East-West Rail (EWR): Oxford-Bletchley construction progress

[swt_passenger]

Chiltern drivers will also have to do the traction learning on the class 196s which I presume WMR driver trainers will assist in the early days. With route learning it will be the the freight drivers who will learn first so I would assume that the Chiltern driver trainers will join them. The very first trainers will have gone out during the construction stage and where necessary walked the parts of the line checking sightings, turnouts etc.

I expect there’s a fairly accurate VR simulation of the whole route as well nowadays?

 

[12LDA28C]

Chiltern drivers will also have to do the traction learning on the class 196s which I presume WMR driver trainers will assist in the early days. With route learning it will be the the freight drivers who will learn first so I would assume that the Chiltern driver trainers will join them. The very first trainers will have gone out during the construction stage and where necessary walked the parts of the line checking sightings, turnouts etc.

I very much doubt Chiltern drivers will be route learning with freight drivers, that's not how it works. I expect route-learning trains will run using either the 196s or other Chiltern traction as required, with the Driver Managers and Assessors learning it first, then the Instructors and then finally the rank-and-file drivers.

 

[The Planner]

Depends where from. I'm not sure it's easier to find a path up the WCML north of Milton Keynes than it is via the Cherwell Valley.

Cherwell Valley isnt that easy either as you are either threading them across Coventry and Nuneaton, or trying to get them up through Dorridge and Landor St.

Useful from Daventry, Northampton Gateway and the midlands when the Cherwell Valley is closed or disrupted.

It will actually allow some more engineering access as you get hardly any along the Cherwell Valley as it is.

I've often wondered if there was scope for a reversing crossover between Crewe and Sandbach to allow freights from Basford Hall to access the Trent Valley lines via Stoke, to avoid crossing moves at Colwich.

EDIT: I think that quite a lot of stone trains have different routings for loaded and empty wagons, to avoid gradients.

That would stitch up the Crewe to Sanbach section a treat. By the time you found a gap as well as needing to top and tail you would be nigh on at Stafford.

Correct.....as do the Liverpool-Drax biomass trains for the same reason - mainly to avoid the loaded trains causing disruption by stalling on the steep gradient between Manchester Victoria and Miles Platting. However this routing via Northwich, Stockport and Denton actually causes a number of conflicting moves.

They run too heavy full stop for Miles Platting bank. They have little other choice apart from Castlefield, which is also nigh on impossible. Heaton Norris is the biggest issue they cause.

 

[chris2]

Nice drone footage of the Calvert / HS2 intersection. At around 10mins you can see some work happening on the Aylesbury spur.

 

[Vilhelm22]

Nice drone footage of the Calvert / HS2 intersection. At around 10mins you can see some work happening on the Aylesbury spur.

Brilliant footage you've got there Chris, and good to see the work plodding along. Very glad about the Aylesbury spur after the hesitation there was now that it appears to be properly happening. I'm on the old London-Aylesbury line (ex-M&GCJR) so this connection will come in very handy for me in the future.

 

[swt_passenger]

Brilliant footage you've got there Chris, and good to see the work plodding along. Very glad about the Aylesbury spur after the hesitation there was now that it appears to be properly happening. I'm on the old London-Aylesbury line (ex-M&GCJR) so this connection will come in very handy for me in the future.

There’s been a fair number of videos that show the Aylesbury Spur civils being progressed, but I’m not sure if that supersedes previous discussions that have consistently suggested track laying is something in the distant future. EWR website still shows the link to Aylesbury as a dotted line, a “potential future section”.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Nice drone footage of the Calvert / HS2 intersection. At around 10mins you can see some work happening on the Aylesbury spur.

That bridge at 1:55 and 12:45 looks rather large. The one to the North of EWR on HS2. It seems to be much wider than the road it will cater for (currently crossing HS2 a little further South). The bridge also seems to be long enough to go over four tracks of HS2 - I suppose there could be a junction there with a branch heading off ESE towards the Calvert Depot ?.

