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Market Harborough Station Upgrade

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Flying Phil

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There is now a path from the new car park to the new platformsDSCF6714.JPG
I did try to get permission to photograph on site ....but was told "No"..
 
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sharpley

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Thanks for the photos Flying Phil. From your pics today, the signal gantry to the south of the station has been removed now. Only the trackside concrete precast platform sides have been installed on the southbound platform. I assume the full length of this platform wont be available for some time yet. Looks like its all running to plan
 

swt_passenger

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Thanks for the photos Flying Phil. From your pics today, the signal gantry to the south of the station has been removed now. Only the trackside concrete precast platform sides have been installed on the southbound platform. I assume the full length of this platform wont be available for some time yet. Looks like its all running to plan
One of the above photos (the first of post #360) shows there’s quite a significant height difference between the subway steps and the level of the up platform precast units. The planning drawings do suggest a couple of extra steps would be needed, but it seems to me it will all look a bit odd with the present roof effectively being either too short, too low, or both?

Will be interesting to see the end product...
 

Flying Phil

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swt - you are quite correct, it will be interesting to see how that works out.
They have just passed the "Inspection" and so will definitely be opening on schedule tomorrow. They are just cleaning up now so I will get some proper photographs tomorrow....but not of the first few trains!
 

swt_passenger

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swt - you are quite correct, it will be interesting to see how that works out.
They have just passed the "Inspection" and so will definitely be opening on schedule tomorrow. They are just cleaning up now so I will get some proper photographs tomorrow....but not of the first few trains!
Good news. Will look out for the pics tomorrow.
 

Flying Phil

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.....and here they are! Complete with the first Southbound through train at 4.50.......DSCF6731.JPG DSCF6732.JPG DSCF6739.JPG
As can be seen, the South half of the Southbound platform (2) is still to be finished over the next 6 months and the car park will be extended up to the new station.
 

Flying Phil

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The cross overs to the North have a 25mph speed limit and the new signals are between them and the new platforms. There is a 50mph TSR on the new formation. The track to the South has been slewed slightly and also has a 50mph TSR.DSCF6727.JPG DSCF6741.JPG

All credit to those many workers involved on delivering a much improved station "on time" and I believe "on budget".
 

Flying Phil

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The first stopping train at the busy platform. Lots of checking for clearances.....DSCF6744.JPG
 

Flying Phil

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What is the length difference between an HST and the current usable southbound platform length and how well are the coping?
There were just about the first 6 coaches on the platform with the HST, so it is about the same as before at present. However I think they will get the rest of the platform built in the next few weeks. it all seems to be going well this morning.
Thanks Wymo, I wasn't sleeping so I thought I might as well get up!
 

InOban

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Credit must go not just to the contractors but to the team who planned the project. Awards are due.
And thanks, Flying Phil, for keeping us all so well informed.
 

Senex

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A splendid record of the project, for which a huge thank-you. You may be able to answer one small question. Have the old Midland Railway mileposts been re-used, or have they just been abandoned and replaced by the very utilitarian modern style? (As to the northern half of the original project, I do hope I might just live to see it done one day, and that you will be able to create the same sort of record for us.)
 

Bald Rick

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A splendid record of the project, for which a huge thank-you. You may be able to answer one small question. Have the old Midland Railway mileposts been re-used, or have they just been abandoned and replaced by the very utilitarian modern style? (As to the northern half of the original project, I do hope I might just live to see it done one day, and that you will be able to create the same sort of record for us.)

On the subject of mileposts, as the new route is straighter it is also a few yards shorter. Is someone out relocating mileposts everywhere from Market Harborough to Carlisle? :lol:
 

Senex

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On the subject of mileposts, as the new route is straighter it is also a few yards shorter. Is someone out relocating mileposts everywhere from Market Harborough to Carlisle? :lol:
In this case there’s about a chain in it, I believe. But then which sequence of mileposts is a perfect record? (DB actually have rules for handling situations where the hectometres aren’t quite right.);)
 
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70014IronDuke

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Thanks for the piccies. To be honest, it's totally unrecognisable from what it was. Unless you say which way we are looking, I simply don't know if it's facing the up or the down. What is the new speed limit going to be, do we know? One thing for sure, any firemen still alive who remember coming round the curve at 50 mph (or was it 55 mph?) and then facing Desboro Bank will be wishing it had been done decades ago. Must have been a right old slog on a Jubilee with 10 on.
 

swt_passenger

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Thanks for the piccies. To be honest, it's totally unrecognisable from what it was. Unless you say which way we are looking, I simply don't know if it's facing the up or the down. What is the new speed limit going to be, do we know?
Post #334 on the previous page provides a signal diagram explaining speeds etc, but it’s 85 mph both ways.
 
