Darra to Springfield Stage 1 construction Darra to Richlands

[ozbob]

Yes, and while the works for the platforms going ahead a lot easier for cranes etc. not to worry about the wires.  It will be done quickly when access sorted.

[mufreight]

Work on wiring the fourth line through platform 1 at Darra was well under way on the morning of 3rd August with on track equipment of a crane, a high rail mounted cherry picker and one of QR's Munster high Rail units, another Munster was working as a work platform in the vicinity of the brickworks and a crew was working on the interlocking and point mechanism at the Junction of the Richlands line with the Down Suburban line to the west of Darra station.
Overhead has been erected through Richlands station over the down line with work in progress on the up line,
Sleepers are being placed for the Down line between the Warrender Road overbridge and Boundary Road with ballasting having commenced on the up line over the same section. 

[paulg]

New Nearmap imagery is coming online:
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-27.596277,152.94769&z=19&t=k&nmd=20100720

Cheers, Paul

[colinw]

Thanks Paul, that's great!  

Interesting to see formation works & two rail bridges in place well beyond Richlands now.  Looks like the rail formation works make it most of the way to the Logan Motorway now.

[ozbob]

Some photographs from early August

Darra East







Darra Junction















Darra West





Richlands













Photographs mufreight 1st August 2010

[ozbob]

Richlands Station, OHT in place

































Photographs R Dow 8th August 2010


As it was, the Richlands Station site on 24th August 2008



Photograph R Dow 24th August 2008

[#Metro]

The work being done on this project is impressive. It really is.
The stations look great. I think when this opens, the patronage will really surprise people.

I hope that the planners have the foresight to provide timed feeder buses to every station to meet every train.
Other than that, this is amazing!

[ozbob]

Boundary road, between Darra and Richlands.  The down branch line has reached Boundary Road.









Boundary Road Overbridge




Closer to Darra just UP from the Ipswich Hwy













Photographs R Dow 8th August 2010

[ozbob]

Government Road area, just past Richlands station.  End of the OHT for now.











Photographs mufreight 8th August 2010

[ozbob]

Some more photographs at Boundary Road as it was on the 8th August







On the branchline around Darra West













Photographs mufreight 8th August 2010

[ozbob]

Wiring at Darra, from the train





Photographs mufreight 13th August 2010


Boundary Road area







Photographs mufreight 14th August 2010

[ozbob]

Early Sunday morning ballast train, ballasting of the UP branch line to Richlands underway ..























Photographs R Dow 15th August 2010

[ozbob]

Ballast train through Oxley on the DOWN main,  reverses at Corinda, comes back on the UP sub line (pushed) for Darra and the branch line to Richlands













Photographs R Dow 17th August 2010

[ozbob]

Rail train bound for the Richlands branch passing through Corinda prior to the locomotives running around to push the train to Darra and onto the branch line, 18th August 2010.





















Photographs R Dow 18th August 2010

[ozbob]

The rail train on the branch











Photographs mufreight 18th August 2010

[ozbob]

Progress ..

Richlands







Richlands north











Garden Road









Boundary Road













Photographs mufreight 21st August 2010

[ozbob]

Another ballast train on the branch.

Boundary Road













Richlands













Photographs mufreight 24th August 2010

[ozbob]

Richlands












Boundary Road








Garden Road



Photographs mufreight 26th August 2010

[ozbob]

There will be some great photographs down the track.  Congestion chaos on the roads, trains flying by ...

[Golliwog]

How are the points being set up just before Richlands there? In one of the pics you can see a set of points for trains to go to/from either platform to the left (city bound?) track however theres no points to take a train from where the right (Richlands bound?) track into the platform that already has tracks in it. Or is it just further back around the corner where it can't be seen from those photos?

[colinw]

There will be some great photographs down the track.  Congestion chaos on the roads, trains flying by ...