 

[DavidGrain]

Surely HS2 have an obligation to restore the Aylesbury Link having severed it at Quainton. However that very likely cannot be enforced until HS2 is completed and we are still talking about mid 2030s for that.

 

[swt_passenger]

That bridge at 1:55 and 12:45 looks rather large. The one to the North of EWR on HS2. It seems to be much wider than the road it will cater for (currently crossing HS2 a little further South).

Looks like the bridge possibly allows for the curve of the road, and decent sight lines for drivers.

The bridge also seems to be long enough to go over four tracks of HS2 - I suppose there could be a junction there with a branch heading off ESE towards the Calvert Depot ?.

That’s exactly why it’s double width, but there’s only one track into the depot, the east side opening. Theres a diagram in an earlier post, here you are:

East-West Rail (EWR): Oxford-Bletchley construction progress

There used to be 3 or 4 footpaths crossing the railway between Launton Bridge and the old Launton station. Does the one footbridge serve them all? Looks like it - I can't find a really nice set of docs that were around last year, but this map has the detail: Network Rail rights of way doc

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[12LDA28C]

There’s been a fair number of videos that show the Aylesbury Spur civils being progressed, but I’m not sure if that supersedes previous discussions that have consistently suggested track laying is something in the distant future. EWR website still shows the link to Aylesbury as a dotted line, a “potential future section”.

It's been confirmed on this forum that the 'Aylesbury spur' will be completed within the next five years, so not too distant.

Surely HS2 have an obligation to restore the Aylesbury Link having severed it at Quainton. However that very likely cannot be enforced until HS2 is completed and we are still talking about mid 2030s for that.

Yes indeed and it's been mentioned that Calvert Household Waste facility will be reopening in 2027 so there will need to be a rail connection relaid before then.

 

[DavidGrain]

Yes indeed and it's been mentioned that Calvert Household Waste facility will be reopening in 2027 so there will need to be a rail connection relaid before then.

Unless I misunderstood a map a couple of years ago the waste facility will be on the other side of the HS2 and Aylesbury tracks.

 

[12LDA28C]

Unless I misunderstood a map a couple of years ago the waste facility will be on the other side of the HS2 and Aylesbury tracks.

Yes it is being relocated but will still be rail-served.

 

[swt_passenger]

Unless I misunderstood a map a couple of years ago the waste facility will be on the other side of the HS2 and Aylesbury tracks.

That’s right, the waste handling sidings will be on the east side of the Aylesbury line, with various road alterations to reach the plant which is west of HS2. I found there’s a link to some planning drawings in post #337.

 

[zwk500]

Unless I misunderstood a map a couple of years ago the waste facility will be on the other side of the HS2 and Aylesbury tracks.

https://assets.publishing.service.g...274a5eb14e7b54/C222-ATK-CV-DPP-020-000009.pdf (from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-plan-and-profile-maps-euston-to-chetwode) shows the sidings on the East side of HS2 with a road transfer link, along with the curve to EWR being realigned.

 

[chris2]

Brilliant footage you've got there Chris, and good to see the work plodding along. Very glad about the Aylesbury spur after the hesitation there was now that it appears to be properly happening. I'm on the old London-Aylesbury line (ex-M&GCJR) so this connection will come in very handy for me in the future.

For the avoidance of doubt, not my own work. Agreed, very good to see work progressing and given that they’re installing channels to run underneath the embankment, they’re clearly doing more than just moving earth around. I think @The Planner addressed the scheduling point upthread and basically said that installing tracks too soon would just get in the way of the HS2 works.

 

[kevin_roche]

Nice drone footage of the Calvert / HS2 intersection. At around 10mins you can see some work happening on the Aylesbury spur.

