• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Market Harborough Station Upgrade

Status
Not open for further replies.

martinr1

Member
Joined
3 Nov 2010
Messages
148
I was good to see the new arrangements yesterday and congratulations are due to everyone involved in handing back the station on schedule.

 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Flying Phil

Established Member
Joined
18 Apr 2016
Messages
1,924
Today work is continuing on building the foundations for the South end of Platform 2, and at the North end they are building a ramp for wheelchair access from the (to be extended) car park. They are also tidying up the site and separating the mixed hardcore into "lumpy" and "dusty".DSCF6755.JPG DSCF6756.JPG
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,259
Your first picture suggests it won’t take too long to do the platform. I’d expect that will be in use long before the expanded carpark.
 

Flying Phil

Established Member
Joined
18 Apr 2016
Messages
1,924
Your first picture suggests it won’t take too long to do the platform. I’d expect that will be in use long before the expanded carpark.
I think it will be completed in the next 4 - 6 weeks and the car park by December in the plan.
 

Legolash2o

Member
Joined
27 Sep 2018
Messages
601
Didn't Market Harborough have a siding at the station? Can't see it in the pics.
 

70014IronDuke

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2015
Messages
3,686
I don't think it did

I don't know how it'd been 'rationalised' in the past 25 years, but it had much more than 'a siding' originally. Well into the 70s the LNWR side was still largely extant, with a water tower which used to double as a small engine shed, for example.
It's difficult to judge from the videos, but it looks to me as if the new alignment runs over where the shed and sidings (and links to the Midland side) used to be.

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 ....

I'm sure this is a 'recent' PSR, that is to say, post- introduction of HSTs. In steam-Peak days, I'm pretty sure it was 50 or 55 mph. Mr Senex...where are you when needed?
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,259
Didn't Market Harborough have a siding at the station? Can't see it in the pics.
There were short sidings on the up side, accessed from south of the station; early photos in this thread (eg post 41) record them being lifted prior to the main works starting.
 

Kettledrum

Member
Joined
13 Nov 2010
Messages
790
There were short sidings on the up side, accessed from south of the station; early photos in this thread (eg post 41) record them being lifted prior to the main works starting.

...and the old Goods Shed too that was only demolished as part of these works. It's amazing it lasted as long as it did really.
 

38Cto15E

Member
Joined
1 Nov 2009
Messages
997
Location
15E
There were sidings on the upside where the new car park is, this included cattle pens. The pick up to Wellingborough used to drop off cattle at Harborough, sometimes the pick up could not leave Leicester on time as the cattle were late arriving on 7F26 from Stoke/Crewe/North Wales/ Ireland?
 

DanDaDriver

Member
Joined
5 May 2018
Messages
338
There were sidings on the upside where the new car park is, this included cattle pens. The pick up to Wellingborough used to drop off cattle at Harborough, sometimes the pick up could not leave Leicester on time as the cattle were late arriving on 7F26 from Stoke/Crewe/North Wales/ Ireland?

I remember being told that the abutments just north of the station were for a bridge that used to take cattle over the line.
 

Senex

Established Member
Joined
1 Apr 2014
Messages
2,752
Location
York
I don't know how it'd been 'rationalised' in the past 25 years, but it had much more than 'a siding' originally. Well into the 70s the LNWR side was still largely extant, with a water tower which used to double as a small engine shed, for example.
It's difficult to judge from the videos, but it looks to me as if the new alignment runs over where the shed and sidings (and links to the Midland side) used to be.



I'm sure this is a 'recent' PSR, that is to say, post- introduction of HSTs. In steam-Peak days, I'm pretty sure it was 50 or 55 mph. Mr Senex...where are you when needed?
It was 40 in Midland Railway days, but by Peak days it had already become 50 — indeed, it was 50 by the time the first full set of BR Appendixes were issued in 1960. I suspect that change actually came in LMS days. The rise to 60 was in the 1980s and I think came at the same time as Wigston from 70 to 80, Great Bowden from 70 to 85 and so on when the enhanced curving rules were applied to the Midland line.
 

mr_jrt

Established Member
Joined
30 May 2011
Messages
1,400
Location
Brighton
AFAIK, there was an engineer's siding where the car park now is, which is why the bridge to the south is wide enough for three tracks - and there were still three until recently. Do hope the car park developments don't preclude any hope of an additional platform or two in the future...
 

edwin_m

Veteran Member
Joined
21 Apr 2013
Messages
24,793
Location
Nottingham
AFAIK, there was an engineer's siding where the car park now is, which is why the bridge to the south is wide enough for three tracks - and there were still three until recently. Do hope the car park developments don't preclude any hope of an additional platform or two in the future...
I seem to recall, probably from someone on here, that the two sidings recently put in at Knighton were for engineering vehicles, as a replacement for those at Market Harborough.

