New Layout Day One

Well, things got off to an inauspicious start this morning with 15 cancellations, but things seem to be running a little more smoothly now.  The problem was with the temporary single line working between Edge Hill and Lime street, and not our new track at Huyton, which seems to have been fine, although I did notice all up trains used platform four for a while.

My live diagram at http://charlwoodhouse.co.uk/rail/livesig/3 has now been updated to show the new signals and route selections, and also an approximation of what is available at Lime Street at the moment.

All Quiet At Huyton

I paid a brief visit to Huyton station this morning and in a marked contrast to yesterday there was almost nothing going on.  I take this as good sign that the work is pretty much complete.

One gang of orangemen were digging a hole adjacent to the fourth track for a new sign, another TSR board maybe, or perhaps a permanent "Restricted Clearance" board.

So I think everything is looking good for Monday morning, I'm guessing we'll see a test train on Sunday.  Anyone going for a ride on 2P11 06:15 Liverpool Lime Street to Preston on Monday, the first passenger train over the new track?  No, me neither!

Literally as I was typing the above, one of the new signalling berths came to life on my diagram (http://charlwoodhouse.co.uk/rail/livesig/3) so it looks like signalling testing is under way.

Huyton and Roby Thursday

At Huyton Junction this afternoon a whole line of road-railers were working on the new line:

and another one was near the station:

Meanwhile, at Roby I could see the new signal is in position and lit:

Does anyone know the number?

Huyton Wednesday

I wasn't intending to do a post every day, but there's so much progress to report!

I visited Huyton this morning to find another new signal erected, on the Up Slow a little east of platform four.  It has a position 4 feather for trains heading to the Chat Moss lines (It's the far one in this picture.)

Frustratingly, the plate with the number on hasn't been applied yet, so I can't update my diagram at http://charlwoodhouse.co.uk/rail/livesig/3.

More importantly, and just about visible in the picture above, the overhead for the fourth line is in place.  To the untrained eye it looks complete - catenary and contact wire, and I couldn't spot any temporary pulleys etc.

I'd forgotten how much more copper-coloured and shiny new overhead is, it was obvious from some distance away that some had been put up, as soon as I could see the line.

Update:  Lo and behold, a few hours after I wrote the above, the signal's plate has been fitted!  LL5580.  Coincidence, or is someone reading this blog?

Huyton Tuesday

Actually, we'll start on Monday evening:  At 19:30 a tamping machine was standing on the Up Fast just east of Huyton station.  By 22:00 it was hard at work on the new Up Slow.

On Tuesday morning the improvement was clearly apparent, with the fourth line nicely fettled into the distance:

As you can see, the orange army were busy tidying up the details.  I could see that the new pointwork at Huyton Junction was apparently complete.  No signs of any overhead yet, but I'm told some wires are up at Roby.

While I was there, a rail-mounted digger arrived from the west: