Rail upgrades

[WellyWanderer]

Here are some photos taken today at Paraparaumu Station. The over-bridge was removed on Monday. Most of the underpass areas are in use, although there is still quite a bit of work to be done.


Eastern ramp not yet finished. Over-bridge gone - it would have been in this photo if it was still there.


New station building on eastern platform being constructed. You can just see the top of the stairs that lead down to the tunnel. The original station building is across the tracks to the left of the photo. The gravel path leading away from the camera is a temporary footpath from the car-park to the underpass.


Eastern stairs, eastern end of tunnel, incomplete eastern ramp and... over-bridge gone!


New tunnel under tracks, view from eastern side.


Stairs from underpass up to western platform. In the lower right of the photo you can see through the new tunnel to the eastern portal.


View from western platform (original platform) of new station building on eastern side.


View south from western platform. The over-bridge would have dominated this view had it still been there.


Here's where the western stairs and supports for the over-bridge were.


View north from western platform.


Two train replacement buses (the two nearest the camera - the MAN and the Scania) are just about to depart for Wellington. One goes non stop to Porirua and then all stops from Porirua to Wellington. The other is all stops to Porirua and then motorway to Wellington, except if it picks up a passenger wanting to get off in Tawa somewhere. Then, it goes via Tawa but might stay on the Main Road rather than going via Duncan Street, depending on where the passenger wants to get off. The two parallel parked Mercedes-Benz are just about to depart on local Kapiti services.

Two more train replacement buses (a couple of Volvo high-floors) had just arrived from Wellington and are parked right of photo out of sight. They will head south on the next service in half an hour (I saw them both parked where the MAN and the Scania are when I returned 20 minutes later). Two more buses are travelling south having left Paraparaumu half an hour earlier, and a further two are just about to arrive at Wellington station where they will wait about half an hour and then head north again. Yet another two buses would have just left Wellington station, and two more would be heading north having left Wellington about half an hour earlier. That makes a total of 12 buses operating the half-hourly Paraparaumu train replacement service as I stood there taking my photo. All of them would have been Mana/Newlands Coach Services.

[keg]

Here are some photos taken today at Paraparaumu Station. The over-bridge was removed on Monday. Most of the underpass areas are in use, although there is still quite a bit of work to be done.

Cheers for the excellent update - don't suppose you know what progress is like at Waikanae?

Anyway, a few photos of upgrade works at Porirua from the other day:

[keg]

Couple of photos giving an overview of changes that have been going on in the yards:

(1) New MU Depot and the three mains.


(2) Changes in the east yard. Relocated CT site and site being prepared for the new rail served Mainfreight depot between that & the Stadium. Just to the left of the Fern are recently relaid sidings where the hauled coaching stock (Tranz Scenic etc) will be moving to, freeing up space in the west yard for more Matangis. (Think the new shed contains a carriage wash but not 100% on that).

[geoff_184]

Thanks for the pics. How much is left of the main yard, out of sight to the left of the lower photo? I assume it can now only be shunted from the north end?

[scooter]

Thanks for the pics

[keg]

How much is left of the main yard, out of sight to the left of the lower photo? I assume it can now only be shunted from the north end?

Looks to be pretty much all there.

[keg]

North - South Junctions


Bean fence has gone & retaining wall is being built there.

[keg]

Poriua Station


Platform resurfacing well underway, no sign of tactiles yet.

[greenwelly]

Anyone know what the track sections (with wooden sleepers attached) + big stacks of concrete sleepers that have appeared at "Car Haulaways" yard between MacKay's and Paekakariki are for?

Is it stuff they have ripped out when they were double tracking up to Waikanae? or supplies for the work over the X/mas shutdown at North/South Junction?

[keg]

From GW:

Park & ride at Pomare
Posted on 7 December 2010

Stokes Valley train commuters have a brand new 42-space carpark at Pomare Station which opened for business this week.

Up until now the only parking available for commuters who drive to the station has been on Eastern Hutt Road.

Peter Glensor, Chair of Greater Wellington’s Economic Wellbeing Committee, which includes public transport, hopes the carpark will encourage more people to drive to the station and then catch the train to their workplace destination, instead of driving all the way.

“Park & ride facilities are around the region are becoming increasingly popular and I’m sure Pomare will be no different.”

Cr Glensor paid special tribute to Hutt City Councillor Angus Finlayson for his efforts to make the land available for a carpark. “Cr Finlayson put in a lot of time and energy to enable this land, which Hutt City Council owns, to be leased to Greater Wellington for a peppercorn rental. Land near railway stations is scarce so we’re very grateful for this.”

Greater Wellington has spent $120,000 to create the carpark which includes lighting, a footpath and a traffic island in the middle of Eastern Hutt Road to make it easier for people to cross to and from the carpark at peak hour.

Greater Wellington provides park & ride facilities at about 40 stations around the region. Waterloo Interchange has more than 600 parking spaces, Woburn has about 260 and Petone has more than 300.

[keg]

From KR Express 76:

North South Junction upgrade is a huge engineering project

A largely-original, 125 year-old part of the North Island Main Trunk is being upgraded this summer, as part of a project that will improve freight train reliability and streamline the flow of trains in the area.

