North East Rail Revitalisation Project

[Mount Sirfeel]

It seam that V/Line passenger Is the one who Is holding up the opening of the West line and the passing lanes as the are still at disagreement with signalling system

[woodward]

The track to extend the Donnybrook loop into passing lane number 2 is currently being laid starting from the down (northen) end. This includes the points which are currently being constructed. The two new bridges have just had the lead up to the abbutments poured and there is still some minor drainage work going on at the southern end.
The northen end points are around 500 metres south of Beveridge station lane on I believe a 1 in 50 grade.

The platform edge for the number 1 platfrom (SG) Seymour is now being done starting from the loco depot end, around 20 metres had been done yesterday. Also the track base was being excavtated out as well in preparating to lay the new platfrom road.
A buffer stop has been errected on the end of BG number 2 road.
A minor point on Seymour is that platform 3 is now in regular use.


The West lines platform edge at Violet Town is being raised around 200mm's the same as was done at Avenel. I believe Benalla was supposed to be done but it appears at this stage it will not be done. This appears to mean that Benalla platform 2 will be the only platform north of Seymour that will not be level with the carriage floor, unless VLIne plans to do it them selves.

[woodward]

Info on the Wodonga bypass,
Lincoln Causeway bridge now mostly finished only now needs the ballast retaining walls fitted to the sides this appears to be around 1/3rd complete.
Signals have already been erected along the bypass, note the past tense.
At least two large piles of ballast have been placed beside the embankment along the route.
Some track has been laid at least at the Wangarata end of the bypass
Work stablising the embankment of the freeway overpass where the new line comes right up against the road is said to be finished around mid to late march.
Curbing for the New station car park looks to be nearly finished.

[woodward]

A couple of minor points,
Work has commenced on the two passenger shelters on the East lines platform at Euroa. This appears to be the last works on the platforms (by SIA) in NE Victoria. Work still to be done is two platform lights stands at Sprinhurst and only 3 light stands at Chiltern have been done, so around 10 or so to do there.. Only the platform itself has been done at Broadmedows, ie no fences or shelters.

Works have started fitting up the point motors and linkages for at least the up end crossover at Wangaratta. SIA has been rather casual about this, the box's containing everything have been sitting by the line in Wang for at least 4 to 5 months and they appeared to be still intact when I look at them in January. Do not know about the crossover north of Wang as it is very inaccesable (I asume it us being done at the same time).

A comment.......
Considering the progress on the Wodonga bypass it would seem probable they will not run anything on the West line until the bypass is finished which does not look to be all that far away now. The track could be availible for testing by the end of march, then they could get all the signalling operational in one go.

Woodford.

[Vow]

Thanks for continuing the updates on here Woodward.

It's interesting to note that the Google maps photos for the Wodonga area have been updated to shots taken roughly three months ago, so you can really see all the work that has occurred along the bypass.

[woodward]

Thanks for continuing the updates on here Woodward.

It's interesting to note that the Google maps photos for the Wodonga area have been updated to shots taken roughly three months ago, so you can really see all the work that has occurred along the bypass.

I must admit I am not particularly comfortable being a "johnny come lately" on vicsig but the major reason I started posting all those months ago was to make sure interested partys had a clear and accurate idea of what was happenning on the project.

This was the only way to continue bringing the info with "railpage" off the air.

Woodford

[MOM]

I must thank you as well for continuing the report, the gap caused by RP's failure has sadly left many other readers of your updates in the dark. I can only hope that your acurate reporting in the past has not been lost. Hopefully you have the entire copy of the thread which could be re-posted in it's entirety in Vicsig, thus continuing on rather than adding to..

Now, is it woodward or woodford, in another post I referred to you as woodford, remembering that name from RP or am I mistaken?

[woodward]

For the reporting of the NE project I will sign myself woodford so as not to confuse more then required. The name I meant to use on Railpage was this woodward, It is the name of the main company making the governers for Diesel Electric locos.

I do not have a copy of the thread or infact any copy of the reports I posted. It is likely that the problem with Railpage and steam4me is that in order to keep the costs as low as possible the hosting company consists of only one person and given the time of year that person is on Hoildays. As both Railpage and Steam4me are not really vital it will not be to much of major tragedy to be off for a month or so.

In july 2009 on Railpage there were around 120 views per my posts on the project, in December this had risen to around 1000 or more per post. So there seems to be interest in the subject.

[woodward]

On both the up and down crossovers at Benalla both sets of points have been wired into the control system, this appears to have been done only in the last week or so.
At Wangaratta on the up crossover the West lines points have had the point motor and linkages fitted. On the down crossover they are half way through installing the above on the East lines points. In both cases the hardware is on site to do the other set of points.

Woodford.

[woodward]

Seymour,
Platform 1, the new edge is almost completed be around 15 to 20 metres to go. The platform has been starightened out and extended northward somewhat using the original brick for the facing and basalt blocks for the edge.
The path of the track has been cleared down to the base and some track panels have been built in the yard.

It is likely that as soon as the workers doing the edge are out of the way the new SG platform 1 track will be laid.

