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Post office railway reuse
The post office railway goes from Paddington to Whitechapel with stops
at Oxford Circus, Rathbone Place, Mount Pleasant, and Liverpool Street. It also passes along Oxford Street from the vicinity of Bond Street. The stop on Rathbone Place is very near the proposed Dean Street "Western Ticket Hall" for the Tottenham Court Road station on Crossrail. Mount Pleasant is about 5 minutes walk from Farringdon, in the heart of Clerkenwell, adjacent to the Thameslink and Circle/Met lines, in a busy area which could do with a tube station. The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? |
Post office railway reuse
In message
, lonelytraveller writes The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? It's not deep enough - the Post Office Railway is on average 21m below the surface, although the stations are virtually at basement level (and so the tunnels also have steep 20% gradients either side of stations). Crossrail in the central area is up to 36m below the surface. Also, the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. It is a shame, though, that it hasn't been put to some good use since its closure. -- Paul Terry |
Post office railway reuse
"Paul Terry" wrote in message
In message , lonelytraveller writes The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? It's not deep enough - the Post Office Railway is on average 21m below the surface, although the stations are virtually at basement level (and so the tunnels also have steep 20% gradients either side of stations). Crossrail in the central area is up to 36m below the surface. Also, the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. Also, the big cost with Crossrail will be the huge stations more than the tunnels. Re-using the PO railway would not help reduce this cost, but would probably make it worse. |
Post office railway reuse
On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 04:51:32PM -0700, lonelytraveller wrote:
The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? The PO railway is such a small gauge (9' diameter tubes) that to widen them would require almost as much work as boring new tunnels. Also the stations are a lot shallower than the bulk of the tunnels, with 1:20 inclines either side which would be ... inconvenient. -- David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist Hail Caesar! Those about to vi ^[ you! |
Post office railway reuse
On Wed, 26 May 2010 12:12:20 +0100
David Cantrell wrote: On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 04:51:32PM -0700, lonelytraveller wrote: The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? The PO railway is such a small gauge (9' diameter tubes) that to widen them would require almost as much work as boring new tunnels. Also the stations are a lot shallower than the bulk of the tunnels, with 1:20 inclines either side which would be ... inconvenient. Sham about the PO railway. You'd think with the traffic problems in london that any organisation would be falling over themselves to have their own private tube system to transport their goods instead of relying on trucks but I guess with the PO cost cutting comes before customer service. B2003 |
Post office railway reuse
On 26 May, 12:12, David Cantrell wrote:
On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 04:51:32PM -0700, lonelytraveller wrote: The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? The PO railway is such a small gauge (9' diameter tubes) that to widen them would require almost as much work as boring new tunnels. Why? The main difficulty with tunnel boring is the lack of a line of weakness to follow, and the lack of anywhere for spoil to spill into. The PO railway is a line of weakness already made - a 9' diameter line of weakness in fact - and a 9' diameter tube for the spoil to ease itself into. There are even tracks to help remove the released spoil by means of rail. Tunnel widening is a lot easier than tunnel boring. Also the stations are a lot shallower than the bulk of the tunnels, with 1:20 inclines either side which would be ... inconvenient. Only if you expand the bore from the same point all the way through. If you expand it downwards at the stations, and upwards away from them, the incline is significantly reduced. |
Post office railway reuse
On 26 May, 07:18, Paul Terry wrote:
It's not deep enough Deep enough for what? the Post Office Railway is on average 21m below The circle line is only on average around 9m below the surface, so the PO railway is more than twice as deep. the stations are virtually at basement level That's hardly a bad thing. Less distance from the surface is greater convenience for passengers trying to access it. the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. Straight enough for what? The curves are fairly gentle, even though the tube itself copes with curves like those at Shepherd's Bush, and the PO railway is close enough to oxford street at all the stations. It doesn't need to hug oxford street when its not at a station, not that the current Crossrail's Hanover Square and Dean Street Stations are on Oxford Street either. As for the loop at mount pleasant, its a comparatively small thing to dig a new bypass around the loop than it is to dig an entirely new route across the whole of london. Besides, mount pleasant / clerkenwell / essex market could do with a tube station, the met and thameslink lines run through it but don't stop. |