The car park is planned to come right up to the back of the new Up platform, pretty much as it did with the old one. More new platforms would be difficult because the ones now in use will extend almost to the road bridge so any diverging tracks would need that bridge to be widened, points on the curve, and perhaps also partial demolition of the station building. No trains are scheduled to terminate, and the crossovers allow them to do so if there is ever a need, so there's no real reaon for more platforms.
 

Bald Rick

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Sep 2010
Messages
29,070
AFAIK, there was an engineer's siding where the car park now is, which is why the bridge to the south is wide enough for three tracks - and there were still three until recently. Do hope the car park developments don't preclude any hope of an additional platform or two in the future...

Why would it need more platforms?

No trains are scheduled to terminate, and the crossovers allow them to do so if there is ever a need, so there's no real reaon for more platforms.
Indeed. No need at all. The service would need to at least double before platform capacity at Harboro became an issue, and there would be plenty of other constraints on the line to solve before that.
 

mr_jrt

Established Member
Joined
30 May 2011
Messages
1,400
Location
Brighton
Re: platforms I'm talking in the long-term, not any time soon. It's been discussed to death before why loops probably wouldn't be worth it, but if any eventual 3 or 4 tracking between Leicester and Kettering were to happen it'd be nice not to have to worry about a shiny new bottleneck, that's all.
 

edwin_m

Veteran Member
Joined
21 Apr 2013
Messages
24,793
Location
Nottingham
If extra loops were needed then there are several former loop sites, and if those weren't suitable there are rural sections where the formation could be widened. If four-tracking end to end it would be better to build an entirely new set of fast lines which would avoid Market Harborough and other built-up areas completely.
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
Re: platforms I'm talking in the long-term, not any time soon. It's been discussed to death before why loops probably wouldn't be worth it, but if any eventual 3 or 4 tracking between Leicester and Kettering were to happen it'd be nice not to have to worry about a shiny new bottleneck, that's all.

There are 4 tracks already....it's just that 2 of them happen to go via Corby.
 

Spartacus

Established Member
Joined
25 Aug 2009
Messages
2,907
But via Corby is a huge detour, so not really that usable

It wouldn't necessarily be passenger services diverted that way. Really I can't see the need for quadrupling Kettering to Wigston North Jn, reinstating the 4th line between Kettering and Sharnbrook and improving headways via Corby and Manton Jn would be of much greater use.
 

DanDaDriver

Member
Joined
5 May 2018
Messages
338
It wouldn't necessarily be passenger services diverted that way. Really I can't see the need for quadrupling Kettering to Wigston North Jn, reinstating the 4th line between Kettering and Sharnbrook and improving headways via Corby and Manton Jn would be of much greater use.

The fourth line is being reinstated.
 

adamedwards

Member
Joined
4 Apr 2016
Messages
796
There are of course 2 new fast lines due to open in 2033 by passing Market Harborough and indeed Leicester.
 

edwin_m

Veteran Member
Joined
21 Apr 2013
Messages
24,793
Location
Nottingham
... and indeed Derby and Nottingham too!
Indeed, so the MML will still need the same mix of fast and semi-fast trains to provide service to Leicester (and arguably to Derby/Nottingham) that don't benefit from HS2. However with most of the Sheffield and some of the Derby/Nottingham passengers off the MML there shouldn't be any need to increase service significantly (even if constraints south of Bedford allowed it) and therefore no real reason to consider four-tracking.
 

InTheEastMids

Member
Joined
31 Jan 2016
Messages
718
I remember being told that the abutments just north of the station were for a bridge that used to take cattle over the line.

Yes, this historic map gives a flavour of the layout when this bridge was in use
https://slu3a.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/RE-32.jpg

Re: platforms. The only circumstances where more platforms might be neededv are probably if HS2 is canned, other MML capacity schemes are done, there's high passenger growth and maybe there's reopening of stations like Kibworth & Desborough and new stopping services... ie very, very unlikely

And a good point that post-HS2 there will still be pressure for fast services from Leicester, to keep the economy competitive with better-served cities in the Midlands
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top