Crossrail
There's been too much Steel on this forum, time for some concrete.
A project that's taken us by surprise and something we've been working on for, quite honestly, not as long as we expected. Never the less, since summer ended, it's gotten cold and we began to go under ground taking cover. Eventually the system kept on giving and soon enough it engulfed everything we did and became the only thing we did for about a month or so, running tunnels, climbing shafts and getting “lost” looking for the toilets to infiltrate a fresh underground that'll be readily avaliable to you in 2/3 years time for the cheap price of £15 billion.
This whole thing was mainly a group thing with Monkey, Anorak and Adders, Adders having now completed the whole thing and no doubt will provide some better pictures than my own. :P
Also explored with Gabe, MR, Boomstick84, Seffy, Suboffender, Whodareswins, Elliot, Oakley and Stewie to name a few as well as a few non members.
"What's Crossrail then?"
To be fair that's a question I've had to answer a lot more than I expected I'd need to, Turns out new tubes and trains really aren't that interesting to the every day person... So here's a little slice of knowledge to get you in the know if you're unaware.
Crossrail is a 118-kilometre (73-mile) railway line under construction in London and its environs. It is expected to begin full operation in 2019 with a new east-west route across Greater London. Work began in 2009 on the central section of the line—a new tunnel through central London—and connections to existing lines that will become part of Crossrail. It is one of Europe's largest railway and infrastructure construction projects.
Crossrail's aim is to provide a high-frequency commuter/suburban passenger service that will link parts of Berkshire andBuckinghamshire, via central London, to Essex and South East London. The new line will relieve the pressure on severalLondon Underground lines such as the Central and District lines which are the current main east-west passenger routes, and the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line. The need for extra capacity along this corridor is such that the former Transport for London boss, Sir Peter Hendy, has predicted that Crossrail lines will be "immediately full" as soon as they open.
The project's main feature is 21 km (13 mi) of new twin-tunnels. The main tunnels will run from near Paddington to Stratford via central London and Liverpool Street. An almost entirely new line will branch from the main line at Whitechapel To Canary Wharf, crossing the River Thames, with a new station at Woolwich and connecting with the North Kent Line at Abbey Wood.
Services will run on 136 km (85 mi) of line, from Reading (63 km [39 mi] to the west of London) to Shenfield (to the north east) and Abbey Wood (to the south east). They will share parts of existing lines with existing services, mainly parts of theGreat Western Main Line in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and London (between Reading and Paddington) and the Great Eastern Main Line in London and Essex (between Stratford and Shenfield). Nine-carriage trains will run at frequencies of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction through the central section.
More information on their website (www.crossrail.co.uk/) and (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossrail)
Pictures
Ok, I've split the system into 19 seperate parts, this includes vent shafts, works shafts, stations, a yard and the portals. Starting from West and going East covering the Northern fork to Mile end and Pudding Mill Lane first, and the Southern fork to Woolwich and Plumstead Second.
I haven't got any of Paddington... I know, incomplete, I'll do it at some point. :S For now this is most of the rest of the system and tunnels, Ill add that at a later date! I'm kind of getting bored coming home feeling like I'm made of concrete.
My pics aren't great as usual.this was all previous to getting a tripod and they aren't as good or complete as Adders', Anorak's or Monkey's pictures but I'm not fussed.
Hope you enjoy either way!
Royal Oak Portal
Royal Oak was one of the last portals we did as it was so far West and no one really likes that side so much. However what was weird about this section was that the tunnels didn't have any lights which created a more interesting visit than the standard ones we had seen in the East. Plus it also had a Multi-Purpose Gantry (MPG) which was parked up alongside a narrow mini flat bad vehicle 5 minutes up the tracks which was pretty cool. When In use, they have red eyes, looks like some kind of weird mechanical spider running down the tunnels.
