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Post by capitalomnibus on Dec 23, 2016 14:24:16 GMT
Over the past few months, something that has dawned on me that there used to be a middle platform at Whitechapel District/Hammersmith & City. But this has now been bricked over. Is this because of crossrail, I guess we would never see a 3 lines there again as previous. |
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Post by snoggle on Dec 23, 2016 15:01:12 GMT
Over the past few months, something that has dawned on me that there used to be a middle platform at Whitechapel District/Hammersmith & City. But this has now been bricked over. Is this because of crossrail, I guess we would never see a 3 lines there again as previous. Correct it is to create a wide concourse at platform level. 
LU Whitechapel west end looking west by plcd1, on Flickr This was taken 4 years ago when the centre tracks had been lifted. The area is now built over with the new temporary exit and stairs. The new area will house staff accommodation and offices in the final layout. Oddly I used Whitechapel today for the first time in a long while. I knew it had changed with a temporary exit at the western end of the District platforms. A new link has been put in from the District Line platforms to the s/b Overground platform and that forms part of the future layout. The old exit is temporarily sealed off from the rest of the station while Crossrail build a new concourse over the Overground and east end of the District platforms. I saw the new concourse construction for the first time today. As I have suspected for a long while I think it's quite a bit behind schedule. It's not yet fully decked over at the north end of the Overground platforms and there is a lot of upper roof structure to put in place. The contractors at Whitechapel have got an enormous amount of work to do to get the place ready to open in just under 2 years. |
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Post by snowman on Dec 23, 2016 17:22:41 GMT
Over the past few months, something that has dawned on me that there used to be a middle platform at Whitechapel District/Hammersmith & City. But this has now been bricked over. Is this because of crossrail, I guess we would never see a 3 lines there again as previous. Correct it is to create a wide concourse at platform level.
LU Whitechapel west end looking west by plcd1, on Flickr This was taken 4 years ago when the centre tracks had been lifted. The area is now built over with the new temporary exit and stairs. The new area will house staff accommodation and offices in the final layout. Oddly I used Whitechapel today for the first time in a long while. I knew it had changed with a temporary exit at the western end of the District platforms. A new link has been put in from the District Line platforms to the s/b Overground platform and that forms part of the future layout. The old exit is temporarily sealed off from the rest of the station while Crossrail build a new concourse over the Overground and east end of the District platforms. I saw the new concourse construction for the first time today. As I have suspected for a long while I think it's quite a bit behind schedule. It's not yet fully decked over at the north end of the Overground platforms and there is a lot of upper roof structure to put in place. The contractors at Whitechapel have got an enormous amount of work to do to get the place ready to open in just under 2 years. Was 2 centre lines, making 2 islands (and the 2 East London line platforms) so was 6, Rebuilt station will also have 6 platforms, as the two closed ones are replaced by 2 new Elizabeth line platforms For many years the centre platforms were the terminus of H&C with just some peak hour and depot runs going beyond towards Barking. This line retained its legacy name even though no longer terminates anywhere near City. It is the latest in a series of capacity increases in area and nearby stations. Some of which date back to the 8-car scheme on District started in 1930s. The longer trains blocked the triangular junction so Aldgate was moved East and lowered (look in the ceiling can still find some rings used to attach winches to drop the track down (had been dug out bit by bit and propped on stacks of wood, prior to changeover). St Marks was closed. Tower was moved back to a temporary station site and gained middle terminus platform, later that gained a new entrance and old one became exit only. Other changes in area include closing 3rd platform at Liverpool Street. |
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Post by capitalomnibus on Dec 26, 2016 17:29:20 GMT
Correct it is to create a wide concourse at platform level.
