Before GOBlin Electrification – Upper Holloway
I went to Upper Holloway station on my way to Waitrose.
It is not a grand station, being just two ramps and staircases from the Holloway Road to two more than adequate tidy platforms. It is not unlike Crouch Hill station.
At present there are roadworks outside, as the road bridge over the railway is being replaced. I suspect that this project will have to be completed before electrification through the station is started. Obviously, when the new bridge is finished it will have sufficient headroom for the overhead line equipment.
Upper Holloway isn’t an official interchange but as the station is in middle of a slope between Archway and Holloway Road stations, which eases walking in one direction, it can sometimes be a useful interchange.
But the station will need improvements to its step-free access.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Harringay Green Lanes
To get to the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, I get a 141 bus from outside my house to Harringay Green Lanes station.
It is another tidy station serving a retail park on the site of the old Harringay stadium. Like most of the stations on the line, there are no lifts and the two platforms are served by stairs and ramps.
Other than the inadequate step-free access, note the following about the station.
- The platforms are not unduly long, but there would appear to be foundations from previous ones, that were longer.
- The bridge although obviously sound, probably needs a bit of work to bring it up to the required visual standard.
- The station is an out of station interchange to Harringay station and work could be done to make the walking route easier. I estimate that the distance is about 50% longer than the Hackney Downs/Central Link.
- There is a lot of commercial and retail use in the area, that may be redeveloped.
Note too, that the Piccadilly Line crosses underneath and there is a long distance between the stations either side on that line. No plans exist to create an interchange, but it is a station, where that should never be ruled out.
This is a Google Map showing the area around the two Harringay stations.
The Area Around The Two Harringay Stations
I think that by 2050, Harringay Green Lanes station will be very different.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Crouch Hill
I’d never been to Crouch Hill station before, but I went to take these pictures.
It is another tidy station with fairly long platforms, steep staircases and no lifts. Although unlike Leyton Midland Road, the station is in a cutting, rather than on a viaduct.
My pictures were as you can see interrupted by a dreaded Class 66 locomotive, with all its noise and smell passing through. After electrification, hopefully we’ll see something more environmentally-friendly like an elderly Class 90 or a brand new Class 88 locomotive. Unfortunately, I think we’ll see mainly Class 66s pulling freight trains for some years, as there are so many of them and they seem to be pretty reliable, although unloved by the drivers.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Leyton Midland Road
Leyton Midland Road station is a tidy station, but it has steep stairs and no lifts.
As the pictures show, the platforms are probably long enough for the new four-car trains.
Electrification Of Britain’s Railways Isn’t Easy
There are a lot of reports in the media talking about the delays in electrifying railways in the UK, like this report in the Yorkshire Post, which talks about the Trans Pennine and Midland Main Line schemes.
I have just found this report in the Rail Engineer, which talks about a forty-four day closure of the important Winchburgh Tunnel between Edinburgh and Glasgow to prepare for electrification as part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Program. The report starts with this paragraph.
A legacy of the rapid early growth of Britain’s railway network is that the UK has one of the world’s most restrictive loading gauges. As a result, typically half of the cost of British electrification projects is the civil engineering work to adapt structures to provide clearance for wires and pantographs.
As anybody who’s ever got to grips with any old building, what it looks like on the surface is very different to what is underneath.
The project described in the article is challenging to say the least. This extract describes the building of the tunnel.
Winchburgh tunnel lies at the eastern end of a five- kilometre long cutting. It is 338 metres long and was opened in 1842, having taken two years to complete. When digging the cuttings and tunnel, the contractor, Gibb and Sons, removed 200,000 tons more rock than expected and consequently made a loss.
The tunnel was cut through dolerite rock, mudstone and shale. In the middle on the nineteenth century, these oil shale deposits once made West Lothian one of the world’s biggest oil producers. This shale was also a factor in an unfortunate accident during tunnel construction in 1839 when a man was severely burnt by firedamp.
The cutting is crossed by two streams, west of the tunnel. A twin four-foot diameter cast-iron inverted syphon was provided to carry Myers Burn under the railway. Swine Burn crosses the cutting on an aqueduct that had to be re-decked as part of the EGIP electrification works. Downstream of the aqueduct is a pumping station, which drains the cutting west of the tunnel. This is an area with significant drainage issues, some of which are addressed by the tunnel works.
