Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

Maybe they could put wind turbines on each stanchion as well, again with the trial at Goring. 

One more thing to go wrong, although with the right accountant and business model, plus maybe a relative on the Commons select committee for climate change etc, it could provide a healthy supply of subsidies. And possibly even a small amount of occasional electricity.

Nice brownfield site just up the road from Goring at Didcot for a nuclear power station. Water supply could be provided by diverting, or digging a tributary from, the Thames.

Residents of Goring will surely approve.

Probably not enough water. Trawsfynydd was the only nuclear plant not built on the coast, and that had a serious dam to hold water.

Even so, the residents of Goring might not all turn it down, like the residents of quite a long way around Hinkley are keen to get building. Although as BNM points out, their back yards are precious to them.

[Thatcham Crossing]

Been out in the rain earlier to take some pics of the OHLE progress in my locality on the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury), although the first pic is not of OHLE:

1. Ufton Nervet, site of former level crossing
2. Looking W from atop the new bridge
3. Looking E from the same location

[Thatcham Crossing]

...then a few more at Aldermaston and Midgham:

1. Looking W at Aldermaston. There is a housing estate with back fences right up to trackside on the south side of the track beyond the road bridge, so it looks like all the infrastructure has been piled from the north side and spans across
2. Looking E at Midgham
3. Looking W at Midgham

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Just had a leaflet from Network Rail through my letterbox advertising local Public Exhibitions in various Village Halls in the Pangbourne and Goring area in late January and early February to show and seek views on the “range of potential measures, or options, which would help to reduce the visual impact of the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") in the area”.  Members of the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) project team will be on hand.

The information will also be available online from 21st January at networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire

Well done NR on this initiative.

Edit - the leaflet scanned better than I thought it would, so here it is:

Network Rail has now postponed these consultation sessions, and has announced: 

"Network Rail has been working with an Advisory Group of Natural England and AONB^▸ (Areas Of Natural Beauty) Conservation Boards to agree how we can manage the visual impact of the new electrification overhead lines in the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We have jointly agreed to postpone the planned public drop in sessions until later in the year to enable us to jointly undertake further work. We will be re-advertising dates of public engagement events in due course. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the postponement of the events."

[paul7575]

Network Rail has now postponed these consultation sessions, and has announced: 

"Network Rail has been working with an Advisory Group of Natural England and AONB^▸ (Areas Of Natural Beauty) Conservation Boards to agree how we can manage the visual impact of the new electrification overhead lines in the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We have jointly agreed to postpone the planned public drop in sessions until later in the year to enable us to jointly undertake further work. We will be re-advertising dates of public engagement events in due course. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the postponement of the events."

That could just be a polite way of saying that they are still poles* apart, having briefed the above groups that a total rebuild of the entire infrastructure is not at all realistic...

* or masts or stanchions, I suppose...

Paul

[Noggin]

Network Rail has now postponed these consultation sessions, and has announced: 

"Network Rail has been working with an Advisory Group of Natural England and AONB^▸ (Areas Of Natural Beauty) Conservation Boards to agree how we can manage the visual impact of the new electrification overhead lines in the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We have jointly agreed to postpone the planned public drop in sessions until later in the year to enable us to jointly undertake further work. We will be re-advertising dates of public engagement events in due course. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the postponement of the events."

That could just be a polite way of saying that they are still poles* apart, having briefed the above groups that a total rebuild of the entire infrastructure is not at all realistic...

* or masts or stanchions, I suppose...

Paul

Could also be a delaying tactic. Once you have an operational electrified railway, it becomes much more expensive and disruptive to reinstall masts, plus by that point the good commuters of Goring will be enjoying their new 387's, momentum will have been lost and something else can be found to moan about.

[Jason]

“range of potential measures, or options, which would help to reduce the visual impact of the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") in the area”

The OLE looks spectacularly ugly in any area. Looking west from Reading station transfer deck the view is hideous.

All in my humble opinion of course.

[Thatcham Crossing]

Looking west from Reading station transfer deck the view is hideous.

It could be argued that a railway is an industrial site, so if it's good on the eye aswell (thinks Glenfinnan, Ribblehead etc) then that's a bonus.

It may well be a bit unsightly, but if that means it's strong, doesn't break and lasts for years that has to be a good thing.

IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)

[chrisr_75]

“range of potential measures, or options, which would help to reduce the visual impact of the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") in the area”

The OLE looks spectacularly ugly in any area. Looking west from Reading station transfer deck the view is hideous.

All in my humble opinion of course.

Electricity pylons  poles and wires, telephone wires, roads, satellite dishes, water treatment plants, hospitals, houses even, all detract from the natural appearance of things, but no one objects to those and the clear benefits they bring, so why should a few stanchions and wires on a railway be an issue if it ensures and fast, clean, reliable and robust service? Or should we just keep the 40 year old trains and continue the Thames valley infrastructure failure thread ad infinitum?!

[eightf48544]

The wires are up over Maidenhead Bridge. not heard any comments yet!

[onthecushions]

The OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") looks spectacularly ugly in any area. Looking west from Reading station transfer deck the view is hideous.

All in my humble opinion of course.

Electricity pylons  poles and wires, telephone wires, roads, satellite dishes, water treatment plants, hospitals, houses even, all detract from the natural appearance of things, but no one objects to those and the clear benefits they bring, so why should a few stanchions and wires on a railway be an issue if it ensures and fast, clean, reliable and robust service? Or should we just keep the 40 year old trains and continue the Thames valley infrastructure failure thread ad infinitum?!