LU Whitechapel west end looking west by plcd1, on Flickr This was taken 4 years ago when the centre tracks had been lifted. The area is now built over with the new temporary exit and stairs. The new area will house staff accommodation and offices in the final layout. Oddly I used Whitechapel today for the first time in a long while. I knew it had changed with a temporary exit at the western end of the District platforms. A new link has been put in from the District Line platforms to the s/b Overground platform and that forms part of the future layout. The old exit is temporarily sealed off from the rest of the station while Crossrail build a new concourse over the Overground and east end of the District platforms. I saw the new concourse construction for the first time today. As I have suspected for a long while I think it's quite a bit behind schedule. It's not yet fully decked over at the north end of the Overground platforms and there is a lot of upper roof structure to put in place. The contractors at Whitechapel have got an enormous amount of work to do to get the place ready to open in just under 2 years. Was 2 centre lines, making 2 islands (and the 2 East London line platforms) so was 6, Rebuilt station will also have 6 platforms, as the two closed ones are replaced by 2 new Elizabeth line platforms For many years the centre platforms were the terminus of H&C with just some peak hour and depot runs going beyond towards Barking. This line retained its legacy name even though no longer terminates anywhere near City. It is the latest in a series of capacity increases in area and nearby stations. Some of which date back to the 8-car scheme on District started in 1930s. The longer trains blocked the triangular junction so Aldgate was moved East and lowered (look in the ceiling can still find some rings used to attach winches to drop the track down (had been dug out bit by bit and propped on stacks of wood, prior to changeover). St Marks was closed. Tower was moved back to a temporary station site and gained middle terminus platform, later that gained a new entrance and old one became exit only. Other changes in area include closing 3rd platform at Liverpool Street. Your right, I forgot it was 4 lines. I guess it was from when the Metropolitan/Hammersmith & City terminated at Whitechapel, with peak hours going to Barking. So would have made sense having this layout. I guess as this doesn't happen anymore and Barking is the normal terminating spot for the H&C line, they used an excuse to sadly get rid of it. |
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Post by snoggle on Dec 26, 2016 21:14:50 GMT
Was 2 centre lines, making 2 islands (and the 2 East London line platforms) so was 6, Rebuilt station will also have 6 platforms, as the two closed ones are replaced by 2 new Elizabeth line platforms For many years the centre platforms were the terminus of H&C with just some peak hour and depot runs going beyond towards Barking. This line retained its legacy name even though no longer terminates anywhere near City. It is the latest in a series of capacity increases in area and nearby stations. Some of which date back to the 8-car scheme on District started in 1930s. The longer trains blocked the triangular junction so Aldgate was moved East and lowered (look in the ceiling can still find some rings used to attach winches to drop the track down (had been dug out bit by bit and propped on stacks of wood, prior to changeover). St Marks was closed. Tower was moved back to a temporary station site and gained middle terminus platform, later that gained a new entrance and old one became exit only. Other changes in area include closing 3rd platform at Liverpool Street. Your right, I forgot it was 4 lines. I guess it was from when the Metropolitan/Hammersmith & City terminated at Whitechapel, with peak hours going to Barking. So would have made sense having this layout. I guess as this doesn't happen anymore and Barking is the normal terminating spot for the H&C line, they used an excuse to sadly get rid of it. Not really. The H&C used to terminate off peak at the northern most track at Whitechapel - what is now the eb track. The e/b District typically ran through the centre other than in the peaks when e/b trains used two tracks. W/B trains used the two southernmost tracks - one in the centre and what is now the w/b track. LU has progressively increased frequencies and mileage where it can do so and extending the H&C off peak was part of that. It also removed conflicting moves at Whitechapel which meant both e/b and w/b trains had to stop while trains headed west at off peak times. That also constrained the District Line's frequencies. The reversing facility that was at Whitechapel is now at West Ham. Obviously Crossrail's station design is a factor in what has happened at Whitechapel but there were other issues in play too. LU has removed a number of sidings and turnbacks which constrained track speeds. Taking out these junctions allows marginally higher speeds and improved run in / run out times from platforms thus raising line capacity. The cumulative effect of these changes will be exploited when the new signalling on the SSR lines can also allow S Stock to work in the most efficient way. |
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Post by Alex on Dec 31, 2016 0:48:10 GMT
W/B trains used the two southernmost tracks - one in the centre and what is now the w/b track. The reversing facility that was at Whitechapel is now at West Ham. Not quite.....the westbound now is actually where the siding was. If you look at the current westbound platform you can see the new paving and the line of the older one  West Ham always seemed an odd one. At the time of construction it had two other reversing locations either side of it (Plaistow, where you can reverse both off the bay road and the eastbound main back west), and the crossover at Bromley-By-Bow. Bromley has gone now, another rationalisation measure to simplify the layout for the signalling upgrade. You can still reverse in both directions off of Whitechapel though, and also at the next stop Aldgate East (though east-to-west takes time as the train has to detrain in the eastbound platform, go to the limit of shunt and go via the crossover back west - an interesting point is that the Aldgate East moves are colour light signals as opposed to shunt signals)....... The old Whitechapel is shown in this link below, shows the siding so the relation to the current westbound can be seen: www.districtdave.co.uk/html/whitechapel.html |
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