Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[stuving]

I'm sure you are right, and the subject deserved a more serious treatment than I gave it.

So, being serious, I can't see putting a sign right in the way like that as a good idea. I imagine one of the problems at Reading (commented on before, I think) is that most the lifts are not at all obvious. The ones up onto the deck from the main entrance are especially well hidden at the moment, but I don't think that will change very much when the building is finished.

A lot of work was done analysing the people flows at the design stage. Did the presence of people with luggage not feature in that work?

I'll be interested to see how Gatwick has been redesigned, since this issue must be far more important there. I know that one of the issues with moving GEx off platforms 1-2 was that the lifts for the other platforms were very hard to find.

There is a railway standard, but it dates from 1996 and unsurprisingly is mainly about fire risks. I does contain this, though:

9.5 When specially designed passenger self help trolleys are used on
escalators and passenger conveyors, notices in a clear and concise form to
instruct passengers how to use the trolleys on the escalator or passenger
conveyor shall be provided. These notices shall be at the approaches to the
escalator or passenger conveyor, but not at the immediate entrances to
them where congestion could develop.

[paul7575]

The big yellow signs that have been there a couple of weeks really need to lose the statement about using the lift because it is faster.   That is completely illogical, and surely there's a risk that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) might be counter sued for misleading people.    If the lifts really were faster, no-one would bother with the escalators...

Do FGW not realise the horse has bolted on this problem.  What proportion of passengers departing Paddington have come from the underground, where wheeled luggage is routinely taken on the escalators.  That's another system that could not physically cope with everyone switching to lifts...

Paul

[Boppy]

The mysterious wooden block!

Has anyone else noticed the mysterious wooden block in the Northern Entrance of the station?

You'll see it two-thirds of the way up the long escalators on the left-hand-side of the upwards escalator.  It's been there since the Northern entrance opened and looks very temporary with 'Oz' scribbled on it in pencil yet after all this time is still in place so I assume is a crucial part of the structure ;-)

[didcotdean]

At Heathrow Terminal 5 there is has always been notices about the lifts being quicker than the escalators, and I can believe it there if you were just standing on them.

[Network SouthEast]

An interesting feature of the escalators to the taxi rank from platform 12 at Paddington is that they have solid metal barriers which are just wide enough for someone to walk through, but not for any thing wider.

The same feature exists at Heathrow Airport on the escalators there to/from the Heathrow Express/Connect platforms.

I'm surprised this feature wasn't used at Reading. I've also never seen the western most lift between the transfer deck and platform 7 being used, it's always out of action. Has anyone else seen it working?

[paul7575]

...'ve also never seen the western most lift between the transfer deck and platform 7 being used, it's always out of action. Has anyone else seen it working?

That was always intentional from what I was told by staff.  The lift was operable, but stayed out of use because it is orientated so that people step out at the bottom towards the platform edge.  If it was turned 90 degrees like all the other lifts people would come out at the top too near the main escalators.

So on the day P7 went out of use for rebuilding into its wider form the lift was brought into use, and once the platform is widened there'll be much more space adjacent to the lower doors...

Paul

[stuving]

An interesting feature of the escalators to the taxi rank from platform 12 at Paddington is that they have solid metal barriers which are just wide enough for someone to walk through, but not for any thing wider.

The same feature exists at Heathrow Airport on the escalators there to/from the Heathrow Express/Connect platforms.

I'm surprised this feature wasn't used at Reading. I've also never seen the western most lift between the transfer deck and platform 7 being used, it's always out of action. Has anyone else seen it working?

I'm sure the barriers at Heathrow (and other airports) are there to keep their self-serve trolleys off escalators, and are present within the airport as well. And there are similar trolleys at Paddington, so that's probably why there are barriers.

[stuving]

The mysterious wooden block!

Has anyone else noticed the mysterious wooden block in the Northern Entrance of the station?

I always though it was to remove some hazard that might catch someone's finger - and would be replaced by something that looks more professional.

I did once catch my little finger on a bit of surrounding joinery next to a handrail (stairs, not escalator) in John Lewis in Reading. It was very painful, and I feared I might have broken something - though it turned out I hadn't. But it is easy to do, and well worth avoiding.

[stuving]

With a bit of luck something will become visible when the covers are removed from the nearest pier...

Well, it looks like the same seven wooden box frames with a bit of rubber matting on top of each. But the resolution isn't good enough to identify what's really there.

I was going to suggest that the bearings under the transfer deck would be a good example to look at. But there isn't anywhere you can get a good view - obviously from inside the deck they are hidden. The best I could do was from the platform - so you can't really see the bearing itself, but you can see how remarkably small they are. My recollection is that the deck was slid on friction pads in the centres of the Y-piers, then would have been jacked up, so they could be removed, and lowered onto the bearings.

[ellendune]

Assuming it still uses a similar merchant bearing, it could be fixed to the beam and pier in several ways: adhesive, grout, or bolts are commonest. If you look at camera 06/2 on October 17th at about 17:00, you can see work on the top of the two nearest free-end piers (i.e. the nearest and the third away). I can't see any bearings as such, but what looks like seven formwork frames on each pier, suggesting something is to be cast or poured into them. My best guess is that the bearing are built into the beam end, and the base goes into the box and gets grouted in place. But that's only a guess.

