il to the bridge.
PREVIOUS: Looking towards Scunthorpe; far left are track sections with fixing c
chairs for craning in (NR). BELOW: The cofferdam and work on the north wall.
BELOW: A close up of a bridge jack - hop
pefully it's a case of Jack's alright, Jack.
BELOW: One of the wheels that the bridge moves on - to do tho
ose rails you would need to be on the bridge when it is sliding.
BELOW: The wire cables that mo
oves the bridge when it slides.
BELOW: Looking towards Doncaster - both to the left on the canal and a
head on the railway. (Angus McDougall - AOM - 23 Sep 2000 and next.)
BELOW: Towards Doncaster on the same date showing where the bridge slidesnorth side of the canal eastwards (behind photographer) to the River Trent wes
s to, when open. The box was Keadby Canal Jn as there was a branch along the st bank at Keadby (CP 1874; CG 30 Apr 1971) before a bridge was installed here.
BELOW: From Keadby coal fired Power Station roof (a 3 Jun 1981 Society visit
t); the bridge was substantially rebuilt in 2004. Doncaster is off right. (AOM.)
BELOW: Our 4 Oct 2014 visit; Martyn Brailsford right of centre, Nick Jones far rig
ght (!). They didn't risk opening the bridge for us in case it wouldn't shut. (AOM)
BELOW: The local bridge control panel. NEXT: Detail of the actual bri
dge controls on the panel. (Both AOM, during our 4 Oct 2014 visit.)
BELOW: (Item 549) Peartree station, the entrance/exit gate at the top of the P2 ramp with the exit button far left of centre (Tim Hall-Smith, 16 May 2017.)
BELOW: This greets potential passengers wanting to catch a train from Peartre
e P2. (Tim Hall-Smith, 16 May 2027.)
547] All change! NR is to install power changeover points on the Midland Mainline south of Leicester at Kilby Bridge Jn,electric to diesel northbound at MP (Milepost) 90¼ and diesel to electric southbound at MP 93¼. Of course they could avoid the need by continuing electrification, particularly as EMR's new Class 810 Aurora bimodes are not due to start entering service until early 2025. However, all 33 of the 5-car units should be in service by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, on the Corby line, the change from electric to diesel will be at MP 76¼ on the Down Corby line north of Kettering North Jn. On the Up Corby, the change from diesel to electric power will be at MP 79, just south of Corby station itself. 548] Corby:A member unable to catch a train from Peterborough to London on the ECML, and keen to avoid the replacement buses, used Corby station for the first time on Sat 17 Feb. He was surprised how full the car park (151 spaces) was at 07.45; perhaps he wasn't the only refugee from the ECML? Corby is easily accessible from Peterborough, Stamford and even Grantham. The car park (only £4.50 for 24 hours) is owned and run by North Northamptonshire Council; the machines only take cash but you can pay online afterwards at http://tinyurl.com/mwk35nn6 (this facility is not advertised on site but the helpful station staff, who can't sell tickets themselves, advise those that ask). On return in the evening, it was noticeable that penalty charge tickets had been issued to cars parked outside marked spaces. The journey to and from London was uneventful in trains formed of 2 x Class 360 EMUs, a pleasant change from the Class 700 Thameslink trains on the ECML. The 79½ miles took less than 1¼ hours. 549] More pickings from Peartree: (BLN 1442.424) Two members alighted here on 16 May 2017 from the 16.42 Derby to Crewe, at that time the only train to stop in the evening peak. They alighted to Down P2, confident that it was an open station, even though it had been 10 years since their previous visit. As described in BLN 1442, they were quite shocked to see a gate at the top of the ramp to exit on the main road but followed the instructions using the intercom system to have it opened. Having left the station, they crossed the bridge and had to buzz again to gain access to Up P1 to take photographs. They found it strange that when the voice answered the intercom they were just buzzed in, with no mention that there were no trains from that platform towards Derby until the following morning! 550] Scunthorpe Steelworks: British Steel is trialling a Clayton Class 18 battery-diesel hybrid loco for shunting. 