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CHRISTMAS Waybeam replacement on King Edward Bridge, Newcastle - Boxing Day 2019.
NIGEL WORDSWORTH
Even a quiet Christmas IS A BUSY TIME
C
hristmas is a special time of year. To religious Christians, it’s a time for celebration and worship. To others, it’s a time for celebration, family and parties. And to railway workers, it’s a time to get dressed up in orange protective clothing and actually go to work in daylight! For Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the only two days in the year that Britain’s railway network shuts - completely.
So, as well as undertaking major work over two days (actually around 52 hours given that it shuts at midnight on 23 December and reopens at 04:00 on the 27th), it’s a good time to do all the little jobs that would otherwise have to be carried out in one or more four or fivehour shifts in the dead of night. That’s why 20,500 people were working at over 4,500 sites around the country. Most were not major pieces of work, but they all benefitted from that 52-hour window. More work could be done than would otherwise take place in three months’ worth of weekends. The work was spread right across the country, although some projects were larger than others. Indeed, some were so large, or so complex, or just took so long, that the two-day window had to be extended by a day or two, perhaps over New Year.
Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020
The good news In all, 34 projects delivering infrastructure through a total of 57 worksites identified as RED through the Delivering Work Within Possessions (DWWP) standard, therefore carrying a greater risk of overrun and/or a more significant impact in the event of an overrun. As a result of lessons learned on other Christmas closedowns, when unacceptable delays occurred which prevented the railway from reopening as planned and caused a great deal of embarrassment to Network Rail executives, and because of the thorough planning that now takes place, no capital delivery schemes accrued any possession overrun delay minutes and the railway was returned to operational use on time. The highlights of Christmas and New Year 2019 included:
» Large-scale switches & crossings (S&C) renewals at Haymarket, Newport, Colchester, Ashford and Southall; » Plain line track renewals at Pitstone Crendon Road, Crewe and Norton Crossing within the North West & Central Region, and at Shields Road in the Glasgow area; » The energisation of Cardiff Central as part of the electrification of the Great Western main line; » Continuation of a number of large enhancement schemes including Leeds Station, Werrington Dive Under, London to Corby (L2C) and Euston HS2 Enabling Works » Structures, OLE and drainage renewal schemes at Sanderstead Road (Southern), Cleveley Cutting (North West & Central) and Cheadle Hulme (North West & Central).
The bad news Sadly, of the 20,500 people deployed on the work, three did not have a happy Christmas. At approximately 23:00 on Christmas Day, a Network Rail employee who was working in a mobile elevating work platform in Kensal Green came
