Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

Where is the other end of this pipe, anyway? I can't see anywhere near the ends of the service corridor to couple a readymix tanker even if they do have enormous folded delivery pipes. And it must be a very long built-in pipe.

Right in the NW 'internal corner' between the northern building and the main station retaining wall.  Or just by the big external aircon heat exchangers, where the black doors giving entry to the plant rooms, substation and service tunnel are.  If you zoom right in on the left hand side of webcam 1/2 between about 1015 and 1415 today you'll see a few concrete mixers, the concrete pump (white box on wheels), and the pipe right in the corner...

PS - The same area viewed with webcam 1/3 also shows the pipe crossing the pavement, but the mixer trucks are out of shot...

Paul

[stuving]

Ah - there it is. When I first looked, I didn't spot that Lobstervision was showing me August, for some reason. So your "concrete mixers" will be those big trucks with "Hanson" written on them, then?

You can see there is quite a lengthy clean-up process, taking about two hours. The pictures are too few and lacking in detail to show what's going on, other than that it involves several plastic "bathtubs" on wheels.

[stuving]

That prompts a thought: how do they clean the concrete out of one of these pipes, if you can't take it home on the vehicle? I've always imagined you stuff something up it - a spherical "pig", or maybe an old jumper - and use compressed air. Using water would give you an unmanageable quantity of very runny grout to dispose of. And letting it set ... would give you a big headache.

Having had a bit of a look, the answer turns out to be "all of the above, including the ones you thought impractical". Both water and air are used, with or without balls or sponges. Handling concrete always generates lots of waste concrete and washing water, and the pipe volume is not that big relatively.

[ironstone11]

I didn't spot that Lobstervision was showing me August, for some reason.

nrreading01 defaults to Cam 1, the last shot from which (i.e. when it was last working) was on Aug 29! That date then carries over to the other cameras.

[Jason]

No, straight along in a westerly direction but behind the present hoarding line, not through the building.  So if you came out the waiting room towards P7, turn left left immediately and go straight ahead...

A picture is worth a thousand words, though it's only an educated guess...

Thank you, it does indeed. I had a look around last night and there were upright girders (the same as those used for hoarding elsewhere) going in, tracing a fairly tight perimeter around the edge of the current building area at P1/P2.

P10 pushing ahead, there were already 3 courses of blockwork in place last night atop the concrete poured only a day earlier.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

Reading station was featured in yesterday's edition of the Meridian local news starring the buckets laid out over the floor to catch the drips from the leaking roof with interviews with staff and travellers. It may be possible to view that item on the ITV catchup service but I haven't checked that.

[JayMac]

See earlier in this thread:

ITV Meridian have posted a video news item about the leaky transfer deck and they did include my pictures with the reporter commenting on them. Although I'd slightly disagree that I'd 'taken to social media to complain'. My post here including the pictures was only meant as an observation and mild critique. I did point out that Reading Station is still very much a work in progress.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/2013-09-19/850m-station-roof-is-leaking/

[bobm]

It seems little has improved since the problem was first reported here five months ago  (same buckets too!)  http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6405.msg130496#msg130496

[stuving]

It seems little has improved since the problem was first reported here five months ago  (same buckets too!) 

No doubt that'll be the wrong kind of rain - not wet enough, or too little of it to show the leaks.

You may have seen the Meridian item said the hot weather had open up the joints - which, if true, means they did fix it but it became unfixed and is likely to become unfixed again in any future decent summer. Of course that may be just the press office's excuse generator at work.

[paul7575]

A couple of snaps below, first one showing the arrangement of the temporary platform so far, I was told it will extend about 50m east of the signal gantry, they won't start there until the track has been slewed to the new alignment.

(By the way, they've already removed the redundant up starter signal for P7, (T1682) the one that always looked as though it was on an incredibly light weight bracket that we discussed way back.  I assume its number will transfer to the one that's covered up eventually, but will they fit another temporary signal at the London end of the temporary P7, and use the number for that as well?)

Second pic shows the beginnings of the blockwork wall for P10.

Hope this is of interest...

Paul

[ironstone11]

A couple of snaps below,
Hope this is of interest...
Paul

That's great, thanks.

[stuving]

Also, did you see that there was another small crane - (mounted on a flatbed lorry) helping to erect three new lampposts along the ramp?

Two are taller than their friends, but the one by the station building is if anything shorter. If they are going to match the existing ones on Station Hill, they will get pointy thing on top of them too.

Wrong again - no pointy things, and quite unlike the lamps on Station Hill, which presumably will now be replaced too.

The street-lamp fairy, with cherry picker, came and put three lamps on the three new posts yesterday morning. Not one on each, of course, that would have been too obvious. And it happened from 01:00 to 04:00, which perhaps makes sense if they have to accommodate an elf.

[ironstone11]

The street-lamp fairy, with cherry picker, came and ...

But missed the middle one, which will presumably be a double.

[stuving]

Down on platform 7, the track at the West end has already done its great leap sideways (Pic 1). Not sure what was used, I suspect nothing too high-tech. You can see a short stretch of new track between the slewed section and what was already in place, getting a bit of gentle persuasion, and needing a bit more done to it (pic 2).

Up at the East end ...

[...] I was told it will extend about 50m east of the signal gantry, they won't start there until the track has been slewed to the new alignment.

... was this (pic 3) what you had in mind?

[paul7575]

A few pictures of mine from a quick visit this afternoon...

The first picture was taken just as they finished joining the slewed P7 track in its finished position.  In the far distance there was a large amount of work going on, hopefully you'll be able to pick out the new points that will provide access to/from P3.  They are much closer to the platform end than before, and I'm presuming that is to allow for a more direct route from P3 onto the Festival line and the down main?   (We're possibly going to need a new track diagram shortly I think...)

To answer stuving's point about how they slewed the track, I saw the tail end of the work, and they used a couple of powered machines to lift the rail away out of the sleepers to one side(as shown at the east end), and then used a road rail machine to lift the sleepers out of the way while they regraded the ballast.  After that it was a fairly straight forward re-assembly.
 
I've now answered my own question about signal T1682, the signal on the gantry is now uncovered, and the ID plate has been transferred to it, so that suggests the UP direction stop position will not allow for a 6 car train to berth alongside the temporary platform...

...because since yesterday it has become clearer where the temp platform's west end will be.  As the third picture shows it ends where the wooden steps are, just about level with the small WH Smiths.   That suggests the first portion of the platform to be rebuilt (the west end) is by far the larger of the two phases of the work.

The fourth picture shows the start of a scaffolding bridge from P6 across to where the temporary platform is yet to be built, and paint markings suggest there will be another bridge a few yards further east on P6, but that remains to be seen.

Again, I hope that is all of interest.

Paul