18003 arrived by road from owners Beacon Rail at Wolverton in early Feb. British Steel is looking at options to reduce its carbon footprint and is evaluating the duty cycle of the loco battery and how long it can operate on a charge. Beacon Rail has 15 Class 18s and also owns the Di8 locos at Scunthorpe. Another factor in this is the lower availability of the Di8s with some awaiting repairs. 1443 GREATER LONDON (Geoff Brockett) [email protected] 551] London Overground: Each route is to be named and given a colour, appearing as parallel lines with a white centre on the so-called 'Tube Map' to distinguish them from Underground lines: Liberty line: (grey) Romford - Upminster, rather tenuously refers to 'the historical independence ….. of the people of Havering'. This name should certainly ring a bell. [Naming it the 'Woke Line' …..would have put it alphabetically after the Windrush line, more its place in length and relevance.] Lioness line: (yellow) Euston - Watford Junction, named after the England women's football team. Mildmay line: (blue) Stratford - Richmond/Clapham Junction, after the Mildmay Mission Hospital. Suffragette line: (green) Gospel Oak - Barking Riverside. [At times it can be the Suffering Line.] Weaver line: (maroon) West Anglia Liverpool St routes, named after the East London textile trade. Windrush line: (red) Highbury & Islington - Crystal Palace etc, …..named after the Windrush generation of West Indian immigrants. The nearest stations to the Mildmay Mission Hospital are Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street, which are on the Windrush line! Rebranding of signage and maps, at a cost of £6.3M, will be complete by the end of the year. The London Overground brand will still be used, with lines referred to as the London Overground xxx line. A zoomable PDF of the new Tube Map from Aug 2024 is a download with e-BLN. 552] Kentish Town: (BLN 1424.1228) Closed since 26 Jun 2023, the ticket hall and Northern line platforms will now remain closed until Sep. Replacement of the escalators is progressing well but, during other improvement work, assets were found that need repairing before the station can reopen.
X.28] BELOW: Oxford, London end; P5 will be left, its track is at the bottom. (All Stuart Hicks, 16 Feb 2024.)
BELOW: In the other direction, looking south towards Didcot, the new pointw
work and that track for Oxford Down Loop P5 is bottom right … and then…
BELOW: (Item 553) 23001 on its 70 mile Long Marston to Reading trip roars (or s
suchlike) through. The Turbo right (to London) is doing an IET impersonation.
PREVIOUS/BELOW/NEXT: 23001 on trial at West Ealing P5 for the first t
time on 29 Feb 2024 - the jury is out. (These three are by Don Kennedy.)
553] Greenford Branch: (BLN 1434.2295) Following successful test operation on a double track section of the North Cotswold Line between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh (BLN 1442.488), battery unit 230001 moved from Long Marston, on the branch from Honeybourne, to its new base at Reading Depot on 16 Feb. This distance of 70 miles used just 45% of the battery charge. Two days earlier, it ran for 86 miles over the North Cotswold Line on a single charge, a UK record for a battery powered train. The team behind the project believe it could run over 120 miles on a full battery. However, the date for introduction on the Greenford branch has slipped again; trials are now due to begin in the spring but only ECS between service trains. GWR has simulated the rapid charge technology (short charge rails and retractable shoe gear) on other Thames Valley branches. West Ealing dwell time is 3½ min. 554] Industrial Action: (BLN 1442.428) The RMT suspended its planned 19 to 20 Feb strike action on London Overground after receipt of a revised pay offer but strikes may affect 4 & 5 Mar travel. (DITTO) 555] Old Oak Common: (BLN 1430.1856) Passengers did some unusual track on Wed 14 Feb, following reporting of a possible track defect on the Up Relief (2m 55ch) below Scrubs Lane bridge. An inspection established fairly quickly that there was no defect but, from 12.36 to 13.04, passenger trains booked to use the Up Relief were diverted onto the Engine & Carriage Line over Old Oak Common Flyover. 556] LU step free ramped up: Work to make Northolt step free starts in early 2025; a previous scheme was paused due to the Pandemic. Design work is also to begin for North Acton and West Hampstead. 