Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011

[whole diary]

[willc]

Although I hadn't intended to go out along the line in Oxfordshire today, as I was running around doing all sorts of other stuff on a day off work, Ian's post and the spells of sunshine in mid-afternoon tempted me out.

I assume the section of track at Charlbury is a launch pad for the tracklaying machine - can any engineers out there confirm? The trackbed clearance is now complete to Ascott-under-Wychwood, while ballasting extends westwards to milepost 79, just east of the road bridge at Chilson. Since I was in the car, I don't know if that gap nearer Charlbury has been filled with ballast yet.

Some pictures at the usual place.

[Electric train]

I assume the section of track at Charlbury is a launch pad for the tracklaying machine - can any engineers out there confirm?

Not sure its a OTP (on track plant) launch pad, looking at the phot the rails are running through the area of the platform it may be for gauging ing the new platform

[willc]

Reason i asked was that if the Balfour Beatty machine used at Campden tunnel in 2009, or something similar will be doing the work, the back end of the train - mostly wagons carrying the sleepers - needs rails to run on and Charlbury station is the only area where any of sleepers delivered along the line so far have been left on the trackbed and rails attached. For the next two miles they have all been moved to the edge of the trackbed or laid on the bank next to the trackbed.

Video of the Balfour Beatty machine at work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9U2cY7IToc

[paul7575]

If two miles of sleepers have been delivered trackside might that may be an indication that the NTC^▸ (New Track Construction) machine won't be used?  There are other methods of assembling a second track where an existing line is already available.  Another possibility, although this is mostly conjecture, is that the NTC can operate over pre laid sleepers, rather than 'self delivered'.  I have read that it is designed to work with self delivered concrete sleepers as well though, to forestall the obvious question.

BTW^▸ (by the way) I asked in another forum a while back how the rails were delivered in front of the NTC where it was assembling a single track on a new formation (like on the Airdrie to Bathgate line), expecting some high tech device. However all that happens is that a conventional long welded rail delivery train will drop the rail sections at the existing railhead, and then road-rail machines operating in road mode just drag the new rail along the ballast.

Paul

[pbc2520]

I'm wondering how a track laying machine would get on to the 'launch pad'?  Is there any sign of the new junction to the south east of Charlbury station being installed yet?  If that is too disruptive, perhaps a temporary non-intrusive crossover would do the job?

BTW^▸ (by the way), Google Earth images appear to show new rails extending over the bridge and past the water works - presumably that gives some indication of the location of the new junction?

Thanks for the photos Will - following your album with great interest!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, pbc2520! 

Yes, I too am a fan of willc's photos - they're very useful for anyone outside the area to be able to follow what's going on!

CfN. 

[willc]

If two miles of sleepers have been delivered trackside might that may be an indication that the NTC^▸ (New Track Construction) machine won't be used?  There are other methods of assembling a second track where an existing line is already available

Yes, but as Insider noted back up the thread, sleepers were originally dropped in a neat row on the trackbed at Walcot, just west of Charlbury, presumably using slinger wagons, then moved on to the cutting bank, like all the rest of the sleepers out to Shorthampton, which would seem a bit of a waste of time and effort if they were just going to drag the rails over and clip them on, as was done at Charlbury.

I was simply speculating as to the likely purpose for that section of track, as it does seem to have been laid for a reason. It might be right that it is to help with gauging for construction of the new platform.

In their recent newsletter, Network Rail said they would use "a production line system" to do the work, which sounds a bit more like a tracklaying machine than road-railers just dragging stuff around. See http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/Projects/10995_Cotswold%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

I can't imagine it's too difficult to sever the running line and move the rails over temporarily to place a machine on the section of track.

Is there any sign of the new junction to the south east of Charlbury station being installed yet?

No, it won't go in until the blockade at the end of May/start of June. It will be out towards the Cornbury estate bridge which crosses the line beyond the sewage works.

[IndustryInsider]

Just a bit of staff chat, but I was told that the track isn't going to be laid with this NTC^▸ (New Track Construction) train.  That person said the section was so short and curvy with a change in formation from the down to the up road half-way along and that it had been decided it wasn't worth using it.  He didn't know if the longer section from Moreton to Evesham would use it.

