TheSignalEngineer

Must take a ride through to see what it looks like now.

Thanks, I've only travelled up there once recently as far as Hebden to ride the towpath back to Manchester but remember one of my old staff members saying he was working at Hebden Bridge about a year or so ago. The only thing I noticed was the work for the Rochdale turnback.

Network Rail don't seem to want to tell anyone what they have and haven't achieved in CP5 across the northwest and transpennine routes. I'm out of the loop now except as an occasional passenger, even with a Silvertop I avoid train travel in the Manchester area wherever possible. Yes it is that bad. Going through the list there are a few obvious things that I have seen but without tracking through the Notices it's a bit difficult to be specific. This is my personal perception of achievements Ordsall Chord - Done Manchester Victoria - Whatever done doesn't seem to have improved things much, Operation seems as chaotic as ever. Ordsall Chord connections around Deal Street / Salford Central may have enhanced flexibility a bit Huyton and Roby Capacity Stage 1 - Done Preston JTI (Journey Time Improvements) - Some infrastructure improvements between Salford Crescent and Euxton Junction done but how much it has improved other than performance of electric trains ??? Chinley Capacity - Provision of overtaking and turnback facilities nothing done Dore & Grindleford Capacity - Doubling of the single line between Dore West & Dore Station Jct and provision of freight recessing facilities nothing done Marple JTI - Infrastructure improvements between New Mills and Ashburys not seen anything done except abolition of a couple of Block Posts without providing any more signals Hope Valley JTI - Infrastructure improvements between Dore and New Mills South Junction nothing done Calder Valley JTI - Infrastructure improvements between Manchester and Bradford ????? Manchester Oxford Road station - Remodelling to provide capacity to accommodate longer, more frequent trains nothing done Manchester Piccadilly station - Provision of two additional through platforms (15 & 16) nothing done Manchester Airport 4th platform - Done Manchester Victoria Capacity - Layout alterations to provide capacity and flexibility Don't think anyting has changed except at junction to Ordsall Chord Core Manchester Performance - Castlefield corridor and Ordsall Lane junction capacity and performance improvements Can't see that anything has changed. Chat Moss Capacity - Headway improvements to provide additional capacity between Liverpool to Manchester via Newton-le-Willows ????? Huyton & Roby Capacity Stage 2 - Done Now four tracks through Huyton and Roby stations to junction of Chat Moss and St Helens lines Chester JTI - Infrastructure improvements between Earlestown and Chester to provide journey time savings. ????? Rochdale Capacity - Turnback done but no overtaking facility yet. North West Electrification Programme - Mostly done Trans Pennine Electrification - Nothing much has happened east of Manchester Manchester Rail Operating Centre - ???? Will it ever get finished, considering that 29 years ago I was designated Signalling Project Engineer for the even numbered stages of the proposed Manchester South IECC (located at Ashburys strangely enough). The last of 10 stages IIRC was the Hope Valley resignalling and improvement works due for completion in 2008. Leeds to Liverpool JTI - ????? My recent trip Manchester to York started late going and got later. Coming back right time from York, 5 late from Leeds, 20 late at Piccadilly. DfT Rolling Stock strategy - Anyone in the know able to expand on any of this please?

I was on a training course about managing projects run on behalf of BR by some over-rated management consultancy firm around 1990. It was brainstorm time. The the leader picked people at random asking us to 'Think outside the box' about what we should do to improve the current situation. When he got to me I completely killed his session as it decended into laughter when I said 'Change the box, if we can't think inside it then it must be the wrong shape.'

Continuing the Eastern Region theme:- Two EE Type 3 and three Brush Type 4 locos at Kings Cross c1964. (And just for good measure four assorted oil tanks as well) Photo C E Steele

It probably depends on which agent puts the location information into Rightmove. If you put in just the postcode or street name it will give you the centre of a range. Some seem to put in the exact address. With our local agents sometimes on streetview you end up 200 yards away, with others you are right outside.

Thinking of changing attitudes these days, at the age of about 18 I was working with the Birmingham Pole Gang. We were taking down a bit of route where a new sewer was being thrust bored under the track directly under one of the poles. We had put a cable in and rigged one of the adjacect poles as a new terminal pole. I was deputed to go next morning via my grandad's cabin at Curzon Street to borrow a suitable saw to cut the affected poles down. I walked up from Curzon St via the Bull Ring Open Air Markets to catch the train from New St to site carrying a five-foot long two-man crosscut. No-one gave me a second glance.

