New Year, New Rail

Thanks to Guy N here are a series of pictures along the extension to recap on what has been achieved in 2018.

The reason for this work was to lower the trackbed under the Shrewsbury Road bridge, aka Gas Works bridge, so that CHR trains can pass underneath.  The bridge was propped by Shropshire County Council after the last stone train ran in order to extend the life of the bridge deck and to cope with the heavier axle loadings that are now allowed on the roads.  Although the ultra long term solution is an uprated bridge deck the pressure on local government funding has allowed us to reach a suitable compromise to enable trains to run through to Weston.  A very big thank you to SCC for their support and cooperation with this project.

So let's take a pictorial walk along the extension so far and look forward to the next phase.  We start at the head of the current running line, the current limit is marked with the Stop board.  Here we are looking south towards the bridge with the footpath alongside on the left

All extensions start with a joint and this is where the fun starts!  The current track is bullhead rail in to through-bolted chairs on wooden sleepers, the first two transition sleepers are in wood and then we move to concrete sleepers for the first bullhead rail section, reusing the existing rails.

The extension has begun! The line from here starts it's gradual descent at a gradient of around 1 in 80 down to the bridge to achieve the necessary clearance of around 18 inches or about 450mm for those reading in colour.

After the used bullhead rail on to concrete sleepers we pass to the new rail, again on concrete sleepers to start.

Here you can see the old and the new, just right for the New Year.  This joint will require specialist action.

Midway along the section we change to steel sleepers, these are over the concrete sewer cap where the ballast depth is limited, this solution allows the falling gradient to continue.

Here we are looking back along the track  towards Oswestry from the change to steel sleepers.  In the centre of the track are the rods indicating the centre line.  String is run between these to assist in placing of the sleepers, final alignment will be carried out before trains can operate over this section.

Looking south again we see the change back to concrete sleepers once passed the sewer and the continuing fall towards the bridge.

 The steel sleepers have 'spade' ends which dig in to the ballast to hold them in position.

At the end of the section of bullhead rail on concrete sleepers we move to flat bottomed rail on new concrete sleepers.  The new rail is seen to the right.  There will be two lengths of flat bottomed rail with a welded joint in the centre of the concrete slab under the bridge.  The flat bottomed rail will be welded to the bull head rail in the foreground.

On the slab the rail will be held in place with special pads which are glued and bolted in position.  This specialist work will be carried out by contractors.

On the far side of the bridge there will be a repeat with the welded flat bottomed rail running on new concrete sleepers until it is joined to the bullhead rail that forms the rest of the extension.  The marks of where to position the chairs are visible in this photo.  Beyond the gentle curve to the left lies the long straight which reaches almost as far as Weston.  Work is already well advanced on this section and further photos will follow.

Looking back from the bridge with this telephoto lens shot shows the slope down to the new level.  As a rough guide the bottom of the sleepers used to be about the level of the concrete platform on the right.

Many thanks to Guy for the pictures.

Until next time.