Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011

[whole diary]

[willc]

Plenty of progress at Honeybourne over the past week, with track laid through the station alongside the new platform, rails added to the sleepers on the Long Marston connection and lamp-posts put up on the platform, with surfacing work starting.

Foundations for the footbridge on the platform side are complete, as is piling on the car park side. Work on concreting the bases for the supports on this side looks likely to be completed in the next week.

Some pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

[willc]

Couple of pictures of new LED signals north and south of Moreton-in-Marsh now online after a spot of country walking today. Link is in the post above.

[Moreton134]

Great collection of photos willc! Thanks for the updates, things have really progressed at Honeybourne.   Do you know if NR^» (Network Rail - home page) possibly intend to add a runaround loop (in the sidings) at Honeybourne for any stock movements heading south from the Long Marston branch or will the stock continue to Worcester before it heads south as is presently the norm.

[IndustryInsider]

Page 81 of this thread gives the track layout at Honeybourne.  No runaround loop, but if the train is top and tailed from Long Marston, or a loco is stabled in one of the Honeybourne sidings waiting then they can go in behind the Ground Position Signal on the Up line and continue south from there.

[Btline]

Thanks Willc for the photos, I've been looking through the photos of the time I "missed". A great collection, and good to see the progress made in the last few weeks!

[D1072]

Does anybody know the mileage & chainage of the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) bridge over the Honeybourne line? (For both lines, if possible.) Is it painted on the new bridge?

It seems a bit strange to me that the original bridge spanned four tracks, when a double-track span would have been cheaper and easier. Perhaps the West Loop would have been too short had the junction been at or just north of the bridge?

Another query. Was the up platform at Charlbury widened in the 1970s, extending over the up line?

[Lee]

Welcome to the forum, D1072 

[pbc2520]

Does anybody know the mileage & chainage of the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) bridge over the Honeybourne line? (For both lines, if possible.) Is it painted on the new bridge?

I can't answer your exact question but, when I am interested in distance questions, I use this file from Ken Butler's (simple and yet excellent) web page http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~butler/railmile.htm and, if necessary, the distance measuring tool on Google maps.

[willc]

Mileage-wise, the bridge is just east of the 101-mile marker on the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) line, sorry but can't be more precise than that. No idea about the old line underneath.

The platform at Charlbury was not widened, simply extended at the north end towards the bridge in the 1980s.

A mobile building to provide a base for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff on replacement bus duty at Moreton-in-Marsh over the next couple of weeks arrived in the station car park today.

[Weston-Sub-Edge]

The steel section of the bridge at Honeybourne station was added to the original Brunel bridge in the early 1900's when the Stratford to Cheltenham line was constructed. At this time Honeybourne changed from a two to a four platform station.

[willc]

D1072 was talking about the rail over rail bridge to the east of Honeybourne, which was renewed last year. The junction for the West Loop which ran up to the station diverged from the Cheltenham-Stratford line underneath the Cotswold Line bridge, hence it required the four-track width span he was referring to.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Does anybody know the mileage & chainage of the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) bridge over the Honeybourne line? (For both lines, if possible.) Is it painted on the new bridge?

I looked as I went past yesterday, but there's nothing painted on the north side of the bridge, nor on the eastern end of the south side - and I couldn't see the western end as we went past.

[willc]

Lots of work going on today, so a nice big update here http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

Not too much to add to what you can see in the pictures. S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) teams were dismantling equipment linked to the old crossover at the south end of Moreton-in-Marsh station, ahead of lifting.

At Honeybourne, the footbridge foundations are complete as far as I could see, and there were signs warning that the road bridge would be closed for a short time after 9am on Tuesday, but not sure what work will be happening then. The 'station cat' has been identified by his owner, who spotted my picture taken last weekend. His name is Thomas.

Didn't go west of Honeybourne, so not sure what's happening closer to Evesham just yet.

[IndustryInsider]

Thanks, Will.  I'll look forward to viewing the progress over the next couple of weeks.

I note the new track behind the new platform at Honeybourne linking to the Long Marston branch is utilising new steel sleepers.  Based on the conversation we had on here a couple of months ago, perhaps the steel vs. concrete situation isn't cost related as we suspected, but for some reason steel sleepers have fallen out of favour on main running lines?

[willc]

Not aware steel sleepers are out of favour. Certainly a lot were used in renewals of Boston to Skegness earlier this year, though that is clearly only used by dmus and the occasional excursion, so it may just be horses for courses in terms of which type is used on which route, based on likely traffic.

Some more pictures taken today are now online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

Both tracks at the north end of Moreton-in-Marsh station are now plain line, while the down line was in place through Blockley, with work on the up line in full swing. Lots of S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) work at Moreton - dismantling bits of mechanical signal kit and people working in the signalbox's interlocking room and at the two new equipment cabins behind it.