Great Western Coffee Shop

From Monday 4 January to Sunday 7 February 2021:

buses will replace trains between St Erth and St Ives

buses will run every 30 minutes with all services calling at Carbis Bay. Services will also call hourly at Lelant

replacement buses will depart at different times to normal trains in order to connect with trains at St Erth

The linked article above talks about 5 weeks of track renewal work. Does anyone know how much of the branch is being re-layed?

Where is the work taking place?
Network Rail will be working between Carbis Bay and St Ives to renew the track along that section of line.

Cornwall set to have ?3m track upgrade on the St Ives Bay Line
Buses will replace trains while the work is carried out
 By Alan Holden

(https://www.railadvent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/St-Ives-Cornwall-Railway-Track-Renewal-work.jpg)
Credit: Network Rail
Work will start in the new year on upgrading the track between Carbis Bay and St Ives in a ?3m project by Network Rail.

In what has been described as the biggest track investment in Cornwall since the 1950s, Network Rail will be carrying out work over a 5 week period between Sunday the 3rd of January and Monday the 8th of February 2021

Around 1.5 miles of new track will be laid along with 3,600 new railway sleepers and over 400 tonnes of ballast.

While the work is being carried out, train operator Great Western Railway will be operating a half-hourly replacement bus service.

The bus will run between St Ives and St Erth and passengers are asked to plan ahead and check times before travelling.

Trains between Plymouth and Penzance will still run on the mainline while this improvement work takes place.

Lee Hildreth, Network Rail?s project manager, said: ?This is a huge piece of work, but it will make a real difference as it will reduce delays and improve reliability for passengers in Cornwall.?

?It is the biggest track upgrade for generations, and it has been planned so it can be done as safely and as quickly as possible.?

?However, buses will replace trains while the work is ongoing, so we urge passengers to check before they travel and thanks them in advance for their patience.?

Mark Chorley, GWR Regional Station Manager, West, said: ?We have been working hard to make sure that people can be confident to travel safely, and that includes running as many replacement buses as we can to make extra room, as well as enhanced cleaning and social distancing measures.?

?This work is important to ensure we can continue to maintain and improve reliability on this very popular and scenic branch line, and we thank customers for their patience in advance.?

Councillor Andrea Davis, chair of Peninsula Rail Task Force, said: ?At this time of uncertainty with the ongoing pandemic it is heartening that Network Rail is investing in the Cornish network, this substantial upgrade is very welcome and will give a much-needed boost to the far South West economy as we move to the recovery phase.?

The Logistics of this operation must be frightful. I presume almost all of the Car Park at the Station is being used at St Ives. Transporting heavy machinery to all sites of the work will be quite a task. 

Rail, sleepers, ballast is delivered and recovered by rail

1.5 miles is 20 x 250m lengths of rail. 400 tonnes of ballast is presumably about 20 wagon loads? Concrete sleepers are about 200 - 220 Kg, so about 800 to 900 tonnes, a lot less if wood is used. So in total, five or six trains, at a rough guess. Perhaps a real expert could fill in the details, but what would be a massive logistical exercise for road vehicles is all in a day's work on a railway. Still impressive, though.

The CRS website news today has images that confirm steel sleepers. No doubt there will be updates on there as work proceeds.

Steel ties are lighter than concrete sleepers and have the added benefit of being stackable. Container shipping is an economical option with 300-400 standard gauge sleepers or 450-600 metric gauge sleepers being contained within one standard 20ft shipping container. Sleepers are typically stacked in bundles of 10 which can be lifted with a standard forklift truck. Individual sleepers are light enough to be manually handled on site if required. Fewer vehicle movements on site improves safety and reduces the environmental impact of the project too.

So that's 12 standard container loads, max, if British Steel  (https://britishsteel.co.uk/what-we-do/rail/steel-sleepers/)aren't exaggerating.

Is it me? 
The clear track adjacent to the track laying equipment (Stafford picture https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/stafford-rail-development-sets-track-laying-record-as-it-enters-final-stages-1) looks very 'kinked'.
Guess there is a technical term for it.

I found a quite recent video of the overall track laying process involving the Balfour Beatty new track construction train, (NTC).  It?s installing track on steel sleepers in this example, at Shildon, the machine can be seen at around 15 mins into the video.

https://youtu.be/vUd2kc-JsB8

It seems to me this machine is possibly more relevant to installing brand new track, or for single track replacement, but on double track a lot of replacement will still get done one side at a time by conventional road rail equipment working from the existing parallel track?