IIRC the map link on Rightmove takes you to the centre of the postcode.

I did some risk assessments on the proposed Manchester Control Area a few years ago. The two-track section through Deansgate towards Oxford Road was the busiest line on the whole of the area. Since then the number of train movements through there in 24 hours has increased by about 20%. It carries more than twice the traffic of some of the four-track routes. The next busiest routes in the north-west were the Styal lines between Slade Lane and Heald Green and the old GC line through Ashburys East Junction. The next busiest was the multi-track section from Salford Central to Collyhurst.

When I was doing some work on LNW North lines proposals c2014 I was given by Network Rail lots of info on CP5 proposals for Northern Hub and other schemes. It is worth looking at what was proposed for CP5 which finished nearly 12 months ago. Timetabling and franchise bids were based on these proposals together with the new rolling stock. These are items proposed in Northern Hub taken from documents in the public domain Scope of Works a) Committed Pre-HLOS - Works announced in advance of HLOS by the Chancellor in March 2011 and March 2012:-. Ordsall Chord - New railway line in west Manchester providing a direct route, for the first time, between Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Victoria - To address the increased passenger numbers a provision of £1m has been agreed towards the Manchester Victoria redevelopment project for delivery in 2014 Huyton and Roby Capacity Stage 1 - First stage of four tracking at this location. Stage 1 delivers the third track for an interim layout. Stage 2 is delivered later Preston JTI (Journey Time Improvements) - Infrastructure improvements between Salford Crescent and Euxton Junction via Bolton to reduce journey times. Chinley Capacity - Provision of overtaking and turnback facilities Dore & Grindleford Capacity - Doubling of the single line between Dore West & Dore Station Jct and provision of freight recessing facilities Marple JTI - Infrastructure improvements between New Mills and Ashburys to provide journey time savings Hope Valley JTI - Infrastructure improvements between Dore and New Mills South Junction to provide journey time savings Calder Valley JTI - Infrastructure improvements between Manchester and Bradford to provide journey time savings b) HLOS scope - The HLOS in July 2012 covered the scope detailed below:- Manchester Oxford Road station - Remodelling to provide capacity to accommodate longer, more frequent trains Manchester Piccadilly station - Provision of two additional through platforms (15 & 16) Manchester Airport 4th platform - Additional capacity to accommodate extra services from Manchester city centre in CP5 Manchester Victoria Capacity - Layout alterations to provide capacity and flexibility Core Manchester Performance - Castlefield corridor and Ordsall Lane junction capacity and performance improvements Chat Moss Capacity - Headway improvements to provide additional capacity between Liverpool to Manchester via Newton-le-Willows Huyton & Roby Capacity Stage 2 - Completion of the four tracking between these stations. Stage 1 delivered a third track and was announced pre-HLOS Chester JTI - Infrastructure improvements between Earlestown and Chester to provide journey time savings. Rochdale Capacity - Provision of an overtaking and turnback facility Significant interfaces included the following Northern Urban Centres Manchester Victoria redevelopment Strategic Freight Network North West Electrification Programme Trans Pennine Electrification - Target completion Manchester - Leeds - York / Selby available for through electric running of passenger and freight by December 2018 Manchester Rail Operating Centre (S&C and Cumbrian Coast should have been on it around now.) Leeds to Liverpool JTI DfT Rolling Stock strategy CP5 renewals plans HS2 Key assumptions included the following Delivery of Manchester Victoria station redevelopment is achieved during 2014. That the Journey Time Improvements between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge are delivered through the CP4 Leeds to Liverpool scheme with delivery deferred to CP5. Huyton Stage 1 will be completed in time for the planned timetable change in December 2014. The Ordsall Chord, Huyton Stage 2, Rochdale, Calder Valley JTI, Chat Moss Capacity, Preston JTI, Manchester Airport 4th platform and Manchester Victoria infrastructure will be available for use for the December 2016 timetable change. The remaining works will be available for use for the December 2018 timetable change. For a bit of amusement here is a flyer issued by Network Rail Northern Hub factsheet June 2013.pdf