Thanks to your quoted paragraph from the planning docs I googled 'POT^▸ (Post Office Telecommunications) bearing' and found more than a few articles that broaden my knowledge of the subject!  It does seem possible that the rectangular cast sections visible on the distant pier tops are more cosmetic than structural. With a bit of luck something will become visible when the covers are removed from the nearest pier...

Thanks again.

Paul

The covers have now been removed (Camera 6/02).  The (temporary) timber frame round each bearing suggests they have been grouted thought there are likely to be some bots as well.  If you look at the next (fixed) support you can see the exposed reinforcement at the end of the beams and the reinforcement at the top of the pier.  I assume these will interlock and be cast into a block to provide a fixed end.

[paul7575]

Looking back a couple of weeks on the webcam, e.g. the 11th, the third pier along (i.e. the next intermediate 'free' pier) seems to have spent a time with the concrete feature finished, but without whatever the black parts are, and then the latter are being fitted around the 17th/18th. 

So in the case of the nearest pier it looks to me as though all the phases of the fitting have been done one after the other.   

I also just noticed that around the 20th whatever work was going it required a fire extinguisher to be available, so perhaps there has been either cutting or welding taking place, that would probably mean that the lower part of the bearing is connected to the reinforcement within the pier.

Paul

[ellendune]

Looking back a couple of weeks on the webcam, e.g. the 11th, the third pier along (i.e. the next intermediate 'free' pier) seems to have spent a time with the concrete feature finished, but without whatever the black parts are, and then the latter are being fitted around the 17th/18th. 

The black parts are the bridge bearings. The concrete part is merely a feature cast into the concrete pier underneath.

So in the case of the nearest pier it looks to me as though all the phases of the fitting have been done one after the other.   

I also just noticed that around the 20th whatever work was going it required a fire extinguisher to be available, so perhaps there has been either cutting or welding taking place, that would probably mean that the lower part of the bearing is connected to the reinforcement within the pier.

Paul

I have never heard of them being welded to the reinforcement. By then it would not have been accessible anyway as it was covered in concrete. They are normally attached by a grout and by anchor bolts that are grouted in.  It is possible that a resin grout was used which might have had inflammable components.

[Electric train]

Looking back a couple of weeks on the webcam, e.g. the 11th, the third pier along (i.e. the next intermediate 'free' pier) seems to have spent a time with the concrete feature finished, but without whatever the black parts are, and then the latter are being fitted around the 17th/18th. 

The black parts are the bridge bearings. The concrete part is merely a feature cast into the concrete pier underneath.

So in the case of the nearest pier it looks to me as though all the phases of the fitting have been done one after the other.   

I also just noticed that around the 20th whatever work was going it required a fire extinguisher to be available, so perhaps there has been either cutting or welding taking place, that would probably mean that the lower part of the bearing is connected to the reinforcement within the pier.

Paul

I have never heard of them being welded to the reinforcement. By then it would not have been accessible anyway as it was covered in concrete. They are normally attached by a grout and by anchor bolts that are grouted in.  It is possible that a resin grout was used which might have had inflammable components.

If a disk cutter had / was being used to trim re-bar or other steel components this is regarded as "Hot Working" the risk assessment to allow a permit to "Hot Work" would almost certainly call for a fire extinguisher

[ellendune]

Looking back a couple of weeks on the webcam, e.g. the 11th, the third pier along (i.e. the next intermediate 'free' pier) seems to have spent a time with the concrete feature finished, but without whatever the black parts are, and then the latter are being fitted around the 17th/18th. 

The black parts are the bridge bearings. The concrete part is merely a feature cast into the concrete pier underneath.

So in the case of the nearest pier it looks to me as though all the phases of the fitting have been done one after the other.   

I also just noticed that around the 20th whatever work was going it required a fire extinguisher to be available, so perhaps there has been either cutting or welding taking place, that would probably mean that the lower part of the bearing is connected to the reinforcement within the pier.

Paul

I have never heard of them being welded to the reinforcement. By then it would not have been accessible anyway as it was covered in concrete. They are normally attached by a grout and by anchor bolts that are grouted in.  It is possible that a resin grout was used which might have had inflammable components.

If a disk cutter had / was being used to trim re-bar or other steel components this is regarded as "Hot Working" the risk assessment to allow a permit to "Hot Work" would almost certainly call for a fire extinguisher

Looking at the design rebar should not be exposed, but cutting something else might be the answer

[stuving]

The more you look ...

The free-end piers have had seven low platforms formed on them, presumably because the poured concrete could never be flat enough. The black bearings do look more like plain pads of elastomer (neoprene) than anything prefabricated. If they sit on these platforms rather than in a cut-out, wouldn't they need fixing? To some extent that would depend on the loading regime which I would expect to be different from a road bridge (which is the main application you read about).

In addition to that extinguisher on October 20th, there are some propane cylinders too. Does that mean the bonding method involves heat? that does sound very strange.

Anyway, the next batch of beams has arrived for hoisting today. I think they are initially supported by the scaffolding around the piers, until after the deck slab, crossheads, and diaphragms have been constructed (as the drawings put it). Constructed I take to mean poured and left to cure for a suitable time. Then we might see if the fixed-end pier design includes bearings that are not there yet (or we might not).