Scottish Electrification updates & discussion

[59CosG95]

Sections to be treated as live from this morning, with other from next Sunday I believe.

So, that's SDA live as of today, with Shotts following on Rememberance Sunday?

 

[snowball]

I hadn't seen mention of next Sunday until Carntyne's post. According to the press release in #2950, the Shotts line was also due to go live today, like SDA; but user 68000 said in #2954 that only the western part would go live today, with the rest to follow in December.

 

[66C]

Did hear that TS on their visit to the East Kilbride branch a few weeks ago had been looking at partially doubling from Busby to East Kilbride and possibly moving Hairmyers Station to provide a larger park and ride facility. Saw it mentioned somewhere that TS have been down in the Midlands checking out class 350's possibly for EK.
Rumours around they have been evaluating the class 230 for Queen St to Anniesland

 

[59CosG95]

Scottish Wiring Progressometer - Post 10.0 (dated 5th November 2018) - big time of switch-ons!
Shotts (due March 2019)
All mileages taken from Holytown Jct (1m 24ch) to Midcalder Jct (23m 11ch).
New signalling system for the route tested & commissioned.
The Shotts Line (eastern section) has been live as of the 4th of November; the ORR are due to sign the route off for electric traction near Christmas.

Holytown Jct (1m 24ch) to Midcalder Jct (23m 11ch)
Fully wired throughout on both lines; bespoke masts have been installed in the Carfin Cutting and now all bear wires.
East of the track sectioning cabinet at Addiewell, all wires are now LIVE.

Platforms are being extended at Carfin.
At Cleland, CCTV cameras & Customer Information Screens are being installed.
At Hartwood Station (6m 62ch), an entirely new DDA-compliant access route is being built, to allow removal of the old footbridge without the need for a replacement. CCTV/CIS improvements are also underway at the station.
The accommodation bridge at Hartwoodhill looks finished.
At Shotts station, Station Rd Bridge is being rebuilt, and platforms are being extended.
At Fauldhouse Station, CCTV and Customer Information Screens are being installed/improved.
Breich Station reopened after a 12-week closure. Platforms have been reprofiled, with access to the eastbound platform now coming from the north, avoiding the need for a new footbridge.
Addiewell Station's old footbridge has gone, and the New Footbridge almost complete. CIS screens and CCTV cameras are also being installed.

Edinburgh-Falkirk-Glasgow
All mileages taken from Queen Street High Level (0m 00ch) towards Haymarket (46m 02ch).
Electric services (Class 380s) running between Glasgow Queen Street High Level & Edinburgh Waverley via Falkirk High (21m 63ch) in regular service; due to switch to Class 385 operation in December '18.

Via Falkirk Grahamston - LIVE as of 1/5/18. This includes

• Greenhill Upper Jct to Greenhill Lower Jct;
• Greenhill Lower Jct to Polmont Jct via Falkirk Grahamston;
• Grangemouth Jct;
• The "Larbert Triangle" (Larbert Jct, Carmuirs West Jct, and Carmuirs East Jct).

Now signed off for passenger service; Class 365s in operation as of 23/6/18.
As the OLE in the Grangemouth Terminal area fell under the SDA remit, it is assumed that the equipment is now to be treated as LIVE.

Larbert - Stirling - Dunblane/Alloa - LIVE as of 4/11/18
The "treat as LIVE" date for SDA has been set as the 4th of November; the ORR are due to sign the route off for electric traction near Christmas.
At Larbert, both main lines and the Down Passenger Loop are fully wired.
Wires extend north from Larbert to Stirling over both lines; all lines are fully wired within Stirling.
Wires extend north from Stirling, through Bridge of Allan, and through Kippenross Tunnel to Dunblane (where all tracks are also wired to the Limit of Wiring); the Alloa Branch is also fully wired.
New LED Signals at Stirling North have been commissioned.
Registration work may still need to be done at a few locations.

 

[route101]

All of it, essentially. The key word here is 'robust', since other Scottish rail capacity improvements are dependent on extra capacity at Glasgow Central. The line needs to be designed so that the recovery is at the East Kilbride end, meaning trains will have a rapid turnaround at Central. Without sufficient redoubling at the EK end, it won't be able to perform that duty and the rest of the rail network will suffer as well as the EK line itself.

Do think when there s disruption they turn back trains at Busby .

 

[route101]

Did hear that TS on their visit to the East Kilbride branch a few weeks ago had been looking at partially doubling from Busby to East Kilbride and possibly moving Hairmyers Station to provide a larger park and ride facility. Saw it mentioned somewhere that TS have been down in the Midlands checking out class 350's possibly for EK.
Rumours around they have been evaluating the class 230 for Queen St to Anniesland

Where did you hear this ?

I thought 350 thing was a joke . Id thought they would use existing stock or new EMUs

 

[Aictos]

Where did you hear this ?

I thought 350 thing was a joke . Id thought they would use existing stock or new EMUs

Someone more or less was playing around with destination screens on a Class 350 at a open day and the rumour mill went into overdrive as a result!

 

[sannox]

Do think when there s disruption they turn back trains at Busby .

Stopped doing that as much under new policy to avoid stop skipping etc.

Unfortunately trains can then run really late and impact on others, even if EK line was working OK. 2J21 last week left EK on time, but due to the late arrival of northbound spend ages in the loop at Hairmyres and then got held into Central. Left on time arrived 30L!

 

[MadMac]

Scottish Wiring Progressometer - Post 10.0 (dated 5th November 2018) - big time of switch-ons!
Shotts (due March 2019)
All mileages taken from Holytown Jct (1m 24ch) to Midcalder Jct (23m 11ch).
New signalling system for the route tested & commissioned.
The Shotts Line (eastern section) has been live as of the 4th of November; the ORR are due to sign the route off for electric traction near Christmas.