1443 NORTH EAST & YORKSHIRE (Geoff Blyth) [email protected] 557] Hull - Scarborough: (BLN 1441.276) Beverley to Scarborough (45½ miles) was replaced by buses for nine days from 3-11 Feb (incl) for major engineering work. From 3-9 Feb (incl), there was a 33 mile possession between Beverley and Hunmanby to relay 10 miles (very impressive!) of life expired 60ft jointed track on the Down line (towards Scarborough), dating from the 1940s (and possibly some short sections on the Up line at Lockington and at Bessingby, just south of Bridlington) between 19m 75ch and 30m 54ch (Driffield to Bridlington). Many other works also took place. This was supported by 20 engineers' trains, most from Doncaster Decoy. Some of these ran via York, when boxes between York and Seamer were opened early. On the 10-11 Feb weekend, the points at the north end of Bridlington (BLN 1439.35), where the line singles, were moved 97m north (Microgricers please note) towards Bridlington Quay Crossing and the headshunt abolished. Line speed on the Down Main was raised to 20 mph. Some signals here were also renewed. This closure would have been a good opportunity to move the panel in Bridlington box (BLN 1435.2418) from its totally unsuitable temporary location in the kitchen to the opposite end of the box. Does anyone know if this happened, please? The track between Bridlington Quay (31m 06ch) and Sewerby Level Crossings (32m 35ch) was relaid, on steel sleepers. They were probably used to alleviate problems with badger setts in the embankment here. They are lighter than concrete sleepers so will presumably lessen the chance of subsidence of the embankment. Equipment at several crossings is to be renewed but this was deferred to hand back the line on time after various issues with a crane had delayed the work. A knowledgeable member reports on why the line was closed to passenger services all the way from Beverley to Seamer, when the work was between Driffield and Hunmanby. During the Bridlington resignalling and remodelling, there were significant problems with accepting the engineering trains into the work site. They had to stand at the north end of Driffield, presumably at the starting signal. On occasions, this delayed timetabled services terminating at Driffield and sometimes even prevented them from operating. He suspects that this experience and the large number of engineering trains for this work dictated a cautious approach. The volume of trains and the need to manage the worksite resulted in trains coming and in and out from both the north and the south, so the same logic no doubt applied to Filey. Northern traincrew are based at Hull,so any attempt to run a Scarborough- Filey shuttle would require them to be transported 44 miles by road to/from Scarborough. This is less justified than the 26½ miles to Bridlington, as happened when a Scarborough - Bridlington shuttle ran during a previous blockade. 558] Hull Paragon: ❶(BLN 1430.1870) P1/P2 have new buffers, a gated area and a platform surface with edging in place. An engineer working on it thought P1 could be returned to public use as early as the Easter holidays, to handle the extra traffic. Our member thinks that the summer is more likely.
❷(BLN 1430.1870.2) NR plans to extend Hull P7 by 28m as new compliant energy absorbing buffer stops (to be installed at P6&7 in Apr/May) will shorten the useable length. ●All doors of 10-car trains would then be platformed, eliminating Selective Door Opening; passengers will no longer need to board the wrong unit of 2x5 car units, then transfer to the right unit at Brough or Selby. ●Wheelchair users will be able to access the First Class in Class 802 units, impossible now. Listed Building Consent is required for this work. Work on P7 is expected to begin in summer 2024, with further works to start as soon as the Network Change is approved. Work (cost £1M) should be completed by Mar 2025. The main user of P7 is, of course, Hull Trains, with seven trains a day (six SSuO) to/from King's Cross - two are from/to Beverley (one SSuO). However, LNER runs a morning Up and evening Down Train - with significant ECS mileage from Doncaster: 05.09 Doncaster Carr Depot to Hull 06.35. The evening one runs as an advertised service 20.29 Hull to Doncaster 21.21. SuO there is just an evening Down service returning ECS 20.37 Hull to Doncaster Carr Depot 21.41. 