Great Western Electrification Progress

[LNW-GW Joint]

This is on the Crossrail website:-
Western Section Works Programme
Electrification:-
Enabling Works Started:-Mar 2014
Construction Starts/Started:- Summer 2014
Works Complete:- Dec 2015
Does this now include Maidenhead to Reading?

Not directly.
Crossrail contracts cover Airport Jn-Maidenhead, the contractor is Balfour Beatty.
GW Electrification covers Maidenhead-Reading and beyond, contractor Amey.
But the overall electrification Paddington-Reading(-Oxford/Newbury/Bristol) has to be ready for Dec 2016 to allow IEP/EMU operation, irrespective of Crossrail.

 

[Unclepete]

Hi All,
Does anyone have any update on how the the piling is coming along between Reading & Didcot? I assume driver training is done, so they have started yes?

thanks,

 

[76020]

Hi All,
Does anyone have any update on how the the piling is coming along between Reading & Didcot? I assume driver training is done, so they have started yes?

thanks,

Last Saturday I travelling from London to Swindon and there is plenty of pilling activity between Reading and Didcot, they seem to be working from Moreton Junction, just east of Didcot, towards Reading. There are many steel tubes that have been sunk at the Didcot end but start to fizzle out the more east you go.
The new flyover at Reading is good making progress, there is solid structure from end to end now, and at Airport Junction bits of the new flyover are now in place.
On the signalling side there are loads of new locations west of Airport Junction and new AWS magnets now go all the way up to Reading, again from Airport Junction.
I see there is more bridge demolition scheduled for this Christmas, i.e. Thorney Lane bridge just east of Iver station.

http://www.iverparishcouncil.gov.uk...ion_clearance_work_by_thorney_lane_bridge.pdf

also Horlicks Bridge, Stoke Poges Lane looks like going at the same time
http://www.sloughexpress.co.uk/News/All-Areas/Slough/Drivers-warned-of-bridge-closure-09042014.htm


They better get a move on, 2 years and 7 months and counting.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

They better get a move on, 2 years and 7 months and counting.

I get the impression they have not got going in earnest yet.
There was a report that the Windhoff electrification train consist was on test runs between Swindon and Taunton.
What the point is of sending it to Taunton I don't know!
There should also be activity starting east of Maidenhead with different kit (Balfour Beatty).

 

[59CosG95]

On the Crossrail bombshell, the new Stockley flyover's now in place.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Rail is reporting that the GW electrification is running late and over budget - not good news.
Apparently they are using conventional plant because the high-output kit is delayed.

 

[fgwrich]

On the Crossrail bombshell, the new Stockley flyover's now in place.

Is the Stockley Flyover the new GWML to Heathrow flyover? If it is then I've got to say it's quite an impressive structure, being a curved steel viaduct. They've also worked rather fast on the approaches recently then as last week they were slotting together the last of the concrete panels on the Hayes & Harlington approach end and filling in what they had already been doing, but hadn't finished the ramp to viaduct concrete section - which is poured and casted concrete.

Rail is reporting that the GW electrification is running late and over budget - not good news.
Apparently they are using conventional plant because the high-output kit is delayed.

In a way that doesn't surprise me, given the timescales and how far and how much work they seem to have carried out so far - Some of the Piles in the Reading Station and Depot area I noticed have been done by RR Plant with detachable Piling heads - usually parked in what is now Network Rails Plant depot, formally the former twin road Reading Depot Fueling point - But having said that, Network Rail have been using the high-output MPVs as I passed it in service east of Pangbourne last month on the Night Riviera.

 

[WatcherZero]

NR do put much of the blame for delays at the feet of local councils with issues around securing the neccesary road closures.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

NR do put much of the blame for delays at the feet of local councils with issues around securing the neccesary road closures.

Hmm. None of that happened on the north-west project.
I can understand it for eg bridge reconstruction, but the electrification work itself is pretty much self-contained on rail.

 

[LexyBoy]

First three set of gantry supports (is that the right word? The tall steel jobs.) outside Reading area went up overnight, just east of Pangbourne.

 

[davetheguard]

First three set of gantry supports (is that the right word? The tall steel jobs.) outside Reading area went up overnight, just east of Pangbourne.

Masts?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

First three set of gantry supports (is that the right word? The tall steel jobs.) outside Reading area went up overnight, just east of Pangbourne.

Only 11,997 to go then...(or is it 5,997 pairs?)
I think stanchion might be the posh term for the big vertical things.

 

[davetheguard]

First three set of gantry supports (is that the right word? The tall steel jobs.) outside Reading area went up overnight, just east of Pangbourne.

And eleven in a row beside the Down Main near Cholsey on Saturday afternoon.

 

[59CosG95]

Only 11,997 to go then...(or is it 5,997 pairs?)
I think stanchion might be the posh term for the big vertical things.

If it were 11,997 to go, there would be 5998 and ½ stanchion pairs to go! Likewise, if there were 5997 pairs, there would be 11,994 stanchions total to install. This of course assumes that all stanchions are single width...

 

[deltic08]

If it were 11,997 to go, there would be 5998 and ½ stanchion pairs to go! Likewise, if there were 5997 pairs, there would be 11,994 stanchions total to install. This of course assumes that all stanchions are single width...

This poster obviously has time on his hands!

 

[59CosG95]

This poster obviously has time on his hands!

