I posted in another thread, which I can't find now, about the new tramway being laid at the end of our garden on the old Manchester to London main line.
Well, for the first time in about 23 years, railed vehicles have been running there in the form of a motorised JCB/Hiab thing on a rail chassis.
The rails are laid all the way to the terminus about 250 yds from our house. The terminus is just past an overbridge and at that piont, the rails splay out round the foundations of a central platform. I haven't seen plans for the access but I know a lift is being installed so I hazard a guess thet passenger access will be directly from the centre of the bridge down onto the platform, with a stairway as well.
Metrolink have been excellent about keeping residents along the line well informed.
A letter arrived on Friday outlining the next phase, starting yesterday. This is to commence putting in the overhead on our section, giving an idea of the noise involved and the time it will take. Sure enough , the drilling for the traction poles could be heard this morning. I would think they might use an ' electrification ' train pulled by a Class 8 loco......where the wire riggers can work from the tops of special flat roofed coaches.
Noise hasn't really been an issue, some piling has made a racket but it was essential to the work. The only real irritating noise has been that all the big ballast carrying lorries have had reversing bleepers, even though not working in a public area. They've all gone now, though.
I'm looking forward to trying to get on the first tram out !
They seem to be well ahead of schedule, electrics to finish, landscaping and stations to complete. The new depot in Old Trafford is well under way with all the sidings laid out.
Ted
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Went past Old Trafford depot on the tram again today (being careful to stick under 30 down kings Road!) and noticed an office block there is complete now. They are also storing some of the new trams on the sidings.
I must admit I have been very impressed with progress and I can't wait for the new tram. Sadly it seems our new government may pull the plug on the Didsbury extension even though work has already started.
I am surprised they haven't halted the Chorlton extension but thankfully when they came into power 2/3 of the work had already been done.
I am hoping to go up the cycle path sometime this week so I will have a good look at progress at your end then. I really wish the Didsbury extension was built soon though (handy for the pubs!).
It will also be great to get into town without
1) Suffering a half an hour bus ride just to get three miles down the road
2) Driving for ten minutes just to get a tram into town.
3) Walking 15 minutes just to get the tram.
The fact that we got this tram extension just goes to show how well the councils in Greater Manchester work together instead of fighting each other.
My only complaint is this extension should have been ready by 2000 but the various governments kept pulling funding.
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It looks as though the Didsbury extension is safe, Rats. The work has started and the funding is in place. It also runs for almost all it's length through the constituency of a Lib MP.
It's just a great shame that they didn't look ahead and earmark the Fairfield loop from Chorlton Junction, a line crossing all the major routes from the South into the City.
If you're passing, call in for a cuppa. I will need you soon, anyway to do a PC cleanup for me, although I've no major probs. Just call. if I'm out...I won't be in !
Ted
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>> I will need you soon, anyway to do a PC cleanup
Oh dear... I've just read a post by the Sheikh in another thread that says he won't have anything to do with diseased computers whose owners have, harrumph, failed to behave like decent family men...
No doubt you can persuade him Ted. But it may take more than a cup of tea.
:o}
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Hiya Ted, I will call round next time I go down your road (which is fairly often) or when I am next on my bike. I wonder if I ask nicely they will let me arrive by tram?
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>> I'm looking forward to trying to get on the first tram out !
Just wait until they start rattling past your house in the early morning.
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...rattling past your house...
A super modern tram system will not rattle, it will glide. :)
I lived near a tube line in London for a few years.
The trains were no bother, but the regular overnight engineering work made a lot of noise.
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No rattles round here..........well, there is one but that one's acceptable !
We got used to the heavy rail...didn't notice it.
Big block container trains hauled by class 40 diesel...the ' Whistlers '. ......... missed them when they finished.
SWMBO's relative, cousinish, generation older, was a driver. he used to play ' Ilkley Moor baht 'at ' on the hooter as he came past !
Lot of noise this morning, putting supports in for the overhead using a pile-driver.....not a problem though, I've got an opera on, very loud ! soon be done.
Ted
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Have you got any pictures you can post of this at the end of your garden?
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Just plain double track in a very shallow cutting there, BT. I'll take a couple from the bridge where the station is to be tomorrow...much better view.
Ted
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Ted is soo laid back and cool about all this work. Good on him.
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>> all the big ballast carrying lorries have had reversing bleepers, even though not working in a public area
The site workers need to be alerted to the lorries too! The legislation covering reversing bleepers makes no distinction between public/private land, the only restriction is on their use "in a built-up area" between 23.30-07.30 as with vehicle horns.
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I've had a little arguement with some of the kill joys near where Ted lives (but the other side of the railway) who are moaning about the noise the trams will bring. They don't seem to realise it will mean a city centre which is 20-40 minutes away will suddenly be 10 minutes away.
From a selfish point of view I just hope it dosn't reduce the amount of buses too much because I often catch them beyond midnight when the trams won't run.
Ted I will probably pop down tomorrow afternoon to have a look at progress and I will see if you're in then :).
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>> The site workers need to be alerted to the lorries too!
Some states in the US require that SUVs be fitted with audible reverse warnings. It's quite bizarre to hear a computerised voice saying "Warning Reversing" over and over again in a Safeways carpark and realise it's coming from a Ford Ranger or something similar.
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It's bizarre to be parked in the NHS Stores at Bridgend Hospital on a bay, and see all their rigid vehicles return to base.
