In message
"Peter Masson" wrote:


"Graeme Wall" wrote in message
...
In message
"Peter Masson" wrote:

Track and signalling alterations at Basingstoke could reduce (but not
eliminate) conflicts. A diveunder from Reading West Spur to the Relief
Lines towards Tilehurst would remove most of the more serious conflicts
in
the Reading area.

Would involve going through the depot at Reading, not sure what the
knock-on
effects of that would be. Also there's a housing estate and industrial
area
north of the GWML about there.

Might require changes to the access to the depot, but I'm sure that's
possible. What I envisage is lowering the level of the West Spur to take it
under the Up and Down Main and Down Relief, and surface between the Down
and Up Reliefs, with the Up RFelief realigned.

I'd visualised it as going under the complete formation, that is possible
from an engineering point of view without interrupting traffic on the GWML.
Trying to bring it up in the middle of the formation, while a more elegant
solution, would probably entail an unacceptable period of closure. Looking
at Google Earth, the housing/industrial area doesn't extend that far west.
Taking the line right across would bring it up just before the sidings on the
north side of the line. What I hadn't realised is that there is a single
lead connection to the west spur from the depot. It would seem to be a
simple matter to rearrange that. One problem with lowering the West Curve os
that there is a road that goes through the triangle from north to south which
goes under the spur,


The question is then, how feasible will it be to take the West Curve out of
commission for an extended period? If you had to reverse all the container
trains in the station it would be an operating nightmare, even using the
freight avoiding line at the back of the station.

You can't build a seperate west spur as there is no place to put it, there is
a large factory immediately to the east of the curve.

IIRC there are some comparatively little used sidings on the north of the
GWML at this point which would allow space for the diveunder -

There are two sets of sidings, one immediately to the north of the triangle
and west of the access road and then another set further west. The logical
route for the diveunder would actually surface between the two.

after all, a diveunder was recently constructed at Shortlands Junction at a
much more restricted site.


--
Graeme Wall
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Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html