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Post by miff on Jan 27, 2016 23:17:31 GMT
I bet the road at the linked site was closed for a lot longer than the railway, for all the preparatory works which must have been necessary. There must also have been a large area of vacant land nearby for assembly of the new deck and breaking up the old one - unlikely to be available in most of the GoB residential neighbourhoods. Some fairly recent bridge replacements on the GoB line or nearby involved road closures for several weeks at a time due to site constraints of this kind. I'd guess works at overbridges, rather than the underbridge shown in the video, will be more critical for the overhead line works. This means more highway works including temporary diversion of all utility services crossing the old bridge before it can be removed and reconnection after the new deck is in.
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Post by miff on Jan 10, 2016 12:04:13 GMT
Many of the industrial units in Burwell Rd and Wellington Rd, next to Lea Bridge Station, have been sold and a Poncey Flats development (including a proportion of Affordable Poncey Flats) is proposed.
Meanwhile work on connecting the electricity supply to the new station started yesterday so we might see the lights on soon.
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Post by miff on Nov 27, 2015 20:32:29 GMT
The footbridge & lift shafts are now in place at Lea Bridge Rd. The staircases to the platforms are still to be done.
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Post by miff on Nov 4, 2015 20:19:44 GMT
I guess DfT or Network Snail would provide them on request. I might have a copy of one for Highams Park I didn't find my copy but I have found the 2002 Highams Park LC Order on line as part of somebody's FOI request response. I don't know whether this version is still current. Page 6 includes the requirement that the road is normally open except when a train needs to cross. www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/270036/response/666557/attach/8/HIGHAMS%20PARK%202002.pdf
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Post by miff on Nov 4, 2015 17:12:38 GMT
I guess DfT or Network Snail would provide them on request. I might have a copy of one for Highams Park, I'll look. There might not be one for North Weald if the method of control has never changed, or if the road is not a highway.
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Post by miff on Nov 3, 2015 21:22:29 GMT
Of course, the Epping Ongar railway have just replaced the one at North Weald that was once on the Underground. I wonder if that is kept shut across the road? As far back as I can remember this crossing has always been kept shut across the road, which appears to be a little used private road (which I would guess may also have a public right of way of some kind). In LUL days the gates were unpainted, not like the traditional LC gates now installed.
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Post by miff on Nov 3, 2015 20:58:56 GMT
Thanks, Chris - I think the more likely solution would be just to close the crossing with no replacement, making the cars travel via Larks Hall Rd, Hatch Lane, and the Avenue, or Winchester Rd, Wadham Bridge, and Hale End Rd, a mile's detour. I doubt, however, whether that would happen, given the degree of local opposition there'd be. Incidentally, in the past, a Ministry of Transport order had to be obtained to keep the gates of any LC shut across the railway, rather than across the road (so an approaching road vehicle had to hoot to get the gatekeeper to open the gates). On the Chingford branch, at Hatch Lane, the gates were still being shut across the road by default as late as 1933, and even the North Circular Road (then crossing on the level at Wadham Rd) was so treated into the 20s. The very thought of the NC crossing a railway on the level defies comprehension, even more so the cars having to hoot to summon the gateman! Level Crossing Orders are still made by the Secretary of State for Transport. A new Order was made for the Highams Park crossing a few years ago when the signal box was decommissioned and the barriers converted to cctv remote control.
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Post by miff on Nov 1, 2015 9:22:30 GMT
I guess that may be why they built no more sleet locomotives (or 'RA' locomotives). Pity in a way - a loco based on an A-stock (or '62 stock) body with cabs at both ends would have been something to see but, no doubt, unsuitable for the task.
I remember seeing the mysterious sleet locomotives glimpsed in sidings or, on one occasion, parked in the middle platform road at Loughton. I never saw one moving - are there any videos of them working?
