The Bristol Railway Archive

Popped down this evening to spend ten wet mins at Pilning...

Lots of changes on the horizon by the looks of things....at a guess this BH W/E First up very difficult to park the car for the number of temporary buildings in the car park in addition to the "compound" area.

The yard area that once housed all the tatty containers and Portacabins have all gone, laid to stone, and is currently storing a variety of Road/Rail Excavators and equipment

The remains of (what was left of) the old bay siding sleepers have been ripped out...although the bay itself hasn't been tidied up...



Temporary speed restrictions in place and new rail has been laid both Up and Down.


And the biggest surprise, a huge signal gantry has been installed...





It looks like they are moving the two signals in the distance further away from the tunnel mouth and towards the station. Plenty of additional cabling/trough has also been installed

Looking towards the up loop an area has been cleared adjacent to the newly installed pointwork as well as general vegitation clean up, again laid to stone.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com

This work at Pilning has been going on for a number of weeks now, The land cleared by the up loop is where the new points were built and then moved into position.It also looks as though there is more track to be replaced.

A new signal gantry has appeared the other side of the Severn:

http://www.ben48.fotopic.net/p50640884.html

Wonder if the abandoned platform at STJ is to reopen?

James wrote:Wonder if the abandoned platform at STJ is to reopen?

Looks like it doesn't it? I would've thought it would make a lot of sense to move the junction Newport side of the station and have separate platforms to the up/dn tunnel and up/dn Chepstow lines.

Alex

Thanks for the pics James

Just out of interest, why has a single caution aspect been installed to replace the 3 aspect that was there originally?

[img]http://im]

I would have thought the 3aspect provided a bit more flexibility for the diverging lines?

It does however look like something may be being installed...unless its been installed the wrong way round

Rich_Eason wrote:Just out of interest, why has a single caution aspect been installed to replace the 3 aspect that was there originally?

These new LED signals are capable of displaying all three aspects in one lens/area (whatever they call it). Basically, the new signal can show red/yellow/green just like the old one could.

Alex

I spoke to some locals at STJ and they say there's BIG plans afoot for it. Expansion, big shop/buffet on platform and more lights....fingers crossed eh?

Agency_Scum wrote:I spoke to some locals at STJ and they say there's BIG plans afoot for it. Expansion, big shop/buffet on platform and more lights....fingers crossed eh?

Excellent, that would be fantastic wouldn't it?! A lot of stations could justify and earn extra income from additional facilities... I hope this comes off!

Alex