Images bring to life many London Reconnections pieces. We are lucky to have a band of chums willing to brave frostbite, heat stroke and going rusty to capture stuff on our behalf. Therefore our thanks and copyright acknowledgements go to Steam 60163 and Unravelled for these images enabling us to update earlier articles. Over with Steam 60163 Earlier this year we published an article about the new graded junction at Hitchin. Steam 60163 has assiduously recorded the construction of this … Continued

Crossrail have released another batch of photos related to their current tunnelling operations. Interestingly, these seem to focus more on activites beyond the main tunnel drives than the previous batch. It includes, for example, photos of Sophia – the first of Crossrail’s Slurry TBMs – and both Crossrail’s Thames Tunnel and Cable Tunnels at Liverpool Street. The pick of these images are included below. Tunnel Segments at Plumstead Sophia, one of two Slurry TBMs, at Plumstead Crossrail’s Thames Tunnel Digging … Continued

As readers will no doubt have noticed, we have been somewhat quiet lately. This is, in part, because both Lemmo and I have been involved in the process of moving houses (an exercise at which he has so far proved more successful than I). It largely fell to Pedantic to “mind the fort,” a task he accomplished admirably. To begin the return to normality, it seems worth highlighting a number of Crossrail photos which have emerged over the last month. … Continued

Having enjoyed the fruits of the Crossrail’s aerial survey we now return to Docklands to watch the new railway appear in front of our eyes. Eschewing the chance to vegetate before his tinsel decked telly, Unravelled recently followed in the footsteps previously trodden by John Bull to capture the progress being made on the former NLL North Woolwich branch south of Canning Town.

To most Londoners, Crossrail remains hidden – at least as long as works aren’t inconveniencing a daily commute. The dock north of Canary Wharf has now been filled in by a beehive of workers, but the serious work of tunnelling and station building is largely hidden out of sight. 2013, however, arguably represents the point at which Crossrail’s visible profile will begin to climb, and so as the year opens this seems a good opportunity to take a look at the project again. In the first part of this series, we will therefore resort to a tried-and-trusted LR staple – the aerial photo

With Tunnelling now under way (or rather, in the west, resumed), Crossrail have released a new set of photos relating to the commencement of operations on the Limmo peninsular. We’ve looked extensively at the Royal Oak tunnelling portal before, but Limmo is a thoroughly different beast and the photos show just how true that is. Unlike the western portal, the restricted access at Limmo meant that a shaft had to be constructed and the TBM parts lowered in for subsurface … Continued