Scarborough Bridge, York

[Xenophon PCDGS]

For those wishing to read of the recent upgrading works carried out on this bridge, Rail Engineer in its April 2015 issue has an interesting summation article complete with a number of pictures (one of which is also shown on the front cover) on pages 14 to 20.

 

[Ploughman]

Do Network Rail archive the site photos from their webnews pages?
Reason I ask is that Scarborough Bridge did have a series of photos but the page has now been withdrawn.
Are they viewable somewhere else?

 

[Daz9284]

it seems they have laid double track over the bridge, just over the bridge on the scarborough side the line goes to single track for about 15meters past a lineside equipment box.

couldn't they have repositioned it and made it double all the way?

regards,
darryl

 

[30907]

It was done on a shoestring with York resignalling rather than have facing and trailing crossovers.

 

[Crossover]

I think the bridge always was double track - effectively two single lines I believe, one to access the York bay (p2?) and the other to access p3/4/5

 

[John Webb]

The bridge was double track in the true sense of the word, even after the 1951 resignalling which had a double track connection from the Scarborough branch right across the platform tracks to link to the goods yards on the avoiding line. There were at that time no less than 4 bays serving the Scarbo' line!
The Scarbo' link to the goods yards and to the high-number platforms was removed during simplification in 1974. Further work took place in 1988 as part of the preparations for ECML electrification. It is this revision which introduced a short length of single line shortly before the bridge (coming from Scarbo') which eliminated the previous facing and trailing cross-overs, thereby saving on two points! It was also this work that cut the bays back from 4 to 1 plus a siding accessed from the Scarbo' line.

There is a lot of detailed information in "Britain's Rail Super Centres- York" written by Ken Appleby and published by Ian Allan in 1993. (ISBN 0-7110-2072-8)

 

[Daz9284]

is it still a bottle neck though. for all the money they have spent on the bridge, surely they could have repositioned the cabinet to allow double all the way.

is there any plans to move the cabinet etc?

as most services to scarb use plt 5 and most from scarb use plt 4

regards,
darryl

 

[Crossover]

The bridge was double track in the true sense of the word, even after the 1951 resignalling which had a double track connection from the Scarborough branch right across the platform tracks to link to the goods yards on the avoiding line. There were at that time no less than 4 bays serving the Scarbo' line!
The Scarbo' link to the goods yards and to the high-number platforms was removed during simplification in 1974. Further work took place in 1988 as part of the preparations for ECML electrification. It is this revision which introduced a short length of single line shortly before the bridge (coming from Scarbo') which eliminated the previous facing and trailing cross-overs, thereby saving on two points! It was also this work that cut the bays back from 4 to 1 plus a siding accessed from the Scarbo' line.

There is a lot of detailed information in "Britain's Rail Super Centres- York" written by Ken Appleby and published by Ian Allan in 1993. (ISBN 0-7110-2072-8)

Thanks for that very informative post. Intrigued in how the link yo the high numbered platforms worked now!

is it still a bottle neck though. for all the money they have spent on the bridge, surely they could have repositioned the cabinet to allow double all the way.

is there any plans to move the cabinet etc?

as most services to scarb use plt 5 and most from scarb use plt 4

regards,
darryl

My guess is that the bridge was merely life expired more than any re signalling. I would guess that it doesn't create a massive bottleneck (the single track section is minute!) and from reading the above, is done so to reduce maintenance costs of having a double crossover (diamond junction would it be referred as?). The cabinet location would be unlikely to cause a major headache for redoubling but I can't see there is any need to do so at the moment

 

[John Webb]

Thanks for that very informative post. Intrigued in how the link yo the high numbered platforms worked now!

My pleasure! Platform 5 is the highest number platform that can access the Scarbo' line since the 1988/89 reordering.

..... I would guess that it doesn't create a massive bottleneck (the single track section is minute!) and from reading the above, is done so to reduce maintenance costs of having a double crossover (diamond junction would it be referred as?).......

They were two separate crossovers, not ones effectively laid on top of each other with a diamond crossing in the middle. Indeed, the book I quoted above says that the 1988/89 alterations left only one diamond crossing in the whole of the station where the line from Platform 5 to Scarbo' crosses the up main line. The alterations were basically to reduce the track layout to one that met operational requirements while minimising costs both of alteration and future maintenance.

 

[66Yorks]

Do Network Rail archive the site photos from their webnews pages?
Reason I ask is that Scarborough Bridge did have a series of photos but the page has now been withdrawn.
Are they viewable somewhere else?

I found this link on the Network Rail website.

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.c...fter-scarborough-bridge-successfully-replaced

 

[edwin_m]

is it still a bottle neck though. for all the money they have spent on the bridge, surely they could have repositioned the cabinet to allow double all the way.

is there any plans to move the cabinet etc?

as most services to scarb use plt 5 and most from scarb use plt 4

regards,
darryl

The cabinet will probably be to do with signalling as will the track layout. So if the layout is going to change it is likely to be reasonably easy to get rid of the cabinet as part of the same job. The bridge replacement was just that, a bridge replacement, with the minimum of signalling work to disconnect and re-connect things.