Network Rail completes North Wembley Junction replacement

Network Rail completed its replacement of North Wembley Junction on time on September 3, in a £7.2 million project which involved the closure of London Euston station for three summer weekends.

The project employed the UK’s largest Kirow crane, with a 125tonne capacity, and involved 15 engineering trains and several tampers. Staff worked for more than 20,000 hours over the three preceding weekends.

Meanwhile, in the Midlands, CrossCountry trains to and from Derby and East Midland Trains services to Nottingham and Crewe resumed on the same day, as the massive station remodelling at Derby reached the halfway stage.

More than 3.7 miles of track has been laid, a simplified track layout introduced, platforms realigned, and new signalling installed.

While some services have resumed, a temporary timetable remains in place for journeys between Derby and Chesterfield and Derby and London. Trains between Birmingham, the North East and Scotland have extended journey times of up to 30 minutes. A revised service also operates between Derby and London, while the Derby-Matlock route is closed with a bus replacement service operating.

The work at Derby is due to be completed on October 8, when the full May 2018 timetable will be introduced.

The Derby remodelling project includes introducing a new island platform (that is already in use), revising the station track layout, and installing new signalling to boost capacity.

September 3 also featured the resumption of midweek services between Preston, Bolton and Manchester, after a nine-day blockade to continue the delayed electrification of the route.

During the August 25-27 Bank Holiday weekend, Network Rail carried out engineering work across the country. At Canley (Coventry), 400 metres of track was renewed, while work continued on a £5m drainage project in Hampton-inArden to cut flooding risk on the Birmingham International-Coventry line.

In the South East, half a mile of track was replaced in the two-mile-long Sevenoaks Tunnel, with completion of the renewals expected by mid-October.

Switches and crossings were replaced at London Victoria station, and the Lewes-Seaford signalling replacement continued. When completed in March, capacity on the route will triple, allowing it to operate as a more useful diversionary route when the Brighton-Haywards Heath route is closed. NR also used a High Output Ballast Cleaner between Shortlands and Swanley.

In East Anglia, 120 metres of track, one set of points, a buffer stop, and 1,200 tons of ballast were replaced at Colchester.

Between Manningtree and Ardleigh on the Great Eastern Main Line, 1.86 miles of track was installed, while between Marks Tey and Colchester five overhead line equipment structures were replaced.

Further work also took place on the Felixstowe branch, as part of the £60.4m project to install a 1.4km freight loop near Trimley station.