Great Western Railway’s New Train
Great Western Railway have a new train.
Certainly, as they always do, this InterCity 125 has scrubbed up well!
Demolition Has Started For The New Platforms At Oxford Station
Demolition has finally started of the old parcels office at Oxford station to create the two platforms for the Chiltern service to the station.
I can’t see this being a large project, as hopefully, it will just be creating the platforms and making sure there are shelters and the other platform details.
Wikipedia says this about the two new platforms.
The scheme also includes two new platforms at Oxford station, to be built on the site of the disused parcels depot. The new platforms will initially be five carriages in length, but provision will be made for them to be extended southwards to eight carriages.
Will they be in Chiltern’s or Great Western Railway’s house style?
As Chiltern Railways coaches are in sets of six, will these platforms be built initially to handle eight coaches? It would seem to be prudent!
Also according to this section in Wikipedia, services will start in December 2016.
Main Line Electrification Between Reading And Didcot
I took these pictures of the electrification on the main lines between Reading and Didcot.
All the masts seem to be erected, but there is stil quite a lot of wires to add.
The Victorian Methods Worked
In Victorian Construction Methods, I noted how the Crossrail contractors, were throwing men and traditional methods into getting Hayes and Harlington station ready for the start of a Hayes Shuttle on the 16th of May.
These pictures, which I took today, would appear that they have made substantial progress.
Intriguingly, when I looked at the time-table a few days ago, I think it changed on the 16th of May. Now only one service has been moved backward by two minutes.
It would appear that perhaps Great Western Railway haven’t finalised the time-table yet. Perhaps they haven’t obtained the required trains yet!
From Ladbroke Grove To Ealing Broadway
I took a train to West Drayton this morning and on the way, I took these pictures of the Crossrail works . The map from carto.metro.free.fr, shows the line between Ladbroke Grove and Ealing Broadway station.
Labroke Grove To Ealing Broadway
These are the pictures I took on the same stretch of line.
The pictures show various features of the line.
- The route by which empty trains move between Paddington station and the depots at Old Oak Common.
- The depots at Old Oak Common.
- Where the Acton-Northolt Line leaves the Great Western Railway.
- The Acton Yard
- The now almost-complete Acton Dive-Under.
This Google Map of the Acton Dive-Under was probably captured a few months ago.
The Acton Dive-Under
Note the buttresses and how the other lines cross over between them.
The best information I can find on the structure of the Acton Dive-Under is this article from IanVisits. Ian sums up the Acton Dive-Under like this.
When it is all finished, that small but complex bit of work, a single line of track in a cutting will do more to cut delays on the mainline into Paddington that could ever be appreciated by its simple size and design.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the knowledge learned in this project, put to good effect in other places on the UK rail network.
Incidentally, it looks like the project cost around twenty million.
The Engineers Have Been Busy
When I went to Bath about a month ago, I wrote Electrification At Didcot Parkway – 29th March 2016.
Today, as I went through the area on my way to Bristol, most of the masts appeared to have been erected, with about half the wires over the slow lines and even some going up over the fast lines.
Past Didcot, there are now rows of piles on both sides of the railway, with some almost as far West as Chippenham.
There is still a lot to do, but I think it has been a good month for the engineers.
Hayes Shuttles To Start
This is the headline on an article in the May 2016 Edition of Modern Railways about the May 15th timetable changes. This is said.
Great Western Railway had planned a launch of electric services using Class 387/1 EMUs transferred from Govia Thameslink Railway with the start of the new timetable on 15 May. The operator was to use the ‘387s’ on a series of peak hour shuttles between Paddington and Hayes and Harlington, but delays to the introduction of Class 700s on Thameslink services mean the cascade of ‘387s ‘ has also been delayed.
I have searched the Oracle (National Rail’s Journey Planner) and can find just one extra train from Paddington, which is a new service at 07:15 going to Hayes and Harlington.
The Oracle also shows that the first two services of the day on the Greenford Branch only go as far as West Ealing after May the 15th.
How many people from the Greenford branch will be complaining about the loss of their early morning trains to Paddington?
The Modern Railways article also suggests, that as Bombardier have been making good progress on the building of the eight extra Class 387 trains, that these might be delivered in the summer, to enable GWR to run more services. As some of the Porterbrook trains have been promised to c2c before the end of the year, that means that GWR’s extra trains will be delivered before December 2016, as they are first in the queue.
The article says that a full service can’t be run until infrastructure works at the East of Hayes and Harlington station is completed.
I think we’ll see a gradual improvement of electric services between Paddington and Hates and Harlington over the rest of this year.
These questions will certainly be answered.
- When will the bay platform at West Ealing station for Greenford Branch Line trains be opened?
- Will the bay platform at West Ealing station be electrified?
- Will the eight extra Class 387 trains have an IPEMU-capability, as had been rumoured in Modern Railways?
- How much acrimony is being heaped on Siemens about the non-delivery of the Class 700 trains?
- Are the bosses of Great Western Railway and Govia Thameslink Railway still talking?
- Will Porterbrook add to their order of twenty extra Class 387 trains?
It does seem to me, that the big winners out of this mess, could well be Bombardier and Porterbrook.
I also feel that there will be some surprises between now and the end of the year.
I will keep most of my predictions to myself!
However, it would appear that if there was a plan to create an IPEMU variant of the Class 387 trains, the non-delivery of the Class 700 trains, has effectively made this plan difficult and late.
