Isn't the second week Royal Melbourne Show?

Interesting the first one (Oct 2013) is the week after the school holidays finish for Term 3/4...

You'd think they'd have it in the second week of holidays like they did this break?

Wolfpac

that date may be a typing error, lets see if it changes

Oh yeah, of course the RMS is the second week... Duh! (Hopefully it's better weather this year!)

I suppose it makes sense to have it after the Show finishes, then. Although would that make getting all those buses harder seeing as they'll be used for school kids again?

Will be interesting to see if it does float around as we get closer to the date.

Wolfpac

An update of the work as at today...

Franklin St. Over half of the deck of the eastwards extension of the Dudley St underbridge has been completed, including the parapet. There is a long section (over the dual carriage way?) completed at the southern end, a short section that has not been constructed, and then a second section completed.

North Melbourne. The new parapet on the flyover has been about 60% completed. It is NOT complete over the Through Suburban lines and a portion of the East Suburban lines. The last remnant of the Creek Sidings and the Outside Goods lines has been lifted back to Points 139.

South Kensington. The new RRL lines are now commissioned for training (I saw a couple of N class on the lines in the last week of the school holidays). The in-service portion extends from the ramp up to Spion Kop, past the double crossovers to the Williamstown line, to a dead end where construction has ceased. The points at the end of the double line have been temporarily fitted with a CCW lever. These lines have been properly ballasted etc. The future West Tower Line still stops around the foot of the ramp to Spion Kop. A crossover has been provided for the future line round the back of the Down South Kensington platform, but it doesn't lead anywhere. The former South Kensington signalbox has been demolished down to the concrete slab. It appears the formation of the future line(s) behind the platform is nearly completed.

The embankment leading up to the viaduct starting at Kensington Road is about 2/3rds of its finished height (the RRL lines will be about 1.5 metres above the existing lines here). The retaining wall on the southern side appears to be complete. Work is continuing on the viaduct. The parapet walls on the first section (about 2 - 3 spans) have been cast. Then there is a break of one or two spans. From there until the east bank of the river the spans for the future Up track have been placed. The construction trusses to erect the spans for the Down track have been erected. None of the actual river spans have been started. A further one or two spans have been erected on the western bank of the river, and their parapet are being cast.

The embankment rising from the western end of the bridge to the flyover has only just been started, and the retaining walls are being constructed. The flyover itself is almost finished, with the spans in place and work progressing on the parapets. The short western embankment which takes the tracks from the flyover to the current Williamstown line tracks needs about 1.5 metres of fill.

Work is progressing on constructing the deviation for the Williamstown lines (which will pass under the flyover). The new Up track has been laid from near Hopkins St all the way through the flyover to near where the deviation will end. Construction is just beginning on the new Down track - construction work is from the Hopkins St end. Curiously, although the track is still being constructed, the overhead over the deviation appears to be complete. Only two signals have been erected - both at the Hopkins St end, and only one has heads on it (and an identification plate).

The northern extension of the Hopkins St bridge (for the slued electrified lines) has been holed through, although it is not clear from the train whether the full width of the deck for road traffic is available. A significant amount of spoil needs to be dug out under the bridge.

The new station building (or substation??) at Footscray is being erected. The deck for the extension of the footbridge over the new lines has been provided, together with the stairs down to the existing northernmost platform.

The retaining walls for the goods lines have been altered to become the abutments of the new, wider, four track underbridge. The deck of this bridge has not been completed. The cutting to Nicholson St has been largely widened (on the southern side) with new shotcrete walls. Nicholson St overbridge was still standing. No excavation has been started to widen the cutting between Nicholson St and Albert St, but a pile driver(?) was on the top of the cutting. The remaining abutment of the old Albert St bridge has been removed and the formation has been completed.

The bridge over Victoria St at Middle Footscray is complete, including parapet. The formation on the eastern side has only just been started, but that on the western side adjacent to the Middle Footscray platforms has been completed. About half of Buckley St (on the south side of the line) has been fenced off between Margaret St to past Geelong Rd. A start has been made at the eastern end to dig up the road surface.

West Footscray station is intact, including the signalbox, however, a new temporary ramp has been provided from the footbridge to the Down platform.

The new West Footscray station is taking shape. All the spans for the new footbridge/concourse across the tracks have been erected, and work is progressing on the framing of the station building on the concourse. About 2/3rds of the southern ramp has been erected. The joists to support the new island platform have been erected adjacent to the ramp. Most (or all?) of the stanchions for the new platform verandah have been erected - it appears that the platform will be nearly completely covered.

West of West Footscray, new overhead portals have been erected for about 500 metres (the old portals would have been in the way) and it appears the formation is largely complete (it's hard to tell as this section was once goods sidings and so probably needs little preparation for the new tracks). There seems little change beyond to near Tottenham, so there is probably more formation work to do in this section.

