Island Line Upgrade updates

[Chris125]

Apologies if this has been asked upthread - are Sandown and Ryde loops being retained in addition to the new loop at Brading?

Correct.

 

[Ianno87]

I think so!

Correct.

Thanks both!

 

[northernbelle]

More progress at Brading - southern turnout in place, track lowered as far as the platform, and the cattle creep converted to a culvert.

View attachment 90490
View attachment 90491
View attachment 90492
View attachment 90493

It really is wonderful to see. The line has felt distinctly run down for at least a decade so this is very welcome.

 

[PeterY]

Thank you for sharing photos northern belle. Attachment 90493 looks like it could've been in Scotland

 

[Ploughman]

Is all the ground dumped spoil going to be Lifted? Landscaped? or Left?

 

[Gloster]

Signs of work at Ryde Esplanade today. Three men taking delivery of builders bags of what looked like lumpy porridge (but probably wasn’t) and having them stacked alongside the line adjacent to the trap points at the end of the disused ‘shuttle’ line along the pier.

 

[Chris125]

It looks like they may have filled in the old subway at Ryde Esplanade this morning - there's been much activity on the second platform this week which appeared to involve contractors accessing it, and now the esplanade webcam showed concrete being piped towards it's location this morning.

Anyone here used it?

 

[michael8]

It looks like they may have filled in the old subway at Ryde Esplanade this morning - there's been much activity on the second platform this week which appeared to involve contractors accessing it, and now the esplanade webcam showed concrete being piped towards it's location this morning.

Anyone here used it?

Interesting! I didn't know there used to be a subway under the line here!

 

[MarkyT]

It looks like they may have filled in the old subway at Ryde Esplanade this morning - there's been much activity on the second platform this week which appeared to involve contractors accessing it, and now the esplanade webcam showed concrete being piped towards it's location this morning.

Interesting! I didn't know there used to be a subway under the line here!

Wasn't it famous for flooding? Guess it's not been used since the pier shuttle service finished. I don't know what date that was.

 

[Chris125]

Wasn't it famous for flooding? Guess it's not been used since the pier shuttle service finished. I don't know what date that was.

The last shuttle was 2006 IIRC but I think the subway was already disused? In later years I think they just used the exit below:


Ryde Esplanade by horstebertde, on Flickr

 

[Journeyman]

Wasn't it famous for flooding? Guess it's not been used since the pier shuttle service finished. I don't know what date that was.

Yeah, it regularly completely filled with water, apparently, which must have made it a terrible liability.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Yeah, it regularly completely filled with water, apparently, which must have made it a terrible liability.

Any photos to show of this subway?

 

[Journeyman]

Any photos to show of this subway?

No, but there was mention of it flooding in Brian Hardy's book, Tube Trains on the Isle of Wight.

 

[Chris125]

You can see how they'd dug around the subway roof in preparation here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=3812481182129057&set=gm.431028328318217

 

[Gloster]

No sign of the steps to the subway on the concourse side of the line at Ryde Esplanade being filled in today. One of the boards covering the steps had been removed and a power cable disappeared into the stygian darkness, but no sign of any infill. At a quarter past twelve there were a couple of blokes sitting around on the tracks, but they had gone an hour later.

 

[Chris125]

Some fantastic photos of the old esplanade subway have emerged on a local facebook group confirming it's infilling. The walls suggest a good few feet of water aren't unknown...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937042332163
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937045212235
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937048132308
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937051412390
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937053692447

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1422108068005537/permalink/2850428595173470/

No sign of the steps to the subway on the concourse side of the line at Ryde Esplanade being filled in today. One of the boards covering the steps had been removed and a power cable disappeared into the stygian darkness, but no sign of any infill. At a quarter past twelve there were a couple of blokes sitting around on the tracks, but they had gone an hour later.

A work in progress it seems, for the second day running the webcam showed them pumping concrete between 8 and 9 this morning.

 

[SouthernOne]

I’ve been trying to think why would you want to fill in the subway, it’s very costly to do that, unless they’re planning to widen the platform to make it easier to load and unload wheelchairs and mobility vehicles from the trains.

 

[Journeyman]

I’ve been trying to think why would you want to fill in the subway, it’s very costly to do that, unless they’re planning to widen the platform to make it easier to load and unload wheelchairs and mobility vehicles from the trains.

Because it hasn't been used for decades, is in a terrible state, and it floods regularly.

 

[philthetube]

quite likely because of danger of collapse

 

[fgwrich]

Some fantastic photos of the old esplanade subway have emerged on a local facebook group confirming it's infilling. The walls suggest a good few feet of water aren't unknown...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937042332163
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937045212235
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937048132308
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937051412390
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216937053692447

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1422108068005537/permalink/2850428595173470/



A work in progress it seems, for the second day running the webcam showed them pumping concrete between 8 and 9 this morning.

Thanks for those, I took to Flickr to try and work out where along the platform is was (just to the right of the Waiting Room sign) - the amount of times I've walked past it without realising!

