Unexpectedly, I do have some pictures of the completed works. As the team today was thought to be very small, your scribe was asked to help (- munch mini Swiss rolls) and a morning's work saw the top of the now fully completed 100m stretch finished off with slushy mortar, the drain pipe extended to the end, and covered in pea gravel.
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| Top finished off, John S fits a further length of pipe |
We didn't have the special lubricant for fitting one pipe end inside another, but we did have Fairy Liquid :-)
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| Pea gravel being added by Brian and John |
Every cloud has a silver lining moment: Keith dropped a perforated drain pipe 2 weeks ago and it broke into 3 pieces. Today, we need an off cut to reach to the end of the wall, but not beyond. Hey, that 3rd piece is just the right size !
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| The final barrow of pea gravel goes in. Note the Fairy Liquid bottle... Specialist equipment, we have it. |
The first bit of back filling we will be doing is to the level of this pea gravel, all the way along. We will start from this end, and drive two 1T dumpers alternately along the back of the wall. When the first 9'' layer is down, we will lift out the scaffolding boards and make a second layer of pea gravel above it, again to be infilled behind. Then we can infill more generally. We have access to a large supply of crushed concrete.
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| Isn't it long! |
Here is an overview of what, in Broadway parlance, we might call '2A'. It's the first half of CRC2, 100 meters long. We're pretty proud of that. Must contain 30 - 40.000 bricks, all shifted by hand. How many shuttelings of barrows of mortar does that represent? Most of the barrows are now bent from the strain, some of us are not much better... and to think that the same people are building the signal box at Broadway. It's coming on great, all 5 locking room windows in today, check it out !
Next Monday 9th June is the kick off for the back filling ! We expect to be there all week.
8 comments:
Excellent work Jo & the Team. Cheltenham Racecourse Station is looking much smarter with the second platform under construction. One question, how many more metres have you got to go with 2B as it were before completion?
Should be 110m - 210m in total.
Don't forget all the electrics, slabs, lamp posts and surfacing still to go as well.
Why are you using pea gravel behind the Cheltenham platform but a apparently not at Broadway. I can understand the purpose of the gravel ie drainage, but would have thought it is either required at both sites or not at all.
Ps keep up the blogs!
We are using pea gravel at Broadway, although not in the early phases of the platform build.
The Broadway drains are certainly working, as I saw water weep out of one only this afternoon, and heard watery noises from inside the centre drain.
Is it still the intention not to put a ramp at the southern end?
Andy
That was the last I heard Andy, although it was a while ago. I believe it was due to one of the Corsican pines having established itself a little too well over the years so no room to put a ramp unless it was either chopped down or the platform shortened, which someone decided wasn't what wanted happening as I think the idea is that it will be used for incoming charters one day...
modern platforms dont have ramps- witness the new one at Honeybourne
its an EU direktiv which must be obeyed
It's true that new platforms on Network Rail are no longer built with end ramps. But I can't find anything to confirm that this is the result of an EU directive.
There's nothing specifically about platform ramps on the Office of Rail Regulation website (although I have not clicked the links and read the EU directives in detail - perhaps someone with a few spare weeks could do so and report back to us?)
http://orr.gov.uk/about-orr/what-we-do/the-law/eu-law
There is a discussion on the Rail UK Forum about platform ramps (or the lack of them) which mentions various practical reasons for building platforms with flat ends rather than ramped ends. But nobody suggests the new platform design has anything to do with the EU:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=90637
According to the Rail UK discussion, ramps are no longer specified after a revision of Rail Group Standards. If anyone wants to wade through the current Rail Group Standards to find the exact specification, here they are (you'll probably need another few weeks):
http://ihsti.com/NoRCS/docs/brafas01/dept/elec%20pub/network_rail/nr_completed/Docs/catstp001.pdf
I have heard two contradictory reasons for the flat end to the platform at CRC.
Some time ago, Malcolm Temple (then PLC chairman) answered a question I asked on the Boardroom Blog to the effect that that a ramp couldn't be fitted in to the available space because a tree is too close to the line. A debatable point, I felt - after all, the ramp would not have to be full platform width.
I've also heard the end was left flat so that in the future the platform could be extended. I think this reason is also somewhat debatable - it's perfectly possible to extend a ramped platform. It would probably be a bit more involved than simply building on from a flat end, but is GWR platform design really driven by the need to save future brickies a bit of work?
At any rate, if it is envisaged that the platform might be lengthened one day, then that pesky tree can't be such a problem after all!
I'm left with the impression that nobody really knows why the new platform at CRC has a flat end. But one thing is for sure. Nobody ever said "The EU made us do it!"
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