Five Days To Go

OK, OK, five and a half days!

I paid a visit to Huyton today to see how things are going.  The overnight possession last night was released late, wrecking the service until 10:00.

The electrification equipment at Huyton Junction looks ready, or as ready as it can be before the blockade actually starts.

In this picture just east of Huyton you can see:

1. Top right, a gallows support from the south side, no changes required.
2. Right hand mast, planted in the middle of the future fourth track, to be removed.
3. Left hand mast and short gallows, new support for third and fourth track catenary.

When I was at the station a team of signalling people were testing cables for the new signals, perhaps they were pulled through last night.  Lots of shouts of "There's a ten core plus a two core for the feather" but they didn't reveal any new signal numbers while I was listening.

Eight Days To Go

Just eight days of normal train service remain, before Lime Street closes for phase one of its upgrade.  I'm still not entirely clear how much of the work will be completed in this phase.

Tracks have been laid for the new platforms 7 and 8, although there's still quite a lot to finish, as you can see:

(Update:  Another visit a day later revealed that the tracks laid so far stop before the point where they should merge and pass under the narrow bridge, so there is indeed a lot more to do.)

Meanwhile, at Huyton platform 4, the edging stones are all back in place with just the tarmac remaining to be re-done.

Progress Report Early September

Work continues at Huyton Junction, and I noticed a signal base has appeared for the platform four "starter".  (If anyone has the numbers for the new signals I'd be grateful.)

I also noticed a shiny new AWS magnet in the four foot west of Roby and since writing that I've seen another one in platform 4 there.  TPWS grids have appeared as well, you can see one in the above photo.

The edge of platform four at Huyton is suffering the same demolition and rebuild as happened at Roby:

Clearly someone slipped up - I hope we're not paying for all this work to be redone.

At Lime Street, the new platforms are well on their way:

Progress

At Huyton a further length of the fourth line, from the current end of rails to the far end of the telephone exchange, has received sleepers, but no rails yet.

Update:  By Sunday rails were in place on these sleepers, and a number of S&C track panels were stacked on them.


Meanwhile, at Lime Street, the 'hole' which will eventually become the two new platforms, has been almost completely excavated.

Platform Work at Roby and Huyton

I was somewhat surprised last week to see that all the edge stones on the recently built platform 4 at Roby have been lifted, before anyone had a chance to board a train there.

I don't know the reason for this, perhaps it was built in the wrong place, or the requirements have since changed.

At Huyton, platform 4 will be closed along with the northern access to the station, from 7 August.  Some pallets of building materials have been delivered to the platform, suggesting that similar work is to be undertaken here.