Introduction

You arrive at your new modern architect design station and admire its design, in glides a train with an elegant front end looking sleek and fit for purpose. Then you look up and see the overhead electrical wiring that feeds electricity to the trains - and your heart sinks. The brutal mish mash of grey metal structutres that echo electricity pylons ruins the skyline. Is this the same railway?

When you look around at new railway electrification you start to think what a missed opportunity this was to add to the quality of the built environment. After all, they do it in Europe and Asia.

Height

Traditionally the easiest way to get electricity around was to string wires between poles. Putting the wire underground is expensive and can have running costs in terms of cooling.

In the UK lower voltages in towns have gone underground, but look at much of the US which due to the use of overhead power lines for domestic electricity suppy looks extremely scruffy.

Sticking the wires up in the air keeps them cool and away from people, they're dangerous after all.

And so electrical engineers see air as a free resource, it doesn't have to be paid for. So they can go as high as they like. And without planning permission.

Current railway OLE has grown in height to add new auto transformer wire technology and, supposedly, to allow easier installtion of all wires underneath horizontal beams. And taller means bigger. Would the structures be so high if there was a cost, say an environmental damage tax?

After all, the higher you go, the bigger the impact. Nobody complains about low things. Some electrical engineers say that noboddy cares what it looks like as long as they get reliable trains. How depressing. There is no incentive for OLE engineers to keep their structures low.

Because the taller a structure gets, the more responsibility the builder has to his neighbours.

Mixture of grey portals in front of classical tunnel mouths and Scottish National Library.

See Edinburgh page.

The pylons turn from engineer design to designer engineering on entrance to the science park. A fantastic illustration of the difference in design.

Elegant 'designer' masts in Holland

Grey lattice cantilevers mar the East London skyline. Missed opportunity to improve the environment.

Good design

A RIBA competition in 2014 produced some exciting new 'aesthetic' design ideas. But they were all rejected by the rail industry, despite being designed by engineers. At the time it was reported positively in the rail press, including the trade press. https://www.ribacompetitions.com/ols/index.html

Lip service

A Network Rail document:

NR-GN-CIV-100-05-Heritage-Care-and-Development-Module_19.09.20

purports to show care for the environment and quotes GWML electrification as a success story for the environment. Yet it was a disaster.

Aesthetically pleasing structure for sensitive area. Round pole. Can't we have this everywhere? Why does Bath get better than everyone else?

Sensitive areas

There does seem to be agreement that there are sensitive areas through which the railway passes, areas of natural beauty and urban environments. Hence special designs in St Pancras train shed and the Durham and Berwick (Royal Border Bridge) viaducts.

But isn't everywhere a sensitive area? Or put it another way, what are insensitive areas? What if the same rule applied to buildings? Our housing would look like that in the ex Soviet eastern block.

When the engineers say the appearance of OLE is subjective you know they're arguing a lost cause.

There are many locations where the industry recognises that OLE must suit the location - Berwick, Durham, Sydney Gardens Bath, St Pancras trainshed and most recently it has been suggrested by Transport Scotland that the Forth Bridge would require a careful electrification design to befit its World Heritage Site status.

One practical realsisation that overhead is ugly is the new catenary free extensions to the tram network in Birmingham.

Elegant arches.

Over tall masts mounted on castleated historic structures.

So it is possible to turn utiltarian objects into art.

Cost

OLE costs squillions. And don't think of altering anything once its up as that costs a fortune too.

OLE masts are made in standard lengths so they're always tall enough for the job, less accuracy in the surveying. These over tall masts are not shortened once installed as its easier to leave all that metal up there than cut it off, take it away, and recycle it.

There is a history of cost overuns, with GWR, Northern Hub and Goblin delays and cost increases due to design and engineering errors.

Incredibly tall gantry in the city centre.

Rigid OLE using masts that match other station architecture.

Trust

And do we trust the secretive electrical engineers? They always tell us its fine, that they've learned by their recent mistakes, before they mess up again with bad designs and over budget results.

Professionalism

Their seems to be a big mistrust from the electrical engineerss of other disciplines that have offered fresh ideas, architects and designers. Hence rejection of all the RIBA ideas for example.

It is majestic, daring – and a destination in itself. This glorious new station in Belgium is the future of train travel. With designer OLE gantries.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/16/liege-guillemins-train-station

Lack of imagination

How did Network Rail think it was alright to use the Master Series, not just in the Goring, but on the whole line. How could they do that?

I read that many of the residents of Goring are barristers but they got nowhere in their 3-year battle to hold NR to the promise to reduce the visual impact of the OLE. Read the sorry tale on the links page.

And the Goblin Wansted viaduct OLE - ugly cantilevers mounted on one side. What a missed opportunity to enhance the appearnce and introduce an art form into the landscape - hoops for example.

OLE engineers are missing the opportunity to add beauty to the landscape as well as electricity.

