North of Darlington, the route is mainly two tracks.
I have flown my virtual helicopter along much of the route and I can say this about it.
- Much of the route is through agricultural land, and where absolutely necessary extra tracks could possibly be added.
- The track is more-or-less straight for large sections of the route.
- Routes through some towns and cities, are tightly hemmed in by houses.
I also believe that the following developments will happen to the whole of the East Coast Main Line before High Speed Two opens.
- Full ERTMS in-cab digital signalling will be used on all trains on the route.
- The trains will be driven automatically, with the driver watching everything. Just like a pilot in an airliner!
- All the Hitachi Class 80x trains used by operators on the route, will be able to operate at up to 140 mph, once this signalling and some other improvements have been completed.
- All level crossings will have been removed.
- High Speed Two is being built using slab track, as I stated in HS2 Slab Track Contract Awarded. I suspect some sections of the East Coast Main Line, that are used by High Speed Two services, will be upgraded with slab track to increase performance and reduce lifetime costs.
Much of the East Coast Main Line could become a 140 mph high speed line, as against High Speed Two, which will be a 225 mph high speed line.
This will mean that all high speed trains will approach Darlington and most other stations on the route, at 140 mph.
Trains will take around a minute to decelerate from or accelerate to 140 mph and if the station stop took a minute, the trains will be up to speed again in just three minutes. In this time, the train would have travelled two-and-a-half miles.
Conclusion
I think that this will happen.
- The Tees Valley Line trains will be greatly improved by this project.
- Trains will generally run at up to 140 mph on the East Coast Main Line, under full digital control, like a slower High Speed Two.
- There will be two high speed platforms to the East of the current station, where most if not all of the High Speed Two, LNER and other fast services will stop.
- There could be up to 15 tph on the high speed lines.
With full step-free access between the high speed and the local platforms in the current station, this will be a great improvement.
Memories Of Althorpe
On The way to Cleethorpes, I passed through Althorpe station.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note.
- The River Trent flowing South to North.
- Keadby power station at the top of the map.
- Althorpe station close to the bridge over the river.
- The village of Althorpe is at the South of the map by the river.
C and myself had friends, who farmed much of the land in the curve of river, South of the railway.
These are a few tales, some might enjoy.
Althorpe And Princess Diana’s Grave
I was once told, that regularly tourists would appear looking for the last resting place of Princess Diana.
Sat-navs may be a wonderful gadget for some, but they do lead those with a certain lack of common sense on wild goose chases.
C And The Tug-Boats
C once spent a night in their farmhouse, which was by the River Trent.
She didn’t sleep well, as tug-boats pulling barges were constantly going past and sounding their sirens. The river was actually above the house, due to the embankments to stop flooding.
Princess Anne And The Centrefold
Our friends’ daughter was a very good rider in eventing and used to supplement her variable income in the sport with modelling. At one point, I used her for some promotional shots for one of my companies.
Some years ago, she was competing at an event in Yorkshire. Coincidentally, this was just after she had appeared as the centrefold in a well-known men’s magazine.
The event was a bit of a nightmare for her, as paparazzi were following her with open copies of the magazine.
At one point, it all got a bit much, so she decided to sneak back to the calm of her horsebox, by a circuitous route.
As she walked back, she encountered Princess Anne, who was also competing and using the same route to avoid the paparazzi.
They talked about the pressures of the paparazzi, who were being a nuisance, with the Princess saying, she approved of my friends’ daughter’s modelling and hoped it continued, as it had taken the pressure off herself.
Flixborough
My friends’ farm was not far from Flixborough, which is infamous for the Flixborough Disaster in 1974, when a chemical plant exploded and killed 28 people and seriously injured a further 36.
My friends also lost several thousand pigs because of the explosion.
Wikipedia says this about the cause of the explosion.
The disaster involved (and may well have been caused by) a hasty modification. There was no on-site senior manager with mechanical engineering expertise (virtually all the plant management had chemical engineering qualifications); mechanical engineering issues with the modification were overlooked by the managers who approved it, nor was the severity of the potential consequences of its failure appreciated.
At the time, I had just left ICI and I was still in contact with my former colleagues.
One told me, that he had met a Senior ICI Engineer, who had been involved with the enquiry into the disaster.
The plant had been a copy of a Dutch plant, that had been built to metric units, which were converted to Imperial to build the Flixborough plant.
As ICI had used metric units since the mid-1950s, there was considerable alarm in the mind of the Senior Engineer, that when the hasty modification was made, someone got mixed up.
