GWML Electification

[Zomboid]

As of today at Reading, the OLE is up on platform 8, and the catenary wire only on platform 1.

[lmsforever]

Send the buffer stop to Chinnor we can use that at our new station at Risborough .

[The Stationmaster]

Interested to note today that several months after going 'live' there are still road-rail cherry pickers based at Tilehurst and there is still various installation work going on plus obvious adjustments adjustments and minor alterations are being made on the catenary.  Seems that if nothing else GWML electrification has things in common with many a model railway

[Kris]

Not directly "electrification", but very closely related to it, GWR have made this announcement about the Paddington - Bedwyn (and Frome) service. Finding a positive angle to "spin" on the delay to the electrification scheme deserves a medal!

 

 

Glad to here that Frome and Bedwyn will retain their services, it's important for both for different reasons. 

[jamie92208]

I had a trip to Reading today as well as riding the new Bicester curve.  Between Oxford and Didcot I did see a few stretches of mast foundations fully sunk and quite a few piles on the ground but many large gaps.     Things seemed to be complete between Didcot and Oxford but there were some spare tubes lying around.   In the Station area, in the few minutes I was there it looked as if about 40% of the platforms are wired though as mentioned above at least one has only the contact wire.  Some droppers obviously needed further adjustment.   Going back West it was nice to see a Freightliner coming underneath us as we went over the flyover with both trains going well. 

 

On the subject of buffer stops there are now a couple of spare sets at Banbury at the end of what used to be the headshunts on the west side.

 

Jamie

[SouthernMafia]

Testing/energising of the OHLE east of Maidenhead commences this weekend, with a number of stations closed to public and staff whilst testing commences overnight over the next few weeks.

387s go live to Maidenhead from May. Reading is due to be energised mid September, with through 387 services to Didcot shortly after. Believe this is slightly earlier than planned.

[The Stationmaster]

Testing/energising of the OHLE east of Maidenhead commences this weekend, with a number of stations closed to public and staff whilst testing commences overnight over the next few weeks.

387s go live to Maidenhead from May. Reading is due to be energised mid September, with through 387 services to Didcot shortly after. Believe this is slightly earlier than planned.

 

The most recent publicly stated date for commencement of electric train services Maidenhead - Reading - Didcot is December this year, Mr Hopwood might say something different this evening - I shall see.

[HillsideDepot]

I was invited to travel on the TransWilts Rail CRP special today and September was mentioned for electric services to Didcot.

 

Obviously everyone on board was in an upbeat mood as it was a celebratory day, but I do sense that GWR are looking for every opportunity to exploit the potential of their resources as each section of wiring is energised and as stock is delivered and subsequently cascaded. Although not related to the TransWilts line (Swindon - Melksham - Westbury, but with ambitions to continue to Salisbury via a new station at Wilton Parkway) there were interesting comments about the IET (as they seem to call them) fleet and the plans and opportunities they are considering for them. It wouldn't be correct to place their comments on the record here as its clear things aren't yet finalised. 

[SouthernMafia]

Discussion with one of the OHLE project managers at Maidenhead yesterday produced suggestion of 12 car 387s replacing the peak time HSTs to/from Didcot from late September, which presumably throws up HSTs to displace some 180s for Grand Central? Not sure when they're due to be cascaded but can't be far off. Presumably 387s will take over Reading stoppers from around then too which will start to allow Turbos to head further West.

Interesting suggestion around Bedwyn service posted above, depending on how many IETs could be used for this, plus the Oxfords (which should be 387) I'm starting to wonder how many times a service that was once an 8 car HST and becomes a booked 10 car IET is run as a 5 car IET vice 10 car. It will happen at some stage and passengers are going to love all these new shiny shorter trains...

Edited March 2, 2017 by SouthernMafia

[lmsforever]

letter in March issue Railway Magazine from someone in Goring opposed to wires through the area banged on about ANOB,S and damage the masts are going to do to them .Cant see how wires and masts are going to damage areas away from the railway okay the structures do seem to be overdesigned  but like every thing you get used to them.Now if they banned all the motor traffic from the area that would do some good and then everyone could go back to horse and carriages.Writer avered that because of their intervention NR are replacing current masts with new ones surely the bill should go to every household in the area and not added to the cost of this badly run project.