[Mr. V/Line]

It seems that V/Line passenger is the one who is holding up the opening of the West line and passing lanes as the are still at disagreement with the signalling system

I think they've all agreed to a particular system. If not, they are very close too deciding.

I wouldn't say just the west line but the whole corridor (Seymour-Wodonga). The disputes with the ARTC and V/Line are where signals will be placed along the line.

V/Line have stated that if signals are to be placed where the ARTC want them, there will be issues with the locomotive hauled trains when they 'run the wrong line' (bi-directional).

Simply ATRC want a standard signalling system all over the country (there's some exception with the Hunter Valley) and V/Line want the signals exactly like in Victoria.

Also there are still major infrastructure works being carried out so there will be no services at all (except freight and XPT).

[woodward]

The only signalling so far installed north of Seymour is such guarding the switching at Seymour north and at Wodonga and Albury. From the look of it these have been set up for bidrirectional running on both the East and the West lines. with the distant signals (Note 1:) 2500 metres out.(Note 2) No signalling has been done along the line, a number of bases (2) have been installed south of Benalla on the West line as far as I can work out these were put in so the fliters for the harmon crossing controlers could be installed so the level crossing warning devices would work correctly.

I have put up photos of all the signals on Railpage if it ever (opps, sorry when) it comes back.

A conversation with some of the SIA managment in December said SIA/ARTC had agreed to the Vic demands on the signalling. I have personally not confirmed this via anther source.

I did see them testing the new signals south of Mangalore and the do work.

Note 1: Asked the people installing them what to call them they directed me to the experts and that is what they said they were.
Note 2: they have put a new signal just north of Mangalore facing up (south bound) trains on the West line along side an identical signal on the Eastline. These appear to be siting line signals as the next ones cannot be seen because of the curve.
Note 3: I am not an expert on signalling my knowledge base being in the track and enegineering in general.

[woodward]

Some good news in amongst all the political rubbish.......

Passing lane number 4,
A group of around 10 to 12 people were inspecting the point operating mechanism of the up (southern) end, on the way back 4 workers were doing clean up work around the points.
A couple of senior O'Donnel and Griffen staff were working on the electrical equipment cabinet for the down (northen) end points of the passing lane.
Around 1 kilometer south of Tallarook is a large equipment cabinet right in the centre of the right of way for the loop line of the passing lane. Up to recently the track either side of the cabinet had been assembled and just left on the ground, a panel of track to fill in the gap had been built. Today the track either side was being lifted and lined, this had been done on both the northern and southern side of the cabinet. The fill in panel had been cut in half and placed back on top of the track on the southern side.

Interprutation, Looks like they are getting ready to get passing lane number 4 operational.

Passing lane number 2,
All the track for the extension of the Donnybrook loop into passing lane number 2 has been assembled as of this evening 24 th feb. This except for a short section where the existing signal protecting the down end points for up trains. A couple of excavators were putting in the ballast. 4 panels have been built to cut out the down (northern) points of the Donnybrook loop. The Down (northern) end points for the passing lane have been cut into the main line.
It appears no signal or cabinet bases have been installed as yet but I believe the conduit and pit work have been done for the cabling.

Woodford

[pblair]

Note 3: I am not an expert on signalling my knowledge base being in the track and enegineering in general.

Then you would have been aware that the Wodonga bypass leaves the bridge at the Murray in potentially dire straits.

Take a look at the bridge in Google Earth. The river, as all rivers do, is moving gently downstream - right to left as you look at GE. You can see the effect - the southern main pier is now some 25% of the way into the river, the northern pier is high and dry. They chose a lousy place in 1888 or whenever, and the southern pier will be suffering foundation exposure and probably damage if it ever rains again.

Paul

[woodward]

I do not have any specfic details of the murray river bridge but the enginners of the day were well aware of the absolute requirement of getting the foundations into something quite solid. Even before the time of construction of this bridge test boring to make sure there was something substantal below ground was done before the position was finalised. It has been there for 130 years or so and on close inspection it does not appear to be moving at all.
I will see if can find out anything on the building of the bridge. There is a rumor around that they are planning to build a double track bridge next to it. The current bridge only has a single train limit, previously the signalling for the BG and the SG on the bridge was interlocked so only one train could be in the section at a time.
The Murray has changed a fair bit over the years it was desnag quite some time ago this resulted in the river getting much wider and much shallower making navigation of the river by any craft of a decent size really problematical. According to a number of paddle steamer skippers I have talked to the average depth of the river is now less then 1.8 metres.

Note: I live in the area and have a real passion for bridges, this example, the Redesdale bridge, the chandler hwy bridge at Alphington being some of the more intersting examples of early Aus bridges. Also not forgetting the pratt truss over the goulburn at Murchison. While we are on the subject can not leave with out mentioning the railway bridge at Murray bridge really well worth an inspection.
I would really love a good look at the Forth bridge ........... ssssiiiiggghhhhh


Woodford

ps, there has been plenty of ARTC, SIA, O'Donnel and Griifen and John holland vehicles travelling up and down the Hume freeway the past few days. must be some thing in the wind, also seen two VLine vehicles.