Would the Flixborough disaster have happened, if the plant had been built as a copy of the Dutch plant using metric units?
Will There Be A Sports And Arts Bounceback As There Was After World War II?
This may be optimism, but after World War II, all sports had massive attendances, and I wonder if the same thing will happen, when we get a 100 % reliable vaccine against the covids?
There was even a great desire for fun during the war, as this news item on British Pathe, which is entitled Wartime Derby at Newmarket 1941 shows.
There are several horse racing videos of this period on YouTube.
Perhaps, the proximity of Newmarket to the major fighter base at Duxford, meant that the Luftwaffe didn’t feel safe to attack Newmarket in daylight? Or their intelligent was bad.
Beeching Reversal – South Fylde Line Passing Loop
This is one of the Beeching Reversal projects that the Government and Network Rail are proposing to reverse some of the Beeching cuts.
The Project
This project is described on this page on the web site of the Fylde MP; Mark Menzies, which is entitled Improving The South Fylde Rail Line.
The page lists that these improvements are needed.
Track And Stations
These improvements are listed for track and stations.
The bid involves laying around three miles of track between Lytham and St Annes stations, the creation of a new rail platform at Ansdell and Fairhaven Station, the installation of signalling along the line, and potential platform changes at Preston Station. There is scope for improvements to St Annes and Lytham Stations, should Network Rail decide it would rather include those stations within the passing loop – but that would be decided further along the process.
Services
The objective is to be able to run two trains per hour (tph) between Preston and Blackpool South stations.
Trains
Better trains are needed.
It certainly looks like the Pacers have already gone.
The Route
I shall describe the current route in this section.
Blackpool South Station
The Google Map shows Blackpool South station.
Note.
- Entrance to the station is from Waterloo Road, which runs East-West across the map.
- There are a pair of bus stops by the station entrance.
- There is a lot of car parking close to the station.
- I suspect that the single platform can hold a modern eighty-metre four-car train.
- This seventy-year-old has no difficulty waking to the football ground or the Blackpool trams from the station.
With two tph and some updated facilities, this would be a very useful station.
I suspect there is even space to add a second platform in the future, if that were felt to be necessary.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach Station
This Google Map shows Blackpool Please Beach station and the nearby Pleasure Beach.
We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of this station. One beautiful late summer Saturday, I was going to see Ipswich play at Blackpool and out of curiosity I had explored the train to Colne station. In those days a decade ago, Colne and Blackpool South was one service and the train from Colne was full of families, by the time it got to Preston. A large proportion, left the train at the Pleasure Beach.
The conductor told me, that the crowds, I had witnessed weren’t untypical.
Squires Gate Station and Blackpool Airport
This Google Map shows Squires Gate station and the nearby Blackpool Airport.
Blackpool Airport after a troubled few years seems to be finding a niche market, with a few business, commercial, offshore and training flights.
But I believe that airports like Blackpool in the future can develop another large niche – electric aviation.
Getting to places like Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Wales by a nineteen-seat electric airliner will need the following.
- As short a flight as possible.
- Close to the coast would help.
- Good public transport links. Blackpool Airport has both tram and train.
- Space for aircraft to be parked, whilst charging.
- Plentiful supplies of renewable electricity. The over-300 MW Burbo Bank Wind Farm is not far away in Liverpool Bay and it will only be joined by more and larger wind farms.
- Frequent public transport.
Blackpool Airport could tick all these boxes, with a thick green marker.
Some example direct distances from Blackpool include
- Aberdeen – 238 miles
- Amsterdam Schipol – 340 miles
- Belfast City – 128 miles
- Cardiff – 165 miles
- Dublin – 134 miles
- Edinburgh – 150 miles
- Exeter – 211 miles
- Geneva – 661 miles
- Glasgow – 155 miles
- London Gatwick – 220 miles
- London Heathrow – 192 miles
- London Southend – 219 miles
- Newcastle – 89 miles
- Paris Orly – 422 miles
- Isle of Man Ronaldsway – 68 miles
- Southampton – 208 miles
These distances fit nicely with the range of the nine-seater Eviation Alice electric aircraft, which is predicted to be 620 miles.
St. Annes-on-the-Sea Station
This Google Map shows St. Annes-on-the-Sea station.
Note.
- Blackpool is to the North-West and Preston is to the South-East
- St. Annes-on-the-Sea is one of those convenient single-platform stations, where you just walk in-and-out on the level.