Bond Street Station
Bond St was mainly avoided initially as we'd assume it was going to be far to busy to even attempt. How wrong we were... One of the easier sites despite how busy we assumed it would be. Apparently they have to drive MandS delivery lorries through the site. After a week or so we attempted to return with a few others and walk to the western ticket hall but that proved to be unsucessful as they'd begun building a tower and miraculously within that time had build around 60ft of concrete core on the Eastern side. Our trip took us to the tunnels, platform caverns and the eastern ticket hall with connecting tunnels.
Tottenham Court Road Station
Tottenaham was another surprise and so much fun, we got to this from Fisher St and here was the only other time we'd seen lights in the tunnels turned off. We'd reached the platforms and took some time to listen out for anyone working overtime, thankfully all seemed clear so we took a look around. Other than Liverpool St these are the only 2 stations with a connecting tunnel inbetween platforms that goes all the way through alongside the platforms. It was so clean in thi station that it put most of what had already seen to shame. After a while I'd walked onto one of the platforms an MR noticed the most oddly placed cameras I've seen in the system and after hearing some faint noises we decided it was time to return to the shaft.
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Fisher Street Shaft
Oringinaly just somwhere to take MR down, we ended up running the tunnels to TCR but not beore seeing some of the nicest caverns yet. This shaft also houses a neat little crossover a few meters East. Unfortunately a worker was inure here after some of the concrete fell and he later died at hospital. At present the site is left clean awaiting the next phase.
Farringdon Station
Adders had managed a look here undesrupted. Pretty soon after we got inside too. Farringdon will bridge Barbican and Farringdon stations with it's immense 250m long platforms. It's a big project and this station saw the last TBM exit the ground in October last year.
Liverpool Street Station
We managed to get a close look at an escalator excavator that's here, if you don't know, it's blades, rails and emense machinery rolled into one epic looking thing. It goes uphill attached to 2 overhead rails and with an extending arm cuts away whilst the drive sits a few meters behind in a cage. What does GTA stand for? The station is very big and probably one of my favourites, even the shafts looked good! Especially Finsbury, but that was always going to be nice.
There's been too much Steel on this forum, time for some concrete.
A project that's taken us by surprise and something we've been working on for, quite honestly, not as long as we expected. Never the less, since summer ended, it's gotten cold and we began to go under ground taking cover. Eventually the system kept on giving and soon enough it engulfed everything we did and became the only thing we did for about a month or so, running tunnels, climbing shafts and getting “lost” looking for the toilets to infiltrate a fresh underground that'll be readily avaliable to you in 2/3 years time for the cheap price of £15 billion.
This whole thing was mainly a group thing with Monkey, Anorak and Adders, Adders having now completed the whole thing and no doubt will provide some better pictures than my own. :P
Also explored with Gabe, MR, Boomstick84, Seffy, Suboffender, Whodareswins, Elliot, Oakley and Stewie to name a few as well as a few non members.
"What's Crossrail then?"
To be fair that's a question I've had to answer a lot more than I expected I'd need to, Turns out new tubes and trains really aren't that interesting to the every day person... So here's a little slice of knowledge to get you in the know if you're unaware.
Crossrail is a 118-kilometre (73-mile) railway line under construction in London and its environs. It is expected to begin full operation in 2019 with a new east-west route across Greater London. Work began in 2009 on the central section of the line—a new tunnel through central London—and connections to existing lines that will become part of Crossrail. It is one of Europe's largest railway and infrastructure construction projects.
Crossrail's aim is to provide a high-frequency commuter/suburban passenger service that will link parts of Berkshire andBuckinghamshire, via central London, to Essex and South East London. The new line will relieve the pressure on severalLondon Underground lines such as the Central and District lines which are the current main east-west passenger routes, and the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line. The need for extra capacity along this corridor is such that the former Transport for London boss, Sir Peter Hendy, has predicted that Crossrail lines will be "immediately full" as soon as they open.
