Good morning from Portsmouth and Southsea.
The orange hi-vis is on,
I'm about to meet my contact.
Over there, you can see there's some people
up on the bridge already.
There's something called the Landport Viaduct
which is what connects Portsmouth and Southsea station
down to the extension that they built
down at Portsmouth Harbour
and Network Rail are in at the moment, there's a blockade,
they've got the line closed off.
They're doing some essential maintenance.
Let's find out what.
(train rumbling)
Here's a quick map just to show
that we're at Portsmouth.
Portsmouth has two platforms, two of them terminate here,
while two of them are used for services
that carry on down to Portsmouth Harbour.
It's just the one side of the station
that's been closed off whilst this work takes place.
So once again, I've been assigned the blue hat.
We all know what that means,
that means I'm in the company of the white hats.
By the way, that's Mark.
Nice to meet ya.
And Chris is here and that's Harry.
Hello.
At Portsmouth and Southsea station,
the tracks for the high level platforms above my head,
over there you got the original low level platforms,
platforms three and four, which were here first
and then later when the line was extended
down to the harbour,
they put in these two platforms above us.
So, up the steps, onto the platforms, platforms one and two,
we're still the old network southeast red colouring
in places, which I love
and it's a hive of activity.
The Network Rail team are here specifically to replace
what are known as wheel timbers.
They're used in places and constructions like this bridge,
where it's made of a metal frame
and regular sleepers can't be used.
The rails sit on long wooden baulks
which lay across the frame
and it kept the right distance apart with cross braces.
Right, so just to let you know,
so basically, what you can see just beside us
is a redundant wheel timber,
that we've removed from the track.
As you can see, stated on there
it says number 24, which means, it is 24 left.
Just on the track there,
is where our new wheel timber has been installed
and it's basically, what it is,
it's where the life expiry comes to its end.
So, you're looking at around these wheel timbers,
tend to last around 10 years at a time.
It is then determined when we've actually
removed the wheel timber.
Why can't you use regular sleepers
in an environment like this?
It depends on the structure itself,
the weight of the structure,
whether it's a ballast structure.
So, as you can see, it is a fixed structure
which means you can't put ballast tracks.
So, it can't be sleepers, it's got to be wheel timbers.
It gives us a stronger depth
and a better security of the wheel timber itself
and for the life expiry.
As it stands, for the type of material
we use for the wheel timbers are wood.
So, you've got two different types.
You've got your soft wood and your hard wood.
It all depends on the tantalization
of the wheel timber itself.
However, we have recently started installing wheel timbers
in FFU, which is basically a fibreglass material
and it offers a longer life expectancy
of 50 years at the moment and it could go up to 70 years
depending on product approval.
Chris, what is this?
That's an RRV, that's a road rail vehicle.
Just checking you knew.
Ah, I know some things.
So what happens, they going to get down onto the track.
They, sort of nuts and bolts and stuff,
then the RRV does the actual heavy lifting.
That's right, yeah,
they'll basically get the wheel timber out.
The RRV comes in
And lifts it out. How do they get the timbers-
Out of the station?
I mean, you put them onto the platform.
So, RRV pick it up and you'll take it out.
Gets chopped up into small pieces.
So, it's gonna get,
Chopped up here? Put in a bag.
The bridge here is, did you say 1870?
1870, his just shown me pictures.
Some are like, some of the steel corrodes
'cause one, it's right near the water, the sea.
So, the air is a little bit more salty
but here's an amazing thing,
in the winter when they ice the platforms
and they put down the salt,
like the gritting salt to de-ice the platforms,
some of that then falls down through onto the tracks
and onto the steel structure below
that also adds to the wear and tear of the structure.
So, there's a lot of works going on here
to patch up the Viaduct.
The work you can see going on behind me here
is to strengthen the remaining spans of Landport Viaduct,
carrying on from the work we did last year.
The reason it's got that big tent over it
is they're gonna paint it as well, make it look all nice.
You can't just paint it in the open air,
'cause it's the middle of winter
and the paint won't be in spec
and it won't finish itself properly.
I've just seen a poster over there,
Southwest trains over here,
notification of the line closure that they're doing
between Guildford and Petersfield in February
and it's always just worth highlighting, pointing out,
that if Network Rail don't do this,
if we don't do these things,
then what the railway, Harry, I'm gonna pick on Harry,
the railway will just go like,
slide into like, disuse wouldn't it, right?
And trains, what would happen if Network Rail
didn't patch up the railway?
So, certainly with here,
the importance of us doing the work now
is to make sure that when trains continue running
at line speed, or if the bridge,
without strengthening the columns
and doing the essential work we're doing now
the trains will go slower.
Your journeys will be slower.
There'll be more delays
and kind of more frequent, overnight emergency works
which will cause more delays
and disruptions to your journeys.
We just had our documentation checked
and signed off from the controller of site safety.
There's a COSS, a C-O-S-S on every Network Rail site,
now briefing, which means,
think we can go for a little track walk.
Mark, what's this down here?
It is our brand new wheel timber
that will be installed in on the up road.
So, if you actually look just at the end here,
you'll see stated, stamped with everything that is required.
So, it tells you that basically it's for Landport Viaduct,
it's 1100, which basically determines it's the up road
and that is a 21 left and at this end, is the London end.
So, basically you will know
that this timber will have to be spun
in order to be placed London end, that end.
Oh look, original station 1980 station,
original station, 1980 station.
Welcome to Portsmouth.
Just casually walking down onto the tracks at Portsmouth.
(footsteps clacking)
So, we walked off the end of the platform
just to come back and walk back down,
'cause it's just the safest way of getting down
to track level rather than climbing down.
We're now coming back into the station
and approaching the point of the works.
(workers conversing)
(machine drilling)
What they are currently doing
is pining the actual rails,
wheel timber that we renewed,
the reason why they're doing that
is all in order to make sure that the track
is sitting at the correct gauge for the track
and section that is worked on.
(machine drilling)
What do you say the gauge is 1432, what?
Yeah, that's probably metric, I imagine.
Okay.
The four foot three.
Eight and half. Okay, four foot eight-
And three quarters?
Four foot eight and a half.
Four foot eight and a half?
Yeah.
It's 1,432, what?
Are we doing the metric?
Hey Siri, four foot eight and a half inches in millimetres.
His 1,435, we should start a new trend Chris.
For years, everyone talks about Brunel Gauge,
Stephenson Gauge, four, five, eight and a half.
From now on I'm just gonna call it 1435.
So, there we go, that is wheel timber replacement
taking place on the Landport Viaduct here,
at Portsmouth and Southsea.
Yet more essential maintenance by Network Rail
and the great work that they do to keep our railway safe
and running and in tip-top condition.
Thanks for having me again.
I'll leave you with a few generic shots of maintenance
and work taking place.
(machines drilling)