Southampton Tunnel Closure Advance Information

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

From FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Website advance details of services operating during the forthcoming major engineering work taking place in the tunnel just outside Southampton Central station:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4156

[eightf48544]

An odd fact about the Southampton rail  tunnel is that there is an earlier canal tunnel at a lower level under some of the rail tunnel. It linked the Itchen with the Test avoiding Southampton Water. it was part of the unsucessful canal to Salisbury.

It caused problems with the last big rebuild with it's blockade, which I think was just before electrification.

[John R]

Curiously not, it was around 1981/2, when it was lowered for 8ft 6 containers. (What a difference 6 inches makes.)

That closure led to the construction of the Laverstock chord for diversionary traffic, and a curious arrangement whereby two interweaved lines were used through the tunnel for many months. Hence only train could use it at any time, but trains in different directions used different tracks. Never heard of it used since. 

[eightf48544]

That closure led to the construction of the Laverstock chord for diversionary traffic, and a curious arrangement whereby two interweaved lines were used through the tunnel for many months. Hence only train could use it at any time, but trains in different directions used different tracks. Never heard of it used since. 

Similar arrangemnets still exist on the Tonbridge Hastings lines through several of the tunnels. Due to contractors skimping on the construction the South Eastern found it necessary to add several layers of brick lining hence the need for special stock for the lines and the Schools and the slim jim 33s and slim coaches which ended up in the Hastings DEMUS.

BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) gauntleted the track to allow full size stock to run in the centre of the tunnel. It saves having to have a point. It's very common on continental tram systems particularly at junctions where the poiunt are put back on the reserved right of way and the divergence is on the public road, so that road traffic doesn't run over the moving part of the  points.

A classic place where it should have been used is the junction from Altringham at Piccadilly Gardens where the route to Bury and Piccadilly Station diverge. Instead the point was placed in the raod just where all the buses had to thump over them. Had the point been put a 100 yds back on the reserved right of way, point failures would have been a thing of the past.

[Timmer]

More information on how services will be affected by the work in Southampton Tunnel in December/January has been made available by SWT^▸ (South West Trains): http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWTrains/Timetablesearch/EngineeringWorks/090413HM.htm

[neilweb]

Hi all

You may find this page about the history of the tunnel of interest:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/hampshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8383000/8383071.stm

best wishes

[Lee]

Welcome to the forum, neilweb.

[paul7575]

A post of mine to the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) group, I went over to Southampton to see how the weekday single line working turned out...

Fareham 1054 to Woolston (about 1110 IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly)) on the SN service ex Brighton, which
carried on ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) down to St Denys to reverse. Waited for the following SWT stopper
at 1124, arrived at St Denys 1130 ish.

Then a leisurely walk over the footbridge to catch the 1134 onward to
Southampton Central failed miserably, because driver and guard of the 159 from
Romsey decided to head off on the normal timings, ie 1131. SWT management
present rustled up four taxis to Central pretty sharpish.
You'd assume the train crew had been advised of the temporary timings - the PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System)
had definitely been changed...

Train movements in up and down directions from Southampton, including a number
of freight services, were basically happening on time, although FGW^▸ (First Great Western) were having
one of their 'bad hair days', with arrivals in both directions around midday
being well off schedule. The 1207 ex Cardiff arriving about 1300, with pax
transferring to the following 1307. 1310 to Cardiff arrived about 17 down ex
Fratton, and the 1410 started at Southampton having laid over for about an hour
in the up goods loop.

You don't normally notice so much how the trains run in directional groups in
the normal timetable, but it is far more obvious with single line working. For
example around 1310 onwards the FGW Portsmouth, the SN Victoria, the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Man
Picc and an EWS^▸ (English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd, now known as DB Schenker Rail (UK^▸ (United Kingdom))) container train (waiting in platform 4) all left one after the
other as the signals cleared, it all looked pretty efficent to me. Got me
wondering if the normal timetable is already set up to allow for short periods
of SLW?

Returned on the 1412 Victoria service with no issues, and got a reasonable view
of the tunnel, despite the rain covered train windows. There has been a huge
change over the weekend. It is the up line that remains in normal use, but there
is now a big space where the down side ballast used to be, with men working in
it as trains passed. Surprised to see that much of the exposed floor appears to
be concrete slab already - I wonder if this dates from the previous work in
1981? Excavation proceeding at both portals, and a train of engineers trucks
between the east end of the site and Northam Junction appears to be a source of
materials such as precast slabs.

