Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[stuving]

This gantry arrangement has appeared to the East of Reading - close to the Southern underpass. Is it OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE")? No-one expects that to be pretty, but this is decidedly clunky.

Also visible from Camera 02/2. Almost certainly OLE.

Definitely OLE.  I suspect that the rather substantial portal structure is for the termination of wire runs of which there would be several to the east of the station.

Definitely an OLE "Goal Post" structure as DP said it is terminating wire, lower cross bar for the contact wire the upper for the catenary wire, usually found at terminating platform ends or stop block ends of sidings.

Seen along the track, that looks right, and the upper crossbar is the same height as the other supports. But if the lower crossbar is level with the contact wires, why is it across all four running lines? I can only assume it must be temporary. Why would you do that?

Maybe the station wiring will be hand-knitted over a long period, during short possessions, and the loose ends need to be tied off to something. Or do you need some kind of equipment - say to set or measure tension - mounted there? Then later on the HOPS train (knitting machine?) will do the line towards Twyford and the ends get joined up. Or maybe vice versa.

Mind you, I can't envisage how you remove the crossbars and hold all the loose ends before joining them ... but of course there would be a cunning plan for that.

[IndustryInsider]

There's further OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") work planned over the Christmas Break, so perhaps the wiring at the east end of the station will be largely completed then, and that crossbar will indeed be a temporary thing to be removed when the line towards Airport Junction is done as part of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) electrification?

[ellendune]

Another set of beams appears to have been delivered today, but I can only assume they are parked up for the day and are to go somewhere at the east end which is currently out of sight of the webcam, as there is no longer anywhere obvious to put them in the foreground, at least that I can see.

As I suspected they were installed somewhere over night. Must have been near to a road.

In fact, they went at the far end of the run of spans - just visible on camera. But why that had to be done overnight ...

If I have counted carefully - difficult at that distance - this is the last span before the one crossing Cow Lane.  If that is the case then the crane at the east end may have had to work from Cow Lane itself.

[Electric train]

This gantry arrangement has appeared to the East of Reading - close to the Southern underpass. Is it OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE")? No-one expects that to be pretty, but this is decidedly clunky.

Also visible from Camera 02/2. Almost certainly OLE.

Definitely OLE.  I suspect that the rather substantial portal structure is for the termination of wire runs of which there would be several to the east of the station.

Definitely an OLE "Goal Post" structure as DP said it is terminating wire, lower cross bar for the contact wire the upper for the catenary wire, usually found at terminating platform ends or stop block ends of sidings.

Seen along the track, that looks right, and the upper crossbar is the same height as the other supports. But if the lower crossbar is level with the contact wires, why is it across all four running lines? I can only assume it must be temporary. Why would you do that?

Maybe the station wiring will be hand-knitted over a long period, during short possessions, and the loose ends need to be tied off to something. Or do you need some kind of equipment - say to set or measure tension - mounted there? Then later on the HOPS train (knitting machine?) will do the line towards Twyford and the ends get joined up. Or maybe vice versa.

Mind you, I can't envisage how you remove the crossbars and hold all the loose ends before joining them ... but of course there would be a cunning plan for that.

There's further OLE work planned over the Christmas Break, so perhaps the wiring at the east end of the station will be largely completed then, and that crossbar will indeed be a temporary thing to be removed when the line towards Airport Junction is done as part of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) electrification?

Having seen this structure in a photo that places it in better context, its not a terminating goal post neither permanent or temporary, it might be a mid tension length anchor point; the wire will have tensioning weights or tensorex units at the other end of the wire.

[ironstone11]

If I have counted carefully - difficult at that distance - this is the last span before the one crossing Cow Lane.  If that is the case then the crane at the east end may have had to work from Cow Lane itself.

This looks like span number eight counting east from the Festival Line box. It looks as though there are two more beams to be added to this span. There is one more span to go before reaching the pier immediately west of Cow Lane.

[paul7575]

Passed through the station around lunchtime, and it was immediately noticeable (due to the increased fresh air!) that the temporary white plastic sheeting had been removed from the scaffolding alongside the south side main escalator bank.

At platform level it looks as if they are about to cast the concrete plinth that will carry the fourth of the main girders that will hold up the rest of the roof.  (Just to the left of the yellow mini-dumper in the first photo below.)

Second picture shows progress with the block paving, although from ground level you get much more of an idea just how wide this area of the platform will be.

Hope this is of interest.

Paul 

[ironstone11]

Having seen this structure in a photo that places it in better context, its not a terminating goal post neither permanent or temporary, it might be a mid tension length anchor point; the wire will have tensioning weights or tensorex units at the other end of the wire.

Note the number of portal members on the ground, left of centre, halfway up the picture. Ready for more of the same or are these to be single?

[stuving]

Note the number of portal members on the ground, left of centre, halfway up the picture. Ready for more of the same or are these to be single?