And a calculator...

 

[aylesbury]

Every week on the BBC Oxford news there is an item about bridge closures causing motorists problems and stopping them traveling to work etc.

Various pompous councillors pop up bleating about how awful NR are in daring to improve the infrastructure, but they all have one thing in common; no comprehension of what's involved.

 

[steevp]

Noticed today that there are now about 12 stanchions installed either side of the tracks between Didcot and Cholsey

 

[steevp]

Another group of stanchions seen between Didcot and Cholsey on Tuesday (nearer Cholsey this time) and one of the spans across all of the tracks (sorry don't know what they are called)

 

[The Decapod]

Various pompous councillors pop up bleating about how awful NR are in daring to improve the infrastructure, but they all have one thing in common; no comprehension of what's involved.

If the improvements are causing inconvenience to people, they're entitled to have a moan, even if the inconvenience is unavoidable and the improvement will bring future benefits. It's human nature.

 

[jimm]

Every week on the BBC Oxford news there is an item about bridge closures causing motorists problems and stopping them traveling to work etc.

Various pompous councillors pop up bleating about how awful NR are in daring to improve the infrastructure, but they all have one thing in common; no comprehension of what's involved.

Sorry, but given the way Network Rail has handled the bridge programme, particularly in the Vale of White Horse, councillors and the people they represent have every right to be hacked off in a number of cases. You appear to have no comprehension of what the results of some of the resulting road closures would be and why people were angry.

Just one case in point was the initial proposal to simply close the main A338 north from Wantage and Grove to Abingdon and Oxford for months, with no alternative other than a long detour most of the way towards Didcot. As a result of the protests, I think the current proposal is instead to build the new bridge alongside. Not sure what's happening on the A417 from Wantage to Faringdon, but again any realistic diversion route is very long and on less than fantastic roads.

 

[route:oxford]

Sorry, but given the way Network Rail has handled the bridge programme, particularly in the Vale of White Horse, councillors and the people they represent have every right to be hacked off in a number of cases. You appear to have no comprehension of what the results of some of the resulting road closures would be and why people were angry.

Just one case in point was the initial proposal to simply close the main A338 north from Wantage and Grove to Abingdon and Oxford for months, with no alternative other than a long detour most of the way towards Didcot. As a result of the protests, I think the current proposal is instead to build the new bridge alongside. Not sure what's happening on the A417 from Wantage to Faringdon, but again any realistic diversion route is very long and on less than fantastic roads.

The trouble is across the Vale, NIMBYS have fought day after day to stop new housing developments.

With new developments comes new and improved road infrastructure. So start saying "Yes" to new schools, health centres, shops, roads & homes and there will be alternative routes.

First thing to build should be the A34M running from Swindon past Didcot and across to Aylesbury and Milton Keynes. It would open up vast swathes of the countryside and improve the lives of millions.

 

[davetheguard]

The trouble is across the Vale, NIMBYS have fought day after day to stop new housing developments.

With new developments comes new and improved road infrastructure. So start saying "Yes" to new schools, health centres, shops, roads & homes and there will be alternative routes.

First thing to build should be the A34M running from Swindon past Didcot and across to Aylesbury and Milton Keynes. It would open up vast swathes of the countryside and improve the lives of millions.

A34M? No thanks; East - West Rail will do quite nicely for trips to Milton Keynes thank you!

 

[starrymarkb]

A34M? No thanks; East - West Rail will do quite nicely for trips to Milton Keynes thank you!

I think they're meaning something to Parallel the A43 for SW/South Wales -> East Coast traffic. - M4-A34 is about 15 miles longer (and is pretty hilly)

 

[The Planner]

Talk of sorting out a Swindon Milton Keynes road has been going on for decades and has never got anywhere. Bypasses for Aylesbury and Wing were all put forward and routes chosen but all were canned. They don't stand a chance of getting anything agreed across that part of the country. The proposed airport fell flat on its arse and whatever happened to the big reservoir plan at Steventon?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Modern Railways for July (p18) has a piece on GW electrification delays, with details of the bridge rebuilding problems.
There is a long list of issues over cost and timescale, and NR admit they do not have a fully defined cost and plan for the project.
Among the list of issues is the incomprehensible news that the signalling gantries erected between Patchway and East Usk (Newport) in 2010, as part of the Cardiff resignalling scheme, do not have OHLE clearance and will have to be raised.
Wiring of the relief lines east of Cardiff is also apparently problematic because of the cost overruns.

 

[Rich McLean]

Another group of stanchions seen between Didcot and Cholsey on Tuesday (nearer Cholsey this time) and one of the spans across all of the tracks (sorry don't know what they are called)

Not Head Spans I hope

EDIT: They are Headspans

 

[HSTEd]

Gantries everywhere would be gold plating in the extreme.

 

[swt_passenger]

Gantries everywhere would be gold plating in the extreme.

There are no headspans in the Reading area, they are mostly four track gantries over plain line, and various cantilevers once the tracks 'fan out' for the station throats.

I'm sure someone in the know has previously said ECML style headspans will no longer be put up unless essential to the particular location.

 

[HSTEd]

Yes, and such is an example of gold plating in the extreme.

From the number of times people moan about it you would think that the ECML was non functional because the headspans fall over every five seconds or something.

I am not convinced the business case for abandoning them really makes that much sense. Especially with the balooning cost of electrification.