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Post by miff on Oct 23, 2015 18:16:48 GMT
1962 stock trains always included a number of '59 stock trailers ordered as a stop-gap so that 8-car '59 stock formations could run on the central line before the 1962 stock arrived. When these trains moved on they left the extra cars for the 62 fleet.
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Post by miff on Sept 26, 2015 13:38:50 GMT
I think the connection at Leyton was removed by the early 70s.
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Post by miff on Sept 26, 2015 13:12:15 GMT
Did the '67 stock often used on Woodford-Hainault have high lift gear or was it transferred under tow, with shoes off?
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Post by miff on Apr 4, 2015 10:35:40 GMT
I guess the "guys with backpack vacuum cleaners" don't like to be called fluffers any more Isn't there (or wasn't there) a temporary TCT consisting of something on wagons pulled by battery locos? Press reports last autumn suggested the TCT project was delayed at least until 2017 pending removal of asbestos (or some other solution) which might otherwise be disturbed by the new, and presumably more powerful, TCT.
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Post by miff on Apr 3, 2015 10:41:09 GMT
Great footage, brings back some memories for me. Taken at different dates - some of the later scenes show the original Ongar signal box. At Epping the water tower can also be seen. Both demolished, together with the Ongar goods shed, in the late 1980s.
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Post by miff on Mar 2, 2015 23:56:15 GMT
I agree it is often a shame when preserved objects are restored to a more original condition. Things that have survived are often as interesting because of the changes that have occurred during their long lifetime, as well as for their original relevance.
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Post by miff on Jan 6, 2015 23:26:57 GMT
Access to an Aldwych museum could be via train from Holborn only, however Holborn is probably so busy already that encouraging extra visitors to that station would not be seen as a good idea. Since the line remains operable, however, I'm sure an occasional special shuttle on open days would be very popular. If you run a shuttle to Aldwych it would severely restrict the number of exibits you could have On open days there are no exhibits other than the station itself and the '72 stock which is kept there, in working order.
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Post by miff on Oct 23, 2014 18:27:55 GMT
This may have been talked about before, I could have missed it, but I was wondering if the 92s have had their saloon windows replaced with tinted or otherwise darker ones. I ask because my degree finished and I largely stopped commuting, but on the few journeys I've made recently, my view's seemed quite a bit darker - you can hardly see anything out of the window at Redbridge and particularly Gants Hill. Is this just me, or? I don't know if they've got darker but the 92s have always had their windows tinted or toned in some way. The difference was more obvious at the time they replaced the 62s whilst both stocks were still running together.
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Post by miff on Oct 20, 2014 20:10:32 GMT
Access to an Aldwych museum could be via train from Holborn only, however Holborn is probably so busy already that encouraging extra visitors to that station would not be seen as a good idea. Since the line remains operable, however, I'm sure an occasional special shuttle on open days would be very popular. That is a cool idea About Holborn being too busy, isn't there a disused extra platform there ? The Aldwych branch originally had 2 platforms at Holborn. One became disused very early on; the track is long gone and the space divided up for other uses. The other platform is still available. However platform capacity is not the issue - Holborn is a very busy interchange and the ticket halls, escalaters and passageways are packed with Central Line and Piccadilly Line passengers almost all the time. So I doubt LUL would want to encourage large numbers of extra visitors on a regular basis.
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Post by miff on Oct 20, 2014 18:54:27 GMT
Access to an Aldwych museum could be via train from Holborn only, however Holborn is probably so busy already that encouraging extra visitors to that station would not be seen as a good idea. Since the line remains operable, however, I'm sure an occasional special shuttle on open days would be very popular.
