Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[Jason]

The most recent things I could find referred to outline planning approval as of last December.
And on the developers website:

"The first elements of the phased scheme will commence in 2014. A temporary public event space is expected to be delivered by the end of 2014 / early 2015, alongside new landscaping works undertaken by the Council and the demolition of the existing vacant retail buildings opposite Reading Station. A first phase office building will follow shortly thereafter."
Source: http://www.stanhopeplc.com/news/article?id=1015

But the current works don't seem to reflect that at all.

[Thatcham Crossing]

I had a few minutes to kill in the station waiting for a connection at about 4pm today, and watched (along with a couple of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff) from the northern end windows of the Transfer Deck as 2 big diggers removed the last of what was left of the pavement outside the Station Hill parade of shops.

There was quite an audience outside aswell, and a few people taking pictures.

[stuving]

No sign of these voracious beasties attacking the row of shops yet. I guess the point is that they are leaving enough of a gap for the developers to take that down behind a hoarding, after the "dry moat" is in use by the public. Whenever that may happen.

[bobm]

Another bit of my childhood gone.  I used to buy my sweets from the second unit from the left as I changed buses on my way home from school.  Further along there were offices for the local newspaper and a sports shop run by former footballer and broadcaster Maurice Edleston.  Sadly in recent years they had become rather rundown, no doubt with the redevelopment plans in mind.

[stuving]

Does anyone know what the criteria are for Reading station to be declared "finished"? That ought to be followed by an opening ceremony.  I imagine the "all public areas complete" is one, but at least one platform end will be only temporarily finished until much later - after the viaduct is in use and the west-end trackwork is relaid.

[paul7575]

...I imagine the "all public areas complete" is one, but at least one platform end will be only temporarily finished until much later - after the viaduct is in use and the west-end trackwork is relaid.

I was told earlier this week that the 'cut out' at the country end of P8 is not now going to be filled in, following the decision to provide the 'permanent quality' extension at the London end.   All that will happen is that once the track work is relaid to the final layout, and at the correct levels, the temporary fence alongside WH Smiths will be removed and the copings fitted, then down trains will be able to stop much nearer that end of the platform.

Which is a shame because it just doesn't look right.  Will always be a relatively easy job to fill the area in if trains get longer though...

Paul

[stuving]

Were you wondering how big a stepladder it takes to change a light bulb on the canopies that sweep up to the transfer deck? (There are quite a few out already in some places.) Or to clean the windows, come to that. 

The high-tech hire-in-a-man-with-the-right-kit solution appears to be this. But how about the other platforms, I hear you ask? Is there anywhere to store a complete set of expanded polystyrene causeway blocks on a permanent basis?

[broadgage]

Would the cherry picker fit on an engineers rail wagon ? , if so the intention may be to move it by rail from one platform to another.
Fairly easily done at night since I presume that every platform can be reached from the new depot.

I would presume that lamps wont be replaced one by one as they fail, it would make more sense to replace them all at once, either when a certain percentage have failed, or after a certain number of hours.

[MVR S&T]

And replace with LED versions, parts of the town already has LED streetlight, and of course all the new signals are. I was intrigued why LEDs were not used when they were putting up the first canopys.

[bobm]

I hope the new lights illuminating the various tracks around the new depot are LEDs - otherwise someone is going to have a fulltime job replacing them given the number of lights there are! 

[broadgage]

And replace with LED versions, parts of the town already has LED streetlight, and of course all the new signals are. I was intrigued why LEDs were not used when they were putting up the first canopys.

LED technology is improving rapidly and is now a realistic alternative to fluorescent or metal halide lamps. This is however a new development, many LED lighting installations of only a few years ago failed to meet expectations regarding light output and lifetime.
I suspect that when the plans for the Reading works were drawn up some years ago, that LED lighting was not considered to be sufficiently developed.

For at least 10 years LEDs have worth while for coloured lighting such a railway or road signals, tail lamps etc.
For a similar time LEDs have been worth it for numerous small light sources, such as torches, cycle lamps, Christmas decoration lights etc.

LEDs to illuminate large areas such as streets, railway platforms, or offices with white light at a competitive cost are very much more recent.

Special qaulity fluorescent lamps are available that should last about 10 years of continual operation, or 20 years of nightime only operation, or perhaps a century of domestic use. That is competitive with the claims made for LEDs.

Replacing conventional fluorescent or discharge lamps is a simple task easily done quickly by semi skilled labour.
Failed LEDs are likey to need an expensive specialist.

[Electric train]

I had a report done last year on the cost benefit of LED over compact fluorescent (cf) lighting.  The savings were very marginal, LED fittings were two to three times the cost all be it they had a 25 to 30 year life expectancy (this was based on the duty cycle where the lights are installed) cf fittings in that time frame would require a new lamp 1.5 times in the same time frame; energy consumption if I recall LED fittings were 36W and cf were 42W so not too much difference.

We went for LED because that was the preferred option of the maintainer, LED still have to prove themselves there is a lot of data on failure modes based on well over 10 years use of cf lighting.

Cold lights like LED or very high frequency cf are the future more lumens per Watt and less wasted as heat.

I agree with Broadgage when the detailed design was signed off for Reading which may have been 5 years ago LED lighting was not quite there even now it has its limitations compared with conventional lights.  Replacement of a failed LED light is likely to be expensive as it is a whole fitting replacement and not just a lamp (bulb)

[bobm]

There's an electrician for you - always a lamp never a bulb!

[Tim]

So are they "reading lights" or "Reading lights"?

[stuving]

Were you wondering how big a stepladder it takes to change a light bulb on the canopies that sweep up to the transfer deck? (There are quite a few out already in some places.) Or to clean the windows, come to that. 

The high-tech hire-in-a-man-with-the-right-kit solution appears to be this. But how about the other platforms, I hear you ask? Is there anywhere to store a complete set of expanded polystyrene causeway blocks on a permanent basis?

Well, this appears to be at least the first part of the answer to that question - it goes upstairs onto the transfer deck!

How did it get up there? I don't know, but if I did I would offer prizes for anyone who could guess. If it climbed the stairs on its tracks, that would have been well worth seeing. Or did they hire in a suitable long-reach indoor crane? (I guess that Ainscough don't do indoor ones).

And is it narrow enough to get down the stairs on the other platforms? Or is it up there for some other purpose, which itself is hardly obvious given that the ceiling of the deck is not that high. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.