Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[DidcotPunter]

According to the WR Sectional Appendix (p. 148 of Mod. WR2; document page 320), the photograph is of 'Chester Line Junction' but the route is now called the Up and Down Oxford.

There are different names for different purposes, the boxes at the top of the page still show the route number GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) 200 as being Didcot to Heyford, but having the engineer's line reference (ELR) of "DCL". 

Whether or not it is hierarchical, I don't know, but sections of line can change name every few miles.  I bet the bridges are all still labelled DCL/x...

Paul

They are!!

[ray951]

Ahead of the wires, the signs are also going up warning trains where they can't go....

Aren't they officially the Chester lines?

The junction at the end of the platform is called 'Chester Line Jcn' see P62 of the Western Route Sectional Appendix.

That sign is also interesting in that the electrification steelwork is in place along the Down and Up Oxford lines as far as Didcot West Jcn, so presumably electric trains could go that far. Note there is no steelwork in place on either Didcot Avoiding Curves or Didcot West Curve.

[Electric train]

Apparently all the Crossrail OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") wire will be run out between Airport Jcn and Maidenhead by the end of November

[John R]

Does that mean they could shortly afterwards start electric services?  Could release a few turbos and start the cascade if they could.

[ChrisB]

Driver training would probably mean the December timetable change

[Electric train]

The wire will be run does not mean it will be juiced up, there will still be a number of system tests.  Earliest electric service would be May 17 and that would be stretching it but they my have to terminate at Maidenhead, not sure when the Maidenhead Reading bit will be completed as that is being delivered by GWEP^▸ (Great Western Electrification Program) and not Crossrail

[Noggin]

The wire will be run does not mean it will be juiced up, there will still be a number of system tests.  Earliest electric service would be May 17 and that would be stretching it but they my have to terminate at Maidenhead, not sure when the Maidenhead Reading bit will be completed as that is being delivered by GWEP^▸ (Great Western Electrification Program) and not Crossrail

IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly'), the contracts were changed so Crossrail's contractors are doing Maidenhead to Reading (I think that the contract boundary is Kennet Bridge). The last time I went through (about a month ago), there weren't many masts west of Maidenhead, but much of the piling appeared to have been done, so it's possible that masts and wires could be completed fairly quickly once Maidenhead has been reached and Crossrail's milestones have been achieved. Reading station of course had masts fitted as part of the rebuild, so just needs small part steel and wires, I suspect that will be the focus once Tilehurst to Didcot is fully wired. 

As Electric Train says, there's an awful lot of testing and tweaking needs to be done before the power even gets turned on, and there may be some signalling work required too. The Tilehurst to Didcot section is the first big installation of the new F+F OHLE^▸ (Over-Head Line Equipment (electrification via catenary)) so there may be issues that have to be resolved, hence in part the long time between wiring and passenger services being due to start. Realistically, electric services on the new section are going to need Reading to Airport Jcn at least to be wired, a significant number of drivers to be trained and a significant number of 387s to have been delivered.   

[paul7575]

Didn't Mark Hopwood do an interview in Rail at the end of last year, and he suggested an EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) service to Maidenhead would be possible in 'early 2017'.   So assuming it unlikely to have been possible to advance that timing, May 2017 does seem the most probable start date, all things considered.

Found an online short version:

“We get our first EMUs in the early months of 2016. We already have wires to Hayes in west London, and we intend to start using them within a few weeks of receiving those trains.

“The dates Network Rail has published are back-stop dates. It is saying to us that it will try to outperform those dates. So we expect to see electrification to Maidenhead in early 2017, and that gives us our next opportunity to use EMUs.”

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2015/12/08/hopwood-upbeat-as-gwr-revises-rolling-stock-plans

I'm also wondering if the proposed 8 car 387 service in lieu of some peak Greenfords could ever have started as planned in May this year, due to infrastructure alterations still required at that time such as:

West Ealing Bay?
Hayes and Harlington Bay - (the temporary solution being reversing on the Heathrow spur).
and then
Paddington P14 wiring delayed due to overhead clearance problems?
Paddington P12/13 reworking?
Those last two may not have been explicitly announced as required for early EMU operation, but there must be some impact on Paddington platforming...