The North South Junction project is an intensive project, with a total of over 200 workers on 13 shifts a week – that’s every day shift and all nights except Friday. They’re working on a narrow train track, perched on the hill above State Highway 1 between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay.

The project is in two steps – first, preparation work: stabilizing the hillside above the track, and drilling in anchors to secure the walls of four tunnels. The second step, to happen during the BOL from Boxing Day till January 9, will see the train tracks removed, the tunnel floors lowered, and the tracks relaid on new sleepers, creating greater clearances.

The work involves:

• 1400m of new track (using approx 2000 timber sleepers);
• 861m of tunnel getting lowered and 2000m3 of rock removed from them;
• Approx half a million litres of grout pumped into voids behind the tunnel linings;
• Approx 1700 rock anchors in the tunnels;
• Approx 300 rock anchors between the tunnels;
• Approx 700 anchors on slopes adjacent to the tunnels; and
• Several hundred metres of retaining walls and rock protection fences.

Project manager Daniel Headifen said the work was an example of different parts of the KiwiRail business working together to make things work efficiently and effectively.

“Freight have altered their timetables to create work windows for us, enabling the trains to bunch up to go through the site. Metro have been great to give us plenty of breaks for work. They have been really flexible about what time they can give us.”

He said the work was being done at the same time as other work in WRRP and through the night to minimize the length of time commuters had to suffer disruptions.

Twenty bridges in the Wairarapa were also being upgraded or repaired as a consequence of the North South Junction work as freight trains will be diverted down the Wairarapa Line during the Wellington BOL.

[greenwelly]

So reading between the lines this is just a "stage 1" project, lower the tunnels, reinforce and re fence.-

They don't appear to be removing tunnel 7 and extending the double track to the ends of 6 and 3 as was originally indicated when this was announced in '07, I guess the cost got to high...

[WMR1886]

I guess it's fair to say it's a 'largely-orginal, 125-year-old part' of the NIMT - the tunnels are for sure. But a lot of work was done in the 1930s when the NIMT was electrified between Wellington and Paekakariki (completed in 1940), including doubling tracking all the way from Plimmerton to Paekakariki (except of course the section between North and South Junctions). Possibly the tunnel floors were also lowered at this time, as I doubt the 1885 WMR tunnels would have been built with any clearance for the overhead wires.

[keg]

So reading between the lines this is just a "stage 1" project, lower the tunnels, reinforce and re fence.-

You're right (literally). The regional rail plan identifies three stages for solving the North - South Junctions problem:

Stage 1: Strengthen the walls of the tunnels then lower the floors thereby increasing clearances. This would allow heavier weight rail to be laid
and increase the speed at which trains can travel through the tunnels. This would reduce the transit time and the risk of trains stalling.

Stage 2: This solution would include the tunnel lowering as above plus elimination of one tunnel altogether and extension of the double track at
the northern and southern ends to as near as is practical to the tunnel portals. This would have the dual benefit of reducing the amount of single
track and reducing transit time through that single section.

Stage 3: This solution would include the works listed above (tunnel lowering; remove one tunnel; extend double tracking) plus build a bridge
around the outside of the tunnels so there is always double track – one on the bridge and one through the tunnels.

In addition to the works mentioned in the Express article, it appears that the cuvres are being eased where the line swings out around the collasped tunnel (ex No.12). (I'll admit I'm not 100% sure on that but the construction of a retaining wall, removal of the bean fence and the locations of the new mast bases strongly suggest it ...)

[Riccardo]

Hopefully the Wairarapa line north of Masterton has a future if they will be upgrading the NIMT for a while.

[W-hat]

Too bad there won't be a tunnel. A bit off topic but I think it would be smart to have a tunnel under the hill and have the existing NIMT end at Pukerua Bay, and all existing services that stop at Plimmerton extended along the now Pukerua Bay branch line. Along with this, a new station halfway between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay. Allow development of the surrounding land, and don't allow any more near the TGM/SH58 intersection area unless a there is commitment to build a Plimmerton-Haywards rail line.

[keg]

Saw a couple of EO locos with a six car Ganz northbound near Plimmerton on Sunday arvo - testing the new and upgraded overhead supply up the coast?

[scooter]

Saw a couple of EO locos with a six car Ganz northbound near Plimmerton on Sunday arvo - testing the new and upgraded overhead supply up the coast?

Saw that parked at Platform 9 on Sunday evening..... wondered what purpose hitching the EO's to a Ganz set could have. I guess testing the capability of the overhead to deal with the Matangi's makes sense

[kaiwhara]

Basically was an overhead test train, basically they wanted as many pans up as possible, the real test was the distance between the Pans on the South End Ganz and EO - only 3 meters apart...

[scooter]

(2) Changes in the east yard. Relocated CT site and site being prepared for the new rail served Mainfreight depot between that & the Stadium. Just to the left of the Fern are recently relaid sidings where the hauled coaching stock (Tranz Scenic etc) will be moving to, freeing up space in the west yard for more Matangis. (Think the new shed contains a carriage wash but not 100% on that).

I'll try to get an updated photo but the framing for the new Mainfrieght shed is up and construction proceeding. Most of the old sidings in front of the site (as looking at the photo have been removed.

In the last week theyve been storing the Wairarapa carriages in their new sidings to the left (east) of the shed and where the Fern is parked, instead of their former location out of sight to the right under the motorway bridges