So making it large enough for electrification wasn’t easy. As is typical on a project such as this, concrete slab track was used. You don’t see it much on UK railways, as where it is used is generally in tunnels and other places, where you have tight clearances.
In the Winchburgh tunnel slab track was used and they are also using an overhead rail system to get the power to the train.
In searching for a good article about slab track, I found this article on Balfour Beatty’s Rail web site, which is entitled Polyurethane Slab Track.
Balfour Beatty have worked with Herriot Watt University to create a method of using polyurethane to create a method for strengthening track in awkward places.
One example describes how a bridge was improved to cope with modern loads.
While George Stephenson was a forward thinker, even he didn’t predict freight trains running at 80mph with 25 tonne axle loads over his bridge. So he hadn’t calculated for those stresses. The bridge has done a good job of coping with them for 190 years, but it was getting a bit tired.
The article also highlights that Network Rail has 25,000 masonry arches, so you can see why there must be a need for such a technique.
The technique has also been used to increase the headrom for electrification in a tunnel on the Midland Main Line.
It’s all impressive engineering.
Where Are The Wires?
I took this video between Twyford and Reading stations.
There is no sign of the overhead wires that will be needed for Crossrail and the electrification of the Great Western Main Line.
To be fair to the comntractors, there was a lot of activity past Reading, so perhaps for various reasons the stretch near London has been left to last. Perhaps they want to get all the trackwork like the Action Dive-Under and the Stockley Flyover completed first!
There may have been lots of steelwork and a few wires between Reading and Didcot, but there wasn’t anything on the Cherwell Valley Line to Oxford.
Electrification May Be In Trouble Elsewhere, But The Brummies Keep Marching On
Electrification may well be in trouble with the Government delaying Trans Pennine and Midland Main Line electrification and having a strong look at that on the Great Western Main Line.
So I was interested to read this article in Rail Engineer about how a consortium is electrifying the Chase Line between Walsall and Rugeley. This is the first three paragraphs.
With electrification being high on everybody’s consciousness, the schemes to electrify the Great Western and Midland main lines have been getting all the attention. Similarly, the works in the North West and Scotland have been proceeding apace and gaining publicity but the scheme to electrify the railway from Walsall to Rugeley has managed to stay ‘under the radar’.
The scheme is, in fact, a significant step in the direction of developing the public transport system in the West Midlands by improving services on what was a relatively-forgotten part of the network. Due to be completed by December 2017, the project will allow electric trains to run between Birmingham New Street and Rugeley via the Cannock lines, providing passengers with a more reliable, efficient and greener service.
In fact, the scheme will revitalise a line which, not so many years ago, had no regular passenger services at all.
It goes on to describe how the scheme is progressing with a lot of cooperation between the various parties and not much of the usual drama.
So it would seem that not all electrification projects end up in trouble.
I shall go and take a look!
There is one fly in the ointment, though and it is detailed here in Wikipedia. This is relevant paragraph.
Gavin Williamson, Conservative MP for South Staffordshire, has campaigned to limit the speed of trains through Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay when the line is complete. He has written to transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin, requesting confirmation that trains travelling through these areas will not exceed a speed of 45 mph. He has also requested that “environmental mitigation measures” be put in place to reduce the potential impact of the electrification on residents in South Staffordshire. Network Rail had previously said that electric trains are quieter, greener and cleaner, reducing carbon emissions.
So, if in the future, you are fed up with your electric train crawling along, send your complaints to the local MP.
The Welsh Could Be Having A Lot Of Fun Playing Trains In The Cardiff Valleys
After my trip to Ebbw Vale Town yesterday, I started searching the Internet to see what projects might be in the pipeline for rail lines in the Valleys up from Cardiff.
There are a lot of routes spreading out from Cardiff, to places all over South Wales.
Currently, all lines are operated by a mixture of various types of diesel multiple unit, but David Cameron announced that the lines will be electrified in this report on the Government web site, published in November 2014. He said this.
I am delighted to announce today that we are going to press ahead with the electrification of the Valley Lines. After years of neglect, this part of Wales will finally get the infrastructure it needs with faster, more modern, more efficient trains and the impact will be huge.
Spreading the employment opportunities from Cardiff and out to the Valleys and helping hardworking people from all parts of this great nation to get on. This has only been possible because of the UK government and shows our long-term economic plan in action and working for the people of Wales.
