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Leicester Station remodelling

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Senex

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Many thanks to you, and also to civ-eng-jim and londonmidland, for the photos — a picture takes the place of a good many words! And I'm glad to hear that your experience today was so much more welcoming. It's a good few years since I was a very regular user of Leicester station, but my memories of the station staff there are that they were always friendly and very helpful. It would be good to hope that your Sunday experience was just a one-off.

I don't get the impression that there has been any alteration to the curvature in the platform, and it looks as if the full length is still available as it was before. Isn't that the back of a speed-board that we can see to the left of LR413?

If so, that's presumably where the (previous) 30 southbound through the platform begins, which also suggests no change. Presumably too there has been no change to the northbound 15 all the way from London Road Jn. There's presumably a final stage to come, and it will be interesting to see what the speeds are then.
 
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John Hunt

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Many thanks to you, and also to civ-eng-jim and londonmidland, for the photos — a picture takes the place of a good many words! And I'm glad to hear that your experience today was so much more welcoming. It's a good few years since I was a very regular user of Leicester station, but my memories of the station staff there are that they were always friendly and very helpful. It would be good to hope that your Sunday experience was just a one-off.
I don't get the impression that there has been any alteration to the curvature in the platform, and it looks as if the full length is still available as it was before. Isn't that the back of a speed-board that we can see to the left of LR413? If so, that's presumably where the (previous) 30 southbound through the platform begins, which also suggests no change. Presumably too there has been no change to the northbound 15 all the way from London Road Jn. There's presumably a final stage to come, and it will be interesting to see what the speeds are then.

The platform curvature itself has not been modified at all. What has changed is the geometry of the exit from platfom 1 going north (thx for your diagram - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/leicester-station-remodelling.205530/#post-4629568 )
The passenger service which regularly uses this platform is for Derby, but freight is not uncommon although it usually uses plat 2 northbound.
This change in geometry should allow higher speeds for those freights and may see some of the freight north on plat 2 transferred to plat 1.
Time will tell and conversation with the NR guys on future visits may reveal more.
 

Senex

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It's a pity the C19 enlargements managed to ruin the southern approach to Leicester — on their original site the two main lines would have had a very fast alignment.
 

londonmidland

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It's a pity the C19 enlargements managed to ruin the southern approach to Leicester — on their original site the two main lines would have had a very fast alignment.
Interesting. Could you elaborate on that and perhaps explain what could have been different prior to C19? Thanks.
 

Senex

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Interesting. Could you elaborate on that and perhaps explain what could have been different prior to C19? Thanks.
It started off in 1840 as a single-platform station on a loop off the main lines. Very roughly, when you're in the middle of platform 2 you're round about the middle of that original platform and if you face towards 3, then the main building was behind you, accessed from Campbell Street (the stone gate-posts are still there).

A separate up platform was added in 1858, a few months after the Midland started through running to and from King's Cross over the Leicester & Hitchin line opened the year before. It was probably at the same time that a pair of goods lines past the station on the east side were also brought into use. This platform served the up main line.

A third platform, known as the excursion platform, was brought into use in 1868, and this was made by turning the 1858 up platform into an island. The big changes came in the 1890s with the building of the new station, fronting on to London Road, and the provision of the new goods lines between Knighton and London Road Jn. Platform 2, which at some stage had ceased to be a loop and had been made the down main line, thus kinking the DML both south and north of the station and producing the very visible dog's leg you see when you stand on that platform and look north, was lengthened north and south, but otherwise stayed in use and in place, but this too was now turned into an island, with the new platform 1 opening in October 1892.

The up-side island was rebuilt wider, with platform 3 also being extended north and south and the new platform 4 into use in July 1893. The whole station was finished about January 1896. But the thing that really mucked up the alignment was the final bit of widening, between Welford Road Platform and London Road Jn.

Over this section it is the passenger lines that are the new pair, to the west of the existing main lines, which became the goods lines. Doing it this way but keeping the run in to the station platforms where it was meant that the passenger lines had to get back across by the width of two tracks to make their entry to the station, and it's this, done in the brick-walled cutting, that accounts for the very awkward approach from the south and the severe speed restriction that goes with it.

The big question is why the Midland chose to do the last widening that way. Maybe the answer is that by the 1890s burials in the municipal cemetery had already come up to the railway boundary and it was easier to deal with relatively cheap property on the west side than with the need for exhumation and reburial on the east.

