Phase One - At Last!

5T91 23:09 Ardwick Traction Maintenance Depot to Wigan North Western has just passed along the phase one route from Castlefield Junction to Lowton Junction, running about 15 minutes early.  This train is booked to be a Class 350 EMU.

I'm hoping someone was out to see it to confirm it was electric, but I think this is probably the trial run we have been waiting for.

Two further runs are booked tonight:
5X90 23:51 Wigan North Western to Manchester Oxford Road
5X91 00:33 Manchester Oxford Road to Preston Carriage Sidings

UPDATE: It has been confirmed that this was a 350.  And here it is at Eccles - Picture courtesy of Network Rail:

An "invited guests" run is scheduled for Thursday daytime.

Phase One Nearly There?

A two page article in December's Modern Railways is highly critical of the work on Phase One, describing it as a débâcle.  They include pictures of missing, loose and disconnected droppers, as I mentioned on my 8th November blog entry.

Modern Railways goes on to say that the latest plan is to open the line to electric traction tomorrow (23 November) with Pendolino test trains scheduled for that day and the 25th.  At the time of typing I can see nothing in the VSTP feed for these.

Other sources report that test coach Mentor ran up and down the line on Wednesday, suggesting things may indeed be ready for this weekend.

Another point made by MR is that Ordsall Lane Junction to Newton-le-Willows has been commissioned as one electrical section because the section switches were not ready in time.  They describe this short cut as a disaster waiting to happen.  Presumably further works will be required to incorporate the switches later.

Update 23 November:
A correspondent reports that this morning at Parkside Junction, temporary earth wires were still present, and "some cables are loosely coiled up over some of the gantries".  Doesn't look promising!

Progress at Roby

I took a stroll down to Roby station to see how they're getting on.  The northern access is now via the "new" subway which is, of course, the original subway re-roofed.

This shot is taken from the down (south) side, with the "new" section in the distance.  Above ground, the old trackbed has been dug out for the full length of the station and is now in use for vehicular access from the work site west of here to locations between Roby and Huyton.

Unfortunately the subway is already leaking, at the join between old brickwork and the new concrete slab.

Meanwhile, on the down platform, the canopy has suddenly gained nine props.  I'm not quite sure what's going on here, the plans do not call for any changes to the canopy.

350/4 Test Trains

An eagle-eyed reader of this blog has spotted the schedules for what we suspect are 350/4 test runs:

5T72 10.40 Crewe Carriage Sidings LNWR to Carnforth Down & Up Goods Loop
5T73 13.03 Carnforth Down & Up Goods Loop to Crewe Carriage Sidings LNWR

The times are different on Mondays and later in November, see realtimetrains.co.uk for details.

Today's runs were cancelled.

UPDATE:  The test trains ran on Thursday and Friday, here's a shot kindly supplied by David Hull of the Friday run at Wigan.

Chorley Complaints

The people of Chorley and nearby locations are realising their services are to be significantly cut when TPEx's Manchester/Scotland trains are diverted via Wigan in December, in preparation for the phasing in of electric units.

A correspondent kindly forwarded a link to a report in the Lancashire Evening Post.

As I understand it, the intention is to return these services to the Chorley route once phase four is completed in 2016.