The track in the platform was purely there for accurate gauging of the platform which had to be started fairly soon.  This could be someone putting two and two together and making five though!

[paul7575]

In their recent newsletter, Network Rail said they would use "a production line system" to do the work, which sounds a bit more like a tracklaying machine than road-railers just dragging stuff around. See http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/Projects/10995_Cotswold%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

I can't imagine it's too difficult to sever the running line and move the rails over temporarily to place a machine on the section of track.

My point about dragging rail along was intended only to explain how they posiitioned the rails ahead of the NTC^▸ (New Track Construction) machine when building the 'first track' of a pair, nothing more. Hence the 'BTW^▸ (by the way)'.  Clearly in the present situation, the rails are brought in by a delivery train running on the existing line in the normal manner.

Paul

[Buckham]

Was out on my Sunday morning run at 9.15 this morning which takes in the Clayfield Road and Blackminster level crossings between Honeybourne and Evesham. Had to wait at Clayfield while an EWS^▸ (English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd, now known as DB Schenker Rail (UK^▸ (United Kingdom))) branded 66 hauled a lengthy bunch of empty network rail wagons towards Evesham. To my inexperienced eye they look like spoil wagons, and I suspect probably nothing to to with the current re-doubling work.

Still no new rail at the side of the track yet in this section of the line.

[willc]

In their recent newsletter, Network Rail said they would use "a production line system" to do the work, which sounds a bit more like a tracklaying machine than road-railers just dragging stuff around. See http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/Projects/10995_Cotswold%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

I can't imagine it's too difficult to sever the running line and move the rails over temporarily to place a machine on the section of track.




My point about dragging rail along was intended only to explain how they posiitioned the rails ahead of the NTC^▸ (New Track Construction) machine when building the 'first track' of a pair, nothing more. Hence the 'BTW^▸ (by the way)'.  Clearly in the present situation, the rails are brought in by a delivery train running on the existing line in the normal manner.

Paul

Understood your point very well and wasn't referring to it at all. What I meant was if you want to get a train/plant on to an apparently isolated piece of track, cutting and moving the running line rails temporarily is one way to do it. And they will have to drag the new rails around, however they are finally laid, as some are in the middle of the existing running line, while in other places they are alongside the trackbed - mostly these are sections that were left on site in August 2009 near Charlbury and Moreton-in-Marsh.

Gauging certainly makes sense - they won't want a re-run of Axminster's second platform - but there's no sign so far of anything similar being done at Ascott-under-Wycvhwood, where the same issue of a new platform arises. Though I do find it slightly odd they can't position a platform edge correctly in an age of GPS, never more old-fashioned measuring techniques. The Victorians seemed to manage somehow.

To my inexperienced eye they look like spoil wagons,

Something like these?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/4757917406/

[pbc2520]

Yes, I too am a fan of willc's photos - they're very useful for anyone outside the area to be able to follow what's going on!

Absolutely, and, even when you're on the train it all flashes past a little too quickly.  (That is, if it's not dark and you remember to look out at the right time...)

[willc]

Took an afternoon constitutional on a couple of the footpaths which cross the line west of Paxford, between Blockley level crossing and Chipping Campden. The cable troughs all seem to be in place through here, though with cables yet to be dropped in and lids lifted on. There is also some fairly major work going on to stabilise part of the east side of the cutting north of the road bridge at Dorn but at the time I was passing it was lashing with rain and very dark, so pictures will have to wait. All the vegetation has been cleared and trees felled right up to the level of the field at the top, where a site compound has been set up.

Glad the pictures are appreciated, though thank goodness for digital - I dread to think what doing this would have cost using 35mm film and having to develop everything.

[willc]

Ballasting is now out between milepost 79 and a half and 79 and three quarters, although the gap west of Walcot remains.

[willc]

Ballast now past milepost 80, just west of the Mill Lane bridge above Ascott-under-Wychwood, but the gap in the ballast west of Walcot remains.

A nice neat row of sleepers has been placed on the trackbed at Shorthampton, just west of the point where the existing running line switches from one side of the trackbed to the other.