Modern Railways – April 2019

http://www.modern-railways.com April 2019 Modern Railways 65

away for reuse in sidings in the Portsmouth area.

Colas’s Kirow 1200 crane was used for the heavy

lifting, with another Kirow being put on standby

at Tonbridge for the duration of the project in

light of the time-sensitive critical nature of this

section of the job. Speed limits here are 70mph

on the slows and 90mph on the fasts and the aim

was to hand back the fasts at the full linespeed.

While the Colas team was beavering away on

the track replacement, staff from Dyer & Butler

were working on Balcombe Tunnel. This is one of

the longest tunnels on the route and the Victorian

brick culvert drainage system had suffered from a

build-up of silt and other debris, along with some

brickwork degradation. As a result, flooding after

rainfall was damaging the signalling and power

supply system and some action was necessary.

Meanwhile, advantage was taken of the blockade

at Balcombe station to renew the footbridge dating

from the 1970s, which was in poor condition.

As at other stations in the blockade area, general

repairs and repainting were undertaken and the

driver-only operation mirrors removed. Modern

stock on the Victoria and Thameslink routes

has on-board cameras to allow the driver to

monitor door operation on screens in the cab;

the mirrors on the platforms are redundant.

OTHER STRUCTURES

Haywards Heath Tunnel is another one that was

suffering from poor drainage, with work needed

to improve drains in the tunnel. Once the water

was out of the tunnel the problem was not over

as this area of Wealden clay has notoriously poor

drainage and water from the tunnel, coupled

with runoff from neighbouring agricultural fields,

was flooding the trackbed. The solution was

to sink a drainage shaft south of the tunnel.

In Clayton Tunnel, ground water pressure was

causing water to seep through the brickwork

and damaging mortar joints, increasing the

chance of material falling out of the tunnel

lining and potentially damaging trains and

delaying services. In the blockade patch repairs

of brickwork were undertaken and 650 yards of

track were renewed. 1,400 yards of cable were

secured and 1,000 yards of scrap rail cleared.

One of the most iconic structures on the

Brighton main line is the majestic 1848-built

Ouse Valley viaduct. Here, the parapet has been

repaired, conductor rail renewed, the ballast

cleaned and the drainage refurbished.

SIGNALLING

The largest chunk of money spent in the blockade

went on upgrading signalling between Haywards

Heath and Preston Park. The signalling control and

power system was last renewed in 1982 and had

an increasingly-onerous maintenance requirement.

Fibre optics have been installed to replace copper

signalling wires and light-emitting diode signals

have superseded old-fashioned filament signal

heads. Track circuits have been renewed.

This stretch of track is controlled from the

Area Signalling Centre at Three Bridges. The ASC

does not currently have the benefit of Automatic

Route Setting, but Network Rail plans to have

this installed by March 2020. At some point in

the future the ASC’s area will migrate into Three

Bridges Rail Operating Centre, which already

controls the Thameslink route from Anerley to

Kentish Town through the central London core.

OTHER WORK

Thousands of metres of conductor rail dating

from the Southern Railway’s original electrification

in the 1930s were replaced at Folly Hill during

the blockade. Conductor rail was also renewed

at Burgess Hill station, while at Preston Park, the

defective bearers on a set of points were renewed.

Work was also undertaken on the branch to

Lewes through Plumpton, with signal heads

converted and general maintenance undertaken.

Thanking passengers for putting up with the

disruption of the blockade, John Halsall, Network

Rail South East’s managing director, said: ‘We’ve

been able to complete major work to the ageing

infrastructure which has caused so many delays

in the past, as well as repairs in the Victorian-era

tunnels which were prone to flooding. All of this

means we can provide a more reliable service.’ a

BIGGEST BUS REPLACEMENT OPERATION EVER

The railway authorities took no chances when

providing alternative options for travel on the

Brighton main line during the February blockade.

The car park at Three Bridges was commandeered

as a bus station, with marquees as shelter and an

extensive queuing system put in place. From here,

what is billed as the country’s biggest-ever bus

replacement operation (with 536 drivers and over

240 vehicles on weekdays) was scheduled to serve

intermediate stations to the south. As it was

half-term week, many buses normally employed

on school runs were available for this operation.

Brighton and Hove passengers, meanwhile,

could reach London by train on services diverted

via the Arun Valley line. This option came with

quite a time penalty – 2hr 15min journey time as

opposed to an hour normally – but did avoid the

inconvenience of using buses. Coffee vouchers

were handed out to users of this service to sugar

the pill.

Network Rail fettled up the Arun Valley line

before the blockade in an effort to keep everything

running as smoothly as possible, with a drive to

eliminate wet beds on the route and an additional

chainsaw gang stationed at Arundel 24/7 ready to

deal with any vegetation issues.

As an additional measure for season ticket

holders, 2,800 car park spaces were booked in

the long-term car park at Gatwick (which had the

capacity as February is a quiet time for flying), with

a fleet of 12 bendy buses shuttling rail passengers

to an entrance to platform 7 on Gatwick station. As

the Gatwick Express started from the airport during

the blockade, finding a seat was easier than in

normal operation (when some services arrive from

the coast already well-loaded).

But the biggest triumph of all was the

pre-blockade publicity campaign, fronted by an

eye-catching Sammy the Seagull figure in hi-vis kit.

‘Pre-blockade awareness was very high: surveys

in January showed 84% of the passengers asked

were aware of our activity’ reports Andrew Wood

of Network Rail’s 3B2B project team. This resulted in

a big fall in travel, down 67% for the week against

the expected 25%. Thus much of the alternative

provision did not turn out to be needed, with the

queuing systems thankfully standing idle most of

the time.

Vaulting the valley: a Class 700 crosses the impressive

Ouse Valley viaduct on 23 August 2016. The conductor

rail on the viaduct has been replaced. John Vaughan

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