Post office railway reuse
Only if you expand the bore from the same point all the way through. If you expand it downwards at the stations, and upwards away from them, the incline is significantly reduced. And if you did that with steep enough gradients, you'd need EXTRA powerful motors on lots of wheels for each and every train to escape from the holes you've dug. WHEREAS If you make the line go up into the stations and down out of them, you don't need to use the brakes and a quick push from the guard, sets the train off and up to running speed as it accelerates away down the slope. Jim |
Post office railway reuse
On Wed, 26 May 2010 04:56:23 -0700 (PDT)
lonelytraveller wrote: As for the loop at mount pleasant, its a comparatively small thing to dig a new bypass around the loop than it is to dig an entirely new route across the whole of london. Besides, mount pleasant / clerkenwell / essex market could do with a tube station, the met and thameslink lines run through it but don't stop. I would imagine that by the time you've stripped out all the tracks, cables and tunnel lining so you can enlarge it you've probably spent more time and money than you would if you just bored a new tunnel. Tunnels arn't dug with picks and shovels any more - a TBM won't care if it has to dig the whole tunnel itself or theres a small tunnel already there , it will take more or less the same time. The only difference will be in the amount of spoil needing to be carried away. Plus why inflict a windy route on a new rail line when for high speed it needs to be as straight as possible. B2003 |
Post office railway reuse
In message
, lonelytraveller writes On 26 May, 07:18, Paul Terry wrote: It's not deep enough Deep enough for what? Deep enough to avoid all of the sub-surface structures (foundations, tube tunnels, etc) that are in the way of Crossrail. The tiny Post Office railway was able to skirt round these, but that's not possible for Crossrail (see below) - and, of course, there are many more tall buildings now than there were when the P.O. railway was built. the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. Straight enough for what? Ten-carriage trains of mainline proportions travelling at up to 100kph through the tunnels. The curves are fairly gentle, even though the tube itself copes with curves like those at Shepherd's Bush, and the PO railway is close enough to oxford street at all the stations. Yes, but Crossrail is nothing like a tube line - it is for mainline services travelling at nearly three times the speed of tube trains in the tunnels (and up to 160kph on the surface sections). It doesn't need to hug oxford street when its not at a station, not that the current Crossrail's Hanover Square and Dean Street Stations are on Oxford Street either. No, it doesn't need to hug Oxford Street (in fact, it runs slightly south of the Central line), but it does have to be relatively straight to achieve the anticipated speeds. Incidentally, there's no station at Hanover Square - it is simply the eastern ticket hall for Bond Street station, which gives some idea of the scale of the project. Similarly, the works at Dean Street are for the western ticket hall of Tottenham Court Road station (the eastern end being just in front of Centre Point). As for the loop at mount pleasant, its a comparatively small thing to dig a new bypass around the loop than it is to dig an entirely new route across the whole of london. Besides, mount pleasant / clerkenwell / essex market could do with a tube station, the met and thameslink lines run through it but don't stop. Crossrail is not really comparable with a tube service, though. -- Paul Terry |
Post office railway reuse
On May 26, 12:51*am, lonelytraveller wrote: The post office railway goes from Paddington to Whitechapel with stops at Oxford Circus, Rathbone Place, Mount Pleasant, and Liverpool Street. It also passes along Oxford Street from the vicinity of Bond Street. The stop on Rathbone Place is very near the proposed Dean Street "Western Ticket Hall" for the Tottenham Court Road station on Crossrail. Mount Pleasant is about 5 minutes walk from Farringdon, in the heart of Clerkenwell, adjacent to the Thameslink and Circle/Met lines, in a busy area which could do with a tube station. The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? Because cash strapped Royal Mail are hiring them out to a Turkish drugs gang. |
Post office railway reuse
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Post office railway reuse
