Wokingham station - improvements, resignalling and siding - merged posts

[whole diary]

[AMLAG]

“Can anyone explain the relevance of the first photo to a resignalling project?”

The pic of what looks like bank stabilization works does seem irrelevant; probably another example of Network Rail’s Media Contractors’ Reputation Management efforts or should it be mismanagement efforts ?!

[IndustryInsider]

Perhaps a slight shame that the l-o-n-g sections through Sandhurst and Crowthorne didn't get an extra signal section added to reduce headways?  Though at least the signal numbering allows them to be inserted at a later date.

[Oxonhutch]

Though at least the signal numbering allows them to be inserted at a later date.

Along with the third rail?

[GBM]

Cancellations to services at Wokingham
Due to a fault with barriers at a level crossing at Wokingham trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.
Train services running through this station may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 15:00 21/02.
Customer Advice
We are sorry for the delay to your journey today.


Can you tell me more about the incident?
There is a fault with lowering barriers at a road crossing at Wokingham. Network Rail staff are on site and looking to resolve the issue. Whilst this takes place trains will continue to run but at a reduced speed in the area.

[stuving]

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) were showing the delay as at "a level crossing near Wokingham", and there are only two, both rebuilt last week. There were several orange minders at the station one when I was going for a train to Reading at 1 pm, so it was probably that one. Fortunately by that time trains had just started coming through again, in a bunch of those that had been waiting. I got one not visible on the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System), since it had been told to run non-stop to Reading, though it did call.

And it had all been going so well .... for two days, anyway.

[bobm]

Problems yesterday, although not down to the infrastructure, after the guard on a Reading bound train was assaulted at Wokingham station and the offender then fled across the tracks. 

[stuving]

My posts on Monday 19th's reopening got held up; here's the catchup (in parts). The reopening was left until after a final proving train had run - which I heard go past - a turbo to Guildford and back between 1 and 3 am. (This was also able to rescue a dead Turbo, stuck in Guldford P6/7 since before the blockade.) There was also a swap of the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) train stuck in Reading for a new one, proving the other line.

So here's the junction after all the clearing up, and the crossing which currently has barriers that meet exactly in a straight line (for how long?). We now have the yodel alarms instead of bells, but they are surprisingly quiet. Direct phones to the signallers are no longer fitted; I guess it now makes little difference. The phone number to call is on the small signs, but the standard NR^» (Network Rail - home page) signboard for the track access point also gives it - and one for the ECR too.

The point about the the big signs facing the track is just that - it's an odd place to put them. But there is an issue with names: is it reasonable to expect the public to use "railway names", which are often different to what anyone else would say, historical, or just wrong. Here, a lot of locals would call this the station crossing because they know there is at least one other crossing in Wokingham. And while you need to see one of the small signs to get the number to call the signallers, and that has the official name, a lot of calls come in via other routes (e.g. 999).

[stuving]

I don't think this crossing was, in fact, ever likely to become am object detection one. The guide (Level crossings: a guide for managers, designers and operators) says of CB-ODs:

This type of crossing may be suitable at sites where road traffic flows freely, road lay-out is simple and there is no significant history of misuse. Risk assessment should, in particular, consider how the risks from blocking-back of road traffic and high or problematic pedestrian usage will be controlled.

The station crossing was never going to meet that description; even the Star Lane one, which might, has gone to MCB^▸ (Miniature Circuit Breaker) (CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision)) as well.

However, that guide has been withdrawn by ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about), and "replaced" by Principles for managing level crossing safety, which is guidance for doing risk assessments. I don't see that as a replacement, and I'm not convinced it's helpful (a topic to return to, probably.)

[stuving]

Here's how to paint, or rather repaint, a level crossing - not exactly a modern automated process.

First you mark out the lines with a chalky string (p1). I didn't see any careful measuring, so I think they had a plan or image of the crossing, with the pattern drawn onto it. They did some of the white lines and the yellow lines at the ends with hot gloop while I was away. I was told by one of the main contractor's guys that the yellow gloop does not stick to the Strail plastic panels in the centre, but not why the white stuff does.