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Post by miff on Sept 24, 2014 7:19:21 GMT
45029 was designated for preservation by the Railway Heritage Committee in 2006 when it was still owned by EWS. The committee's 2013 list says: "Ex-LMS Saloon no. DM 45029; conveyed senior members of royal family at Prince of Wales’ investiture; first passenger-carrying vehicle on to Britannia Bridge after fire [Disposal to London Underground Ltd – 15.7.11]"Given its condition at that time, judging by the photos of the work done at Eastleigh, I still don't know why LUL wanted to buy it in 2011. It obviously wasn't a priority for tube150 and no-one has mentioned the dining idea until now. As far as I understand, the plan always was to slowly restore it back to running back. Already some restoration work had taken place before the date you have quoted. I think LU had some long standing interest in it because it stayed at West Ruislip for a while in 2009. Thanks for the info. Reading between the lines I wonder if the RHC and maybe EWS were looking for someone to give a historical item a good home - looks like they found it
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Post by miff on Sept 22, 2014 23:15:39 GMT
45029 was designated for preservation by the Railway Heritage Committee in 2006 when it was still owned by EWS. The committee's 2013 list says:
"Ex-LMS Saloon no. DM 45029; conveyed senior members of royal family at Prince of Wales’ investiture; first passenger-carrying vehicle on to Britannia Bridge after fire [Disposal to London Underground Ltd – 15.7.11]"
Given its condition at that time, judging by the photos of the work done at Eastleigh, I still don't know why LUL wanted to buy it in 2011. It obviously wasn't a priority for tube150 and no-one has mentioned the dining idea until now.
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Post by miff on Sept 21, 2014 18:57:34 GMT
Why did TfL buy 45029 in the first place?
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Post by miff on Aug 29, 2014 14:53:51 GMT
Because there were instructions that two trains at North Weald must not depart at the same time. They were timetabled to be at least a minute or so different in departure times. And in acceleration, only "Forward 1" was used. A plate on the reverser barrel prevented acceleration in "Forward 2". These plates "disappeared" in the early 80's. The two train service ceased in 1976 and the passing loop at North Weald was removed soon after. After that only one 4-car train at a time could operate on the branch, would that have anything to do with the removal of these plates?
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Post by miff on Aug 17, 2014 9:39:30 GMT
... The unit will be running with two Schoma diesel locos to provide motive power due to a lack of 3rd and 4th rails on the branch! Happy to answer any questions! Was the abandonment of the electrification a short-sighted preservation choice, or were other factors involved? LUL will have disconnected the power feed soon after the line closed. I also recall reports of lineside cable thefts after the closure too. The conductor rails lasted a bit longer but were removed during the period when the (then) EOR management seemed more interested in property development than running trains.
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Post by miff on Aug 11, 2014 22:55:52 GMT
Good news Dan. When will it enter service? And will this spell the end for the old TRT or are there plans to use both?
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Post by miff on Aug 11, 2014 22:45:56 GMT
They were still there long after decimalisation, I'm sure of this because I wasn't around for very long before decimalisation!
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Post by miff on Aug 11, 2014 22:41:13 GMT
I'm speculating here but EOR have an event in September commemorating 20 years since the last LUL services. This Cravens unit formed the last train in 1994. I hope, however, it will not be a permanent move since the Ongar branch is no longer electrified.
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Post by miff on Aug 7, 2014 17:49:07 GMT
I remember the draw machines sold something called Toffets in red cardboard boxes with a metal opening device on the side. Quite hard to chew. Never saw them anywhere else (except on a few websites today - which doesn't really count). And Bar Six - like a KitKat, but sideways.
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Post by miff on Aug 5, 2014 7:24:28 GMT
What is wrong with it? Seems perfectly readable to me. I say abolish the death penalty.
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Post by miff on Jul 7, 2014 22:52:32 GMT
Since an escalator shaft is inclined this option would require buying more land, at Central London prices, if the shaft would not fit within the existing station curtilage. Might be an option for a joint development if somebody already wanted to demolish the buildings next-door. Was an escalator considered at the time of the Fleet/Jubilee line planning? Or the Waterloo extension?
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Post by miff on Jul 3, 2014 8:49:03 GMT
I guess it is not clear whether they are intended to run as permanently coupled pairs - in which case it is likely that a Schoma hauled train would normally have four of them. I.e. one pair at each end of the train - is that the idea?
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