A few pictures, mostly taken on Tuesday, of progress on phase two.
At Earlestown, masts are up on the west curve. Elsewhere on the station there are plenty of bases and holes for bases.
Most of the ironwork is up at St Helens Junction, except for this one incomplete base near the east end of the down platform.
At Rainhill there's plenty of ironwork east of the station, where the long-disused signal box still survives.
At Rainhill station itself, excavations for mast bases are nearly complete, despite the lack of planning permission.
Work was under way on this hole, just beside the western footbridge.
At Whiston the masts and other ironwork seem complete, but no wires yet.
At Wavertree the wiring looks complete, as you can see in this view looking east from the station.
Finally on this whistle stop tour I visited Eccleston Park, where I found two cateneries but only one contact wire installed.
For a much more detailed and more up to date report on the current state of play, see David Hull's spreadsheet which you can find on a link from my
progress page.
Meanwhile, rumours continue to circulate that Network Rail will soon announce that parts of phase two will not be ready for energising in November. The latest report, in October's Modern Railways, suggests that problems including several serious signal sighting issues will mean that Ordsall Lane Junction to Victoria will be delayed until May 2015. At the time of writing I have not seen any formal announcement, but it surely cannot be long before we get one.