The Slade Lane issue was different from the Piccadilly - Ardwick one. Removing the conflicts at Slade Lane meant introducing extra conflicts between Heaton Norris and Adswood Road. The platforms at Levenshulme and Heaton Chapel are on the outside lines, currently the Slows, but it would end up with the either major engineering works and some land take to put the platforms on the Slows or have trains stopping on the Up Fast which screwed the capacity and performance gains of the scheme twice over. That would only help with a small number of trains, very expensive and as with the old Guardian Telephone Exchange tunnels would need continuous pumping. It would probably have to go underground near the Hyde Road at Longsight and emerge at Collyhurst.

That's a bit of a long way even for the most enthusiastic of Saltley men.

We looked at the options for four-tracking Oxford Road to Piccadilly in the 1990s. IIRC it required several buildings being demolished to fit in. I looked at the idea of grade separation there during the abortive project to transpose lines ibetween Slade Lane and Stockport in the 1990s. The Railtrack proposal at the time would have done nothing for the Longsight to Piccadilly problems and worsened the problems through Heaton Norris, Stockport and Edegeley. I spent a while sitting on top of one of the signal gantries at Piccadilly one evening rush hour logging the moves and conflicts which caused trains to come to a stand. 90% involved crossing moves to and from platforms 13/14 or reversals of Trans-Pennine to Airport services in the station. Again the problem was the line being on viaducts so there was not much space without building new tracks alongside

Definitely true. When l worked on the bottom end of the WCML i continued to live in Birmingham due to son and daughter being at critical stage in secondary school. Additionally my boss and HQ were in Birmingham so one or sometime two meetings per week there. I had offices in Bletchley and Willesden and temporary site depots at Watford and Wembley so quite a lot of mobility needed. A lot could be done by train but when I needed to get around there were definite windows to aim for. There was a distinct lull for about 30 minutes on the M1 between those going to work and those attending meetings or social travel. The same coming back in the afternoon except for Friday which was always a nightmare and a train day whenever possible, especially if there was a race meeting at Towcester.

Well I won't be buying, good job one of my friends supplied me with a dimensioned drawing of the five window one they used in some of the earlier publicity. Must measure up how much brick patterned styrene sheet I need before the next exhibition I go to. Oh, must check the bond pattern as well.

That looks to me like TDB975309 (ex-55008) pictured here at York in 1977 https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/7594 It was in a sort of olive livery, a bit like a dirty army lorry. The destination boxes were removed and the reporting number blinds plated over. It was also pictured at Huddersfield station in 1979

That looks like the position of the extra double door added for parcels use.

I have. On at least two occasions, the original Portholes and the Heljan GWR Railcar spring to mind, I have had notifications from Hattons that the price has gone up and do I want to keep my pre-order.

Looks like the Saltley Seagulls have been using this one. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bachmann-31-103-KIT-BUILT-BR-4-6-0-STANDARD-CLASS-4-LOCO-72020-WEATHERED-MIB-my/331422675505?hash=item4d2a54b231:g:SuoAAOxyDEVScXPf

Most of the work required to make the 2018 Manchester timetable work was deferred by Calamity Chris aka Failing Grayling and his insistence that the Digital Railway would cure all of the capacity problems in the North without spending any money. The current timetable has approximately 12 tph each way through Piccadilly platforms 13 and 14 at busy times. As some of these need to cross to the Ordsall Chord ar Castlefield, plus crossing up to 3 tph extra into and out of platform 5 at Oxford Road there is no leeway for delay as all of the trains have numerous junction conflicts on their journeys let alone delays due to alighting and boarding overcriwded trains.

Hi Clive, very nice set of drawings. Incidentally the top drawing BRS-SE82 is the miniature red/green warning lights for a user worked or pedestrian level crossing rather than a signal for trains

A rubber band?

Unlined crud, somtimes mistaken for sun-dried cowpat.

Bah Humbug. Even the Pilchard ballast wagon was only allocated to the Eastern Region. At least my wallet is happy.

When I was a teenager I used to travel to school through California on the bus. A friend lived in Hollywood, but that wasn't in California. Neither were in the USA.