A new substation is being erected next to Sunshine Rd near the eastern end of Tottenham platforms. The shell of the building appears to be complete and fitting out seems to be in progress. The eastern embankment to the Ashley St underbridge is only partially complete. Currently two sections are partially complete, with a missing section between them. It would appear that the embankment for the new lines will not follow the levels of the existing electrified lines, but will start closer to Ashley St roughly where the new substation is being built.

The Ashley St bridge appears to be complete, but the deck over the pedestrian subway providing access to Tottenham has not been started.

The western embankment from Ashley St is complete and follows the levels of the electrified lines. The top is pretty muddy, and its not clear if the formation has been completed or if this is to be added.

The embankment terminates near the existing substation (to be replaced by the new one being built at Tottenham). Little or no work has been done in the vicinity of the substation (surprise), and probably won't be until the new substation is commissioned.

From the substation the formation is essentially complete all the way into Sunshine, with the exception of work being done in the vicinity of the eastern leg of the ARTC triangle. New overhead portals have been provided in parts of this section to replace the existing portals.

Track has been laid from near the Stony Ck bridge to the bridge near Sunshine. This includes a double track crossover from the electrified lines to the new lines. No changes have been made to the existing connections to the Newport Loop line at the Up end of Sunshine, but excavation is being undertaken on the western side of these connections.

Like West Footscray, the new concourse/footbridge at Sunshine has been erected. It appears that the framing for the station building has also been erected and work is starting on the cladding.

From a far and quick sighting down the Ballarat line as the train passed, it appears the deck and parapets of the new road bridge at Anderson St on the Ballarat line has been completed. This is at ground level, and the cutting for the train lines has not yet been completed. The cutting will be on the north side of the existing single line.

The formation of the new lines just north of Sunshine appears to be complete. (I wonder if the wooden footbridge will stay?) However, further north it appears that significant drainage work is still being undertaken. At the second Anderson St grade separation (road under rail this time) little appeared to have changed since my last visit. The standard gauge has been slued over a new bridge. The abutments for the broad gauge line might have been completed, but there doesn't seen to be any sign of the new decks.

No work seems to have been done on the future junctions near Albion.

No work seems to have been done on the future junctions near Albion.

I expect that such works will be completed once the grade separation of the Bendigo line level crossing is finished.

I expect that such works will be completed once the grade separation of the Bendigo line level crossing is finished.

On the Bendigo leg the  RRL  track pair junctions with the  existing Metro track pair in the vicinity of Anderson Road rail over road grade separation, not at Albion .
Crazy penny pinching when the RRL track pair could just have easily continued within the existing reservation and junctioned with the Metro lines just on the Up side of  Ginifer .

Unfortunately, I believe the wooden pedestrian overpass at Sunshine will be torn down. I suppose it needs to be, it's VERY rickety, especially when you have people walking over and an N class on the SG blasting past!

I haven't had a chance to get out to Anderson Rd as yet to have a look, it was too dark the last time I was there, and there was a divvy van right in front of me, so probably not in my best interests to try and get too close to the construction (during the school holidays).

Wolfpac

For something completely different, I searched for this question to no avail. With regards to the RRL at Dudley Street, does anyone know why there was a spare bridge abutment next to Bombardier on the south side, but no corresponding one opposite next to Festival Hall hence requiring construction of one? And I note on Vicsig's Twitter that construction there is closer to completion.

That single track abutment adjacent to CMD on the Southern side was built around the time that the current CMD was built in the early 1980's.  That was the VicRail era where the Railways had some foresight and vision and were not ruled by number crunchers .

No doubt the single track abutment was built with a future view to having the sg line mainline come into Spencer Street independently off the North Melbourne flyover . Thus doing away with the gauntlet track over the Up East Suburban line and removing the conflicting move between all sg movements and Suburban trains on the Up East Suburban line .  

In the Sydney only sg era there were 42 sg pass movements per week, which decreased to 28 when the XPT's replaced the loco hauled Sydneys in the late 1980's .  Then in 1995 with sg Adelaide the total settled down to 34 a week.  When VLP Albury went to sg a few years ago the the total per week increased to 76 now down to 74 per week (with midweek cancellation of Overdue trips).

As such the number of sg movements has only really become an issue since Albury went sg .  So in conjunction with the RRL project the opportunity has been taken to dual gauge both tracks on the North Melbourne flyover and build new double track dg spans over Dudley Street next to Fistfull Hall so as to completely separate the sg and VLP movements from/to RRL from Metro trains.

Buses replace trains on Werribee, Williamstown and Geelong lines this weekend 9-11 August. I'm predicting that we'll be running on the newly laid line under the flyover at the Heavenly Queen temple on Monday 12 August.

