Blackpool - Manchester Electrification

LDECRexile · 5 Aug 2015

Joe Callaghan has kindly sent a film of rather different action at Farnworth.

I've added it to Joe's album here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157651953947345

and to the Combined Volume here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648767927083

Thank you Joe.

Does anyone know dates for the following:

1. Orlando St Bridge demolition and crane-in of new span?
2. Soho St Bridge demolition?
3. Grimeford Lane Bridge demolition and crane-in of new span?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Wrinkley has kindly sent some shots he took at Ladybridge and Lostock Footbridge today.

I've added them to his album here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157654034635234

and to the Combined Volume here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648767927083

Thank you Wrinkley

RailUK Forums

Darren R · 6 Aug 2015

Living beside the railway at Darwen, one thing that really surprises me whilst the line is shut for upgrade is just how much of a spectator sport the work has become. It's a relatively minor job, (and there really isn't that much to see!) yet I watch in amazement as cars park outside the house every day and the occupants disappear on to the neighbouring bridge. Sometimes they have cameras, but mostly they don't and just come to observe. The same phenomenon can be observed at every bridge in town!

Is it the same at Farnworth and other locations?

(Or is it just that Darwen is so boring that this is the most exciting thing to have happened in the town since Gandhi visited!

)

Ploughman · 7 Aug 2015

It will make a change from watching that other highlight of local life.
Watching the traffic lights change.

Class 170101 · 8 Aug 2015

Ploughman said:
It will make a change from watching that other highlight of local life.
Watching the traffic lights change.

They change regularly then? :P

ironstone11 · 8 Aug 2015

Dixie said:
Did anyone find out whether there is somewhere to watch the TBM working its way into the old tunnel? Is it worth going up there in the morning or will there be nothing to see?

For those not able to monitor Pinit, latest pictures show that Fillie has moved some distance into the tunnel. The first two thirds of the section of the TBM with the Company names ,logos etc is now past the new concrete portal.

Another picture shows debris pouring off the conveyor into one of the large dump trucks.

LDECRexile · 8 Aug 2015

Joe Callaghan has kindly sent five photos, two of progress north of the tunnel and three of Fillie disappearing.

I've put them in Joe's album here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157651953947345

and in the Combined Volume here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648767927083

Thank you Joe

snowball · 10 Aug 2015

Last year's works at Chorley have won a couple of awards and are candidates for another:

http://premierconstructionnews.com/2015/08/10/challenging-tunnel-project-wins-industry-recognition/

Warning: I don't trust Premier Construction magazine. Last year when I was searching for information about the rebuilding of Pont Briwet I found a couple of features which totally failed to mention the major problems with the scheme that were being widely reported elsewhere.

LDECRexile · 10 Aug 2015

Bill Morton has kindly sent two shots of work in hand at Skew Bridge.

Bill asks if anyone can shed any more light on the nature of the problems.

I've added them to Bill's album here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157650900509369

Thank you Bill.

I'm delighted that a new contributor has joined, rejoicing in the flickr name THE REAL MAD HAGGIS (I hope he doesn't consider it an impertinence if I call him 'Haggis' for short.) Haggis's material covers Ladybridge, west of Bolton.

Like Ian Fitter, with his fine set of shots of the reconstruction of Ridgway Bridge, Haggis prefers to present his material in his own way. He has therefore kindly agreed to me placing a link to one of his albums in the Combined Volume.

My Mk1 approach with Ian's material some months ago was to attach it to a few Ridgeway photos. The trouble with this is that it has become buried under the mountain of material which has been added since.

I have therefore devised Mk2, which is to add Photo 9999m which will always appear as the first photo in the Combined Volume. The 'Comments' below this photo link to Ian's and Haggis's albums respectively. If (yippee!) other people agree to link their albums in the future I'll add those links to that same 9999m photo.

I've also added Bill's latest shots to the Combined Volume, here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/sets/72157648767927083

Welcome aboard THE REAL MAD HAGGIS.

snowball · 10 Aug 2015

LDECRexile said:
Bill Morton has kindly sent two shots of work in hand at Skew Bridge.

Bill asks if anyone can shed any more light on the nature of the problems.

Picture 4822n seems to show that the reconstruction of the southern parapet of Skew Bridge is now at about the stage where the northern one was when I saw it on 2 August as described in #1430.

I'm not sure about the polystyrene formers. They suggest the concrete is hollow. Looking at the said picture, the rebar sticking up looks as though it might be a bit inboard of where the original parapet was? Perhaps the new parapets have to be a bit thicker and therefore hollow???