Putting gloop down obviously involves a degree of skill, using what I gather is called a drawbox (p2). Those Strail panels were done with roll-on paint, following masking with sticky tape (p3). Supposedly that does adhere - but in the final view, from Monday, it's already wearing off (p4).

On Sunday, they were installing new trespass guards after all; they are some kind of rigid plastic and are screwed down. And I was told, about that fencing, that they now had to make all the 1.4s into 1.6s. I take it that means the standard they work to now says six-foot high fencing is needed all round it.

[CyclingSid]

Yellow and white line painting seems to wear very quickly. Is that because of economy and they put down the thinnest layer. I know ones in London which have survived for ages, but I can also feel them when I go over them on the bike.

[stuving]

Yellow and white line painting seems to wear very quickly. Is that because of economy and they put down the thinnest layer. I know ones in London which have survived for ages, but I can also feel them when I go over them on the bike.

The main factor is, I'm sure, that there are three main ways of applying these markings (that I've seen used here - and many more I've not). Paint is obviously likely to wear off, and most notably so on plastic surfaces like the level crossing boards (have you tried painting drainpipes?).

Then there's the gloop - officially it's a thermoplastic resin - which forms a thick solid layer. This will eventually break up like the road itself, but does seem more durable.  I see cold gloop is now available, and lasts even better.

When the Wokingham crossing and junction were rearranged in 2015, some of the white lines at the junction were applied as sticky shapes. The process involved preheating the road with as gas torch, then rolling them down. It did not work, and they got lifted up, and stuck down on other markings - which looked really bad, and pretty confusing.

[stuving]

When I went to have a look on Monday (19th) afternoon, there was a guy with a video camera on a tripod. He turned out to be one of the Basingstoke signallers who does the level crossings! He was promising shorter barrier-down times, suggesting there was a new block, or least a distant signal, on the approach from Crowthorne (though I'm not convinced of that).

I would expect the ROC^▸ (Rail Operating Centre - a centralised location for railway signalling and train control operations for a specific route or region) to be quicker than a local signaller, resetting the route for the next train using the lever frame before crossing the box to press the button, especially with ARS^▸ (Automatic Route Setting). Crossings now have their own signaller, and I was surprised to see that they use a box with lights and switches per crossing, not a patch of a screen.

I didn't gather whether this video was for familiarisation and briefing purposes, or whether he was being a railway enthusiast (which he obviously was). I've now found the video on YouTube, where he calls himself M-Train. So if you like watching level crossings operating, he has more like this ...
https://youtu.be/7sCDrGmJ5Yw

He said the emergency number goes to the relevant signaller, and they get a lot of non-emergency stuff: complaints and insults mainly. I'm surprised there isn't an operator to screen calls in this sort of urban area.

We both thought one of the zigzags (the far one in the video) was rather low - perhaps to improve the sighting for drivers? Well, a driver's eye view doesn't support that, what it really shows is how dense the thicket of signs and posts is there.

[stuving]

“Can anyone explain the relevance of the first photo to a resignalling project?”

The pic of what looks like bank stabilization works does seem irrelevant; probably another example of Network Rail’s Media Contractors’ Reputation Management efforts or should it be mismanagement efforts ?!

True, if that is slope stabilisation work, it does not seem to fit even the track replacement work in the project. But then apart from the two staff recorded at Wokingham Station, the other scenes in the video are not related to the recent work. The level crossing being renewed is Mays crossing in Datchet, and the overhead view is of Wood Lane crossing at Isleworth - done ages ago.

For a resignalling project, it did seem a bit odd for 1 km of track replacement to be included. But replacing Wokingham Junction did make sense as resignalling, not just using the blockade for another job. It would not make sense to replace it and to do the motorisation as separate steps.

And while it's not obvious how to measure the single track length of a junction, that one is likely to come out as is over 800m. Then there are the two crossovers worked by ground frames, at Bracknell and Blackwater, which have been motorised - and may have been replaced in the process.

[CyclingSid]

When are they going to complete the new bridge? Or is that the purpose of the latest planned closure?

[stuving]

When are they going to complete the new bridge? Or is that the purpose of the latest planned closure?

It'll now be late summer!

Explanation on the bridge/foot crossing thread with previous pictures etc.