Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[stuving]

Nice to see the P1/2 canopy being fitted using a mobile crane from the front, as I predicted a few weeks back. 
Paul

Do we infer this is solid ground?

Also, did you see that there was another small crane - (mounted on a flatbed lorry) helping to erect three new lampposts along the ramp? They don't look a whole lot different to the ones that are there, which they are right next to. Seems a bit unnecessary, doesn't it?

[paul7575]

Yes - that is what the plan shows: no wall. So why has someone painted the line of a wall and a pair of outward-opening double doors on the platform there?

Perhaps they signify temporary hoarding works?  While they are rebuilding P7 there still has to be a public route along to the lifts, and then beyond them to P1-3, while the temporary P7 is in use and a building site along the present line of the tracks?

Similar markings appeared on the platform surface surrounding the old P7 bay before the work there started.

PS ...checked this today Sunday, and the yellow line does have the word 'hoarding painted next to it here and there - but in any case one of the contractors confirmed the work site for P7 will be isolated behind hoardings set along the yellow line from next weekend.

Paul

[paul7575]

Do we infer this is solid ground?

Probably is adequate now.  A few months ago we were discussing what I initially thought was piling taking place around the whole area, but the explanation that came out of the discussion post #1822-4 was that they were reinforcing the ground.

Paul

[stuving]

Regarding the current P7 track work, does the team think that by the end of the weekend the new track will be installed on new ballast and sleepers, but still alongside the platform on its existing alignment?   That way all they'll have to do next weekend is bring in the necessary handling gear and slew the whole lot over to the new alignment early in the closure.

PS - Alternatively, could they build a temporary deck out to the new track alignment,  to be used for only one week?

Paul

A small army of yellow machines at work spreading new ballast this afternoon - and later, they have moved on and are digging out the old stuff. It does look as if the new ballast does go right up to P7, so the track could be put in on its old line just as far as where the new line is already in place. So is slewing that length of track - say 150-200m - really so much easier than doing it in one go?

[stuving]

There's other stuff going on this weekend too - not just P1/2 canopy, but boring holes in P7 for canopy pillar foundations, and the end of P6 has been fenced off and holds loads more scaffolding components.

[ironstone11]

Also, did you see that there was another small crane - (mounted on a flatbed lorry) helping to erect three new lampposts along the ramp? They don't look a whole lot different to the ones that are there, which they are right next to. Seems a bit unnecessary, doesn't it?

The new ones look taller than the existing ones. It must have been thought that the present lighting was inadequate in some way, intensity or distribution?

[ironstone11]

there's other stuff going on this weekend too - not just P1/2 canopy, but boring holes in P7 for canopy pillar foundations, and the end of P6 has been fenced off and holds loads more scaffolding components.

Really useful to have some pictures. Thank you.

[paul7575]

A small army of yellow machines at work spreading new ballast this afternoon - and later, they have moved on and are digging out the old stuff. It does look as if the new ballast does go right up to P7, so the track could be put in on its old line just as far as where the new line is already in place. So is slewing that length of track - say 150-200m - really so much easier than doing it in one go?

I think I'll reserve judgement until we know afterwards how they did it! Probably  tomorrow morning some time?  I suppose under all that fresh ballast they've already altered the track drainage, so the track could go into its final alignment, but it may just be faster all round to move the track next weekend given the right mechanised handling aids...

...such as a set of PEMs, as shown in the distance in this pic by sapperton tunnel from the Kemble re-doubling thread:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99295362@N07/9496228210/in/photostream/

Paul

[stuving]

The new ones look taller than the existing ones. It must have been thought that the present lighting was inadequate in some way, intensity or distribution?

My point was that the ones that are being replaced were only put up in February. The new ones look as if they are tapered - like the one in the foreground of camera 02/1, and that's been there for ages. So it looks more as if the ones on the ramp were temporary ones. Maybe the Council (assuming the lamps are theirs) couldn't get more matching ones sooner. I hope it's not because they hadn't decided what they wanted.

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.

[lbraine]

Just for the record - with the curve to Reading West closed, local turbos were using the Oxford Rd Curve and reversing at Tilehurst platform 3 all yesterday. The reversing signal installed for last Easters blockade got some use!

[ironstone11]

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.

I hadn't noticed that, but obvious from the pictures of them lying on the ground that one of the three is shorter.

[stuving]

Just for the record - with the curve to Reading West closed, local turbos were using the Oxford Rd Curve and reversing at Tilehurst platform 3 all yesterday. The reversing signal installed for last Easters blockade got some use!

Yes, I noticed that at Reading yesterday - full of people looking for their trains in unfamiliar places (well, not literally full, obviously - it's too huge for that).

Also, as I came through Wokingham station I heard the booking clerk explaining that the next Gatwick train had failed, and as they were a platform short at Reading this might delay the next Waterloo train. In fact, it was too late for that to happen. 1V51 had run 8-9 minutes late all the way to Winnersh, then lost 20 minutes before Reading. Where it went then, and the platform of its replacement (14B) are not in RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), so I can't be more precise.

Once they have located a spare train it should be quicker to get it to P14 from the new depot than it was before to P4a/4b. However, the time to be allowed for passengers to move themselves across is now much longer. 1O80 was due out at 15:34, but is recorded as leaving for Reigate at 16:17, arriving around 17:23, behind 2O44 which left for Redhill on time at 16:04 and got to Reigate just before it. I didn't hear all the announcements, so I can't say what people were told about these out-of-sequence trains.

[paul7575]

Had a look at what was going on this afternoon.  By 1700 or so, the P7 track was re-connected all the way through the station area, but ballast was yet to be dropped at the east end.  A tamper was active alongside P7.

The situation is best explained by dividing the area into 3 parts.  From the Caversham Rd bridge to the country side of the transfer deck the track and sleepers have been renewed.  There is then a fishplate temporary join with the original P7 track, which looks undisturbed.  Then the track eastward from the signal gantry has been re-ballasted, with new sleepers fitted, again with a temporary join to the remaining original P7 track.

Then there is still the new section of ballasted track parallel to the original, from the west side of the transfer deck to the signal gantry.  I enquired about the next stage next weekend and basically the two outer sections will be quickly disconnected and simply slewed out to meet the two ends of the new section, which is already in its final position. 

I also got confirmation that it was done this way for time reasons, it would be too much to do in one weekend closure, as well as building the temporary P7.

Pictures summarising the situation attached below.

Paul

 

[paul7575]

I think you're right - and if you look closely at that cross-sectional view, it shows a little retaining wall with its own foundation. The height difference is about the height of track plus sleepers - whatever that is. In that case it must run all the way along, surely.

There's a load more of the sections lying alongside the track today, and they aren't just a conventional I-beam section, there's a flat plate attached, presumably to give them more of a hold in the ground/ballast:

Enough to do a good length anyway, shame about the photo quality...

Paul

[paul7575]

Something else I noticed today is that they've rigged up a pipe run to deliver the concrete for the footings for the new P10 block wall.  Apparently the pipe will run through the service side of the subway, I've attached a phone picture below that shows they have core-drilled through the concrete to get from the subway to the worksite.

An attempt has already been made to deliver some concrete, but the pump failed...

Paul