Manchester - Stalybridge Electrification

[thealexweb]

Pictures of the work at Manchester Victoria.

https://twitter.com/TheGNRP/status/1119537749017747458

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Platforms 1 and 2 at Victoria are now wired.
However, the large construction hoarding next to P2 is still there.

 

[ajb]

Good morning,

Apologies if I am going over old stuff that has already been mentioned but it has been a while since I have been on the forum and what I am about to say may already been mentioned.

I still think the plan is to electrify Stalybridge-Victoria at some point, probably during whatever they decide to do with the Trans Pennine route for a few reasons. They have recently laid new cable troughs along the line which has stickers on them warning them of 25kv cables running through them, the same cable troughs have been used on the Chat Moss lines for electrification, also at the same time a new electrical feeder station has been commissioned in the Stalybridge area. I may be putting two and two together and making five with this though. Also with the electrification now going up to an area I know as Newtown, East of Manchester so they can put electric trains into the bays it does mean there will be less disruption at Victoria if they do decide to electrify through to Stalybridge

Cheers

 

[edwin_m]

Good morning,

Apologies if I am going over old stuff that has already been mentioned but it has been a while since I have been on the forum and what I am about to say may already been mentioned.

I still think the plan is to electrify Stalybridge-Victoria at some point, probably during whatever they decide to do with the Trans Pennine route for a few reasons. They have recently laid new cable troughs along the line which has stickers on them warning them of 25kv cables running through them, the same cable troughs have been used on the Chat Moss lines for electrification, also at the same time a new electrical feeder station has been commissioned in the Stalybridge area. I may be putting two and two together and making five with this though. Also with the electrification now going up to an area I know as Newtown, East of Manchester so they can put electric trains into the bays it does mean there will be less disruption at Victoria if they do decide to electrify through to Stalybridge

Cheers

To summarise many previous posts:
- The feeder station is at Heyrod, between Stalybridge and Mossley, which was the former site of a power station so many high voltage Grid cables still meet there.
- It was originally commissioned before electrification was cancelled, but is still needed to supply enough power to other routes around Manchester.
- Therefore 25kV cable is being laid in troughs all the way to Ordsall Lane west of Victoria, referred to on this forum as the Great Extension Lead.
- Interestingly a similar situation arises on the Midland Main Line, where they seem to have decided that electrifying from Kettering to Market Harbrough is preferable to laying another extension lead on the same section. Does this mean that electrification to Stalybridge would have been better value for money?
- No committed plan to extend beyond the current limit a few hundred metres east of Victoria, but usual practice is to do all routes when wiring a junction even if some of them aren't going to be used by electric trains. This helps if one is accidentally mis-routed and does indeed make it easier to extend later.

There's no long-distance extension lead on the Chat Moss other than the end of the above at Ordsall Lane, but there may be shorter ones particularly around Newton-le-Willows where there are electrical connections to the WCML and I think another feeder at Parkside.

 

[Glenn1969]

I thought I read somewhere that Manchester-Stalybridge and Huddersfield-Leeds electrification is being talen forward under the Transpennine Route Extension along with quadrupling of Huddersfield- Leeds and a new station at Mirfield?

 

[Elecman]

The DNO 132Kv traction Feeder is indeed at Parkside which was originally the West Coast Main Line Feeder but it now only feeds the Chat Moss route via the newer substation adjacent at Willow Park. The WCML i# fed via the new 400KV feeder located near Weaver Junction, Liverpool is fed from the 132 Kv Speke Feeder, Manchester is fed from the 132Kv Feeder In Stockport. Heyrod is the new 400KV Feeder and will feed the electric services around Manchester via the great extension lead being connected to an extension unit fitted to Ordsall Lane substation which effectively turns it into a Feeder station.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I thought I read somewhere that Manchester-Stalybridge and Huddersfield-Leeds electrification is being talen forward under the Transpennine Route Extension along with quadrupling of Huddersfield- Leeds and a new station at Mirfield?

That may be the current intention but I don't believe there are any signed-off plans yet.
The sequencing of work is usually track, resignalling and then OHLE.
The big job east of Victoria will be remodelling of Miles Platting, and maybe also at Stalybridge (again).
No wires will be going up until that is done.
There is also talk of electrifying it all, if the costs can be reduced to something like NR's 2009 RUS estimates.

 

[Legolash2o]

The big job east of Victoria will be remodelling of Miles Platting, and maybe also at Stalybridge (again).
No wires will be going up until that is done.
There is also talk of electrifying it all, if the costs can be reduced to something like NR's 2009 RUS estimates.

Why would they need to remodel Miles Platting and Stalybridge?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Why would they need to remodel Miles Platting and Stalybridge?

The target of the upgrade is to get Manchester-Leeds down to (I think) 40 minutes.
Miles Platting is currently a sharp 30mph curve hemmed in by various bridges and I think the aim is to straighten it out for higher speeds.
Stalybridge was quite recently remodelled and resignalled, but with the line to Guide Bridge as the main line (50mph), and Ashton/Victoria as the branch (25/35mph).
The aim is to make the Ashton line the main one, now that the main TPE services go that way.
The line between Ashton and Miles Platting was generally upgraded to 75mph last year, but these two black spots remain.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The target of the upgrade is to get Manchester-Leeds down to (I think) 40 minutes.
Miles Platting is currently a sharp 30mph curve hemmed in by various bridges and I think the aim is to straighten it out for higher speeds.

Would any works in the area of the former Miles Platting railway station affect the chord (Brewery Junction?) that is used by ECS from the depot at Newton Heath to and from the Ashton line?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Would any works in the area of the former Miles Platting railway station affect the chord (Brewery Junction?) that is used by ECS from the depot at Newton Heath to and from the Ashton line?