"Paul Terry" wrote in message ... In message , lonelytraveller writes The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? It's not deep enough - the Post Office Railway is on average 21m below the surface, although the stations are virtually at basement level (and so the tunnels also have steep 20% gradients either side of stations). Crossrail in the central area is up to 36m below the surface. Also, the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. It is a shame, though, that it hasn't been put to some good use since its closure. Like turning it into a museum perhaps tim |
Post office railway reuse
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Post office railway reuse
On 26/05/2010 07:18, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , lonelytraveller writes The post office railway is disused. Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail, instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? It's not deep enough - the Post Office Railway is on average 21m below the surface, although the stations are virtually at basement level (and so the tunnels also have steep 20% gradients either side of stations). Crossrail in the central area is up to 36m below the surface. Also, the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. It is a shame, though, that it hasn't been put to some good use since its closure. Any potential excursions for the public? IIRC, the railway was never used by postal employees for transport purposes. |
Post office railway reuse
On Wed, 26 May 2010 20:41:10 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote: On Wed, 26 May 2010, d wrote: Tunnels arn't dug with picks and shovels any more - a TBM won't care if it has to dig the whole tunnel itself or theres a small tunnel already there Yes it will - TBMs are built for digging through clay, gravel, and the like. Sticking a bloody great cast-iron pipe like the PO railway end-on in its way will completely bugger it. But you wouldn't do that. Tunnel miners would dismantle the segmental lining of the smaller diameter tunnel, ring by ring, a short distance in front of the main tunneling shield. The shield would then move forward, excavating as it went, and the new, larger diameter lining would be installed at the rear of the shield. This is all routine tunnelling work. The only complication is the need to stop any excavation of the larger diameter tunnel while miners dismantle the lining of the smaller diameter tunnel. But that would happen simultaneously with the building of a ring of new lining, so it wouldn't actually need to stop progress. However, what would kill the idea stone dead is that the PO railway tunnel is on the wrong alignment and is far too shallow for Crossrail. Also, it is only one tunnel and Crossrail needs two. You cannot build one alongside because the ground at that depth is almost certainly now peppered with bearing piles for buildings that have been built since the PO railway. So, a complete non-starter. |
Post office railway reuse
On 26/05/2010 15:04, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , d writes Tunnels arn't dug with picks and shovels any more - a TBM won't care if it has to dig the whole tunnel itself or theres a small tunnel already there , it will take more or less the same time. The only difference will be in the amount of spoil needing to be carried away. Which reminds me that there were several proposals to use the Post Office Railway to remove spoil from the central area. I haven't heard anything more of the suggestion, though. Wouldn't it be easier to remove the spoil by the Crossrail tunnels they had just dug? |
Post office railway reuse
In message , Basil Jet
writes On 26/05/2010 15:04, Paul Terry wrote: Which reminds me that there were several proposals to use the Post Office Railway to remove spoil from the central area. I haven't heard anything more of the suggestion, though. Wouldn't it be easier to remove the spoil by the Crossrail tunnels they had just dug? The idea was to use the PO Railway to remove the huge amounts of spoil from the shafts and station boxes that are currently being dug. The actual tunnel boring is not due to start until late 2011 but when it does, the spoil from that will indeed be removed by rail through the tunnel itself. Apparently the idea of adapting the PO Railway for spoil transportation was considered by the Crossrail board, but rejected for a number of fairly obvious reasons, so lorries are being used instead at the moment. -- Paul Terry |
Post office railway reuse
In message , "
writes On 26/05/2010 07:18, Paul Terry wrote: In message , lonelytraveller writes The post office railway is disused. It is a shame, though, that it hasn't been put to some good use since its closure. Any potential excursions for the public? A miniature underground heritage line in the middle of central London could be a marvellous tourist attraction, even if passengers don't get to see much out of the window. :) IIRC, the railway was never used by postal employees for transport purposes. No, but it did have a carriage with seats for VIPs, hauled by a battery loco. I have a feeling George V got a ride, and certainly John Noakes did for Blue Peter some time in the 1970s. I don't know if any really serious track bashers ever posted themselves in large cardboard containers to try to do the line. :) -- Paul Terry |