Electrification At Didcot Parkway – 29th March 2016
On the 25th of March, I wrote Electrifying Didcot Parkway, after I passed through Didcot Parkway station on the way to Oxford.
Yesterday, as I passed through on the way to Bath, I took this picture of the forest of masts at the station.
A Forest Of Masts At Didcot Parkway
It does appear to me, that more have gone up over Easter, but because WordPress doesn’t let me look at galleries, I can’t be sure.
I also took this picture looking towards Oxford.
Masts Marching Towards Oxford
It would appear that the electrification is going to go at least as far as Didcot North Junction, where the West Curve from the direction of Swindon joins the Cherwell Valley Line. This schematic was clipped from Wikipedia.
Didcot To Oxford On The Cherwell Valley Line
And this is a Google Map of the same area.
Didcot To Oxford
I estimate that from Didcot North Junction to Oxford station is about ten or twelve miles.
This would mean that if an IPEMU could reach Didcot Parkway station using overhead electrification, it could undoubtedly reach Oxford and then get back to Didcot.
Between Reading and Didcot, it would appear that the wires are going up.
Wires Between Reading And Didcot
This picture shows the wires over the two slow or relief lines.
The Great Western Main Line Through Bath Spa Station
This Google Map shows the route of the Great Western Main Line through Bath Spa station.
The Great Western Main Line Through Bath
Trains from Bristol come in from the West with London to the East and the layout certainly wasn’t designed to be simple.
- Bath Spa station is on a viaduct hemmed in by the river.
- The railway crosses the River Avon twice.
- The railway is on a raised viaduct to the West.
- Bath is a World Heritage Site.
It is not the place, where you would want to electrify a major railway Line.
These are pictures I took of the Great Western Main Line through Bath.
It is certainly not how, you would create a railway today.
Electrifying The Great Western Through Sydney Gardens In Bath Spa
The Great Western Railway runs i through Sydney Gardens in Bath. This picture shows an InterCity 125 running through the gardens.
An InterCity 125 Passes Through Sydney Gardens
Note.
- There is plenty of width, as the line was built for broad gauge trains.
- Height might a bit tight, when you add in the pantograph.
- I would think that the structure under the track is pretty sound, as it’s had masses of pounding for years from Castles, Kings, Warships and InterCity 125s.
- I suspect that the bridges over the line have been fully surveyed and like most of Brunel’s structures are well designed.
So I suspect that the track could be arranged, so that it positioned the train in the right place, to allow a Class 800 train to pass through with absolute safety.
The tracks could be moved closer or further apart to match the geometry of the bridges.
The tracks could be lowered if required.
If necessary, as is often done in tunnels, a solid concrete slab track could be laid. But this can create more noise.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see an innovative rail system used in Sydney Gardens to make sure the trains run accurately, reduce noise and improve the look of the railway.
But then after Dawlish and some of the challenging situations, Network Rail has faced with tracks in the last few years, I suspect they’ll come up with a very acceptable solution.
The problem is the electrification.
Engineers will renew switches and crossings at Bathampton Junction, and will lower the track at Sydney Gardens, as well as at Hampton Mill and Meadow Farm bridges.
They will install specially designed electrification equipment in Sydney Gardens, which is classed as a World Heritage Site. Work on Box Tunnel will continue over the entire six-week period.
So as I thought height is tight.
This was a comment from the article.
When these plans were presented in the Guildhall last year, the Network Rail representative emphasised that the brackets hadn’t been finalised. The poor guy had the patient of a saint as he dealt with audience members insisting that trains be fitted with batteries to enable them to do without overhead lines in Bath as well as suggesting that they could coast through the city un-powered.
I don’t think it was a good meeting for Network Rail.
As an engineer, I agree with the comment about battery trains, but the Class 800 trains are not to my knowledge able to accept batteries at the present time. Although, judging by the way the industry is going, I suspect that within a few years, all electric trains will have provision for batteries, if the operator wants them.
In some ways, I feel that Brunel might be providing the solution.
To erect overhead wires for railway electrification, you need to support the wires every fifty metres or so.
This Google Map shows the gardens.
Sydney Gardens, Bath
Note there is a solid road bridge over the railway at both ends of the gardens, with Beckford Road in the North and Sydney Road in the South.
I estimate that the distance between the two road bridges is two to three hundred metres.
In the middle is the footbridge from where I took the picture of the InterCity 125 and another wider bridge.
As the trains will not be going flat out at 200 kmh through here, as they’ll probably be stopping at Bath Spa station, I suspect that the four bridges could be used as support for the overhead electrification.
This Network Rail visualisation shows the footbridge with a Class 800 train going underneath.
Sydney Gardens Bridge And A Class 800 Train
It looks to me, that the wires are attached under Brunel’s bridges and that by clever design tNetwork Rail can get an solution acceptable to all.
One of the problems, is of course making sure, that pedestrians on the bridge are safe, with 25KVAC overhead electrification underneath.
By lowering the track, they are increasing the safety distance and also making it less likely that naughty dogs can get on the track.
I have a feeling that this problem, will be one that will haunt Network Rail.
This picture was taken from the Sydney Road bridge and shows the area of the visualisation.
The Footbridge In Sydney Gardens, Bath
As the train appears to be on the left track, the visualisation actually shows the back of a train.
This is a gallery of pictures that I took in Sydney Gardens.
It would be a shame to ruin the gardens, by some less than adequate design.
The Anonymous Widower 