It is good to see Brisbane joining Perth (and Los Angeles!) in the "railway along a freeway club".

cheers,
Colin

[mufreight]

At this stage it seems that there is only the trailing crossover on the north side of Richlands, that crossover will in all probability be removed when the lines extend further south to Springfield, with the anticipated train frequencies to Richlands it will in all probability see only the one platform used most of the time until the line and services are extended south.
At present there is no sign of any sleepers for a crossover to the south of the station but sleepers are stacked or laid  beyond the end of the overhead south of the Progress Rd overpass.

[somebody]

At this stage it seems that there is only the trailing crossover on the north side of Richlands, that crossover will in all probability be removed when the lines extend further south to Springfield, with the anticipated train frequencies to Richlands it will in all probability see only the one platform used most of the time until the line and services are extended south.
At present there is no sign of any sleepers for a crossover to the south of the station but sleepers are stacked or laid  beyond the end of the overhead south of the Progress Rd overpass.

Won't this make it hard to have a decent frequency at Richlands?  You'd have to do relatively precision crosses at Darra or in between Darra & Richlands.

[colinw]

... with the anticipated train frequencies to Richlands it will in all probability see only the one platform used most of the time until the line and services are extended south ...

Any idea what we're looking at during the interim period of operation as a single station spur line?

Half hourly by extension of the current Shorncliffe to Corinda service?   That wouldn'tt be ideal for Richlands, but good for Oxley & Darra and should see a full time 15 minute service on the inner Ipswich line at long last.

[mufreight]

Using only the one platform and the double track from Darra a 6tph frequency is easy to provide, by utilising the bidirectional capability that has been installed better than 9 tph is possible.
Darra to Richlands will be about a 4 minute or less running time and allowing 8 minutes to turn around so the use of only a single platform still allows more frequent operation than is experienced at present on the Ipswich line beyond Corinda.    

[somebody]

Using only the one platform and the double track from Darra a 6tph frequency is easy to provide, by utilising the bidirectional capability that has been installed better than 9 tph is possible.
Darra to Richlands will be about a 4 minute or less running time and allowing 8 minutes to turn around so the use of only a single platform still allows more frequent operation than is experienced at present on the Ipswich line beyond Corinda.    

Aren't you ignoring the effect of the 8 minute dwell time at Richlands here?  Clearly you cannot dwell each service for 8 minutes and run 9tph as that means 72 minutes of dwelling per hour!  I'd think 6tph would have little to no operating margin.  It may be an academic point though.

[colinw]

It may be an academic point though.

That's what I'm worried about.

[mufreight]

Four minutes to run the section eight minutes to turnaround one minute to clear the crossover, that is thirteen minute by my count which effectively is 4 1/2 tph, by use of the bidirectional capabilities and running trains past the platform for the turnbacks on the track provided one would assume for this purpose and fleeting of trains that then gives something like 9 tph plus, of course it is doubtful that the line will see better than 4 tph off peak for some years to come, in fact possibly not until the line is extended beyond Springfield through the Ripley valley and Yamanto into Ipswich, operated as a loop such a line would have a theoretical capacity of something like 20 tph in each direction.

[somebody]

It shouldn't be necessary to run the whole section Darra-Richlands should it?  So, you are thinking that trains will stop at platform n run past platform n, then dwell while another train arrives on platform n and turns back with a dwell and then departs inbound, followed by the first train then entering the platform at departing?  Seems to be a somewhat time consuming procedure, which two crossovers at Richlands would have prevented.

I'm a bit frustrated by the arrangements in this whole project.  After spending all that money on 4 tracks Corinda-Darra all with bi-di signaling, a rail bridge at Darra to connect platform 1 with the track to Ipswich and 2 tracks Darra-Richlands, it doesn't seem like much thought has been given as to how trains will be operated over the track without conflicting with each other.

[mufreight]

Have to disagree as to the amount of thought given to the layout of the track.
1. the arrangement at Darra West allows the bi-directional operation of freight services off the existing mains from Darra to Corinda.
2. it is possible to operate Richlands services without using the fourth line leaving it free for conflicting freight moves
The obvious failings of this project are the failure to fully electrify the fourth line and provide a connection with the up suburban line at Corinda.
Failure to provide the fourth platform at Oxley.
The track arrangement at Darra west has not made full provision for the future addition of a third and fourth track extending west to Wacol, to do so would have required the construction of a new double track bridge over Bullockhead Creek and Sananada Street with a full double track junction, which would have considerably escalated the costs.

