South Wales Electrified Infrastructure "Pretty Ugly" - Local Residents Say.

[Hirn]

Goring Gap all over again?

Through Bath to come and discontinuous electrification will be put in the frame by proposal.

Bath being a UNESCO World Heritage Site in general and any overhead would be through Sydney Gardens in particular.

I would be prepared to settle for some delicate catenary and masts but not on any reasonable account the lumpen stuff which leaves one thinking that while they were at it they might as well have built a motorway east of Didcot.
How to lose friends and minimise any influence.

 

[Hadlow Road]

I am sure people hated chimneys and TV aerials, and what about street lighting poles? Bus stops? I mean where does it end for things that modern life requires and isn't a simple natural tree or bush?

My godsister (godfather’s daughter) had a most beautiful cherry tree, which she hated because “all the flowers drop and make a mess.” No hope there, but they are now very rich.

 

[Harpo]

Bath being a UNESCO World Heritage Site in general and any overhead would be through Sydney Gardens in particular.

It took decades just to agree how the boundary wall could be raised.

 

[zwk500]

Through Bath to come and discontinuous electrification will be put in the frame by proposal.

Bath being a UNESCO World Heritage Site in general and any overhead would be through Sydney Gardens in particular.

I would be prepared to settle for some delicate catenary and masts but not on any reasonable account the lumpen stuff which leaves one thinking that while they were at it they might as well have built a motorway east of Didcot.
How to lose friends and minimise any influence.

It's been raised before, a design for OLE through bath was developed and apparently acceptable to the council and UNESCO, but it was the costs that stopped delivery.

 

[rf_ioliver]

They should be powered wirelessly instead via antennas charging some pathetic batteries.

YES! Build a few large ultra-high power microwave towers and beam all that energy towards the train. Of course radio dispersion might be a problem, but it'll solve the NIMBY problem *and* reduce heating bills in houses near the track.

The great thing about this is that we could modify the MIMO antennas in modern 5G base stations to do this - just beef up the power supply but a couple of orders of magnitude - and a further bonus: excellent 5G coverage for free

 

[Peter Sarf]

It's been raised before, a design for OLE through bath was developed and apparently acceptable to the council and UNESCO, but it was the costs that stopped delivery.

Gosh how much more can it cost ?.
I would advise they get it done before the agreement lapses and a new improved standard wields its ugly head !.
Perhaps the risk is making a rod for ones back - "you did it in Bath why can you not do it here ?", there and everywhere !.

 

[zwk500]

Gosh how much more can it cost ?.
I would advise they get it done before the agreement lapses and a new improved standard wields its ugly head !.
Perhaps the risk is making a rod for ones back - "you did it in Bath why can you not do it here ?", there and everywhere !.

Sorry if I wasn't clear - it was the overall GWML programme costs running away that resulted in the stop to work just east of Chippenham, rather than the specific costs of anything bespoke for Bath.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Sorry if I wasn't clear - it was the overall GWML programme costs running away that resulted in the stop to work just east of Chippenham, rather than the specific costs of anything bespoke for Bath.

Ah, I see. Mind you it still might be tempting to get Bath over and done with but would then be an electrification island !.

 

[zwk500]

Ah, I see. Mind you it still might be tempting to get Bath over and done with but would then be an electrification island !.

If you're doing bath, it'd be as an extension from Chippenham, which would still not be too bad given all electric services on this route are run by bi-modes anyway.

You can't finish into Temple Meads until the rewire is complete, but an incremental programme from Chippenham and Parkway towards Bristol East Jn would probably be looking at TM just as the rewire is finished.

EDIT: Sorry mods, have just realised which thread this is.

 

[Peter Sarf]

If you're doing bath, it'd be as an extension from Chippenham, which would still not be too bad given all electric services on this route are run by bi-modes anyway.

You can't finish into Temple Meads until the rewire is complete, but an incremental programme from Chippenham and Parkway towards Bristol East Jn would probably be looking at TM just as the rewire is finished.

EDIT: Sorry mods, have just realised which thread this is.

Compared to the aesthetic hand wringing in Bath vs South Wales I suppose its more important to "get it done" in Wales as the 398s are perhaps not so amenable to running far enough up a gradient without wires due to a limit on battery range !.