Paul

Seeing that machine, I wonder why it's going to take a week to relay St Ives!

not a week but five weeks.

Seeing that machine, I wonder why it's going to take a week to relay St Ives!

Presumably the fact that steel sleepers are being laid in an area with salty sea air has been considered?

Seeing that machine, I wonder why it's going to take a week to relay St Ives!

One thing these machines can't yet do is bring their own rails with them - these have to be brought in and placed in position first. That's not so bad for replacement, where the existing track can be used, and the rails kicked off the side of a train. For installation from scratch, or from track so bad it can't be used for a goods train, it must be quite a challenge. I think it means bringing in quite short lengths and welding on site, and in any case the whole length has to be temporarily joined across the gaps that will be finally welded only when tensioning is done.

Maybe the next development step of the machnes will be for that gantry that scoots back and forth the whole length of the train, carrying sleepers up to the front, to pull rails forwards from an even longer train-load of supplies. The gantry runs on rails attached to the sides of the wagons, which are continuous across the gaps between them while allowing for curves. I'm sure some kind of channel equipped with rollers can be included for rail handling too. Note that (at least in Balfour Beatty's one) there's a driver inside the gantry - I'm sure that's a more popular gig than the "seat" down at track level for the operator who appears to be supervising the clipping down of the rails.

On the Borders railway, they used a quite different (Dutch) machine, which effectively pulled long welded rail strings off the front of a rail delivery train, and pushed them ahead of itself, but it relied on the sleepers already being accurately positioned for hundreds of yards ahead in the direction of movement.  They also had a small tracked guidance machine right at the front, and temporary rollers.

A short Rail Engineer video, it?s the very last part:  https://youtu.be/VHWuTvpcco4
Much longer video: https://youtu.be/bSmkO0un5Go

It seems to me on single track you either have to lay the rails ahead of the sleeper delivery train, or lay the sleepers ahead of a rail delivery train, but it would be pretty much impossible to do both at once using a single machine travelling on rails...

Paul

In the light of the last few posts - what prospects of someone developing something better than the much-heralded machine that failed to deliver the goods on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) electrification to deliver Over-Head Lines (OHL) quicker and cheaper?

So how practically will the work be done at St Ives, when the line ends at the buffers at the station. An explanation would be welcome.

But I find that Plasser&Theurer have got there first (https://www.plassertheurer.com/en/media-library/latest-newsletter/track-laying-for-indias-largest-railway-construction-project/assembly-line-track-laying-using-the-svm-1000-i.html)

In the light of the last few posts - what prospects of someone developing something better than the much-heralded machine that failed to deliver the goods on the GWML electrification to deliver OHL lines quicker and cheaper?

Lovely photos, but torture we can't go to see for ourselves!

A video featuring some of the work

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0BhoUNPEEknzQuDAJANef7mWOsv0MfovsMwO66iqQao1dgLew7rpAmbYA&v=S6T5jjivQ88&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0BhoUNPEEknzQuDAJANef7mWOsv0MfovsMwO66iqQao1dgLew7rpAmbYA&v=S6T5jjivQ88&feature=youtu.be)

Option for a 2 foot gauge line?

For some reason I am not seeing the images referenced today by RailCornwall.  I am using MS Edge and am logged in; images are showing fine in other posts.

If I reply using the quote button I can see the image URLs and if I copy them into the address bar I can open and see the images.

I had the same problem with his posting on 6 January but the posting on 7 January displays with no problems.

Any ideas please?

Those are ?guard rail? cast in chairs, usually seen on bridges and viaducts where there?s an obvious derailment risk.  Is it because of proximity to the sea, or maybe there?s a cliff rock fall derailment risk? 

Paul

For some reason I am not seeing the images referenced today by RailCornwall.  I am using MS Edge and am logged in; images are showing fine in other posts.

If I reply using the quote button I can see the image URLs and if I copy them into the address bar I can open and see the images.

I had the same problem with his posting on 6 January but the posting on 7 January displays with no problems.

Any ideas please?

Heck of a lot of Steel sleepers in and along the line from Carbis Bay to St Ives.

I don't Understand the Quote from Rail Advent that this is the biggest investment in Track renewals in Cornwall since the 1950s, this relaying will extend the CWR laid from St Erth towards St Ives  that was installed about 4 years ago.
Would think the whole branch will be CWR after work is completed, so if 1 1/2 miles is being done then 3 miles has ALREADY been relaid with CWR.

