Oh yeah, I am well acquainted with the Network Rail 2009 RUS! I practically gasped when I discovered it after trying to research this stuff for so long. However, I am somewhat glad I found it so late because there are some complicated caveats I have with that map which I wouldn't have known otherwise (not least how out of date it is) - though I will be using it to help flesh out some Wikipedia articles at some point (already entered some stuff for the GEML one).
That would be quite good indeed. As it stands, I'm out here piecing together some best guesses from hints and suggestions I come across. Mostly from this forum but also random corporate bulletins and the occasional highly detailed PWI seminar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flpQBPw3oPA this one is very interesting, up to date and all about power constraints on the WCML. From the slides that you can download on the website, I've got a good source for grid connections and mid-points. From this PWI seminar and another one on the West London Orbital London Overground line i've learned that there is an ATS at Hunsbury Hill (Northampton), and a TSC right out of Euston at Camden Jnc.
Thankyou! I started out my electrification obsession from his book - which is great for OLE info and for the list of installations at the end. However, he does kind of skip over feeding/P&D arrangements. The textbook (literally) layout of Feeder Station>Mid Point>Feeder Station, is almost uncommon when you start looking at how things play out in practice.
My main project was an attempt to track the change in feeding arrangements over time for lines in East Anglia. (I have here a blog for it). But I've been side-tracked for a while and at the moment I'm working on a map to visualise where the feeding boundaries are for lines in the London area. Originally I was just going to keep it FS and Midpoint, but I thought I'd add DC lines, then DC substations, then DC Track Paralleling Huts, then at that point I thought it'd be rude not to add the AC TSCs. But I have no idea where they are for WCML!
Have you seen this?
No i have not! Thank you this is very interesting. Do you have the full file you could share if it's not online anymore?
Thanks, this is very helpful! So are Kensal Green TSL and West London Jnc TSC just for the North London Line?
Yes
As one who can speak with some authority on this particular subject, that's exactly how Phase 3A was built but AT was not delivered in the Bushey Feeder Area hence Kings Langley ATS was never commissioned and is effectively mothballed.
Any chances?
Everything seems to be on hold until the spending review.
www.thetimes.com
Yes it is. Some AT prep work was done in advance but the long delayed installation of the Neutral Section at Bushey was never completed due to a myriad of issues. Bushey FS is only using one of the two incoming feeders so is effectively T-feeding to Bourne End and North Wembley.
Not much cheer as it's all about funding I'm afraid. Since all enhancements were channelled into the opaque DfT "Enhancements Pipeline" (by Grayling in 2019) which hasn't yet seen the light of day, I'd say it is pretty much dead until perhaps a catastrophic failure forces the issue. One issue for Bushey NS delay was a later proposal for it to feed in Euston (classic from North Wembley) thereby taking some of the load off of Acton Lane. All this extra design / development / time etc. delayed obtaining any extra funding for the PSU upgrade project in that area and the whole caboodle was shelved!
Would this have been all the way to Euston? So Acton Lane would then just support NLL, perhaps with it's second connection supplying T&H lines through that underground cable to Gospel Oak MPTSC.
Yes the proposal was for Bushey FS to feed all the way south into Euston. The Gospel Oak - Barking electrification extension added extra load to Acton Lane (Supply No 1) in order to feed up to the Mid Point at South Tottenham. There was an Interconnector (cable) from Acton Lane to Old Oak Common (No 1) but that was de-commissioned after (and by) the GWML electrification works.
Do you have a mileage or anything for Camden TSC? I know that there's also a DC substation by the name of Camden, but I can't really locate either on Google Earth.
What makes you think there's an interconnector from Acton Lane to Gospel Oak?
WCPSU was part of WCML upgrade from the late 1990s. Full AT end to end, to be delivered in a few years for a couple of hundred million. I can't find much info on WCRM now, perhaps too embarassing to leave online!
The seven West Coast National Grid (AT) sites were procured as part of the original WCRM budget and included in that overall total (£9.6b) so that's why you won't find them in any subsequent PSU figures. The last site to be completed was Frodsham / Weaver (2009) and cost around £32m (that's National Grid costs only).
Thanks for that, there's not as much of an obvious lineside building with bushings coming out of it one would expect so I suppose it's all connected by ducted cables from somewhere. As it happens, I chanced across the DC substation named "Camden" on about what googlemaps says no.38 Gloucester Avenue is. Also on that road, there is a squat whitewashed 1960s-ish brick building between apartment blocks and the big "number 36" block; that's my suspect for where Camden TSC's equipment is.