HS2's depot: https://assets.publishing.service.g.../file/378380/C222-ATK-CV-DPL-020-000016_0.pdf

View attachment 106010

There is no sign of the southern access bridge to the infrastructure depot which was shown in the earlier map. Does anyone know the details of what has changed? Is it no longer needed?

 

[swt_passenger]

There is no sign of the southern access bridge to the infrastructure depot which was shown in the earlier map. Does anyone know the details of what has changed? Is it no longer needed?

Withdrawn. It was mentioned in an HS2 presentation (linked in an earlier post), that it would simplify the build.

Here you are:

East-West Rail (EWR): Oxford-Bletchley construction progress

There used to be 3 or 4 footpaths crossing the railway between Launton Bridge and the old Launton station. Does the one footbridge serve them all? Looks like it - I can't find a really nice set of docs that were around last year, but this map has the detail: Network Rail rights of way doc

www.railforums.co.uk

A few months later in 2022 I mentioned that the south curve and bridge had been withdrawn, and that it had probably been missed by forum members. The HS2 online maps of the Calvert IMD area still show it, and have since been regularly reposted or linked, which possibly explains why it’s gone under the radar a bit…

 

[RGM654]

Apologies if this was mentioned yonks ago, but I realise only now that the GC formerly crossed above the Bletchley-Oxford line, the latter being then in cutting, now needing an embankment. No doubt there is a good reason for the swap, but what is it?

BTW, next time it would be good if the drone footage could be accompanied by a commentary ("We're currently looking north/east/whatever": "this is so-and-so") instead of the captions that require redirection of gaze and the useless music (which can at least be avoided by turning sound off).

 

[swt_passenger]

Apologies if this was mentioned yonks ago, but I realise only now that the GC formerly crossed above the Bletchley-Oxford line, the latter being then in cutting, now needing an embankment. No doubt there is a good reason for the swap, but what is it?

I think it keeps the changes in HS2 vertical curves within a tighter tolerance, and helps reduce the visual impact both north and south of the intersection. IIRC they also wanted the IMD buildings to be relatively low down in the landscape. So presumably that would originally have set the level for the HS2 junctions, especially when there was still going to be a Southern access.

I expect someone might know more but I think a high speed line can cope with fairly steep gradients, but not successive close up/down changes. That would suggest that HS2 going under the existing road bridge level when passing Calvert then rising to go over EWR within a kilometre might be too much of a change. And thinking about this a bit more it might have been the key issue, the School Hill “green overbridge” at Calvert is a big structure but will have to maintain the nearby road level, so to increase gauge clearance to UIC GC under it the HS2 formation at that point probably has to be a bit lower than the original GC level.

If you look at the HS2 online map of the area it shows in a diagram below the map the track gradient in red and the landscape level in green:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f5724e5274a2e8ab4b960/C222-ATK-CV-DPP-020-000009-FPD.pdf

BTW, next time it would be good if the drone footage could be accompanied by a commentary ("We're currently looking north/east/whatever": "this is so-and-so") instead of the captions that require redirection of gaze and the useless music (which can at least be avoided by turning sound off).

It is probably better to comment on this sort of thing directly on YouTube, I don‘t think the video owner is a member here.

 

[DavidGrain]

Apologies if this was mentioned yonks ago, but I realise only now that the GC formerly crossed above the Bletchley-Oxford line, the latter being then in cutting, now needing an embankment. No doubt there is a good reason for the swap, but what is it?

I am a little confused by this question. The GC Line which crossed the Bletchley Oxford Line no longer exists so I do not understand why you are saying that it now needs an embankment. The embankment in the Calvert area is now needed for the East West Railway to cross over the HS2 line which is the determining factor

 

[jfowkes]

Apologies if this was mentioned yonks ago, but I realise only now that the GC formerly crossed above the Bletchley-Oxford line, the latter being then in cutting, now needing an embankment. No doubt there is a good reason for the swap, but what is it?