Ryde Esplanade station (1), 1977

Looking south towards St John's Road and Brading. Ryde Esplanade station on the Isle of Wight was opened in 1880 jointly by the London & South Western Railway and London, Brighton & South Coast Railway when an extension from Ryde St John's Road to the pierhead was built. It is still open but...

www.flickr.com

Also, I'm impressed at how smart Esplanade station looked in the NSE Era.

Ryde Esplanade Station

Explore koma dori's 5919 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[DelW]

I’ve been trying to think why would you want to fill in the subway, it’s very costly to do that, unless they’re planning to widen the platform to make it easier to load and unload wheelchairs and mobility vehicles from the trains.

I suspect it's standard practice with redundant subways. When an accessible footbridge was installed at Godalming a couple of years ago, the previous subway was infilled although AFAIK there were no structural issues with it. Slightly annoying that it was, as there are about twice as many steps up to the footbridge as there were down to the subway, presumably partly due to leaving clearance for possible OHLE installation far off in the future.

 

[pdeaves]

presumably partly due to leaving clearance for possible OHLE installation far off in the future

Yes, and having to clear a whole train height anyway, rather than human height (which is somewhat less).

 

[VEP3417]

Also, I'm impressed at how smart Esplanade station looked in the NSE Era.

diddnt it look nice back then

i think nse in general was a smart livery for trains and stations in general, red was nice and vibrant, most places these days its very toned down with dark colours

 

[RichT54]

I noticed on the Ryde Esplanade & Pier webcam today that some sort of railway maintenance vehicle has been operating on the tracks at Esplanade today. It has a digger type arm (like a JCB) and has been moving some heavy objects around the station. It went back in the direction of St Johns for a while, but is back at Esplanade again now.

 

[Chris125]

I was out in Ryde today so could grab a few photos of the Road Rail Machine at Esplanade - it was removing the rails earlier, and now appears to be lifting out the roof of the subway.

The island platform at St Johns also has it's new surface... which extends past the footbridge. I did wonder if the extra length of a 4-car 484 could prove an issue here and perhaps this suggests it might?


Ryde Esplanade by Chris, on Flickr

Ryde St Johns Road by Chris, on Flickr

 

[fgwrich]

I was out in Ryde today so could grab a few photos of the Road Rail Machine at Esplanade - it was removing the rails earlier, and now appears to be lifting out the roof of the subway.

The island platform at St Johns also has it's new surface... which extends past the footbridge. I did wonder if the extra length of a 4-car 484 could prove an issue here and perhaps this suggests it might?


Ryde Esplanade by Chris, on Flickr

Ryde St Johns Road by Chris, on Flickr

Is it just the sunlight in the photo or does that yellow line appear to be rather far back from the platform edge than before? A Bit of a shame to see they've gone for the plastic platform approach again but at least it'll help to keep the costs of the project down a bit. I just cant but help but feel it looks "cheap" though.

 

[DelW]

I was out in Ryde today so could grab a few photos of the Road Rail Machine at Esplanade - it was removing the rails earlier, and now appears to be lifting out the roof of the subway.

The island platform at St Johns also has it's new surface... which extends past the footbridge. I did wonder if the extra length of a 4-car 484 could prove an issue here and perhaps this suggests it might?

yde Esplanade by Chris, on Flickr
St Johns Road by Chris, on Flickr

Thanks for the photos, great to be able to follow progress via our local correspondents. I wonder when anything last ran on the down line where the backhoe is working, maybe not since the pier shuttle last ran?

Is it just the sunlight in the photo or does that yellow line appear to be rather far back from the platform edge than before? A Bit of a shame to see they've gone for the plastic platform approach again but at least it'll help to keep the costs of the project down a bit. I just cant but help but feel it looks "cheap" though.

I think that may be an optical illusion caused by the new platform being higher?

 

[pdeaves]

Is it just the sunlight in the photo or does that yellow line appear to be rather far back from the platform edge than before? A Bit of a shame to see they've gone for the plastic platform approach again but at least it'll help to keep the costs of the project down a bit. I just cant but help but feel it looks "cheap" though.

Is the 'yellow line' a drain channel?

 

[Chris125]

Is it just the sunlight in the photo or does that yellow line appear to be rather far back from the platform edge than before? A Bit of a shame to see they've gone for the plastic platform approach again but at least it'll help to keep the costs of the project down a bit. I just cant but help but feel it looks "cheap" though.

I'm pretty sure that's the yellow line - bit extreme for Island Line but it's a pre-fab system so that's presumably where it goes regardless of linespeed, looks the same at Marsden which I think uses the same design? Drainage appears to be the dark line that passes beneath the seat legs.

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm pretty sure that's the yellow line - bit extreme for Island Line but it's a pre-fab system so that's presumably where it goes regardless of linespeed, looks the same at Marsden which I think uses the same design?

I think it’s probably an effect of the light as @fgwrich mentioned. Your first photo of Lake’s platform in post #424 shows the real colour of the prefab units, with the line in the same relative position.

In fact the Lake platform also has a “shadow line” on the opposite side of those lighter sections to the yellow, I wonder if that’s a join or overlap?