- The passing loop would start on the Preston side of the bridge.
There would need to be no major infrastructure work at the station, although I would expect the facilities could do with a makeover.
Ansdell And Fairhaven Station
In Should The Blackpool South Branch Be Electrified?, I said this about improvements to Ansdell and Fairhaven station.
Ansdell and Fairhaven station is nearest to the course at Royal Lytham.
-
- The Open Championship is a very important event on the golfing calendar.
- Other important golfing events are also held on the course
- Royal Lytham and St.Annes, last held the Open in 2012 and 2001. So it might come back to Royal Lytham in the mid-2020s.
Ansdell and Fairhaven station used to have two platforms, as described in Wikipedia.
The station was set out as an island platform with tracks on both faces until the singling of the line in the 1980s. Trains now only use the southern face. A disabled access ramp now covers the northern part of the station.
So could a rebuild of the station do the following?
-
- Restore two platforms on an island at the station.
- Put in full disabled access.
- Create a passing loop.
- Longer platforms might be a good idea.
This Google Map shows the station.
Note.
-
- The disabled ramp winding away.
- The platform is probably about a hundred metres long.
- It would appear that there is space at the far end to extend the platform.
I suspect that an ambitious architect with vision, could design a station that met all objectives.
It could be the best Championship Golf Course railway station in the world.
Lytham Station
This Google Map shows Lytham station.
Lytham station will be the Eastern end of the loop and it is likely, that the single-track will change to double at the Western end of the station.
As with St. Annes-on-the-Sea station, I suspect that a good makeover, will be all that will be needed.
Moss Side Station
This Google Map shows Moss Side station.
The only problem here is the level crossing, so do Network Rail want to remove it?
Kirkham And Wesham Station
This Google Map shows Kirkham and Wesham station.
There are three platforms, which from bottom to top on the map are.
- Platform 1 – Trains to Blackpool South
- Platform 2 – Trains to Blackpool North
- Platform 3 – Trains to Preston
All platforms seem to be being electrified in these pictures. that I took during construction.
Note.
- It can’t be described as a station, built down to a small budget.
- In the captions to the pictures, I’ve numbered the platforms from left to right.
- The last picture looks down Platform 1 and there is an electrification gantry at the Preston end.
Could this comprehensive electrification be so that trains to Blackpool North can use both Platforms 1 and 2?
- This would allow overtaking of say a local train by a London express.
- Trains could also be turned back in Platform 1, before the end of its journey, if there was a problem.
- The electrification is also substantial enough for the longest Class 390 trains.
- It could even accommodate a classic compatible High Speed Two train.
So does the last point, mean that Blackpool North station is a possible High Speed Two destination? Provided, the platforms at Blackpool North station are long enough, I think it does!
This Google Map shows Kirkham West Junction, where trains to Blackpool North and Blackpool South stations diverge.
Note.
- The electrification gantries and their shadows can be seen.
- Preston is to the South-East and the route is fully-electrified.
- Blackpool North is to the North-West and the route is fully-electrified.
- Blackpool South is to the West. The double-track becomes single before Moss Side station.
This picture shows the route going off to Blackpool South.
I took the picture from a train going to Blackpool North station.
So why are wires being run along the first few hundred metres of the Blackpool South Branch?
The Timetable
Currently, trains take the following times to do these journey legs.
- Run between Ansdell and Fairhaven and Blackpool South stations – 12 minutes
- Turnback at Blackpool South station – 3 minutes
- Run between Blackpool South and Ansdell and Fairhaven stations – 11 minutes
As the trains will be running every thirty minutes and the three legs total twenty-six minutes, that means there’s four minutes float.
So hopefully, it should be easily stainable, by an experienced rail timetable creator.
The Trains
I have remarked that I find the electrification at Kirkham & Wesham station, both comprehensive and slightly unusual.
Could The Electrification Have Been Designed For Battery Electric Trains To Blackpool South Station?
But there is one very plausible reason for the electrification layout – The Blackpool South Branch has been designed, so that services on the branch can be rum using battery trains.
- The distance between Kirkham & Wesham and Blackpool South stations is just over eleven miles.
- So for a round trip a range of perhaps twenty-five miles on battery power would suffice.
- There would also be a need for a few minutes of hotel power, whilst waiting at Blackpool South station.
These power needs are well within the capabilities of the average battery train.
- Trains could be charged on the nine minute run between Preston and Kirkham & Wesham stations.