Delays to rolling stock availability have possibly covered up a certain amount of Network Rail embarrassment...

Paul

[TonyK]

Above ground bits

Sorry - don't know.

[Electric train]

Didn't Mark Hopwood do an interview in Rail at the end of last year, and he suggested an EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) service to Maidenhead would be possible in 'early 2017'.   So assuming it unlikely to have been possible to advance that timing, May 2017 does seem the most probable start date, all things considered.

Found an online short version:

“We get our first EMUs in the early months of 2016. We already have wires to Hayes in west London, and we intend to start using them within a few weeks of receiving those trains.

“The dates Network Rail has published are back-stop dates. It is saying to us that it will try to outperform those dates. So we expect to see electrification to Maidenhead in early 2017, and that gives us our next opportunity to use EMUs.”

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2015/12/08/hopwood-upbeat-as-gwr-revises-rolling-stock-plans

I'm also wondering if the proposed 8 car 387 service in lieu of some peak Greenfords could ever have started as planned in May this year, due to infrastructure alterations still required at that time such as:

West Ealing Bay?
Hayes and Harlington Bay - (the temporary solution being reversing on the Heathrow spur).
and then
Paddington P14 wiring delayed due to overhead clearance problems?
Paddington P12/13 reworking?
Those last two may not have been explicitly announced as required for early EMU operation, but there must be some impact on Paddington platforming...

Delays to rolling stock availability have possibly covered up a certain amount of Network Rail embarrassment...

Paul

I suspect the will be a drive for "political" electric service to Maidenhead even if its a semi fast with limited stops.

Also prising the 387 out of GTR hands may prove challenging they are making all the excuses under the sun not to accept the Class 700

[IndustryInsider]

I'm also wondering if the proposed 8 car 387 service in lieu of some peak Greenfords could ever have started as planned in May this year, due to infrastructure alterations still required at that time such as:

West Ealing Bay?
Hayes and Harlington Bay - (the temporary solution being reversing on the Heathrow spur).
and then
Paddington P14 wiring delayed due to overhead clearance problems?
Paddington P12/13 reworking?
Those last two may not have been explicitly announced as required for early EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) operation, but there must be some impact on Paddington platforming...

The bay at West Ealing has finally been 'finished'.  Now open for 2-car trains.  To be extended to 4-car later on, but as 2-car trains will only be using it for the foreseeable future, that can only really be useful to keep a service running in the event of a failure?

It would have been tight to have got it open for the May date, but perhaps boarding covering the platform construction could have been used whilst it was finished off?

The wires have been up on Platform 14 since the turn of the year, though not able to accept an 8-car EMU as yet.

I suspect the will be a drive for "political" electric service to Maidenhead even if its a semi fast with limited stops.

Also prising the 387 out of GTR hands may prove challenging they are making all the excuses under the sun not to accept the Class 700

The GTR 387s are no longer coming to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), so a cascade delay won't be the issue.  Whether enough of the new build are here is a different matter, but my money would be on a limited electric service between Maidenhead and Paddington from next May, slowly being ramped up until the route as far as Didcot becomes available a year or so later.

[chrisr_75]

Hayes and Harlington Bay - (the temporary solution being reversing on the Heathrow spur).

The track & signalling has been installed here for several months now and the platform has seen use during some recent disruption (when HEx was stuffed as I recall) - it just needs finishing off to get to its full (8 car?) length.

[DidcotPunter]

Some wiring is now up in the Didcot station area. The down main is now wired from just east of the station through platform 1 to Foxhall Junction (I think - couldn't see from the car), and the up main is wired from Foxhall Junction (presumably) to Milton Junction.

Someone has posted elsewhere that the switch-on date has been revised to 2nd July for the mains and 16th July for the reliefs.

[SandTEngineer]

This was posted on the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) forum
https://vimeo.com/166803000

[Noggin]

This was posted on the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) forum
https://vimeo.com/166803000

Good isn't it? I thought that the holes were pre-drilled judging by the captions, but someone on WNXX corrected me that there were just trial pits to check that no signalling cables. Apparently the crane has some kind of vibrating hammer on it.