[somebody]

Have to disagree as to the amount of thought given to the layout of the track.

Well, while arrangements do remove most of the conflicting moves between freight and passenger, many passenger moves conflict with other passenger moves, which isn't quite right.  E.g:
inbound & outbound Richlands trains - these conflict multiple times, but only really needed to be once.
outbound Ipswich trains and inbound Richlands trains - unavoidable in the PM but not in the AM

[mufreight]

Everything has constraints of some kind, the conflicts relating to the operation of the Richlands line trains will in time no doubt be resolved by providing the connection between the Up suburban line at Corinda and the fourth track (current the freight line), wiring the fourth track from Corinda to Panhard Street and the provision of the fourth platform at Oxley, this would have provided an up suburban track, all work that could have been done and should have been done now but like raising or building platforms to full height has not been done as a save money imperative by this governments bean counters who by their short-sighted stupidity will cost the taxpayers of this state hundreds of millions of our taxes to rectify the failings of a sub standard system that this government has created. 

[Golliwog]

Not saying it makes up for it, but on one hand yes, there are definate short comings with this upgrade and its associated quadruplication but there is still a net benefit in having built this line now rather than wait until there was enough money to build the whole thing in one go.

[somebody]

It'd be nice to have a flyover from Richlands to the old Darra #3 - would be Darra #5.  That would eliminate all pax-pax conflicting moves if combined with a few appropriate crossovers.

EDIT: I also see a crossover from the up main to the down suburban between Corinda and Sherwood.  With appropriate signaling, that makes the only problems in the Darra precinct.

[ozbob]

Richlands station - track is clipped down all the way through the platform



Richlands Sth taken from the Progress Rd overbridge the track is visible under the bridge for the Centenary Highway flyover but although it is hard to pick it out there is a break in the track and a set of turnout sleepers are stacked on the alignment for the second track so it would now seem that there will be a facing crossover at that point.



Photographs mufreight 28th August 2010

[ozbob]

A few more photographs at Richlands UP from the station (south)  these seem to confirm mufreight's observations that points will be placed here.

The break in the track and the extended sleepers confirm this.











Richlands












Around Boundary Road

Track vehicles on both UP and Down lines











Photographs R Dow 29th August 2010

[somebody]

Everything has constraints of some kind, the conflicts relating to the operation of the Richlands line trains will in time no doubt be resolved by providing the connection between the Up suburban line at Corinda and the fourth track (current the freight line), wiring the fourth track from Corinda to Panhard Street and the provision of the fourth platform at Oxley, this would have provided an up suburban track, all work that could have been done and should have been done now but like raising or building platforms to full height has not been done as a save money imperative by this governments bean counters who by their short-sighted stupidity will cost the taxpayers of this state hundreds of millions of our taxes to rectify the failings of a sub standard system that this government has created. 

Even that will still have conflicting moves!  Maybe not in the AM if the Ipswich bound trains use Darra #1, but in the PM trains from Richlands would need to cross the Ipswich bound trains at Milton or elsewhere.

[#Metro]

Looks like a bus-rail interchange there.
What is that tunnel in picture r6.jpg?

[ozbob]

Looks like a bus-rail interchange there.
What is that tunnel in picture r6.jpg?

One of the entry points to the car park (lower level) ..  The drop off areas in the foreground of r6 is the kiss and ride, the bus interchange is down nearer the platform entrance.

http://www.horizonalliance.com.au/Timeline.asp

--> Richlands Station

[#Metro]

This is a really good project and the station looks great.
Feeder buses will be important given the location- the interchange is good too.



Pity about the 4 lane motorway in each direction next door!
Imagine all that traffic that will generate being dumped on to Milton Rd, Ipswich Rd, Coronation Drive, Western Freeway...
... which will create the perfect justification for the Northern Link tunnel...

The sooner a BUZ is put down route 450 and route 100, the better.