At a LURS meeting when Croydon Tramlink was being planned I remember
the speaker saying that with the method of construction being used the
rails could be quickly replaced when necessary by simply cutting out
the polymer they are embedded in; I think he said it could be done
with a high-pressure water jet.

Well, the time has come for the rails to be replaced on the very tight
curve at the junction of Wellesley Road and George Street, by Barclays
Bank. The trams started test running just about seven years ago; is
that the typical life of the rails on a curve as tight as this? I've
no idea, but they were quite worn. However, it's not just a matter of
cutting out the polymer, lifting out the new rails and dropping in the
new ones. Yeterday the real concrete blocks between the rails were
removed, and today the 'mock' blocks alongside the rails and the
concrete trackbed underneath were being dug out by two large hydraulic
concrete breakers. As of a couple of hours ago this part of the work
had not been completed. There were some portable lighting towers with
large metal halide lamps, so it looks like the work will continue
around the clock. Why was it necessary to do this, rather than just
replace the rails? I have seen what look like problems with the
trackbed in some places, but it looked quite sound here.

The trams are due to start running again on Tuesday morning; it took
much more than four days to construct the original trackbed and
install the rails; has a new method been developed that now enables
the work to be done in a much shorter time?

At a LURS meeting when Croydon Tramlink was being planned I remember
the speaker saying that with the method of construction being used the
rails could be quickly replaced when necessary by simply cutting out
the polymer they are embedded in; I think he said it could be done
with a high-pressure water jet.

[...snip...]

You will find some expert and informed discussion about the works going on
and the whys and wherefores on the "croydontramlink" Yahoo! Group and I'd
highly recommend that to you.

My somewhat limited understanding of the situation is that there is a lot
more going on than just replacing the rails such as work on less than
satisfactory drainage channels. The need to replace the rails actually
seems to be a consequence of the method of construction. My inference,
which may or may not be correct, is that there is a body of opinion held by
many of those with expertise in the field that the contractors who built the
system were either lacking in knowledge of the tried and tested methods of
construction of tramways developed over many years and the reasons for them,
or they simply ignored them. Either way the end result wasn't impressive.

On 6 Apr, 23:22, "Graham J" wrote:

You will find some expert and informed discussion about the works going on
and the whys and wherefores on the "croydontramlink" Yahoo! Group and I'd
highly recommend that to you.

I can't find this Yahoo! group; there are six dealing with croydon,
and three with trams, but nothing for Tramlink.

It will be very impressive if the trams are running again on Tuesday;
there's a lot of work to be done before then.

wrote:
On 6 Apr, 23:22, "Graham J" wrote:

You will find some expert and informed discussion about the works
going on and the whys and wherefores on the "croydontramlink"
Yahoo! Group and I'd highly recommend that to you.

I can't find this Yahoo! group; there are six dealing with croydon,
and three with trams, but nothing for Tramlink.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/croydontramlink/
However, you have to get the moderator to approve your application to
join before you can read the messages.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

On 7 Apr, 01:30, "Richard J." wrote:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/croydontramlink/
However, you have to get the moderator to approve your application to
join before you can read the messages.

Thank you, I have applied for membership. That's strange, if I go to
groups.yahoo.co.uk and type in 'croydontramlink' it's not there. If I
search for 'Croydon' or 'tram' I find other groups, but not that one.

wrote:
On 7 Apr, 01:30, "Richard J." wrote:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/croydontramlink/
However, you have to get the moderator to approve your application
to join before you can read the messages.

Thank you, I have applied for membership. That's strange, if I go
to groups.yahoo.co.uk and type in 'croydontramlink' it's not there.
If I search for 'Croydon' or 'tram' I find other groups, but not
that one.

Yes, it's odd. Although groups.yahoo.co.uk/group/croydontramlink will
work, the search facilities on the .com amd .co.uk sites appear to
access completely separate parts of the overall Yahoo groups database,
with no overlaps as far as I can see.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In article ,
(Graham J) wrote:

the contractors who built the
system were either lacking in knowledge of the tried and tested
methods of construction of tramways developed over many years and
the reasons for them, or they simply ignored them.

The designers certainly weren't...

--
Paul Cummins
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