It woud have been interesting and very good PR if NR had said what age the track was that they were replacing to inform Joe Public just what a long service life railway track materials can have.
It is quite likely that the chaired concrete sleepers (that hold BH rail) were made between 1948 and 1955 AND it is understood they are to have a second life on the planned  extension of the Helston Railway! Compare that with the short life of materials being expensively used by Contractors to temporarily repair the thousands of potholes in Devon's roads.

Not sure it is for check rails, thing the rails in the 4ft are to help maintain track alinement due to the curve.  Check rails are usually in the same chair as the running rails

I intentionally didn?t mention check rails though, because they have a separate function to guard rails, the former are positioned to work against the back of the wheel flange, eg within points and crossings.
I guess we?ll see what they fit shortly, but presumably they?re being used because there?s no equivalent steel sleeper.

Hi Peter, guard rails will be installed in these loops.  Used on tracks where there are bendy sections to catch the train should the unfortunate happen and a train is derailed.  They are also used over viaducts where the parapets may not be high enough. more pics in coming weeks

Quote
Hi Peter, guard rails will be installed in these loops.  Used on tracks where there are bendy sections to catch the train should the unfortunate happen and a train is derailed.  They are also used over viaducts where the parapets may not be high enough. more pics in coming weeks

Bloomin' internet - ruins debate.

But it doesn't stop all kinds of ill-informed speculation proliferating!

On their Twitter feed Network Rail Western have denied that this work is taking place so that "Amtrak Joe" can have a ride on the new rails when he visits in June.

Apparently it's a coincidence of timing!

I think if Boris wants to give Joe a treat he should arrange a trip up the line in a "heritage" DMU so he can travel in the front  passenger seats with the blinds up and enjoy seeing the route on the journey

Or an autocoach with a GWR Pannier tank behind it.

I think if Boris wants to give Joe a treat he should arrange a trip up the line in a "heritage" DMU so he can travel in the front  passenger seats with the blinds up and enjoy seeing the route on the journey

That is almost worth a poll !!

Given the opportunity, what should Boris use to late world leaders on a trip to St Ives?

Heritage DMU, Autocoach and Panier, Steam Rail Motor, or 150 ?

Clueless as to how to set up a poll, so will park that idea !!

Given the opportunity, what should Boris use to late world leaders on a trip to St Ives?

Thinking about this, if the G7 actually agrees on something significant, people may be arguing 50 years hence about whether something is a breach of the "Carbis Bay Agreement".

Just read about Boris talking to Joe Biden about railways in the times. I am afraid most of the article is behind a paywall.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/johnson-biden-phone-call-love-of-railways-puts-us-relations-on-right-track-ghm6bk3tw (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/johnson-biden-phone-call-love-of-railways-puts-us-relations-on-right-track-ghm6bk3tw)

He and Joe Biden are said to have bonded over their mutual love of rolling stock in the first call between the two men since the new US president took office.

The prime minister is understood to have asked about Mr Biden?s Amtrak train journeys across the country and his daily commute by train from his home in Delaware to work in Washington when he was a senator. His commitment to the US rail network and his battle to win more public funding for the sector earned him the nickname ?Amtrak Joe?. He was said to have been disappointed that security concerns scuppered his plan to travel by train to his inauguration last week.

We've got just under two weeks left on the St Ives branch line, where we've replaced worn sleepers and track, laid fresh stone, installed guard rail, (it's not narrow gauge) and we have drainage work to do.

Some more pictures ...

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EspLipKXMAAIpNC?format=jpg&name=large)

The accompanying text says ...

May someone enlighten me as to what the four green wires are that are plugged into the 'rails' with a blue connector?

Sorry about the size, BTW. They aren't my photos, and I couldn't think of a quick way to unembiggen them.

You put width=800 after "img" in [img] (or 600 as it's portrait shjape). See Graham's post above for an example.

I am obliged to my learned friend, they are now unembiggened.

.. or would be with the width put in the right place, thus - [img width=600].

Line reopened this morning as scheduled, NRW however still pedalling the biggest track investment in 60 years mantra though which is unfortunate.

BBC spotlight had a small news item on the re-opening.
Stated it cost 3 million pounds for the one and half mile improvement??????????????????????

On their Twitter feed Network Rail Western have denied that this work is taking place so that "Amtrak Joe" can have a ride on the new rails when he visits in June.

Apparently it's a coincidence of timing!

Visited St Ives today, took these pics of the new track, and have tried to resize them before posting. (Can a mod check that this has been done correctly).