WatcherZero · 11 Aug 2015

Transport Secretary will be visiting Farnworth tunnel today.

PDG1949 · 11 Aug 2015

WatcherZero said:
Transport Secretary will be visiting Farnworth tunnel today.

Does this mean he'll become an affiliate ??

randomtrain · 11 Aug 2015

Does anyone happen to know how much the journey times will be improved between bolton and manchester?

Currently it says "faster" trains on all the literature without specifying how much faster they will be.

thealexweb · 11 Aug 2015

randomtrain said:
Does anyone happen to know how much the journey times will be improved between bolton and manchester?

Currently it says "faster" trains on all he literature without specifying how much faster they will be.

Network Rail say the journey time from Preston to Manchester will fall from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. So maybe a couple of minutes of that will come from the Bolton to Manchester section?

QueensCurve · 11 Aug 2015

WatcherZero said:
Transport Secretary will be visiting Farnworth tunnel today.

My nipples explode with delight.

snowball · 11 Aug 2015

The Twitter feed has two pictures of him with Fillie:

https://twitter.com/networkrailnp

One of them is also used in a DfT press release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-boost-for-northern-powerhouse-farnworth-tunnel

The "tailskin" (rearmost cylindrical part) seems to be still in the open air. The timetable for restoring full service on the line requires them to average about 6m a day. It seems well short of that so far.

Inox · 11 Aug 2015

thealexweb said:
Network Rail say the journey time from Preston to Manchester will fall from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. So maybe a couple of minutes of that will come from the Bolton to Manchester section?

and is that just on the TPX services?

im sure before the change in timetables the Northern Rail services took about 43 minutes from Manchester Vic to just Buckshaw...

doesn't matter. My journey time will be shortened eventually....

swt_passenger · 11 Aug 2015

snowball said:
I'm not sure about the polystyrene formers. They suggest the concrete is hollow. Looking at the said picture, the rebar sticking up looks as though it might be a bit inboard of where the original parapet was? Perhaps the new parapets have to be a bit thicker and therefore hollow???

I've seen polystyrene blocks just like those used by NR contractors to form a 'bridge' across the track between platforms when moving plant and materials around; notably at Reading. The various notches basically line up with the rails, and the pile of blocks is built up to platform level.

Reading Station Rebuilding - late December 2013 by Julian Walker, on Flickr

Is something like that a possibility here, e.g. they are just piled up for convenient storage?

snowball · 12 Aug 2015

A press release arising from yesterday's visit:

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.c...machine-starts-work-on-bolton-railway-upgrade

The biggest tunnelling machine in Britain has started work near Bolton as part of a Network Rail project to electrify one of north-west England’s busiest rail routes.

At 9m in diameter at its cutter head, Fillie the Farnworth tunnel boring machine is bigger than the machines used to build London’s Crossrail (7.1m), the Thames Tideway ‘super sewer’ (8m) and even the Channel Tunnel (8.8m).

Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, visted the site yesterday (11 August) to see first-hand how the tunnel is being constructed and find out more about the benefits it will deliver.

po8crg · 12 Aug 2015

Inox said:
and is that just on the TPX services?

im sure before the change in timetables the Northern Rail services took about 43 minutes from Manchester Vic to just Buckshaw...

doesn't matter. My journey time will be shortened eventually....

You tend to get better improvements on stoppers than on expresses from electrification because of the better acceleration. Obviously, a non-stop train is always faster than one that stops, but the gap falls.

Increases to the PSRs tend to work the other way, especially where they are to the maximum, rather than improvements to slow curves and junctions.

snowball · 12 Aug 2015

Bolton News:

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news...rail_service__during_Farnworth_Tunnels_visit/

Manchester Evening News:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.../were-still-track-northern-powerhouse-9837927

Railway Gazette:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/uks-biggest-tbm-rebores-farnworth-tunnel.html

GRALISTAIR · 12 Aug 2015

QUOTE " The machine is working on schedule — having bored out 10 metres of the 270-metre tunnel so far and is scheduled to have trains running through it on October 5"

so 10/270 = 1/27th - lets be generous 1/25th = 4% and they say that is on schedule - wow - I must have done a different kind of maths.

LNW-GW Joint · 12 Aug 2015

GRALISTAIR said:
QUOTE " The machine is working on schedule having bored out 10 metres of the 270-metre tunnel so far and is scheduled to have trains running through it on October 5"
so 10/270 = 1/27th - lets be generous 1/25th = 4% and they say that is on schedule - wow - I must have done a different kind of maths.

