MML Electrification: progress updates

[richieb1971]

All from Bromham road bridge north of the station.

Station pictures looking south, other one looking north.

 

[edwin_m]

All from Bromham road bridge north of the station.

Station pictures looking south, other one looking north.

I can't quite tell, has the siding north of the station been de-electrified? I seem to recall it's too short for a 700.

I also thought one of the much trumpeted improvements in series 1 on GWML was that there would only be one insulator per track per support. There are two here.

 

[richieb1971]

8 car 700's regularly go in there. I think I saw one in there the other day when passing over the bridge in the car.

It will not take a 12 car unit. So it only gets used periodically when the services require at max an 8 car unit.

As a result of this the 12 car units need to do a double reversal out of the Jowitt Sidings and can only access P1 and P2.

In a few years time it will be interesting to see what Network rail do. You will have EWR, Thameslink and EMR trains coming and going. I always said they should put 2 sidings north of the station near Bromham accessible from Lower farm road or the A6. Or they can utilize the sidings at Corby and just run all units the full length of the OHLE track.

Something has to give. At the moment most freight use all 3 main platforms bidirectionally and that is a sign of a bottleneck. It's well advertised this is the case. I can't remember the last time a freight entered the station from the north without halting at Bedford north. When taking those pics the Bletchley Peak Forest was stuck at St Johns for 30 minutes. There was a 700 parked up in P1 going south, then a track machine coming from the south using P1 (technically the wrong way) on the same platform, followed by the Bletchley Peak Forest 6h10 working using P1 again all in the space of 10 minutes.

 

[59CosG95]

A screenshot from LinkedIn - all wire runs are now complete!

 

[Mollman]

8 car 700's regularly go in there. I think I saw one in there the other day when passing over the bridge in the car.

It will not take a 12 car unit. So it only gets used periodically when the services require at max an 8 car unit.

As a result of this the 12 car units need to do a double reversal out of the Jowitt Sidings and can only access P1 and P2.

In a few years time it will be interesting to see what Network rail do. You will have EWR, Thameslink and EMR trains coming and going. I always said they should put 2 sidings north of the station near Bromham accessible from Lower farm road or the A6. Or they can utilize the sidings at Corby and just run all units the full length of the OHLE track.

Something has to give. At the moment most freight use all 3 main platforms bidirectionally and that is a sign of a bottleneck. It's well advertised this is the case. I can't remember the last time a freight entered the station from the north without halting at Bedford north. When taking those pics the Bletchley Peak Forest was stuck at St Johns for 30 minutes. There was a 700 parked up in P1 going south, then a track machine coming from the south using P1 (technically the wrong way) on the same platform, followed by the Bletchley Peak Forest 6h10 working using P1 again all in the space of 10 minutes.

View attachment 80981

Wasn't there plans a while ago to turn platform 4 into an island with the new P5 becoming the DF and P4 becoming the UF, in which case that would allow the existing UF to become a freight line. Guessing as it hasn't happened as part of the electrification scheme it has been dropped or never progressed passed the 'nice to have' stage.

 

[43055]

Wasn't there plans a while ago to turn platform 4 into an island with the new P5 becoming the DF and P4 becoming the UF, in which case that would allow the existing UF to become a freight line. Guessing as it hasn't happened as part of the electrification scheme it has been dropped or never progressed passed the 'nice to have' stage.

No change to the layout at Bedford as part of the Electrification although it would make sense to have a platform on both fast lines.

 

[richieb1971]

No change to the layout at Bedford as part of the Electrification although it would make sense to have a platform on both fast lines.

I don't know if your familiar with the layout but that could only be done at the expense of P3. The fact that the OHLE went ahead in Bedfords current form states to me that the layout of the station will stay put for many years. At least on that side of the station.

Apart from OHLE expansion north and testing the current infrastructure and potential rolling stock this thread is almost at an end.

 

[Helvellyn]

Irthlingborough Road Bridge reopening now delayed until December following a local update by Network Rail. Combination of the February/March storms plus COVID being blamed.

At Wellingborough Station work to refurbish the old goods shed to act as a walk through is advancing with the metal structure installed internally and re-roofing under way.

 

[mr_jrt]

I suspect the ideal for Bedford would be 3 island platforms, one for the fasts, one for Thameslink, and the third for EWR, with turnback sidings north of the platforms for Thameslink and EWR. Biggest problem I suspect is the distance between the northern end of the platforms and Bromham Road bridge, which would probably need another rebuild, along with the closure of the road immediately north of it.

 

[Senex]

I suspect the ideal for Bedford would be 3 island platforms, one for the fasts, one for Thameslink, and the third for EWR, with turnback sidings north of the platforms for Thameslink and EWR. Biggest problem I suspect is the distance between the northern end of the platforms and Bromham Road bridge, which would probably need another rebuild, along with the closure of the road immediately north of it.

Ideally both fast line platforms at Bedford need to be on loops so that the fast lines themselves can keep an unbroken 125 through. At the moment this is possible on the platform-free up fast, but not on the down fast because the platform limits the amount of cant that can be applied.

 

[Bald Rick]

Ideally both fast line platforms at Bedford need to be on loops so that the fast lines themselves can keep an unbroken 125 through. At the moment this is possible on the platform-free up fast, but not on the down fast because the platform limits the amount of cant that can be applied.

The time loss on the down fast throughthe platform for not being 125mph is about 8 seconds.

 

[Senex]

The time loss on the down fast throughthe platform for not being 125mph is about 8 seconds.

Indeed. I was thinking more of a nice smooth speed-profile (though that doesn't seem to be considered as desirable these days as it used to be) and the small cost of braking and acceleration. I haven't looked up today's speeds, but when the MML went from 100 to 110 there were 100 restrictions through Elstree and Ampthill tunnels (pressure questions) and the time-loss for each of those was a similarly small number of seconds.