But if the goods lines had continued from the new Knighton Tunnel on the east side, to link up with the existing goods lines at London Road (as had been proposed about a quarter of a century earlier, before burials so close to the railway), then what was basically a full-speed alignment for the passenger lines would have remained. (Apologies for length, despite trying to be concise.)
 
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Flying Phil

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I think there has been a confusion between the current use of C-19 ...covid, and the old C-19..... nineteenth century!
 

38Cto15E

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Thank you Senex for educating us less knowledgeable Lester lads about the history of the Midland railway's southern entrance in to london Road Station. I bet that is something evenThe Red Baron wouldn't have known. :)
 

38Cto15E

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When the Diesels were re-numbered Alan used to know all the original numbers, whether he was correct I am not sure. I know he talked about Coalville a lot, did he actually work as a Second Man or Driver there?
In late 1973 time I was a guard at leicester and I applied to be a second man at Coalville but failed the eyesight test at Derby, I still feel to this day something wasn't quite right as my eyesight was excellent until my late 50's, I still only need glasses for reading now 47 years later. I had no problems with colour blindness. Ah well :)
 

1D54

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LOL. He always told us the headcodes too. As far as I recall, he was a Second Man.
Standing at the North end of platforms 3-4. He would make a note of everything that came through. Last saw him about 18 months ago sitting down at St Margarets BS.
 

midland1

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Is Alan Pool still around I did see him on platform 3 at Leicester a few year back If you do not know what TT stands for it is tandem tom as he once had one. Someone once said here comes tandem tom and the name stuck that would be about 1969-70
 

londonmidland

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A picture from a friend showing the new layout out of platform 1. The direct line into Humberstone Road is not yet in use.

373007C6-E86B-4243-9DBC-E28141C577F2.jpeg
 

LowLevel

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Alan "The Red Baron" Poole passed away towards the end of last year in a nursing home. He never was quite on planet Earth but I always found him to be a harmless chap. His gen was always utterly, 100%, wildly duff but he loved the railway and would sit and talk to literally anyone who passed about it as if they were an old friend. He was part of the furniture at Leicester station and on the Great Central Railway and I do miss his expletive ridden greetings when our paths crossed.
 

John Hunt

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I sincerely hope so. Weeds alongside the car park fence, between the running roads in plat 2 and 3 and in the stabling roads opposite plat 4.
God only knows what visitors to Leicester think of it; not a good first impression of the city.
 

londonmidland

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The question now is when will the stop board be removed from the track? Does further work need to take place which requires another weekend possession?
 

sharpley

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The question now is when will the stop board be removed from the track? Does further work need to take place which requires another weekend possession?
Theres a closure next weekend. Not sure if its linked to these works though

EDIT, interestingly its replacement buses from Leicester to Peterborough, then train to KX on sunday, according to the NR app
 
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LowLevel

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The question now is when will the stop board be removed from the track? Does further work need to take place which requires another weekend possession?

Commissioning of platform 1 to Humberstone Road via up and down goods (804B points) scheduled for week 43 January 2021. The current temporary operation has been setup not to require amendments to the Leicester Workstation. Not having to block the down fast to recess trains at HR will be hugely useful I think.
 

John Hunt

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RTT showing normal running for this coming Sunday Leicester Stn with buses south of Mkt Harborough (at the moment).
Also noticed that Traksy and Open Trains have not updated new layout yet.
Other work going on is for electrification stuff.
 

londonmidland

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Commissioning of platform 1 to Humberstone Road via up and down goods (804B points) scheduled for week 43 January 2021
Wow so at least six months until the first trains can use it. I assume the works will include amendments to signalling as well as various other things?
 

LowLevel

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Wow so at least six months until the first trains can use it. I assume the works will include amendments to signalling as well as various other things?

It requires a change to the workstation (which is why open train times etc haven't changed at the moment - the workstation still thinks it's the old layout) which will require it to be out of use presumably - I assume hence the long term planning to make it sure it is designed, implemented and the disruptive work is taken into account.
 

LowLevel

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A quick look at RTT shows normal use of the south end of plat 1 for the Leicester/Brum shuttle, and a few Pancras/Nottm services. Could RTT be wrongly reporting the Nottinghams?

No - the route has been set to be able to be used from platform 1 to down fast with the route to the up and down goods locked out. 804A points are functional to give access to and from 1 or 2, 804B are clipped up reverse with the detection cut in to 804A. The signaller's workstation shows what it did before with the ability to set the route from 1 or 2 over the points on the down fast.
 
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