12 July (Part 1) - Crossrail on track
I know some people don’t like Crossrail pictures appearing
here but there is nothing much else ready today. Below are pictures of the
prepared track bed from its nearest point to Lesnes Abbey, westward through to Abbey Wood
station and reflecting varying ground conditions.
The watery soup just below the surface in the vicinity of the station has seen extensive piling
with thick concrete on top but further east things are much more stable and it is likely
that the usual 600mm of stone on top of compacted ‘type 2’ will be sufficient. This is what one of the
structural engineers told me but experience has shown that such comments are not always reliable
- or maybe minds get changed.
The ground behind Fendyke Road has been heavily contaminated by domestic refuse, bedsteads, old tyres and
sanitary ware etc. over the years. It has been scraped out and sieved into a
heap of top soil and large skips have been filled with rubbish for Erith, the
large local construction plant company, to take away.
Photo 2 below was taken through the grill of the
Lesnes Abbey (Green Chain) footbridge. Before that was installed there was a regular night time firework display
as the local yobs threw metal scrap on to the electrified line below.
The carriage sidings which will soon be connected to the North Kent line at Plumstead have proved difficult to photograph thanks to Crossrail’s obsession
with fences and the most effective way might be to hop over and take a walk
along the track. On the assumption that Network Rail might object to that a
different technique has been adopted and for the railway geeks the results are hidden away here.
Southeastern’s grubby train windows are not as effective as fences.
More Crossrail related blogs.