559] Transpennine Route Upgrade: (BLN 1441.305) A member travelled to Huddersfield on 16 Feb and found that not much had changed in the previous month. Ravensthorpe: There were perhaps a few more concrete 'piles' but that's all. Mirfield: The site of the extended platforms may have been levelled off but is otherwise unchanged. Heaton Lodge Jn - Hillhouse: Apart from a small stretch this is one long worksite, although mainly just tree/vegetation clearance and levelling the fast line formation. Deighton: More of the hillside seems to disappear each month. The A62 Leeds Road overbridge, just east of here, a combined road and footbridge, is due to be replaced. Adjacent land (Deighton side) is being cleared to make way for a worksite, presumably for this work. As 'A62' suggests, traffic on this road is relentless, so this will be a disruptive replacement for road and rail. The short stretch between the two bridges is now the only section between Heaton Lodge Jn and Hillhouse where no work has started, although safety fencing is fixed to the Up line. Hillhouse: There is no sign of the temporary platform. The two green bridge spans stored here (BLN 1431.1979) are no longer sheeted (1436.2560). By Sun 19 Feb (travelling on the diversions via Wakefield), both spans were in place as the new Fast line spans at Red Doles underbridge, at the very northeast end of Hillhouse worksite. Huddersfield: The former tea room etc on the island platform (present P4/8) is firmly fenced off. The plans show this building as rotated 180° and moved closer to P4. On 19 Feb some of the 'orange army' were using marker pens to code and number every panel, window frame and window sill prior to dismantlement. 560] Bedlington North: The junction and curve to Ashington will be relaid over the Easter weekend. 561] T&W Metro: ❶(BLN 1442.445.2) Nexus has reportedly announced that the new units will not now enter service for another year rather than by the end of this year. Nexus has also withheld £1.4M in contractual payments to Stadler, which is responsible for maintaining the existing fleet, because of insufficient units being available to run the service. 28 two-cars units are required to run a normal weekday service. Penalties are issued on an ongoing basis as shortages happen throughout the year. It is understood that the situation worsened in the latter half of 2023, with the cold weather over winter playing havoc with the ageing components of the units. ❷During the closure between Airport and South Gosforth from 17 to 23 Feb, Airport services terminated at Benton instead. Benton crossover is normally used by the final service of the day, which terminates there. Diverted services only had five minutes to reverse there, so any late running would have disrupted services considerably. The units therefore continued ECS to Monkseaton, where they reversed in the loop, out of the way, returning to Benton ECS. This led to Monkseaton P2 display, towards the Coast, showing consecutive St James and South Hylton (the wrong direction - west!) departures, although the latter were actually heading east out of service into the loop to reverse. ECS moves are unusual on the Metro except for a few to/from Monument or Manors to move a unit from/to the depot at the beginning/end of service, or when the service frequency changes around 18.00. Generally, units travel in service to/from a stop near the depot (such as Regent Centre/South Gosforth/Benton or Longbenton from the Coast). ❸On 14 Feb a member noticed that 'the best seat in the house' (the front view seat on unit 'A' ends), which the new units don't have, was again available. The gates preventing access had been removed but some 'front seat is not in use' stickers remained - were they heart shaped perhaps?
[BLN 1BELOW: (Item 557) Bridlington looking towards Scarborough before t(All these photos are by member AdriaTO FOLLOW: Three photos towards Scarborough ❸12 Feb 2024 with both line relaid to the crossing ahead -
1443] he recent works; P4 is left with the sand drag ahead - taken from P3. n Hawkins, this one on 20 Aug 2023.) from P3 on: ❶9 Feb 2024, ❷10 Feb 2024 and - note the Down Main has been extended so needs a redo.
[BLN 1443] BELOW: (Item 558.1) New friction type buffer stops installed at Hull P1, right, which is being refurbished and restored to use; new direction signs have been also erected. (Alan Sheppard, 17 Feb 2024.) ABOVE: Hull P1 in the other direction. (Alan Sheppard, 17 Feb 2024.) NEXT: One of several new signs that have been installed. (Alan Sheppard, 17 Feb 2024.)
BELOW: (Item 558.2) Site of the proposed extension to P7 at Hull (NR).