If you want to see what OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") is being put up at Reading without going there, here's a rundown. This is based on observation, and by "come in pairs" I mean they usually do, though some may not have a pair yet.

The stanchions you can see, with the ladder bracing, come in pairs and will have a top that's similarly ladder-braced and comes in shorter bits joined together. There's one visible in the second of Paul7755's pictures here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6405.msg142457#msg142457. The spare pieces on the ground in my picture are probably cross-pieces for these (but you can't see how they are braced).

In Paul's picture you can see several "twin-track cantilevers", with lattice bracing. These uprights obviously don't come in pairs.

There are also square-section stanchions, which come in pairs, and I assume are for headspan supports. The peculiar twin crossbars are mounted on these stanchions - see picture below. (These look a bit like the portal crossbars, but have different bracing.)

I have also seen some I-section stanchions, that do not come in pairs but seem to be in rows along the tracks. I guess they carry a feeder cable or suchlike that needs to run parallel to the track.

Having seen this structure in a photo that places it in better context, its not a terminating goal post neither permanent or temporary, it might be a mid tension length anchor point; the wire will have tensioning weights or tensorex units at the other end of the wire.

I take it from Electric train's turn of phrase that this twin crossbar is not a familiar piece of OLE furniture, so we are all having to guess what it might be for. I still think it looks a bit of a lash-up, and cannot see how the lower beam (at roughly contact wire height) is compatible with the contact wire, support structures, etc. We'll have to wait and see.

[Electric train]

Having seen this structure in a photo that places it in better context, its not a terminating goal post neither permanent or temporary, it might be a mid tension length anchor point; the wire will have tensioning weights or tensorex units at the other end of the wire.

I take it from Electric train's turn of phrase that this twin crossbar is not a familiar piece of OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") furniture, so we are all having to guess what it might be for. I still think it looks a bit of a lash-up, and cannot see how the lower beam (at roughly contact wire height) is compatible with the contact wire, support structures, etc. We'll have to wait and see.

I am not an OLE expert, I deal with Distribution, the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) electrification are using a new series of OLE gone are the days of Mk3d.  The other factor is the use of the Auto Transformer feeding system (which 25kV -0- 25kV) this system has a feeder wire at -25kV which gives 50kV between contact wire and feeder wire, yet again the GWML electrification is using this differently to the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line).

[bobm]

The Great Western always did things differently.... 

[Jason]

Passed through the station around lunchtime, and it was immediately noticeable (due to the increased fresh air!) that the temporary white plastic sheeting had been removed from the scaffolding alongside the south side main escalator bank.

The gift wrap is coming off for Christmas
By this morning the greater part of the scaffolding had been taken down.

[stuving]

More visible steps forward, out to the west.

On camera 06/3 the demolition of the lower depot has begun. I guess that stripping out has been going in inside for some time without being seen, but now brickwork is being chomped.

And on camera 06/2 there's more concrete being pumped, this time to make the solid structure on top of a pier. The drawings refer to the cross heads and diaphragms as well as the deck slab, but these need not all be separate.

[paul7575]

And on camera 06/2 there's more concrete being pumped, this time to make the solid structure on top of a pier. The drawings refer to the cross heads and diaphragms as well as the deck slab, but these need not all be separate.

From the trackside view the pier they are working on is an intermediate one, with the beam ends free to move on the bearing pads, so presumably they aren't joining the beams rigidly across the pier?  Do they use some sort of interlocking within/at the beam ends to stop the separate sections becoming misaligned, either side to side or up and down, IYSWIM?

Paul

[stuving]

From the trackside view the pier they are working on is an intermediate one, with the beam ends free to move on the bearing pads, so presumably they aren't joining the beams rigidly across the pier?  Do they use some sort of interlocking within/at the beam ends to stop the separate sections becoming misaligned, either side to side or up and down, IYSWIM?

Paul

Going by the the drawings, there's a 60 mm movement joint running the full width and depth of the slab. There's also a "diaphragm beam" that runs crosswise, cast round the main beams, and forming the face of this joint between the beams. The deck appears to be cast on top of this and the beams, to form a single solid structure over two spans. There should also be a movement joint at the nearest pier, between the deck/diaphragm and the start of the box "lid".

[ironstone11]

This looks like span number eight counting east from the Festival Line box. It looks as though there are two more beams to be added to this span. There is one more span to go before reaching the pier immediately west of Cow Lane.

Looks as though the last two? beams of the eigth span were lifted into place last night.

Press release from Network Rail:-

"Reading viaduct reaches key milestone.
The construction of a new 2km viaduct in Reading has reached a key milestone after the first pre-cast concrete beams, which will form the base that trains will run on, were lifted into place."

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/News-Releases/Reading-viaduct-reaches-key-milestone-1f1c.aspx