Rail for London (RfL) Crossrail Operations were undertaking a station improvement programme to ensure the Crossrail network will become a fully accessible railway by the time it opens.
Four stations – Hanwell, Iver, Langley and Taplow on the Great Western Railway were upgraded as part of this programme with Pod-Trak delivering Langley & Taplow.
Installation of the footbridge required adjustments to the aerial earth wire heights, alterations to the system heights and registrations at either side of the new footbridge.
Working on the existing Furrer & Frey equipment, new earth wire was installed through the station at a reduced height to clear the bridge soffit and was fixed onto new anchors and bonded to the next section of earth wire for continuity.
The OLE was registered with Furrer & Frey SIC cantilevers on stove pipes which were then swapped for longer stove pipes to achieve the new lower catenary height and the SIC cantilevers were swapped for reduced system height SIC cantilevers.
At either side of the new bridge the spans had new droppers installed to grade the OLE. Final registration to new design and pantograph checks were carried out on each of the 4 lines at Langley and Taplow.
Due to a 3rd party possession, access to the UP / DN Main at Langley was not available for rail mounted plant. To meet the requirements of the programme, two 3t Mewps were lifted onto the platform using a 300t crane at a 62m radius. Works were then delivered using the Mewps and a tower scaffold.
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