562] Horton-in-Ribblesdale: (BLN 1442.439) As well as ground clearance for the new Horton Quarry terminal, work is progressing on new stepped access to both platforms and a foot crossing at the north end. This is for a temporary diversion of a footpath, which will also access Down P2. It is thought there is an agreement with the landowner that road access to the Up P1 is available only for rail passengers, hence the need for an additional access to the Up platform for users of the right of way. A £4.2M footbridge with lifts will replace the foot crossing at the south end of the station, partly justified by the new traffic from Horton Quarry. It will have two stairways on the Down side, one for the right of way. £1M is from the 'Access for All' fund. The bridge should be complete in Jul and the lifts in Sep. It will probably be another year before trains start running to Horton Quarry, if there are no further delays. 563] Blea(k) Moor: LEFT: It is interesting to compare passenger numbers at Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Ribblehead. The latter has very little habitation (other than the Station Hotel and some farm B&Bs nearby) but plenty of opportunities for walking, including to Blea Moor box, which cannot be accessed by a conventional motor vehicle. An interesting train is the 19.49 SuX Leeds to Ribblehead (21.08), forming the 21.45 return (Leeds 23.11), it is wondered how many passengers alight/join at Ribblehead! Interestingly the 20.13 Carlisle to Leeds passes Ribblehead at 21.34 - the only train of the day not to call (two don't SuO). The lack of road access to Blea Moor raises the interesting question of the drinking water supply. For many decades, the first Down train (to Carlisle) each day dropped off fresh water for the signalman to brew a 'cuppa'. This changed in 1988 when the signalman had to close the box for 'about an hour and a quarter' while he went to Horton to fetch some drinking water. A new system was then introduced; when required, a water bowser was towed up the bridleway by a quad bike or some other 4x4 vehicle. Later, the system changed again; about once a month, the morning ECS from Skipton to Ribblehead would stop at Settle Junction box to pick up a supply of bottled drinking water and drop it off at Blea Moor box during the reversing manœuvre. Around 2010, when the early morning service ran through to Carlisle in service rather than reversing at Blea Moor, a change was made to rainwater harvesting from the roof of the signal box which is stored in a tank for flushing the toilet and also washing. Bottled drinking water was then delivered by the Mobile Operations Managers, using a NR 4x4 vehicle. Coal is still used to heat the box, delivered by road to the station yard. It is then collected either by a rail-mounted crane (if there is a planned engineering possession) or the Mobile Operations Managers using a NR 4x4 vehicle. Note that all this information was correct as at 2017. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to ascertain what, if anything, has changed. [Information from SCRCA (the Settle Carlisle Railway Conservation Area) Knowledge Base for Blea Moor http://tinyurl.com/3zayyc7u with thanks.] Does anyone have any information or a contact who can help discover the current situation, please? 564] Bradford - Ilkley: ❶(BLN 1442.442) Work continues around the clock to remove over 2,500 tonnes of material from the slope at Baildon, to relieve the pressure on the land and protect the railway below from further landslips. As at 27 Feb, the line is closed until further notice, due to further deterioration and the sheer magnitude of the slip. The 'school' trains between Bradford Forster Square which reversed in Kirkstall Up Passenger Loop did not resume after the half term break. ❷It is reported that work has started at the site of the new Shipley EMU Depot (BLN 1439.42). 565] Going Loco at Swinton: (BLN 1441.306) A Green Express Railtours Steam on the Cumbrian Coast to Sellafield and return (with 31459 & 33021) called in both directions on 7 May 2001. The Pathfinder Transpennine Deltic Reprise (30 Dec 2017) was not booked to call at Swinton but it replaced Doncaster due to engineering work. Sadly, it wasn't Deltic hauled there; 68031 in plain DRS Blue took the train to York, where the Deltic was attached. Perhaps more significantly, hauled substitutions for DMUs on the 'Dearne' route (Sheffield - Moorthorpe - Wakefield Westgate - Leeds, named after the River Dearne) continued at a reduced level into the Summer 1990 timetable, such as 31285 on the 16.47 Sheffield to Leeds on 23 May. Towards the end of the 1980s, both this route and via Barnsley had locos dragging DMUs or on Mk1/Mk2 sets. The 'Dearne' route had the majority, with diagrammed Class 31 haulage. Year Horton Ribblehead 2018-19 18,968 19,260… 2019-20 19,468 23,102… 2020-21 5,068 4,754… 2021-22 18,418 20,032… 2022-23 19,912 23,426…
BELOW: (Item 559) Looking towards Deighton/Huddersfield, a Manchester
Airport to Saltburn TPE approaches. (All four Stuart Marshall, 16 Feb 2024.)
BELOW: A Newcastle to Liverpool service approaches Deighton. T