Not forgetting that quite a lot of local route work is required after the TBM has finished, to get it into its final state (track, signalling, stations etc).
Hopefully they will put in some of the electrification fixings through the tunnel as well.

stockport1 · 12 Aug 2015

GRALISTAIR said:
QUOTE " The machine is working on schedule — having bored out 10 metres of the 270-metre tunnel so far and is scheduled to have trains running through it on October 5"

so 10/270 = 1/27th - lets be generous 1/25th = 4% and they say that is on schedule - wow - I must have done a different kind of maths.

Is the tunnel to be slabtracked or ballasted ? what will the gauge be w12? Also any info regarding the cess/refuges and lighting if anyone has any

Thx

snowball · 12 Aug 2015

I suppose there might be some justification for 10m progress being described as on target. The first metre (and the last!) are the hardest as they involve getting through the stone face walls. Also as somebody said it will take them time to get the hang of the job and of the machine.

I suspect that the track will be ballasted, given that the machine will leave a circular profile hole and a lot of fill will be required just to get up to formation level. I also suspect it will be compatible with W12 gauge.

GRALISTAIR · 12 Aug 2015

snowball said:
I suppose there might be some justification for 10m progress being described as on target. The first metre (and the last!) are the hardest as they involve getting through the stone face walls. Also as somebody said it will take them time to get the hang of the job and of the machine.

I suspect that the track will be ballasted, given that the machine will leave a circular profile hole and a lot of fill will be required just to get up to formation level. I also suspect it will be compatible with W12 gauge.

I hear what you are saying and I am usually an optimist myself - but the last thing we need is yet another electrification project late.

Good news - QUOTE " It was also confirmed that the line between Wigan and Bolton will be electrified, enabling electric trains to run via Bolton between Wigan and Manchester Victoria and also Wigan and Manchester Airport." END QUOTE

thealexweb · 12 Aug 2015

Inox said:
and is that just on the TPX services?

im sure before the change in timetables the Northern Rail services took about 43 minutes from Manchester Vic to just Buckshaw...

doesn't matter. My journey time will be shortened eventually....

The press release that figure was quoted from did not mention any operators by name if I recall correctly, but I imagine TPE is what the Department for Transport was referring to.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

GRALISTAIR said:
I hear what you are saying and I am usually an optimist myself - but the last thing we need is yet another electrification project late.

Good news - QUOTE " It was also confirmed that the line between Wigan and Bolton will be electrified, enabling electric trains to run via Bolton between Wigan and Manchester Victoria and also Wigan and Manchester Airport." END QUOTE

Oh good. Perhap the 3tph Wigan -> Bolton -> Manchester timetable will be kept. There has been lots of recent talk about rerouting the Southport to Manchester Airport via Bolton to use the Walkden route permanently.

snowball · 12 Aug 2015

thealexweb said:
Oh good. Perhap the 3tph Wigan -> Bolton -> Manchester timetable will be kept. There has been lots of recent talk about rerouting the Southport to Manchester Airport via Bolton to use the Walkden route permanently.

However Wigan Wallgate isn't to be electrified because of the low bridge, so Southport trains will remain diesel. Electric Bolton-Wigan trains will have to run to North Western.

LDECRexile · 12 Aug 2015

snowball said:
However Wigan Wallgate isn't to be electrified because of the low bridge, so Southport trains will remain diesel. Electric Bolton-Wigan trains will have to run to North Western.

Readers may (or may not) be interested in this which I shared with a local politician recently. He showed 'polite interest'.

snowball · 12 Aug 2015

GRALISTAIR said:
Good news - QUOTE " It was also confirmed that the line between Wigan and Bolton will be electrified, enabling electric trains to run via Bolton between Wigan and Manchester Victoria and also Wigan and Manchester Airport." END QUOTE

Also confirmed in the (mostly re-) announcements surrounding the ministerial visit are the alterations to platforms at Lime Street, which have been the subject of speculation on here recently:

http://maps.dft.gov.uk/northern-powerhouse/index.html

However there is no mention of the Halton Curve or the resignalling in that area.

ianhr · 13 Aug 2015

GRALISTAIR said:
I hear what you are saying and I am usually an optimist myself - but the last thing we need is yet another electrification project late.

Good news - QUOTE " It was also confirmed that the line between Wigan and Bolton will be electrified, enabling electric trains to run via Bolton between Wigan and Manchester Victoria and also Wigan and Manchester Airport." END QUOTE

Was there any mention of Man Vic-Stalybridge? Is this still to go ahead or has it been dumped along with TP North?

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