Holytown Jct (1m 24ch) to Midcalder Jct (23m 11ch)
Fully wired throughout on both lines; bespoke masts have been installed in the Carfin Cutting and now all bear wires.

What are the "Eastern" and "Western" sections? Put another way, where's the "split"? Addiewell?

 

[59CosG95]

What are the "Eastern" and "Western" sections? Put another way,where's the "split"? Addiewell?

That is something that I myself wish to find out!

 

[gingertom]

That is something that I myself wish to find out!

where's the track sectioning cabinet loccated?

 

[MadMac]

Where's the track sectioning cabinet located?

That would answer it! I thought I had seen something about there being one at Addiewell.

 

[MadMac]

See post #2457. There is, indeed, a TSC at Addiewell.

 

[Jessicas Dad]

Scottish Wiring Progressometer - Post 10.0 (dated 5th November 2018) - big time of switch-ons!
As the OLE in the Grangemouth Terminal area fell under the SDA remit, it is assumed that the equipment is now to be treated as LIVE.

I pass over the road bridge at Fouldubs junction on my way home from work, and I'm reasonably sure that at least one or two of the registration arms are still folded back parallel with the tracks.

Does this mean that the equipment can't be live as there wouldn't be enough clearance between the contact wire and the posts etc?

 

[59CosG95]

I pass over the road bridge at Fouldubs junction on my way home from work, and I'm reasonably sure that at least one or two of the registration arms are still folded back parallel with the tracks.

Does this mean that the equipment can't be live as there wouldn't be enough clearance between the contact wire and the posts etc?

Very possibly. I don't know for certain, as the details of works there have been very sketchy indeed!

 

[Jessicas Dad]

Very possibly. I don't know for certain, as the details of works there have been very sketchy indeed!

I'll make a point of looking tomorrow and see if they are still the same....

 

[Fougasse]

I pass over the road bridge at Fouldubs junction on my way home from work, and I'm reasonably sure that at least one or two of the registration arms are still folded back parallel with the tracks.

If this is the case then the contact and catenary have not been run yet.

 

[kilonewton]

If this is the case then the contact and catenary have not been run yet.

Correct. Grangemouth not seeing any passenger trains, it seems to have been put in the “we’ll get there when we get there” basket.

 

[route101]

Someone more or less was playing around with destination screens on a Class 350 at a open day and the rumour mill went into overdrive as a result!

Yeah i seen that thread , but 66C not saying the source

 

[66C]

I was told by a reliable source that TS had been talking to the leasing company about future redundant class 350's. I think this will only be one of a number of options they are looking at though. The class 230 at Boness similar.
Discontinuous electrification of the EK branch was thrown out because of the steep gradients on the line.

 

[Southsider]

Discontinuous electrification of the EK branch was thrown out because of the steep gradients on the line.

Does this mean that full electrification is planned?

 

[Ginaro]

Seems to me that the work for the "easy" decision of electrifying Edinburgh-Glasgow is basically complete, and it's now onto the hard part of deciding what to do next. None of the other proposed schemes are as straightforward as EGIP, each with their own drawbacks.

Can anyone explain what the process is for deciding what gets electrified next in CP6? Is there a strategic plan and how does it work regarding the involvement of Network Rail, Transport Scotland etc. in the decision making process? Thanks

 

[MadMac]

Does this mean that full electrification is planned?

I'm interpreting the term "discontinuous" as meaning "it couldn't be done as an add-on to the existing infrastructure because the amount of power required to make the climb can't be supplied from the existing feeder arrangements and the scheme isn't large enough to justify its own feeder". Put another way, "If we are going to wire to EK, it would need to be as part of a larger scheme which would include an additional feeder station e.g. Muirhouse Central - Kilmarnock - Barassie".

 

[Southsider]

That sounds more plausible than the vision in my head of gaps in the wires!

 

[Jessicas Dad]

If this is the case then the contact and catenary have not been run yet.

Of course it does and I should have realised that! D'oh!

Thank for that and thanks to you and Kilonewton for confirming it's not live yet and won't be for a while by the looks of it.

Out of curiosity was there ever any plan to wire into the docks or would that not work because of the HGVs etc?

 

[InOban]

That's what class 88's are for.

 

[gsnedders]

I pass over the road bridge at Fouldubs junction on my way home from work, and I'm reasonably sure that at least one or two of the registration arms are still folded back parallel with the tracks.

Does this mean that the equipment can't be live as there wouldn't be enough clearance between the contact wire and the posts etc?

The declaration that equipment is live means that everyone has to behave as if it is live, not that it actually is. In the very short term, it typically isn't live because it's turned on when needed for testing, and is off otherwise, but everyone has to behave as if it is, because the risk of it being live now exists.

 

[Southsider]

I take it the Grangemouth branch is independent of the SDA passenger lines and doesn’t affect their progress.

 

[MadMac]

I take it the Grangemouth branch is independent of the SDA passenger lines and doesn’t affect their progress.

I think there’s enough “officially” live (6 cars’ worth?) to allow any Grahamston terminators to turn there.

 

[oldman]

I'm interpreting the term "discontinuous" as meaning "it couldn't be done as an add-on to the existing infrastructure because the amount of power required to make the climb can't be supplied from the existing feeder arrangements and the scheme isn't large enough to justify its own feeder".

I understood it to mean that you couldn't have the extended neutral sections used for the low-cost Paisley Canal project. Don't know though.