[RJS1977]

Discussion with one of the OHLE project managers at Maidenhead yesterday produced suggestion of 12 car 387s replacing the peak time HSTs to/from Didcot from late September, which presumably throws up HSTs to displace some 180s for Grand Central? Not sure when they're due to be cascaded but can't be far off. Presumably 387s will take over Reading stoppers from around then too which will start to allow Turbos to head further West.

Interesting suggestion around Bedwyn service posted above, depending on how many IETs could be used for this, plus the Oxfords (which should be 387) I'm starting to wonder how many times a service that was once an 8 car HST and becomes a booked 10 car IET is run as a 5 car IET vice 10 car. It will happen at some stage and passengers are going to love all these new shiny shorter trains...

 

On the other hand, 8 car HST develops a fault, service is cancelled.

 

One of the two IEP sets fails, the service is run with a shorter train.

 

I know which I'd rather have.

[WCML100]

On the other hand, 8 car HST develops a fault, service is cancelled.

 

One of the two IEP sets fails, the service is run with a shorter train.

 

I know which I'd rather have.

 

 

surely to add to that if the second unit (trailing unit) failed, cant it be pulled by the hauling front set?

[SouthernMafia]

On the other hand, 8 car HST develops a fault, service is cancelled.

 

One of the two IEP sets fails, the service is run with a shorter train.

 

I know which I'd rather have.

Yes totally agree in terms of service reliability, just hope it doesn't happen to some of the already full and standing HST equivalent services in the peaks!

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Another 'on my way to work' update for Reading Station; Platform 1 is fully wired, the 'top' contact wire is in place into Platform 7 I think, and the Up Main over the Flyover is fully wired from the Junction protecting Signalling Gantry and the Platforms.

 

I don't really know what is happening at the London End of the station, as, coming in from Tilehurst, I don't need to spend much time at that end!

 

Simon

[Zomboid]

Hi,

 

Another 'on my way to work' update for Reading Station; Platform 1 is fully wired, the 'top' contact wire is in place into Platform 7 I think, and the Up Main over the Flyover is fully wired from the Junction protecting Signalling Gantry and the Platforms.

 

I don't really know what is happening at the London End of the station, as, coming in from Tilehurst, I don't need to spend much time at that end!

 

Simon

The top cable is the catenary wire, the lower cable is the contact wire.

[jonathan452]

Great Western electrification might miss new 2018 target and £2.8bn budget, MPs warn - http://www.cityam.com/260155/great-western-electrification-might-miss-new-2018-target

[St. Simon]

Great Western electrification might miss new 2018 target and £2.8bn budget, MPs warn - http://www.cityam.com/260155/great-western-electrification-might-miss-new-2018-target

 

From what I've heard (and partially backed up by my view on the progress that is being made), the project is slightly ahead of the new 2018 schedule

 

Simon

[The Stationmaster]

Very interesting session of our Branch User Group (BUG - honest) with a talk by Mark Hopwood and Q &A session to follow, in both of which i thought he was very candid and informative.

 

He showed a slide of the current programme intentions for what I would call 'London Division' electrification and service changes this year with electric running between Paddington and Maidenhead commencing on 21 (I think it said) May with an enhancement taking place in July.  Running through to Didcot for local services is planned to be the next stage commencing at the December TT change date which obviously means trains will be running before then for training purposes etc.  The simplified GANT chart he showed indicated that commencement of public timetabled running to Didcot is contingent on the provision of stabling sidings at Didcot (no detail known about that) and it seems the Didcot multi-storey car park also has authority (not that that is relevant to electrification of course).

