Harborough rail users
Improving the quality of Market Harborough's rail service
Good progress continues with the electrification of the line from Kettering to Market Harborough. On 15th March, several overhead support posts were installed behind Platform 1, and other work continues around the station. The picture below shows one of the masts being lifted into position.
(Photo: Steve Jones) Network Rail will soon be starting work on the new toilet block and waiting room at Market Harborough station. This is long awaited, and further information can be found here: https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/better-facilities-at-market-harborough-station-this-may Early site preparation under way behind the south end of Platform 1 at Market Harborough as contractors assemble the site compound on 26th January. In the left foreground can be seen two of the bases for the overhead line masts for the forthcoming electrification.
Photo: Steve Jones Users of Market Harborough station will have noticed evidence of electrification really getting under way. At the time of writing, overhead line masts have been installed just north of the platforms, and through Little Bowden. Lengthy stretches of the line through Braybrooke and most of the way to Kettering now have at least some evidence of electrification, whether that be the mast support bases, masts themselves and, in many cases, the gantry brackets that will carry the wires. The power supply substation at Braybrooke is also very much under construction. The Government’s Integrated Rail Plan promises electrification of the entire Midland Main Line, right through to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield. We now trust that once the electrification has reached Market Harborough, it can swiftly continue towards Leicester. It’s coming. On a sunny 13th January 2022, an EMR Meridian train passes the first electrification masts at Market Harborough station as it arrives with the 15:03 to Nottingham. Most of the line through to Kettering now has some evidence of electrification equipment by the lineside.
Photo: Steve Jones Work on the long-awaited electrification of the main line from Kettering to Market Harborough officially started on Saturday 11th December. Much preparatory work had already taken place, including cutting back of lineside vegetation that might interfere with the overhead lines, plus a start on the power supply substation at Braybrooke, just outside Market Harborough. The first job for the electrification teams, who are operating out of site compounds at Rushton, Braybrooke and behind Platform 1 at Market Harborough, is to install the tubular steel piles in the ground to support the overhead line masts. Several of these were already in place at Braybrooke on 11th December. Work continues on this operation, mostly overnight plus some weekend working, until January. Once complete, the electrification and power supply upgrade will enable the new Aurora trains to operate on electric power south from Market Harborough when they are introduced into service in 2023. By then, we hope the decision to continue beyond Market Harborough will have been made, in accordance with the Government’s promise in its Integrated Rail Plan, published on 18th November 2021, to electrify the whole Midland Main Line. Early sign of progress: an electrification contractor’s road-rail vehicle heads south past the former level crossing at Glebe Road, Little Bowden, on Saturday 11th December, the day electrification work officially started. Photo: Steve Jones Getting ready: the electrification site compound at Braybrooke on 11th December. Overhead line supports can be seen on the left, stored ready for installation. In the middle foreground is one of the first mast support piles, freshly installed, while in the middle distance is a temporary ramp for road-rail vehicles to gain access to the track.
Pictures: Steve Jones The electrification of the railway between Bedford and Corby is due to come into service with the new timetable on 15th May. There has long been a desire to see the electrification of the whole Midland Main Line, and the first stage of that, from Kettering to Market Harborough, is now in the early stages of implementation. Vegetation clearance along the lineside from Kettering is well under way, with trees being either felled or trimmed back where they are too close to the line and the future overhead wires. Work on the new substation that will feed the electrification has also started. This is near Braybrooke, where the National Grid high-voltage power line crosses the railway. The substation is due to be completed by autumn 2022, in time for the electrification itself to be installed. Clearing the way. Contractors trimming back the lineside vegetation south of Market
Harborough station in preparation for the extension of electrification from Kettering. Photo: Steve Jones |
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