HOPS what's happened to it?

[fflint]

After all the publicity about it a few years ago and how it would speed up the new electrification work it seems to have disappeared from view. What has happened and is it working?

 

[pdeaves]

It is (well, they are) regularly running from their base in Swindon. OK, the system is not as effective as was originally expected but they are still hard at work.

 

[fflint]

Thank you for the reply pdeaves.
I thought that there would have been lots of pictures and articles in the Railway press and on line.
Is it only working at present on the GW electrification?

 

[hwl]

Thank you for the reply pdeaves.
I thought that there would have been lots of pictures and articles in the Railway press and on line.
Is it only working at present on the GW electrification?

Apparently it had an unfortunate habit of "finding" buried signalling cables (soon to be replaced anyway in some areas) on the GWML, best not to publicise what is causing the signal failures?

 

[swt_passenger]

I just spent about half an hour (without success) searching for a NR presentation (given to some local authority or other) that I read a few weeks ago, but one of the significant details that I remembered was that the HOPS was only going to install about 60% of the gantries or cantilevers on the GWML scheme, a key point made was that 38% of piling would be done by 'conventional' road rail machinery.

Can anyone else remember reading that presentation and can give a steer to where I found it?

 

[TheKnightWho]

Apparently it had an unfortunate habit of "finding" buried signalling cables (soon to be replaced anyway in some areas) on the GWML, best not to publicise what is causing the signal failures?

So it's working as efficiently as expected, but I assume a lot of the time is spent fixing unexpected problems like that?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I just spent about half an hour (without success) searching for a NR presentation (given to some local authority or other) that I read a few weeks ago, but one of the significant details that I remembered was that the HOPS was only going to install about 60% of the gantries or cantilevers on the GWML scheme, a key point made was that 38% of piling would be done by 'conventional' road rail machinery.

Can anyone else remember reading that presentation and can give a steer to where I found it?

The NR Environmental Statement for the project (2012) page 31 uses a figure of 80%, which excludes places like stations, junctions and sidings.
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse...ental Statements&root=\projects\Great Western

The HOPS train would be used to carry out the majority of the installation works (currently
assumed as more than 80%). However, there would be places, such as stations, complex
junctions and sidings, where the HOPS train would not be the optimum means of OLE installation.

The CP5 milestones also say that the Oxford and Newbury branches will be wired "conventionally".
It's always possible they have revised the 80% downwards.

 

[jimm]

Thank you for the reply pdeaves.
I thought that there would have been lots of pictures and articles in the Railway press and on line.
Is it only working at present on the GW electrification?

It only works at night, so not exactly the most promising subject for photographers. And one of the magazines, Rail possibly, did an article about it recently.

 

[pdeaves]

It only works at night, so not exactly the most promising subject for photographers. And one of the magazines, Rail possibly, did an article about it recently.

Outside of the night hours, if you happen to travel between Swindon and Didcot you can get a good look at them being prepared for that night's work at their depot just outside Swindon station. Obviously they aren't working, but interesting to look at nonetheless.

 

[HowardGWR]

It only works at night, so not exactly the most promising subject for photographers. And one of the magazines, Rail possibly, did an article about it recently.

June 21st the best night for a photo then?

 

[FlippyFF]

I just spent about half an hour (without success) searching for a NR presentation (given to some local authority or other) that I read a few weeks ago, but one of the significant details that I remembered was that the HOPS was only going to install about 60% of the gantries or cantilevers on the GWML scheme, a key point made was that 38% of piling would be done by 'conventional' road rail machinery.

Can anyone else remember reading that presentation and can give a steer to where I found it?

I found this from AMEY
http://www.infrarail.com/_downloads/pdf/db/Infrarail-2014-Amey-.pdf

 

[WatcherZero]

Didn't it also have some problem in commissioning too leading to a delayed entry into service?

 

[ironstone11]

I just spent about half an hour (without success) searching for a NR presentation (given to some local authority or other) that I read a few weeks ago, but one of the significant details that I remembered was that the HOPS was only going to install about 60% of the gantries or cantilevers on the GWML scheme, a key point made was that 38% of piling would be done by 'conventional' road rail machinery.

Can anyone else remember reading that presentation and can give a steer to where I found it?

I can't extract the URL for this, which is a NR/Amey 20 page presentation, but if you Google "hops electrification train" (without the quotes) it is the 7th item down, starting with the word "PDF".