- Changeover between electrification and battery power would take place in Kirkham & Wesham station.
An ideal train would surely be CAF’s four-car battery electric version of the Class 331 train, which I wrote about in Northern’s Battery Plans.
- According to an article in the March 2020 Edition of Modern Railways, with the same name, these trains will be working between Manchester Airport and Windermere.
- Class 331 trains without batteries will be running to and from Blackpool North station.
- Four-car trains are probably the right size for the route.
There would also probably be no need for a charging station at Blackpool South station, if trains could leave Kirkham & Wesham station with a full battery.
Where Would The Trains Terminate In The East?
These would be the obvious choices.
- Blackburn – Where there is a convenient bay platform.
- Colne – Where they used to terminate!
- Liverpool – Merseyrail has the trains and Liverpool has lots of punters and the imagination.
- Preston – Where they do now!
- Skipton – If the Skipton-Colne Link is built!
My money would be on Skipton, using a new Skipton-Colne Link, for the following reasons.
- Politicians of all colours and roses are in favour.
- Skipton has an electrified route to Leeds.
- Skipton-Colne would be a valuable by-pass route during the building of Northern Powerhouse Rail.
- Battery-powered trains would be ideal for Skipton-Colne.
Would A Battery Electric Train Be Feasible Between Blackpool South And Liverpool?
Consider.
- An all-stations service would complement the fast service between Liverpool Lime Street and Blackpool North stations via St. Helens, Wigan North Western and Preston.
- The service could either go between Liverpool and Preston via Ormskirk or Southport and a reinstated Burscough Chord.
- The Ormskirk route is 15 miles of unelectrified line and the Southport route is just four miles further.
- A service via Southport would need to reverse at Southport station.
- The service would be run using dual-voltage Class 777 trains fitted with batteries.
- 25 KVAC overhead electrification, is already installed between Preston and Kirkham & Wesham stations,
- Using existing electrification, trains would leave Kirkham & Wesham, Ormskirk, Preston and Southport stations with full batteries.
- A coastal service between Blackpool and Liverpool would surely attract visitors.
- Liverpool and Blackpool are the two biggest urban areas on the coast.
- There are several golf courses on the route, including three courses that have held the Open; Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
It may be a bit fanciful. But.
- Merseyrail will have the trains.
- Liverpool has the potential passengers.
- I believe the route could handle a two tph service.
- In Reopen Midge Hall Station, I showed that it was possible to run a two tph service between Liverpool and Preston, with one tph via each of Ormskirk and Southport.
Liverpool also has bags of ambition and imagination.
Would A Battery Electric Train Handle Preston And Skipton?
I estimate that this route is forty-one miles, with a stiff rise from Rose Grove to Colne station.
So would a battery electric train be able to handle this distance?
Hitachi are talking 56 miles for their Regional Battery Train, so I suspect CAF would want and need to be competitive with a similar specification.
Perhaps the logical service would be to run between Leeds and Blackpool South.
- The service would go via Preston, Blackburn, Burnley Central, Colne and Skipton.
- Leeds and Skipton is electrified.
- Preston and Kirkham & Wesham is electrified.
- No extra chargers for trains would be needed.
The only new infrastructure needed would be the Skipton and Colne Link.
Electrification Between Preston And Blackburn
Consider.
- In Colne – Skipton Reopening Moves Closer, I talked about the proposed Huncoat Rail Fright Terminal, that could be built North of Blackburn on the East Lancashire Line.
- Blackburn is a major hub for passenger services.
- An electrified Blackburn would allow Manchester and Clitheroe to be run by battery electric trains. Clitheroe is ten miles and Bolton is thirteen.
- An electrified Blackburn would allow Blackburn and Manchester Victoria via the Todmorden Curve to be run by battery electric trains. The whole route is 39.5 miles.
- It may be possible for battery electric trains to reach Leeds via Hebden Bridge, as it is only fifty miles away, which is within Hitachi’s range.
- As the Blackburn area grows, there will be more pressure for a daily London service.
- Some think, the Calderdale route should be electrified.
- Preston and Blackburn stations are just twelves miles apart.
- There is a multiple unit depot at Blackburn.
- I also feel that battery electric trains fanning out from Blackburn, wouldn’t do the town’s image any harm.
For all these reasons, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a short stretch of electrification added between Preston and Blackburn.
Conclusion
I like this proposal and it could be a big asset to trains across the Pennines.
The Anonymous Widower 