The reversing bleepers warn you they are reversing...........in Welsh:)
How PC is that, and how much warning does it provide to anyone who doesn't speak Welsh?
I happened to mention this in conversation to the Goods In bloke who was tipping me ( he was about 94yrs old and since retired!).
He went doolally:) It all hinged on the fact that he was Welsh, while I insisted he was British.:)
I didn't think I'd be allowed back there again!
Pat
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Not sure if that is legal or not. It would be a bit like a council using an urdu speaking reverser in parts of Stoke on Trent. It would not go down well!
I've noticed the Welsh language is spoken more and more in Wales these days. Its no bad things as longs as things don't get silly.
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The revival of Welsh and Gaelic are both good things. Both languages enjoy some legal protection and have a different status to the courtesy of providing forms etc in foreign languages.
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But there is a time and a place for it. There is no point on having a safety message in a lanaguage probably spoken by no more than 1.5 million people if there is no English alternative.
Interestly however there is no official langauge in the UK or even in English. Most countries have a law stating all official documments must be in one langauge but in the UK there is no legal requirement to speak English as the official langauge. This is changing however with some of the new immigration policies coming in. No doubt sooner or later the Welsh assembly will introduce you can't live here without speaking Welsh policy! Thankfully that would be ilegal under EU laws :).
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>> The revival of Welsh and Gaelic are both good things.
why?
If they wish to be a different country with a different language, then they can be declared independant, and all central state aid from westminster cut off.
I dont see why my taxes should pay extra costs for people who dont want to be part of the whole.
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Here, at BigTee's request is the picture from our bridge looking towards the City.
tinyurl.com/33djq4w
The ramp leads down from the bridge to the Sustrans cycle trail.
Cams Toweres is on the right about 200 yds up behind the big trees.
Ted
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Tried to post both pics but messed up.
This is the present terminus on the other side of the bridge.
s479.photobucket.com/albums/rr152/1400ted/?action=view¤t=metro001.jpg
The cycle trail goes off to the left on the old Great Central Ry trackbed.
A lift and staircase are being built off camera to the left.
Ted
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I thought we were talking about trams here. That looks like a railway to me.
Sorry if I'm being thick, but I thought trams were things that ran on sunken, slippery-when-wet, bicycle-wheel-trapping rails in the road so they could get in the way of cars?
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>> I thought we were talking about trams here. That looks like a railway to me.
>>
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>> Sorry if I'm being thick, but I thought trams were things that ran on sunken,
>> slippery-when-wet, bicycle-wheel-trapping rails in the road so they could get in the way of cars?
You are being thick
A tram is a light railway. Even when sunken slippery rails are installed in roads.
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Re: "themed" speaking reverse sounders - perhaps delivery vehicles in rougher areas could be programmed to yell "Oi! Gerrouta the ****ing way!" :-)
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Thu 10 Jun 10 at 18:30
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Plenty of light railways were called tramways in the past, Armel.
Wisbech and Upwell....Swansea and Mumbles, etc.
Just normal track, only filled in when in urban areas. Other, ' filled in ' tracks were never tramways, yet ran in the street, eg, Weymouth Quay, where full sized heavy rail ran.
Ted
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And the Millwall railway into the docks.
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The trams do run on the street when they hit the city centre anyway. They also run on the streets in Eccles.
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Is this the same gauge the railways use? i think it is we are supposed to be getting some from Sheffield to Huddersfield and Northern rail is playing the part in testing them i may end up fixing these too...................
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Its standard gauage. The Metrolink system (which this thread is about) came about because there was too instandard railways which needed modernising.
Altrincham to Manchester and Manchester to Bury.
Manchester also has two very large stations Victoria and Picciddily these were not linked by railway and the topology of Manchester city centre made it impossible to do so. The original idea was to build an unground network to link the two stations but that was too expensive as the city centre is already full of secret tunnels.
The solution was to build an onstreet tram system. At the same time it was decided that the Altrincham and Bury lines would be converted to light railway hence the Metrolink was born. A quirk in the Metrolink tram is the doors are at standard platform height. This is because they use the old railway lines.
The tram system being built in Chorlton (where the Photos Ted has taken are) is just an extension of the current system. The platforms will be standard platform height as a legacy of the fact the Altrincham and Bury lines were simply ex BR lines.
The Oldham line is also currently being converted to Metrolink use.
This is a picture of one of the new trams running on street
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/No_3001_Manchester_Metrolink_tram.jpg/330px-No_3001_Manchester_Metrolink_tram.jpg
And one of the old trams
www.edwud.com/photos/metrolink_saint_peters_square.jpg
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Thu 10 Jun 10 at 21:07
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The first generation of trams were the same as the blueish one in Ratto's picture except they sport a huge, great, big, massive buckeye coupler at each end enabling them to A) Run in tandem with another set. B) Spear any cars which get in their way.
I was on a tram which neatly speared a Renault 21 at St Peter's Square. We were offered the option of getting off at the scene or staying on until the vehicles were parted. I, and a couple of other guys jumped off...a drop of about 3 ft and helped others to dismount. I remember one old dear didn't want to risk it and decided to stay on.
The key danger point should be at the crossing of Fountain Street and Market Street where buses, taxis, pedestrians, private cars and trams all mix it together. Strangely, that spot doesn't seem to generate any collisions !
Ted
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Tram update. - RattleandSmoke