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Flying Phil

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Post #334 on the previous page provides a signal diagram explaining speeds etc, but it 85 mph both ways.
Interestingly I looked back in the MML Electrification thread and there was a Network Rail presentation dated March 2016 (Post #869 P29) which outlines the project and on P20 shows the old station linespeed as 60 and the new linespeed to be 110mph.....however that was when the curve at Great Bowden was also going to be straightened to raise its linespeed to 110mph from 85mph...which of course it still is, as that improvement was taken out. So it looks like that curve is now restricting the speed improvement possible through the station.....
 

edwin_m

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Interestingly I looked back in the MML Electrification thread and there was a Network Rail presentation dated March 2016 (Post #869 P29) which outlines the project and on P20 shows the old station linespeed as 60 and the new linespeed to be 110mph.....however that was when the curve at Great Bowden was also going to be straightened to raise its linespeed to 110mph from 85mph...which of course it still is, as that improvement was taken out. So it looks like that curve is now restricting the speed improvement possible through the station.....
Although the tightest part of the curve near the southern platform ends has gone, the curve further south remains. This is also shown as 85mph in the previous post and I would expect that to be the maximum physically possible without a huge deviation well outside the boundary. With that constraint I doubt 110mph at Great Bowden is acheivable. Can someone passing through note exactly where the acceleration stops northbound and the braking starts southbound in that area?

It's possible an EMU could do slightly better if the wires extended that far, but I suspect the northern part of the scheme was de-scoped due to costing a lot more per second saved with whatever traction type, rather than because the assumed traction went from undefined electrics to undefined bi-modes in diesel mode.
 

Senex

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Although the tightest part of the curve near the southern platform ends has gone, the curve further south remains. This is also shown as 85mph in the previous post and I would expect that to be the maximum physically possible without a huge deviation well outside the boundary. With that constraint I doubt 110mph at Great Bowden is acheivable. Can someone passing through note exactly where the acceleration stops northbound and the braking starts southbound in that area?

It's possible an EMU could do slightly better if the wires extended that far, but I suspect the northern part of the scheme was de-scoped due to costing a lot more per second saved with whatever traction type, rather than because the assumed traction went from undefined electrics to undefined bi-modes in diesel mode.
It's the long curve south of the station that was going to be 90 but has ended up at 85, presumably dictated by the fact that the Great Bowden curve cannot go above 85 and so it simply looked sensible to keep the whole section at that value. The new layout of the station area is for 110, but to get that at Great Bowden you have to revert to the old Midland alignment, and that's the bit that hasn't been done. (Cheese-paring in the Midlands and North? Cf. Leicester Station Speed-Improvement Project, Manchester P, Manchester OR, etc.)
 

Flying Phil

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Hi Edwin - on the NR presentation, it shows that the curve to the South of the station was at 75 mph linespeed leading into 60mph through the station. The planned straightening was to allow 90mph on the curve with little change to alignment and then a steady 110mph through the station and Great Bowden.
Still the brighter news was that the construction workers are expecting the wires to go to "just North of the Station"......
 

hwl

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Hi Edwin - on the NR presentation, it shows that the curve to the South of the station was at 75 mph linespeed leading into 60mph through the station. The planned straightening was to allow 90mph on the curve with little change to alignment and then a steady 110mph through the station and Great Bowden.
Still the brighter news was that the construction workers are expecting the wires to go to "just North of the Station"......
The track through the bridge has obviously been aligned for that...
 

edwin_m

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My guess is that the change from planned 90mph to 85mph on the curve was for reasons other than Great Bowden. 90mph there would have allowed 90mph through the whole realigned section and I suspect a train could gain a few seconds by that even if Great Bowden remained at 85.

Looking at the old alignment the radius of the curve coming in from the south tightened considerably as it went into the platforms, which is not surprising as this is the part that would have been re-aligned when the third and fourth tracks were built through the recently removed platforms. There were also crossovers on this curve, and complications with cant as a result of these features probably explains why the old speed on the larger radius part was considerably less than what would normally be possible on that sort of curve.

As I've posted before, the logical place to end the wires is one train length beyond the Up direction signals protecting the crossovers, so electric trains can reverse north of the crossovers to return south from the Up platform. Those signals are now visible as the two "lollipops" on one of the photos, just north of Great Bowden Road bridge. Allowing for wire termination I think that would put the last OLE support somewhere near the footbridge.
 
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DanDaDriver

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That is why if you look at the pages from the drivers notice of the new layout you will see new banner repeat signals for LR212 & 214 in the up direction located in a position to be seen from the south end of the platform or within the 1st few metres after departure. LR212 & 214 are located near Little Bowden foot crossing as was but is now the bridge.

Can confirm that the banner repeaters are not visible in the Up direction from the present stopping point or the future stopping point.
 

Senex

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Can confirm that the banner repeaters are not visible in the Up direction from the present stopping point or the future stopping point.
Was there nothing like a signal sighting group involving drivers before the final decisions on placement were taken?
 

edwin_m

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When starting away from the platforms as if on proceed aspects, do they come into view early enough to allow a comfortable stop at the signals if the banners are "on"?
 
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