It would be assumed that this will go ahead and it will be overhead electrification. The trains could be refurbished Class 315 electric multiple units, if this statement on their future on Wikipedia proves to be true.
On 31 May 2015, the fleet will again be divided with 44 (315818-315861) moving to TfL Rail (MTR Crossrail) with the Shenfield Metro services and the other 17 (315801-315817) to London Overground with the Lea Valley services. As most duties of the 315s will be taken over by new Class 345 Aventra trains once Crossrail is built, it has been suggested that the 315s could be cascaded to the Wales and Borders passenger franchise to be used on Valley Lines services in the Cardiff area following electrification
They may be nearly forty years old, but they aren’t bad trains and perhaps more importantly sixty-one trains will start to come available from London local services as the electrification is completed. In January, In January, I posted an article entitled Transport for London Get The Cleaners, Painters And Engineers Ready For The Shenfield Metro, so I would envisage that they will be cascaded in the best condition London could manage.
These trains are also all four carriages, so there would be more seats on the lines, if the electrics worked a similar timetable to the current diesels.
It is interesting to read this article on Wales On Line entitled Could electrification herald an expansion of the Valleys Lines trains? This is said for a start.
John Rogers, chairman of Railfuture’s South Wales branch, said: “The Welsh Government has a statutory duty to be an ecological government. Electrification brings lower maintenance costs and faster acceleration of trains. There’s historical evidence that electric trains are very popular and lead to increased patronage.
“It doesn’t make sense to electrify to a certain point and then say later, ‘We’re going to add another two or three miles. Can you come back and electrify it?’”
Don’t I just know it that when electric trains prove popular as here in East London, it is a non-stop struggle to increase the capacity to keep up with demand, by continually lengthening the Class 378 Trains on the London Overground.
So for a start, the Cardiff Valley Lines will probably eventually need all of those sixty-one trains, which can work in eight-carriage units on the busier lines if necessary.
They’ll also probably need to increase the car parking and bus frequencies at the outlying stations.
The Class 315s biggest advantage over the current diesels other than ecological and passenger comfort and space ones are that they possess better acceleration and Braking performance, although they have nominally the same top speed.
In the same article on Wales On Line this is said about the proposed extension to Hirwaun.
In February 2011, Network Rail delivered a report which the WG had commissioned into extending the Aberdare service to Hirwaun along a track now used only for occasional freight trains. The report estimated the infrastructure cost at £17m, which would include a loop line at Aberdare.
There is only one track for trains in both directions between Abercynon and Aberdare, with trains using a loop line at Mountain Ash to pass each other.
The loop is positioned to allow trains to leave each station along the line at the same minutes past each half hour.
A diesel train could not run from Mountain Ash to Hirwaun and back in time for the next service to follow 30 minutes later. Therefore an extra train would be needed for the Hirwaun extension, along with a new loop and extra signalling equipment for trains to pass each other at Aberdare.
The only scenario explored in Network Rail’s report was a service operated by today’s Sprinter and Pacer diesel trains, which date from the 1980s. However, modern electric trains would accelerate and brake faster for each station call, and promise to cut many minutes from journey times in the Valleys.
So electrification could deliver other benefits.
The article also suggests that the line I used to Ebbw Vale Town could be simpler if it were electrified.
A study by consultants for Network Rail in 2010 said the planned extension northwards from Ebbw Vale Parkway might involve constructing two tracks at the future Ebbw Vale Town station. This would incur the costs of building two station platforms and installing signalling equipment. Diesel trains would then be able to depart from the new station every 30 minutes, alternately to Cardiff and Newport.
In June 2011 Network Rail delivered a report on the Ebbw Vale line to the WG, again based ,on the service being provided by Sprinters, which said two platforms might be needed at Ebbw Vale Town. It seems likely, however, that only one track and one platform would be needed for electric trains.
I think they’ve started to create some of the new infrastructure, so the doubling of platform and stations might happen anyway.
The article finishes by listing several places, where lines could be extended.
3. Treherbert to Blaenrhondda or Blaencwm
Other sources talk about.
1. Reinstating a service to Abertillery.
2. Llantrissant to Beddau
3. St Fagans to Creigau
4. Routes out of Brigend via Tondu.
There’s certainly a lot of disused railway lines for the Welsh to speculate on. But then there were an awful lot of collieries.