 

[MaxB]

I've lived beside electrifed railways for half my life and never seen a mast or other disfiguring junk. It's called third rail.

 

[thecrofter]

Both are commonly used. Many document codes within the industry require a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) for the organisation, the document type, and the discipline, in addition to the project code (a 6 digit number) and another 6 digit number at the end.
For example, a Civils drawing could have the code "123456-NWR-DRG-ECV-000234". This is how NWR sorts out their docs on ProjectWise (those who work in the industry will doubtless know).
Other org codes exist, of course - e.g. BNU for BAM Nuttall, AEC for Aecom, PLG for Powerlines Group (SPL Powerlines' parent company), SIE for Siemens, etc.

TLA is not a Three Letter Acronym or any kind of acronym - its an abbreviation in Initialisation form. An acronym is a word that can be pronounced from the abbreviation (initialisation) of the words in question e.g. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) or SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus). Yes NWR is the abbreviation used by Network Rail's document control system(s) but as Network Rail is just two words, abbreviating it to NWR in written form is grammatically incorrect. Grinds my gears!

 

[MatthewHutton]

Gosh how much more can it cost ?.
I would advise they get it done before the agreement lapses and a new improved standard wields its ugly head !.
Perhaps the risk is making a rod for ones back - "you did it in Bath why can you not do it here ?", there and everywhere !.

I think to be fair there are places, such as Bath or the Ribblehead viaduct, where when they are electrified that extra care and cost will be needed.

And honestly if you had agreement to go ahead they are damn stupid not to have done Bath-Chippenham. More important than Reading-Newbury if you had to cut something.

 

[Pete_uk]

Sydney Gardens could use victorian looking OHLE painted dark grey/black quite easily.

 

[zwk500]

Sydney Gardens could use victorian looking OHLE painted dark grey/black quite easily.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/future-of-the-gwr-electrification.267662/page-2#post-6772848 has an image of what was apparently an agreed design.

 

[Peter Sarf]

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/future-of-the-gwr-electrification.267662/page-2#post-6772848 has an image of what was apparently an agreed design.

Thanks for finding that picture. It certainly is less intrusive and as it is agreed already it must be tempting to get it implemented before someone changes their mind.

 

[zwk500]

Thanks for finding that picture. It certainly is less intrusive and as it is agreed already it must be tempting to get it implemented before someone changes their mind.

*was agreed, important distinction! Also electrification's not something you can just stick a couple of miles in here and there as you like. Any OLE through Bath would be as a progression from the existing limit of OLE at Chippenham, so any obstacles between Bath and Chippenham that prevented completion of the original work still outstanding would need to be resolved before anything got to Sydney Gardens.
But the completion of OLE to Bristol is probably a separate thread.

 

[McRhu]

Series 1 and Series 2 are ugly*. They might indeed be justifiable for any number of reasons, but they're no oil paintings.

*(in my opinion fwiw)

 

[dch82]

Maybe the good folk of South Wales are just big fans of third rails?

DfT would never approve that

 

[Wolfie]

DfT would never approve that

Not DfT's decision.

 

[450.emu]

"We think it might have affected the house prices"

I can picture this person now, clutching their Daily Express in one hand and pearls in another.

Give me a break

Retch as I call them are known for their "newsworthy" articles, and yes the Express is in their stable. Would they prefer diesel fumes belched out from passing trains instead so they can keep their precious view? They'll adjust to the OHLE

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Through Bath to come and discontinuous electrification will be put in the frame by proposal.

Bath being a UNESCO World Heritage Site in general and any overhead would be through Sydney Gardens in particular.

I would be prepared to settle for some delicate catenary and masts but not on any reasonable account the lumpen stuff which leaves one thinking that while they were at it they might as well have built a motorway east of Didcot.
How to lose friends and minimise any influence.

Saltaire, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has OLE running through it. No fancy special designs of support structures, just the standard (fairly minimal) masts that were used on the whole scheme in the 1990s. Probably helps that the masts were there before the designation, but UNESCO didn't demand that those masts were painted brown or something like that.

To be honest, if the UNESCO criteria mean that the use of diesel power is preferred to electric, then there's something wrong with the criteria. Many residents of Saltaire feel that the UNESCO designation is more of a curse than a blessing, in any case.