 

[edwin_m]

Ideally both fast line platforms at Bedford need to be on loops so that the fast lines themselves can keep an unbroken 125 through. At the moment this is possible on the platform-free up fast, but not on the down fast because the platform limits the amount of cant that can be applied.

The turnouts would need to be on the straight to maintain 125 on the through route, which I think means the loops would have to continue all the way through the reverse curve to the south including new bridges over the river. There's hardly any operational benefit to having loops here, as there's no routine overtaking and anything being overtaken out of course would be on the slow side of the station anyway.

 

[Legolash2o]

Can anyone confirm the Up/Down Fasts have now been completed please?

 

[59CosG95]

Can anyone confirm the Up/Down Fasts have now been completed please?

View attachment 81088

Yes, the Down Fast has been wired for a while, and the Up Fast was completed at the weekend. They aren't yet live, however.

 

[Legolash2o]

Thanks for the quick response, I'll leave it as it is.

 

[Jamesrob637]

So how many miles out of Pancras does live electrification reach at present? Around 75? Leicester I'm sure is as good as bang on 100.

 

[Trackman_DY]

The limit of the present live electrification on the running lines is Bedford Station at the north end of the platforms more or less adjacent to Milepost 50.

The Siding adjacent to the Up Slow adds a few more yards but that is not a running line.

Ultimately it will extend to Market Harborough (about MP 83 ¼) and Corby (about MP 80).

It would appear that the big switch on is imminent.

My Bedford correspondent advises that a further notice has appeared on the gate at Bromham Road Bridge which warns that the OHLE between Bedford Station and Irchester & Sharnbrook will be switched on at 00:01 on Sunday 26/07/2020.

The details on the Notice are –

Stage 5A & 5B.

Bedford Station to Irchester TSC & Sharnbrook Mid-Point TSC.

Down Fast & Up Fast - OHLE Structure SPC2 80/848 - 99/158. 50m 20c - 61m 49c.

Down Slow & Up Slow - OHLE Structure SPC2 80/848 - WYM 98/539. 50m 20c – 61m 18c.

The wiring on the Up Fast through the Station has certainly been completed as others have stated.

The only outstanding wiring in the area would appear to be the connections on the 2 Track Section Switches (TSS) between Bromham Road Bridge and the Station. OHLE Structure SPC2 80/542 DF.

There have been 2 coils of wire (droppers?) fitted on the spans for some weeks awaiting connection but last weekend during the possession 2 more coils were fitted so it is presumed that these will be the 4 droppers required to complete the TSS wiring. It isn’t clear as to which lines the switches will isolate.

These TSS are manually operated and are not worked from the Control Panel to the north of the Bridge.

The Bridge itself opened to road traffic on 9 June as planned and the original plan had been that the remaining parts of the temporary pedestrian bridge (the 2 spans over the railway lines only as the lengthy ramps had been dismantled some weeks previously) were to have been craned out before the opening date thus taking advantage of the closed road.

The temporary bridge also acted as a bridge for all the utility services that were re-routed across it while the road bridge was demolished.

However, that removal had not been possible as just one of the utility companies had failed to return in time to re-route its cables through the conduits in the new bridge.

Otherwise the temporary bridge would have been removed some time before the road was reopened.

The remains of the temporary footbridge have slowly been cleared away (including the temporary concrete support pads that were installed on the banks and on the ballast) and there is now no evidence that the bridge was ever there.

If the OHLE is switched on as set out in the Notice, then I assume that the Test trains will be running shortly so something further for enthusiasts to look out for including possibly some ex-EMR HST power cars.

 

[WymoWanderer]

There was a notification of the power being switched on at the Irchester TSC (which is located in Wymington) when I went past it the others day. Sadly I could not make out the details from the picture I took (attached).

 

[Jamesrob637]

Ok so around 84 miles from London. Good show but let's extend twice as far out, to Sheffield.

 

[richieb1971]

I have a few days off this coming week, would like to know of any live trains running on the OHLE.

 

[Bald Rick]

I have a few days off this coming week, would like to know of any live trains running on the OHLE.

There’s loads, all south of Bedford. (As stated above, the OLE is not in service north of Bedford yet)

 

[Jamesrob637]

There’s loads, all south of Bedford. (As stated above, the OLE is not in service north of Bedford yet)

Apparently it's been turned on overnight to a point between Bedford and Wellingborough.

 

[Bald Rick]

Apparently it's been turned on overnight to a point between Bedford and Wellingborough.

Turned on doesn’t equal in service.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Turned on doesn’t equal in service.

Yeah cause we don't live in the 60s when "turned on" meant "Test train out the following Monday"

 

[richieb1971]

I meant test trains with electric locos in the consist. Not Corby - St Pancras passenger workings.

I haven't done a stint at BDM for many years now (2012 I think). It will be interesting to see if any reversals going north will affect Thameslink workings.

 

[Phillipimo]

From twitter:

https://twitter.com/SimonJWSkinner/status/1287657886445965312

 

[John Hunt]

Nice to see an official 'proclamation'.

 

[WymoWanderer]

From twitter:

https://twitter.com/SimonJWSkinner/status/1287657886445965312

View attachment 81350

Thanks for sharing. The Twitter link confirms it has been energised to Irchester.

 

[59CosG95]

Thanks for sharing. The Twitter link confirms it has been energised to Irchester.

That should mean that Harrowden TSC (at Finedon Station Rd) and Kettering North TSC (at Glendon) are in the next job lot for energisation.
IIRC there's still a few snags to do near Finedon Station Rd.