Human intervention in the landscape need not detract excessively from the natural or historic environment. UK^▸ (United Kingdom) designers have for centuries integrated these successfully, so much that their creations are often now seen as essential to the landscape and themselves protected from disfigurement. Careful design is functional, economic in materials and intrusion, uses craft skills, observes scholarly geometric proportion and may use vernacular (i.e locally accepted) materials, methods and art as appropriate.

The objection to the AoNB OLE is that it is not well designed, with irregular lengths  (and overlaps) of masts and portals, it is uneconomic in materials, such as portal slots rather than bracing and heavy clamps, it is randomly irregular (i,e sloppily laid out) in that masts are sometimes tall enough to hang the 50kV feeder, sometimes not, involving random extra spindly supports. The design is not consistent in that there are portals inter-spaced with cantilevers. The foundations do not show but are said to be excessive. There is no reasonable environmental objection to a bulkier OLE design capable of supporting the heavier, higher tension contact wire, just to one that is clearly sub-optimal and not the fruit of the best brains the UK possesses. Sir G G Scott's K6 red telephone boxes spring to mind.

While I don't agree with spending serious money on altering what's done - any money available needs to go on extending the wires - the bodies and individuals responsible do need to be held to account. This probably means the civil servants and politicians who thinned out BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))/RT/NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s excellent technical staff, staged a 20 year electrification strike followed by driving half a dozen simultaneous major wirings, rather than anyone in the Railway Industry itself.

PS: Trump, in his acceptance speech today mentioned building "railways" not "railroads".

Rule Britannia

OTC

[chrisr_75]

The OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") looks spectacularly ugly in any area. Looking west from Reading station transfer deck the view is hideous.

All in my humble opinion of course.

Electricity pylons  poles and wires, telephone wires, roads, satellite dishes, water treatment plants, hospitals, houses even, all detract from the natural appearance of things, but no one objects to those and the clear benefits they bring, so why should a few stanchions and wires on a railway be an issue if it ensures and fast, clean, reliable and robust service? Or should we just keep the 40 year old trains and continue the Thames valley infrastructure failure thread ad infinitum?!

Human intervention in the landscape need not detract excessively from the natural or historic environment. UK^▸ (United Kingdom) designers have for centuries integrated these successfully, so much that their creations are often now seen as essential to the landscape and themselves protected from disfigurement. Careful design is functional, economic in materials and intrusion, uses craft skills, observes scholarly geometric proportion and may use vernacular (i.e locally accepted) materials, methods and art as appropriate.

The objection to the AoNB OLE is that it is not well designed, with irregular lengths  (and overlaps) of masts and portals, it is uneconomic in materials, such as portal slots rather than bracing and heavy clamps, it is randomly irregular (i,e sloppily laid out) in that masts are sometimes tall enough to hang the 50kV feeder, sometimes not, involving random extra spindly supports. The design is not consistent in that there are portals inter-spaced with cantilevers. The foundations do not show but are said to be excessive. There is no reasonable environmental objection to a bulkier OLE design capable of supporting the heavier, higher tension contact wire, just to one that is clearly sub-optimal and not the fruit of the best brains the UK possesses. Sir G G Scott's K6 red telephone boxes spring to mind.

While I don't agree with spending serious money on altering what's done - any money available needs to go on extending the wires - the bodies and individuals responsible do need to be held to account. This probably means the civil servants and politicians who thinned out BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))/RT/NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s excellent technical staff, staged a 20 year electrification strike followed by driving half a dozen simultaneous major wirings, rather than anyone in the Railway Industry itself.

PS: Trump, in his acceptance speech today mentioned building "railways" not "railroads".

Rule Britannia

OTC

My highlighting in bold - there was no reference to the AONB^▸ (Areas Of Natural Beauty) specifically in the post I replied to, Jason mentioned that his opinion OLE was spectacularly ugly in any area, a point to which I generally disagree.

With regards your PS, Trump is always at pains (along with many of his fellow country folk) to disclose his Scottish ancestry, so his use of 'railways' perhaps shouldn't be too surprising 

[Electric train]

“range of potential measures, or options, which would help to reduce the visual impact of the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") in the area”

The OLE looks spectacularly ugly in any area. Looking west from Reading station transfer deck the view is hideous.

All in my humble opinion of course.

As an electrification engineer I think OLE structures have great elegance ....................

Although I will admit the GWEP^▸ (Great Western Electrification Program) structures are rather robust 

The wires are up over Maidenhead Bridge. not heard any comments yet!

I feel the designers have done a good job is reducing the profile

[onthecushions]

As an electrification engineer I think OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") structures have great elegance ....................

Although I will admit the GWEP^▸ (Great Western Electrification Program) structures are rather robust.

Agree generally. Coal smoke and exhaust steam are real blots on the landscape!

The wires are up over Maidenhead Bridge. not heard any comments yet!
I feel the designers have done a good job is reducing the profile

The Royal Border Bridge at Berwick was also wired in the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) Scheme in 1989. I think that it won an award. Interestingly it used portals. It showed that our designers are well up to the job.

OTC

[John R]

The wires are up over Maidenhead Bridge. not heard any comments yet!

It may not surprise readers to know that there is a negative comment about it on the Goring Gap Facebook page.