So it looks like the Welsh are going to have fun in the Valleys.
In some ways it reminds me of the buzz that was felt where I grew up in Enfield in North London, when they electrified and extended the Lea Valley Lines in the 1960s.
It does all illustrate how electrification of rail lines isn’t as simple as you think, as it seems to give opportunities for more services and generate addition passenger traffic, that have other consequences.
I think the only thing we can say with any certainty, is that if the electrification goes ahead and the Class 315 trains are cascaded, then transport in and around the Welsh capital will be vastly improved.
Northern Electrics Increase Services
Today the Class 319 trains started running services from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria and Wigan North Western.
I took the pictures when I rode the 07:20 train from Liverpool to Manchester and some later when I returned to Manchester.
When I was travelling to Preston on the Sunday from Liverpool, my Class 156 train on the slow line between Wigan North Western and Preston was passed on the fast line by a Class 319 doing about a hundred. I estimated it was going fast as a couple of minutes later a Class 390 Pendolino roared past.
So it got me thinking, as to why some of the Wigan North Western services from Liverpool don’t go to Preston, as the tracked are electrified.
Then today, a student in Burnley asked me the same question, because as he said, it would make travelling from Burnley and Blackburn to Liverpool a lot easier.
There’s probably a very good reason, why they don’t!
I also asked a driver how they liked the Class 319s. He replied by saying they were waiting for more services to start out of Manchester.
He also said they were a bit bouncy on Chat Moss, where Network Rail had had trouble putiing up the overhead wires.
I have a feeling, that as Northern Rail get a few more Class 319 trains, they may do a bit of reorganisation of services around Preston.
Suppose :-
1. All Northern Rail trains between Liverpool Lime Street and Preston were to be run via Wigan North Western to a frequency of at least twice an hour by Class 319 trains. This might release some Class 156 trains.
2. The Blackburn service via Accrington, Burnley and Todmorden is extended to Preston and possibly to Blackpool North to connect with the Liverpool trains.
3. The Colne to Blackpool South service would also connect.
4. As more lines get electrified, the services would be optimised.
There’s also probably a good reason, why during the closure of the Farmsworth Tunnel, that the service via Todmorden isn’t extended past Blackburn to Preston. It could probably be something as simple as that when they planned the closure, the Todmorden Curve didn’t exist.
An Excursion To Windermere
I caught a train from Preston direct to Windermere to have a look at the town.
I walked from Windermere station to the town, which is a couple of miles downhill and rather badly signposted. Coming back I took a taxi up the hill, as I wanted to catch a train, which was dead on time and dumped me right in it at Oxenholme. But that wasn’t their fault and as expected there was a ready Virgin waiting.
I should note, that I had an excellent gluten-free lunch at Hyltons close to the lake.
The Windermere Branch Line is almost an oddity on the UK rail network, in that it is a very simple out-and-back line with no passing loops from Oxenholme that runs a better than hourly service using modern trains ( Class 185 trains). Signalling at present is non-existent and it relies on just one train being on the line at a time.
So now sixteen million pounds is going to be spent to electrify the line. Unless the line is given a modern signalling system and a better track layout, this won’t in itself give a better train service, than that at present.
Could the one platform Windermere station cope with anything more than a half-hourly four coach train?
So I suspect there is another motive behind electrifying this line.
The line has to be operated by diesels at present and this may give problems about where the trains are stabled at night, as they will need to be refuelled. And where would you park it overnight, as there is no siding at Oxenholm, so you’d have to leave it in a platform at either end of the line.
Currently, I suspect the first train in the morning comes in from Preston and then the last train of the day goes there for fuelling and an overnight clean and service.
My train direct from Preston to Windermere actually split at Preston, with the front half going to Blackpool. When Blackpool is electrified and electric trains serve that route, this splitting will not be possible, as you’d need to send a diesel train to Windermere, unless the branch was electrified.
Does an electric train working the branch give much greater flexibility in planning the schedules and providing a top class frequent service?
I think it probably does.
The only alternative to electrifying the Windermere branch is to use a battery-assisted electric train, like the one I rode in at Manningtree. But although that technology appears to be very successful, no train company would have just one of these, as what happens when it fails?
The Anonymous Widower 