Nearly ready

With the station needing to reopen for trains on Monday (when all trains will run to Newmarket: passengers for Sylvia Park will need to transfer), work is wrapping up on the Platform 2 rebuild, with track receiving ballast and being tamped, as well as finishing touches being made on the platform, such as tactile strips. While visiting the station today I met the project manager, who told me some interesting facts about the project:

• The upgrade is ahead of schedule. The new shelter on Platform 1/2 was not due to be built until after Christmas, but this was started before any Christmas shutdowns. The formation work on Platform 1 was also supposed to begin this coming Monday, but has already commenced.
• The track approaching Platform 2 is temporary: from both sides, the track from each bridge (roughly; Clevedon Road from the north, Onslow Road from the south) to roughly the platform edge is not the final layout. The track is laid out like this to prevent single track bottlenecks on each side while the track is being used as a mainline, instead of a siding connected at both ends (or "loop" in railway terminology).
• The tamper in this post got there on a temporary track overnight: a short section of track was slewed temporarily, the tamer brought onto the new platform track and the temporary track removed again. Lifting it between tracks would have required recalibration, and the method used was the simplest.
• All going well, formation work on Platform 1 will wrap up in February and the two new mainlines commissioned by Easter (Good Friday is on 29 March this year), where the upgrade will then be finished.
• Platform 3's rebuild was, according to him, 75% of the project, the "hard work" part of it. The upcoming mainline laying is the "relaxing" stage of the project.

 The station is now starting to take on its final form, with the platforms nearly complete and only the two new mainlines missing.

Overview of the platform approach tracks from Clevedon Road. The track from the end of the points to Platform 2 is temporary

Closeup of the platforms. It's clear where the longer platform used to be. The Platform 2 track will eventually be connected to the points visible at the bottom

The same view as above from the station footbridge

The temporary track in this view is more or less colour coded: the track with darker ballast is temporary

At the north end, not much has changed with the approach: this is more or less final

Overview from Onslow Road

Closeup view of the platforms, with the tamper at work

Although Platform 2 is near finished, Platform 1 has barely been started, although this won't be used come Monday (not until Easter)

Working on the formation and drainage

With great excavations come great piles of dirt

A tamper waiting to tamp the tracks

First, a hi-rail digger scrapes off the excess ballast

The ballast regulator makes several passes over the track to even out the ballast. Note the difference in front of and behind the regulator. (The track needs to look like the track at the bottom of the photo)

A ballast train waits in the backshunt: presumably this train is empty and is just waiting to return to the yard

In the coming months the project will be wrapped up and the station finished, and of course we will keep you updated.