Post office railway reuse
Why didn't they just widen the tunnels and reuse them for Crossrail,
instead of digging hugely expensive new ones? I will ignore the geometric aspects of the design of a low speed passenger less railway vs a modern faster mainline railway. But from having worked on some early options for tunnelled schemes through London in the vicinity of the PO railway just how many sewers, tunnels, etc. are down there. To enlarge the tunnel would bring you even closer to some of these and require techniques such as grouting and ground freezing to be used assuming that these are possible as sufficient clearance may not exist. A 2.75m internal diameter would need to be extended to around 6m. OC |
Post office railway reuse
"Paul Terry" wrote
I don't know if any really serious track bashers ever posted themselves in large cardboard containers to try to do the line. :) Several 'really serious track bashers' (including me) have ridden over (part of) the line. We had permission, so we didn't have to disguise ourselves as parcels! |
Post office railway reuse
On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 04:56:23AM -0700, lonelytraveller wrote:
On 26 May, 07:18, Paul Terry wrote: the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. Straight enough for what? The curves are fairly gentle, even though the tube itself copes with curves like those at Shepherd's Bush The tube copes with lots of banging and rattling, and running very slowly. -- David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire Fashion label: n: a liferaft for personalities which lack intrinsic buoyancy |
Post office railway reuse
On Thu, 27 May 2010 02:09:07 +0100, Basil Jet
wrote: On 26/05/2010 15:04, Paul Terry wrote: In message , d writes Tunnels arn't dug with picks and shovels any more - a TBM won't care if it has to dig the whole tunnel itself or theres a small tunnel already there , it will take more or less the same time. The only difference will be in the amount of spoil needing to be carried away. Which reminds me that there were several proposals to use the Post Office Railway to remove spoil from the central area. I haven't heard anything more of the suggestion, though. Wouldn't it be easier to remove the spoil by the Crossrail tunnels they had just dug? Not necessarily. In most tunnelling projects you have conflicting movements of excavated spoil coming out and lining segments going in, with workers going in and out. If the spoil comes out via a separate route, it reduces conflicts and might improve progress. |
Post office railway reuse
On 27/05/2010 11:21, John Salmon wrote:
"Paul Terry" wrote I don't know if any really serious track bashers ever posted themselves in large cardboard containers to try to do the line. :) Several 'really serious track bashers' (including me) have ridden over (part of) the line. We had permission, so we didn't have to disguise ourselves as parcels! What have they done with the line since its closure? I must say that I am surprised that they closed it, especially as London is trying to cut down on carbon emissions. The Post Office railway skirts through traffic, emits no exhaust fumes and could possibly carry much more than any lorrie -- or at least make much more frequent runs. |
Post office railway reuse
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Post office railway reuse
On Thu, 27 May 2010 23:45:59 +0100
" wrote: What have they done with the line since its closure? I must say that I am surprised that they closed it, especially as London is trying to cut down on carbon emissions. The Post Office railway skirts through traffic, emits no exhaust fumes and could possibly carry much more than any lorrie -- or at least make much more frequent runs. Companies like the post office make all the right noises about being green but when it comes down to spending the money they're not quite so keen. Presumably lorries are a lot cheaper to run than a mini tube system. B2003 |
Post office railway reuse
On Thu, 27 May 2010 23:45:59 +0100, "
wrote: What have they done with the line since its closure? I must say that I am surprised that they closed it, especially as London is trying to cut down on carbon emissions. So the electricity used to power the railway was zero carbon, was it? Didn't Britain have any coal, oil or gas fired power stations when the Post Office Railway operated? The Post Office railway skirts through traffic, emits no exhaust fumes and could possibly carry much more than any lorrie -- or at least make much more frequent runs. The exhaust fumes are at the power stations. Lorries and vans are needed to collect the mail and bring it to the railway, and then to distribute it. You would be deluded if you thought that the mail operation emitted no exhaust fumes because one small component of it is electric - and electricity means exhaust fumes from coal and gas fired power stations. |
Post office railway reuse
On Fri, 28 May 2010 11:47:34 +0100