Passed another SN unit between Mount Pleasant crossing and St Denys, sitting on
the down slow, waiting to form the next departure form Woolston, I assume it
followed my train through St Denys, via the crossover to the down fast.

Hope this of interest...

[paul7575]

As of yesterday, 16th Dec:

12 days or so into the work in the tunnel, and I reckon about 95% of the down
side slab track has now been concreted. At the station end the transition
between slab and ballasted track (a sort of concrete trough) is being finished
off ready for the connecting track to be laid. At the Northam end there are new
sleepers and rails laid as far as the portal, then a short gap between there and
the slab track.

So far they've had two complete weekends and possibly about 36 hours of
overnight access since the major work began. That is much less than half the
total working time, because the full closure period from 24th Dec to the 4th Jan
allows 10 days of 24hr working.

A number of sources (local BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) for one) have suggested that this Christmas is
stage one of two, with the up line planned to be done next Christmas, but I'm
not so sure now. At current progress it wouldn't surprise me if it was finished
in January - I've just checked the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) 'rules of the route - possessions register' for
Christmas & New Year 2010/11, and there is no longer any tunnel work showing.

Paul

[paul7575]

Update today, I noticed from the train that there was very little activity going on in the tunnel, and the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) unit took the up line through the tunnel at what seemed normal speed - albeit wrong direction.

So on my way to the shops I took a walk up past the western portal, where there's the site access,  and a couple of the chaps working there reckoned the down line is complete apart from some tidying up work, and the up line work will start 'at the weekend'. (Christmas day perhaps, if that's a working day for the project - I'm not sure on that though.)

Probable that they planned a couple of days for contingencies, it's good if they haven't been needed.

During the last couple of weekends they have also been renewing track between St Denys and Bitterne, across the Adelaide Rd level crossing - so they're certainly making the most of the closures.

Paul

[paul7575]

Boxing day morning - signs of progress.

Still removing ballast at east end portal. At the west end, a number of 60ft slab track panels have already been positioned in the tunnel, and some precast slabs placed where the transition section from slab to ballasted track will eventually be.   Based on what I saw earlier in the works, this must mean that the 'west end' excavations down to sub base level have already been completed.

Paul

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

City rail tunnel reopens on time
 
A railway tunnel under Southampton has reopened as planned after being closed since Christmas Day.

Rail users travelling towards Eastleigh from Southampton Central were forced to use buses during the 10-day closure.

The tunnel has been undergoing work since November to increase its height for lorry traffic.

The work is part of a ^71m upgrade to allow a new generation of larger freight containers to travel to the docks by rail instead of road.

Network Rail said the upgrade would mean 50,000 fewer lorries a year on the roads.

A revised timetable affecting off-peak and weekend services will continue to operate until Sunday 10 January.

[paul7575]

The tunnel work seems all over bar the shouting. Passed through this morning, seemed to be at typical line speed, although only the down line is in use (as planned).  The whole tunnel interior seems pretty clear of junk, though it still appears to need all the cable carriers to be permanently sorted out AFAICS^▸ (As Far As I Can See).  There is still tons of equipment in the works compounds set up at the west end of the tunnel though.

Surprised that there is little or no feeling of the track changing height at either end, although the transition from ballast to slab is visibly sloping at the station end.

Paul

[Worcester_Passenger]

BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) gauntleted the track to allow full size stock to run in the centre of the tunnel. It saves having to have a point. It's very common on continental tram systems particularly at junctions where the poiunt are put back on the reserved right of way and the divergence is on the public road, so that road traffic doesn't run over the moving part of the  points.

A classic place where it should have been used is the junction from Altringham at Piccadilly Gardens where the route to Bury and Piccadilly Station diverge. Instead the point was placed in the raod just where all the buses had to thump over them. Had the point been put a 100 yds back on the reserved right of way, point failures would have been a thing of the past.

The other reason for gauntletting tram tracks as they come up to a junction is about points. Some tram systems allow the driver to set the points by taking/not taking current as the tram passes a detector in the overhead. That's fine on an 'ordinary' piece of track, but it doesn't work at a road junction, where the tram may well have been held by the lights -and so all trams will need to be taking current.

So you move the point back from the junction - then the driver can select the route before they get to the lights.

[grahame]

Paul, your "newscasts" in this thread are very much read and appreciated - just want to say Thank You!