Buses replace trains on Werribee, Williamstown and Geelong lines this weekend 9-11 August. I'm predicting that we'll be running on the newly laid line under the flyover at the Heavenly Queen temple on Monday 12 August.

That's the plan, running over the new section as from Monday the 12th.

Making a general observation here...

I've been following the digging of the rail underpass at the Anderson's Road crossing on the Ballarat line which seems to have ceased excavating any deeper than it is now.

It would appear at this time it would be impossible to get a double stacked container train through should that ever be desired.

Note: some 'pagers may remember that during the construction of the RFR project in 2004/05 all new over bridges had to be constructed to allow enough clearance for a double stacked container train to pass underneath.

Mike.

Making a general observation here...

I've been following the digging of the rail underpass at the Anderson's Road crossing on the Ballarat line which seems to have ceased excavating any deeper than it is now.

It would appear at this time it would be impossible to get a double stacked container train through should that ever be desired.

Note: some 'pagers may remember that during the construction of the RFR project in 2004/05 all new over bridges had to be constructed to allow enough clearance for a double stacked container train to pass underneath.

Mike.

I don't think it's even deep enough to get a VLo under it yet, so I'm pretty sure excavation will be continuing.

A lot of works going on yesterday as I went past on a Vlo, a few tracked construction vehicles working away in the trench, breaking up the rock etc. I'll post some photos soon of what I saw when going past soon.

Plenty of fluro orange "train repellent" clad workers line side between Deer Park West and Footscray. Plus the works going on for the road extension out to Boral over the Ballarat line.

A few rail infrastructure units on the new tracks under the RRL overpass between Footscray and South Kensington, too.

Hopefully there's been provisions made for access to a station there... Might make for a good spot to photograph from, on the new bridge being constructed too. (Mind the trucks hammering past, I'm sure!)

Wolfpac

An update from my observations today:

Platforms, ramps, stairs etc. appear to be in place at West Footscray station. The RRL flyover near South Kensington is well underway, as is Footscray Station. Bridge works near Tottenham appear to be nearing completion.

Did not take note of anything else.

Bump. Just another update from my observations from travelling on the Sunbury line today:

Track has been laid between South Kensington and city (including the area behind South Kensington Station), on the RRL flyover near Footscray, and for a few hundred metres south of Sunshine. Much of the remainder of the reserve appears ready or nearly ready for track laying. Areas still not ready are:

• West Footscray, Footscray & Sunshine station sites
• The area between the RRL flyover and the Maribyrnong River rail bridge
• Tottenham substation
• A small area near a signal (not sure which one).

Footscray Station is well underway, with the exterior of the new Platform 1 building appearing almost complete. The pit for the new platforms 1 and 2 has also been dug.

Excavation has started on the south side of the Anderson Rd level crossing with the Bendigo line.

I guess your west footscray railway station (old) is no longer?

I guess your west footscray railway station (old) is no longer?

Yes.

Is the new station completed yet?

Is the new station completed yet?

The station itself is complete and operational. The area surrounding it is not.

West Footscray (New), station is complete, the new alignment for the Sunbury line is complete and in use. V/Line trains were passing through the station by last Saturday (12/10) and Metro sparks were stopping there as of first train Monday (14/10). The RRL tracks are not yet in place but at least now ther is room for them, which wasn't the case when the station was in the old location.  

As for West Footscray (Old), platform 2 ceased to exist about 10 days ago (as the above photo shows), platform 1 remains, but damaged and without its buildings.

When the RRL is completed, what will the top speed be for Vlocities:

• Between SCS and Sunshine?
• between Sunshine and West Werribee?

Duncs

When the RRL is completed, what will the top speed be for Vlocities:

• Between SCS and Sunshine?
• between Sunshine and West Werribee?

Duncs

I believe 80kph SCS to Sunshine (same as the sparks) and 160kph Sunshine to West Werribee.

With VLocity's stopping at Footscray there's little point in making the speed limit any higher due to the short time the train would travel at 100kph for example.

160 kph capability from SCS to Sunshine is not required for the same reason, bearing in mind that on the Ballarat line, it takes from a standing start at Sunshine to Robinsons Road, just past Deer Park for a VLocity to reach 160kph.

Mike.

I believe 80kph SCS to Sunshine (same as the sparks) and 160kph Sunshine to West Werribee.

With VLocity's stopping at Footscray there's little point in making the speed limit any higher due to the short time the train would travel at 100kph for example.

160 kph capability from SCS to Sunshine is not required for the same reason, bearing in mind that on the Ballarat line, it takes from a standing start at Sunshine to Robinsons Road, just past Deer Park for a VLocity to reach 160kph.

Mike.

Hi Mike

Thanks for that. I thought that may have been the case.

Duncan

I have heard 100kph Footscray - Sunshine