Bruce wrote: So the electricity used to power the railway was zero carbon, was it? Didn't Britain have any coal, oil or gas fired power stations when the Post Office Railway operated? Gas produces less CO2 per unit work than petrol or diesel. Also a significant amount still (despite the best efforts of the Campaign of Nuclear Dunces and Greenpratts) comes from nuclear power. The exhaust fumes are at the power stations. Lorries and vans are needed to collect the mail and bring it to the railway, and then to distribute it. The lorries are still being used to take the mail to the sorting offices the railway joins up. Except now they're needed inbetween those offices too. B2003 |
Post office railway reuse
wrote in message
On Fri, 28 May 2010 11:47:34 +0100 Bruce wrote: So the electricity used to power the railway was zero carbon, was it? Didn't Britain have any coal, oil or gas fired power stations when the Post Office Railway operated? Gas produces less CO2 per unit work than petrol or diesel. Also a significant amount still (despite the best efforts of the Campaign of Nuclear Dunces and Greenpratts) comes from nuclear power. The exhaust fumes are at the power stations. Lorries and vans are needed to collect the mail and bring it to the railway, and then to distribute it. The lorries are still being used to take the mail to the sorting offices the railway joins up. Except now they're needed inbetween those offices too. I thought the main reason the PO railway shut was that the Royal Mail changed the way that it sorted mail, so that the old railway didn't serve the modern processes efficiently? |
Post office railway reuse
wrote in message ... On Thu, 27 May 2010 23:45:59 +0100 " wrote: What have they done with the line since its closure? I must say that I am surprised that they closed it, especially as London is trying to cut down on carbon emissions. The Post Office railway skirts through traffic, emits no exhaust fumes and could possibly carry much more than any lorrie -- or at least make much more frequent runs. Companies like the post office make all the right noises about being green but when it comes down to spending the money they're not quite so keen. Presumably lorries are a lot cheaper to run than a mini tube system. They are generally cheaper than the national main line rail system as well - I was just looking at all that postal infrastructure cluttering up East Croydon's platforms yesterday as it happens. I wonder how many main line stations around the country had such bridges and lifts, and how long they were used for after they were built. I can think of another eyesore at Bristol, but there must be many redundant installations... Paul S |
Post office railway reuse
On Fri, 28 May 2010 12:47:23 +0100, "Recliner"
wrote: wrote in message On Fri, 28 May 2010 11:47:34 +0100 Bruce wrote: So the electricity used to power the railway was zero carbon, was it? Didn't Britain have any coal, oil or gas fired power stations when the Post Office Railway operated? Gas produces less CO2 per unit work than petrol or diesel. Also a significant amount still (despite the best efforts of the Campaign of Nuclear Dunces and Greenpratts) comes from nuclear power. The exhaust fumes are at the power stations. Lorries and vans are needed to collect the mail and bring it to the railway, and then to distribute it. The lorries are still being used to take the mail to the sorting offices the railway joins up. Except now they're needed inbetween those offices too. I thought the main reason the PO railway shut was that the Royal Mail changed the way that it sorted mail, so that the old railway didn't serve the modern processes efficiently? Exactly. The logic is undeniable, but Boltar will never understand logic. |
Post office railway reuse
On Fri, 28 May 2010 12:58:51 +0100
Bruce wrote: I thought the main reason the PO railway shut was that the Royal Mail changed the way that it sorted mail, so that the old railway didn't serve the modern processes efficiently? Exactly. The logic is undeniable, but Boltar will never understand logic. Fill us in then. What makes the PO railway surplus to requirements? B2003 |
Post office railway reuse
a TBM won't care if it has to dig the whole
tunnel itself or theres a small tunnel already there , it will take more or less the same time. It won't you know. If it doesn't have to dig the middle bit, it doesn't have to do the work. That means less work needs to be done. And that means it takes less power. And that means that more power is available to put into the work it does do. And that means its more efficient, and it finds that work easier Plus why inflict a windy route on a new rail line when for high speed it needs to be as straight as possible. If its going to have to stop every few hundred yards for a station, it hardly matters whether high speed is possible or not. Its not that windy anyway. |
Post office railway reuse
On 26 May, 14:02, Paul Terry wrote:
Deep enough to avoid all of the sub-surface structures (foundations, tube tunnels, etc) that are in the way of Crossrail. The tiny Post Office railway was able to skirt round these, but that's not possible for Crossrail (see below) - and, of course, there are many more tall buildings now than there were when the P.O. railway was built. Looking at the detailed planning briefs for crossrail, it shows the Post Office railway tunnels as well. They don't appear to skirt round anything - they take a fairly direct route. And while its true that there are more tall buildings now than when the P.O. railway was built, the buildings actually on its route don't get much taller than Mount Pleasant. the Post Office Railway doesn't have a straight enough alignment - it runs north of Oxford Street, curving up to Wimpole Street and then coming back south before the big loop up to Mount Pleasant. Straight enough for what? Ten-carriage trains of mainline proportions travelling at up to 100kph through the tunnels. (a) Why do they have to have ten carriages? What's wrong with more but shorter trains? (b) 100kph when they have to stop at stations every 500 yards or so is absurd. Yes, but Crossrail is nothing like a tube line - it is for mainline services travelling at nearly three times the speed of tube trains in the tunnels (and up to 160kph on the surface sections). I don't see that as convincing rational. There's nothing saying its compulsory for any cross-london relief for the central line to be built for mainline trains. And the speed of tube trains in central london is around 15mph, so you're talking about a tunnel that can cope with just 45mph. It doesn't need to hug oxford street when its not at a station, not that the current Crossrail's Hanover Square and Dean Street Stations are on Oxford Street either. No, it doesn't need to hug Oxford Street (in fact, it runs slightly south of the Central line), but it does have to be relatively straight to achieve the anticipated speeds. Incidentally, there's no station at Hanover Square - it is simply the eastern ticket hall for Bond Street station (a) Its a station (b) Its at Hanover Square Do you know how to put those two facts together in a meaningful way? Crossrail is not really comparable with a tube service, though. That's an absurd, rather circular, claim. |
Post office railway reuse
On 27 May, 00:38, Bruce wrote:
However, what would kill the idea stone dead is that .... it is only one tunnel The maps on Crossrail's planning brief show the Post Office railway having two tunnels. |
Post office railway reuse
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Post office railway reuse
On 29 May, 23:28, wrote:
In article , (lonelytraveller) wrote: On 27 May, 00:38, Bruce wrote: However, what would kill the idea stone dead is that .... it is only one tunnel The maps on Crossrail's planning brief show the Post Office railway having two tunnels. Doesn't some of the running line have two small tunnels while other parts and the stations have larger single tunnels. -- Colin Rosenstiel I'm not sure about the exact layout of the stations, but those bits I'd assume would need to be rebuilt a bit anyway for non-conflicting passenger ingress / egress. |
Post office railway reuse
lonelytraveller wrote on
30 May 2010 17:41:37 ... On 29 May, 23:28, wrote: In article , (lonelytraveller) wrote: On 27 May, 00:38, wrote: However, what would kill the idea stone dead is that .... it is only one tunnel The maps on Crossrail's planning brief show the Post Office railway having two tunnels. Doesn't some of the running line have two small tunnels while other parts and the stations have larger single tunnels. I'm not sure about the exact layout of the stations, but those bits I'd assume would need to be rebuilt a bit anyway for non-conflicting passenger ingress / egress. Rebuilt *a bit*? There is no comparison between the scale and space needed to cope with 10-car full-size passenger trains and what was needed to handle a few mailbags. This idea of yours to take this toy railway and its stations and enlarge it a bit to transform it into Crossrail is just daft. -- Richard J. (to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address) |
Post office railway reuse
On May 28, 12:10*am, "
wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwRBrUwhdio A very good short film about the Post Office Railway And at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj0-0q6bQOc |
Post office railway reuse
On 01/06/2010 09:30, CJB wrote:
On May 28, 12:10 am, wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwRBrUwhdio A very good short film about the Post Office Railway And at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj0-0q6bQOc Many thanks for that, but the music and the sound of the railway itself seems to drown out the narrator. I understand that there are plans to eventually move the sorting centre at Mt. Pleasant out to Hertfordshire, and convert the current building into yuppy flats. When is that due to happen and what will that railroad's fate be? I would tend to believe/hope that it retains some practical use. What state is the railroad in these days and is there any chance of an excursion down that way? |
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