Track replacement at Ruislip

A ridiculously huge planning operation is undertaken before any major works - probably more so now than in years gone by because the penalties of over-runs on the Monday morning are normally the noose around a planner's neck.

Track replacement is not just a group of lads turning up one Saturday morning with a white van load of rails, some sleepers and a couple of shovels.

As for the drain rumours, I cannot confirm them, but remember in many projects where digging is involved, it is sometimes the case that such things "get in the way" and sometimes it can be merely a mis-measurement or a case of nobody realising / being informed it was there.

The infraco line closures database shows planned BTR works on the Metropolitan eastbound road between Eastcote and Ruislip 20-23 March.

RE: the damaged pipe. The exact route may have not been known. Also it may have already been in such a poor condition that disturbance in the soil nearby may have caused damage.

When we broke up and replaced the concrete slab at the gated Granville Gardens entrance to Ealing Common Depot in 2002 we came across an old uncharted pipe about 1.5m below ground level. It was a small diameter cast iron pipe running under the depot roads. It was thought to be a redundant gas feed to the old point heaters.

How many P-way gangs does LUL have then?

Who is responsible for that section of the Met/Piccadilly lines?

if it is Tubelines, then did they not also use 30 miles of the wrong cabling on the Jubilee a few months back?

This map shows that Metronet is responsible for that section of railway.

I thought Tubelines maintains all the tracks between Wembley Pk and Finchley Road?

Cheers, some interesting maps, showing all the crossovers and links.

The Fire Precautions Act (sub surface railways) 1989 came into being via section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971. The 1989 Act was a direct result of the Kings Cross fire in 1987.

So in railway terms (not just LU!!), section 12 means the Fire Precautions Act (sub surface railways) 1989.

Section 12, in the most simple of terms, applies to stations with substantially covered platforms below street level, or indeed stations wholly underground. The most obvious indicator that you are on a section 12 station are the red fire call points.

That last paragraph is deliberately vague as there is far far far more to it than that; I'm just giving the basic answer to the question.

The cant was always 'extreme' going into the eastbound under the bridge

I think orienteer means 'cant' in the sense of the outside of the roof/monitor rails on the vehicles, rather than the cant applied to the running rails!

What purpose did/does the 'coded map' serve and why does it show proposed lines/extensions such as the Bakerloo to Camberwell?

TIA

Simon

It's in the "Signalling and track" section,thread title "BRS code map again" started by Ben on 31st March this year,but was discussed in earlier threads as the thread name implies.
As I recall the consensus reaction to the question as to what qualified a feature for inclusion ,or not,was bafflement.....

It is so reassuring to hear that LT suffers from the same level of competance from its contractors as the national network. Having been involved with engineering work on a traincrew level up until nine years ago (today!) when I left EWS, I can state that engineering work problems were one of the reasons I got out! It got to the stage many years ago that absolutely nothing surprised me anymore!

I always found that the standard of work and organisation deteriorated the nearer the job was to London. I could easily fill a book with some of the escapades that went on but, as a current employee on the national network, it would probably cost me my job! Suffice to say that the penalty payments for engineering overruns sometimes went into millions!

Every so often the word got out that the 'Brass' (Management) were to visit a site. One such occasion was at Mortimer (Basingstoke to Reading line) one Sunday in the 'Mainline Freight' era. The previous weekend had been a total shambles with the trains entering the possesion in the wrong order and with the wrong wagons. My Secondman and I had been warned to be on our best behaviour as the Management would be out in force. We were rostered to travel by taxi to Mortimer to board a class 37. On arrival it transpired that the train in front of us was the one that should have been behind us so we were to sit tight. After several hours of doing nothing I was resting my eyes while my mate was checking out the racing form. Out of the corner of one eye I noticed an individual climbing up the steps of our locomotive. As he entered the cab I turned round to greet him with 'I hope you've got some good news about us ****ing off mate!' to which he replied 'Good afternoon. Kim Jordan, Managing Director, Mainline Freight'...... It was one of those 'Ground? Swallow me now!' moments. Mr Jordan actually stayed on the loco for nearly an hour talking things over and asking our opinion about what could be done to improve things. Subsequently, whenever he visited Eastleigh, he always spent time in the Drivers room not only talking but making notes. It was not by accident that, of the five Freight 'Train Operating Units' set up in the lead up to privatisation, Mainline Freight was the best performer by a country mile.

Not strictly an engineering story but a factual one nonetheless concerned some rebuilding work done in the Diesel depot in Eastleigh shed. The refuelling of locomotives was to be moved from inside the old Diesel Depot building outside onto a through road. A new fuel point was to be built with a small roofed structure over the top of it. The track was removed in the relevant area and a concrete 'drip tray' laid. Then the contractors drilled the holes in the concrete for the chairs for the new track. At this point someone happened to look along the line of the new holes....... They had been drilled to accomodate a track gauge of approx. 4'3"! The holes were hurriedly redrilled in the correct position but, to this day, the outside fuel point has an off-centre drip tray!

It would be interesting to know if the contractor grouted up the wrong holes before re-drilling especially if the old and news holes are going to be close to each other. I've experienced a similar problem for the fixing bolts to an escalator motor base.