The project's main feature is 21 km (13 mi) of new twin-tunnels. The main tunnels will run from near Paddington to Stratford via central London and Liverpool Street. An almost entirely new line will branch from the main line at Whitechapel To Canary Wharf, crossing the River Thames, with a new station at Woolwich and connecting with the North Kent Line at Abbey Wood.
Services will run on 136 km (85 mi) of line, from Reading (63 km [39 mi] to the west of London) to Shenfield (to the north east) and Abbey Wood (to the south east). They will share parts of existing lines with existing services, mainly parts of theGreat Western Main Line in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and London (between Reading and Paddington) and the Great Eastern Main Line in London and Essex (between Stratford and Shenfield). Nine-carriage trains will run at frequencies of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction through the central section.
More information on their website (www.crossrail.co.uk/) and (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossrail)
Pictures
Ok, I've split the system into 19 seperate parts, this includes vent shafts, works shafts, stations, a yard and the portals. Starting from West and going East covering the Northern fork to Mile end and Pudding Mill Lane first, and the Southern fork to Woolwich and Plumstead Second.
I haven't got any of Paddington... I know, incomplete, I'll do it at some point. :S For now this is most of the rest of the system and tunnels, Ill add that at a later date! I'm kind of getting bored coming home feeling like I'm made of concrete.
My pics aren't great as usual.this was all previous to getting a tripod and they aren't as good or complete as Adders', Anorak's or Monkey's pictures but I'm not fussed.
Hope you enjoy either way!Royal Oak Portal
Royal Oak was one of the last portals we did as it was so far West and no one really likes that side so much. However what was weird about this section was that the tunnels didn't have any lights which created a more interesting visit than the standard ones we had seen in the East. Plus it also had a Multi-Purpose Gantry (MPG) which was parked up alongside a narrow mini flat bad vehicle 5 minutes up the tracks which was pretty cool. When In use, they have red eyes, looks like some kind of weird mechanical spider running down the tunnels.
Bond Street Station
Bond St was mainly avoided initially as we'd assume it was going to be far to busy to even attempt. How wrong we were... One of the easier sites despite how busy we assumed it would be. Apparently they have to drive MandS delivery lorries through the site. After a week or so we attempted to return with a few others and walk to the western ticket hall but that proved to be unsucessful as they'd begun building a tower and miraculously within that time had build around 60ft of concrete core on the Eastern side. Our trip took us to the tunnels, platform caverns and the eastern ticket hall with connecting tunnels.
Tottenham Court Road Station
Tottenaham was another surprise and so much fun, we got to this from Fisher St and here was the only other time we'd seen lights in the tunnels turned off. We'd reached the platforms and took some time to listen out for anyone working overtime, thankfully all seemed clear so we took a look around. Other than Liverpool St these are the only 2 stations with a connecting tunnel inbetween platforms that goes all the way through alongside the platforms. It was so clean in thi station that it put most of what had already seen to shame. After a while I'd walked onto one of the platforms an MR noticed the most oddly placed cameras I've seen in the system and after hearing some faint noises we decided it was time to return to the shaft.
Fisher Street Shaft
Oringinaly just somwhere to take MR down, we ended up running the tunnels to TCR but not beore seeing some of the nicest caverns yet. This shaft also houses a neat little crossover a few meters East. Unfortunately a worker was inure here after some of the concrete fell and he later died at hospital. At present the site is left clean awaiting the next phase.
Farringdon Station
Adders had managed a look here undesrupted. Pretty soon after we got inside too. Farringdon will bridge Barbican and Farringdon stations with it's immense 250m long platforms. It's a big project and this station saw the last TBM exit the ground in October last year.
Liverpool Street Station
We managed to get a close look at an escalator excavator that's here, if you don't know, it's blades, rails and emense machinery rolled into one epic looking thing. It goes uphill attached to 2 overhead rails and with an extending arm cuts away whilst the drive sits a few meters behind in a cage. What does GTA stand for? The station is very big and probably one of my favourites, even the shafts looked good! Especially Finsbury, but that was always going to be nice.