I haven't seen any plans yet.
Presumably they will need a wider sweep at both ends to realign the curve.

 

[edwin_m]

I haven't seen any plans yet.
Presumably they will need a wider sweep at both ends to realign the curve.

Based on aerial views, they can't move the eastern end of the curve too far without affecting buildings outside the railway boundary. I think if they start the curve as close as they can to the existing junction it will still be within the former four-track formation until it gets to the Oldham Road bridge, so the junction itself and the curve towards Newton Heath may remain unchanged. The other side of Oldham Road across to Queens Road is wasteland and west of Queens Road looks like some sort of industry that might be relocated fairly easily, but it looks tricky to get a good curve within the constraints and new bridges would be needed over both roads. It probably also impacts the crossovers on the Victoria side of Miles Platting.

 

[Senex]

If people refer back to the lecture given to the PWI by James Lawrance and David Hodge a couple of years ago (

) there is on page 42 the diagram of speeds that has been mentioned several times in connection with the TP modernisation. No doubt the full engineering details of how these speeds were to be achieved were not at that stage worked out, but there must have been some preliminary assessment of what might be possible. You'll see that Miles Platting was being proposed for 60, Ashton to Stalybridge 75/70, and Stalybridge itself 80. (An interesting curiosity is Micklefield Jn, completely renewed only a year or so ago for an eventual 100 to/x York, 70 to/x Hull, where the 100 is the only slight break in a long stretch of proposed 110/115. Was 110 always out of the question for York, or was this a case like Stalybridge, of plans being drawn up and then executed even though events had moved on?)

/80.

 

[InOban]

What's the status of the Great Extension Lead?

 

[Elecman]

What's the status of the Great Extension Lead?

Still Unplugged

 

[jonesy3001]

Looks like something is happening on the ashton - stalybridge line, credit to freel07 on the skyscraper threads;

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=160592110&postcount=4578

Over the past week or two passing the Network rail Alliance Compound on Ashton Moss I have noticed van belonging to Keltbray Electrification. This made me wonder whether there may be some new progress towards the wiring between Newtown (Bromley Street) and Stalybridge at last. A trip up to Mossley by train today seemed to produce a little more evidence in the form of painted markers trackside and on the platforms at both Ashton and Stalybridge. I am guessing that these are probably just survey markings.

At Ashton I spotted these. Warning you may need to look quite hard to spot the white painted squares.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The painted squares are typically for locations of future OHLE masts.
I would just observe there were some of these on the route between Didcot and Oxford about 5 years ago, and we're still waiting for the masts!

 

[td97]

https://twitter.com/InfraPunk/status/1175689942585901057?s=09
Specifically
"Improvement of capacity at Manchester Victoria by extending electric local services to Stalybridge through electrification between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge"
and the text stating "increase of linespeeds out Manchester Victoria and remodeling of Miles Platting Junction to reduce journey time"

Good news from the Amey careers site too (just 1 example):

Due to increased workload we are seeking to recruit an OLE Engineer.

 

[jonesy3001]

Any idea when they start doing the rest of the electrification works from outside victoria to stalybridge, please?

 

[Ken H]

Any idea when they start doing the rest of the electrification works from outside victoria to stalybridge, please?

I think they want to remodel Miles Platting and Stalybridge first

 

[LittleAH]

I think they want to remodel Miles Platting and Stalybridge first

I believe that the Miles Platting remodel has been put back until 2021.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Any updates?

 

[Wharfe106]

Any updates?

The latest, Sept 2019, Network Rail enhancements plans document lists no further electrification in the North, so we can assume that more wires are some way off - Vic to Stalybridge perhaps in the TransPennine Rail Upgrade later this decade, Lostock-Wigan even more remote - unless there is a reversal of government policy.

 

[themiller]

To be fair, if the track has to be realigned for higher speeds, it’s probably better to do that before electrifying!

 

[mwmbwls]

Has there been any mention of the electrification infill from Guide Bridge to Stalybridge? - It was part of the original plan

 

[Ploughman]

Vic - Stalybridge will be more complicated due to the bridge work sat Miles Platting.

Better to start off with an easy hit between Leeds and York to get into the job.

However I am sure that there is an awful lot of work surrounding the bridge site that would need to be done first before actual track disturbance takes place at MP.

Bearing in mind Rules of the Route etc could both job go ahead at the same time?

 

[Elecman]

Vic - Stalybridge will be more complicated due to the bridge work sat Miles Platting.

Better to start off with an easy hit between Leeds and York to get into the job.

However I am sure that there is an awful lot of work surrounding the bridge site that would need to be done first before actual track disturbance takes place at MP.

Bearing in mind Rules of the Route etc could both job go ahead at the same time?

You could do most of the electrificaion foundations and mast erection bar a few hundred yard either side of Miles Platting thus only needing the gap,filling once the junction works are completed then fit the SPS and wiring

 

[LittleAH]

I

Vic - Stalybridge will be more complicated due to the bridge work sat Miles Platting.

Better to start off with an easy hit between Leeds and York to get into the job.

However I am sure that there is an awful lot of work surrounding the bridge site that would need to be done first before actual track disturbance takes place at MP.

Bearing in mind Rules of the Route etc could both job go ahead at the same time?

I heard that Summer/Autumn 2021 work could be taking place between Stalybridge and Man Vic.

 

[Geeves]

Planning permission for the curve upgrade at Miles Platting is now granted with work starting soon. A year or so wait before the wires can go up sounds about right, how ever You would hope they would start on the metal work between Stalybridge and the eastern side of Miles Platting before hand though. Apparently wiring into Staly can be done while the station is remodeled as it will only be wired in the new bay for the time being.

 

[jonesy3001]

Probably mentioned before but will they do the guide bridge to stalybridge line first before they start on the remaining section between stalybridge and miles platting?