I am a little confused by this question. The GC Line which crossed the Bletchley Oxford Line no longer exists so I do not understand why you are saying that it now needs an embankment. The embankment in the Calvert area is now needed for the East West Railway to cross over the HS2 line which is the determining factor

They're saying that when the GC existed, the Varsity Line went under it. Now HS2 "replaces" the GC but EWR is going over it. Why the change?

I can imagine lots of reasons, but chiefly I imagine that it's a cost thing. One of the lines needs a bridge to go over the other, and a bridge on EWR is going to cost less both in capital costs and maintenance, because the traffic levels and dynamic forces are so much lower. HS2 is also on a slight curve at Calvert and EWR is straight, I imagine that could add some complication to an HS2 bridge.

 

[swt_passenger]

I am a little confused by this question. The GC Line which crossed the Bletchley Oxford Line no longer exists so I do not understand why you are saying that it now needs an embankment. The embankment in the Calvert area is now needed for the East West Railway to cross over the HS2 line which is the determining factor

I think it was a reasonable question, passing next to Calvert you’d naturally think the HS2 formation would be at the former GC level. Having checked the levels diagram, (and edited my earlier reply a few times), I now think it’s almost certainly been done to remove a sudden change of gradient on HS2.

 

[jfowkes]

I think it was a reasonable question, passing next to Calvert you’d naturally think the HS2 formation would be at the former GC level. Having checked the levels diagram, (and edited my earlier reply a few times), I now think it’s almost certainly been done to remove a sudden change of gradient on HS2.

You could keep HS2 at the same level throughout and dig EWR under it though. The question is, why put EWR on an embankment+ bridge and not in an cutting with an HS2 overbridge?

 

[swt_passenger]

You could keep HS2 at the same level throughout and dig EWR under it though. The question is, why put EWR on an embankment+ bridge and not in a cutting with an HS2 overbridge?

I’m suggesting the level of HS2 at the intersection was constrained by overall gradients quite a significant distance either side of that point. Perhaps at the optimum level for HS2 then EWR might have had to be too low? It might have had an impact on local watercourses?

 

[zwk500]

You could keep HS2 at the same level throughout and dig EWR under it though. The question is, why put EWR on an embankment+ bridge and not in an cutting with an HS2 overbridge?

EWR has to meet it's existing infrastructure at some point - I'm fairly sure the line rises to the east so going under HS2 may well have required a lot more earthworks on either side to get the line down and back up, especially if there are existing bridges to worry about.

 

[snowball]

There may also be drainage reasons why not to create too deep a cutting in that area. There are lakes adjacent to the crossing point.

 

[edwin_m]

EWR has to meet it's existing infrastructure at some point - I'm fairly sure the line rises to the east so going under HS2 may well have required a lot more earthworks on either side to get the line down and back up, especially if there are existing bridges to worry about.

The HS2 infrastructure depot has to tie into HS2 at one end and EWR at the other, and its tracks must be level or almost so. This is a large site that needs a lot of earthworks, so keeping it close to existing ground level reduces cost and visual impact. All these factors place constraints on the elevation of EWR versus HS2 and the designers would have looked at all these issues before choosing the option they did.

 

[kevin_roche]

Withdrawn. It was mentioned in an HS2 presentation (linked in an earlier post), that it would simplify the build.

Here you are:

East-West Rail (EWR): Oxford-Bletchley construction progress

There used to be 3 or 4 footpaths crossing the railway between Launton Bridge and the old Launton station. Does the one footbridge serve them all? Looks like it - I can't find a really nice set of docs that were around last year, but this map has the detail: Network Rail rights of way doc

www.railforums.co.uk

A few months later in 2022 I mentioned that the south curve and bridge had been withdrawn, and that it had probably been missed by forum members. The HS2 online maps of the Calvert IMD area still show it, and have since been regularly reposted or linked, which possibly explains why it’s gone under the radar a bit…

Thank you. I had missed that completely.