 

I asked about the possibility of using aClass 800 on our through London trains which will cease in May and the subsequent discussion was quite interesting.  It seems the intention with the Class 387 working is to move as quickly as possible to 12 car trains in order to deal with overcrowding (the Maidenhead July alteration might be part of that if they don't appear earlier) but overall they want 12 car 387s running on peak services by the end of the year along with going to 10 car Class 800 formations as quickly as possible.  That took us back round to the Bedwyn through trains with Class 800s which will obviously only be 5 car and Mark stated they would only run off peak as that formation is not long enough for peak period trains.

 

Apparently (and as one should expect) the 387s are proving very reliable in service knocking up what I took to mean 40,000 miles per casualty although that might have meant 40,000 miles per fault as seemingly they have had no faults leading to cancellations (or that was what he intimated) - overall considerably better than the 16Xs which are making only 10,000 miles per casualty (and from what was said, and shown on one of the slides, that was definitely 'per casualty').

 

Some very interesting performance figures were shown plus a list of incidents resulting in delays, strangely the list included not only track circuit failures but cable faults on new cable routes and axle counter failures.  GWR and GW Zone are forming a 'partnership/alliance' which could be interested and even more interesting is that a retired railway senior manager will be chairing it - in the shape of Dick Fearn.  In addition NR have recently appointed an experienced S&T Engineer to deal with S&T engineering maintenance matters - good news as it's someone of long experience which might be helpful (we can but hope).

 

As I've mentioned elsewhere the entire 166 fleet is going westwards leaving just Class 165s in the London Division - my comment that we don't want 150s got a wry smile and a nod and a statement that this end will have a 100% 'turbo' fleet on non-electric workings.

 

There was a mention - not from Mark or anyone of GWR origin - but based on some other information that some of the GW scheme electrification such as Thames Valley branches might even slip into CP 7.  However GWR and BUG seem to have acquired some strong support from a local MP regarding such things as support for increasing certain line speeds on the branch and it seems she is rattling the cages of DfT and NR.

[Christopher125]

From what I've heard (and partially backed up by my view on the progress that is being made), the project is slightly ahead of the new 2018 schedule

That's often the problem with the PAC, by the time their findings have been released the situation has moved on.

[robertcwp]

Reports elsewhere suggest that the line to Maidenhead did not go live last night as planned.

[Banger Blue]

Reports elsewhere suggest that the line to Maidenhead did not go live last night as planned.

Yep, saw a notice this morning at work: energisation of the Up & Down Mains, Up & Down Reliefs between Stockley and Maidenhead has been postponed. (No further dates stated)

[jim.snowdon]

No surprise, there.

 

Up at our end of the section (West Drayton), there are still many cross-track connections to be made and virtually none of the ATF wire is in yet.

 

Jim

[The Stationmaster]

No surprise, there.

 

Up at our end of the section (West Drayton), there are still many cross-track connections to be made and virtually none of the ATF wire is in yet.

 

Jim

 

I'm not surprised - there is still various 'detail' work going on between Reading & Didcot as I posted recently.

[D1059]

That took us back round to the Bedwyn through trains with Class 800s which will obviously only be 5 car and Mark stated they would only run off peak as that formation is not long enough for peak period trains.

 

 

 

Which logically is the wrong way round as it will inconvenience the majority of Bedwyns regular travellers (assuming most of them travel all the way to/from Paddington in the peak hours)

[The Stationmaster]

Which logically is the wrong way round as it will inconvenience the majority of Bedwyns regular travellers (assuming most of them travel all the way to/from Paddington in the peak hours)

 

Exactly what I thought - but didn't say as what had already been said by Mark and his sidekick (Jane someoneorother) had made it pretty clear that peak hours will mean 'big(ger)' trains so logically his explanation of the Bedwyn working fitted with that.

 

Edit to add PS - However partly from what was said about our branch, and various other things, it came over quite clearly that GWR is aiming to try to 'look after' its longer distance Thames & Kennet Valley passengers post electrification so the plan fits quite well in that context.  Back in the days when they got commission the Conductors loved the Bedwyn trains as they produced quite amazing sums in commission - one bloke told me that he  used to have a 4 week holiday in the Caribbean every year paid for solely by his ticket sale commission.

Edited March 6, 2017 by The Stationmaster