Despite the trainshed (behind the photographer) being grade 1 listed and the award winning new western concourse, standard heavy weight OLE was used in the 2021 remodelled throat instead of headspans.

Elegant round hoops without sharp angles. Ideal for viaducts. Could have been like this on Goblin (Gospel Oak - Barking).

Rusting gantries alongside heritage structures.

GWR OLE. Photo by J Stretton in RAIL Mgazine August 2021. Why does it have to be this high? Look at the height above the train, can be seen from a long way away.

Grey lcantilevers mar the sky with a different portal design in the distance.

Elegant hoops without sharp angles.

GWR OLE at Huckford. Way too tall, keep them ALARP - as low as reasonably practical.

Difficult to see, but elegant portals the far side of the bridge with leaning masts.

Simple overhead rail.

Brand new station. Newly installed OLE. Did the architects and the electrical engineers talk about a unifying design?

Round poles on Metrolink in the background, ugly portal in the forground on the classic viaduct.

Too tall!

Nice to get elegant OLE and high tension grid pylon in the same photograph.

Alternative texts

One might argue that the best design is functional, and that OLE is actually beautiful, the result of the elctrical engineers (dark) art. And on plain line this may be true, with equal spacing, the zig-zagging of the wire and the harmony with the alignment of the route. However, where people come into contact with the railway, in cities, towns and at stations the OLE is more likely to be a mess with lattice work, high level electrical line feeds, extra tensioning sytems and the inevitable H-section masts sawn off at different heights - all plonked around in an almost random manner - and all in delightful light grey, or if you’re unlucky, in varying shades of rust brown or yellow primer.

New trains are designed to look good and new stations are designed by renowned architects with quality items like lamp posts and station sign supports part of the brief (and often painted in the operators colours). But not the OLE supports, these look like theyve come from a different planet.

Current appearance

Turbostar trains sliding in and out of Fenchurch Street from Tower Gateway Station across to the fantastic buildings of the City of London (including the gherkin) are destroyed by rusting gantries (picture). The great train shed at Glasgow Central with its delicate ironwork is pierced by gantries that make no attempt at harmony. In Manchester, the castellated bridges and viaducts carry the railway through the Castlefields conservation area. And what have the electrical engineers put in? Rusty H-masts and industrial signal suppports (picture) .On tram systems the engineers splash out under pressure on round supports - even popping a ball or finial on top to please the local politicians - how Victorian!

But look at locations where the original engineers built beautiful structures to complement the historic environment. In Newcastle, elegant stone bridges carry the railway over still perfect Victorian streets, past the castle and the Tyne Bridge with its beautiful attention to detail. ( picture detail) The enginers should be ashamed, such desecration

Engineers v Designers

light grey steel monstrosities that will have nothing to do with the overall scheme. Because they are safety and cost critical they can’t be entrusted to architects or designers - only engineers can be trusted.

There seems to be a trend in OLE design that is upward in height. The CTRL uses the French extra-tall style masts that carry the auto transformer feed wire. Why does this wire have to be so high on open line when it quite happily drops down to go under bridges and through tunnels. Its this ';air is free' again.

We all turn a blind eye to the blight that - just who do they think they are?

Is it because electrification is seen as a necessary evil? That there is no alternative? That power transmission lines have already set the agenda?

Even station canopies are pierced by the supports.

One gasps in astonishment at the sizes of the new structures. No-one wants the railway preserved in aspic and overhead electrification is the way forward to preserve a rail-based transport system which we need in the future after peak oil. The railway is fast becoming an industrial people unfriendly environment and we can do much better. The new HSL-Zuid and the Betuweroute use exciting new ‘designer’ masts that prove that it can be done (picture). More ‘wireless’ tram systems are being installed in Europe, the APS system using burried power cables in Bordeux, Angers and Reims.classic heritage structures like canopies are pierced by the supports.

Electrification engineers appear to answerable to no one and a law unto themselves.

Stations have large industrial edifaces placed on them, huge gantry and signalling structures are placed on the platform in front of the customer, yet people would prefer their railway to be more like their car or a shopping centre rather than an electrical sub-station station. Yes, pasenger numbers are rising, but only because their is no alternative. The railway must become one of us rather than their is no alterrnative.

There is recognition that outdoor electrical structures whether HT electricity pylons, mobile phone mast or railway OLE are contentious, in the countryside, on embankments and viaducts in the city. But the people must have electricity!

Why is it that electrification engineers get away with it. Whether it’s national grid pylons or railway OHLE systems they seem to get away with it. Somehow, everyones ‘right’ to the benefits of electricity means that we all turn a blind eye to the ugliness that is electrical distribution.

Light gey seems to be the colour of choice, although rust brown is quite common on older systems. And black on street tramways. Anyone heard of colour?

New noise barriers on the Trent Valley four-tracking have been designed to look like wooden fencing. Why one rule for everything but no rule for electrical structures. The Blue Mountains Crossing in Australia, and today the rusting gabtries spoil the length of the line (picture) standing in complete contrast to pretty infrastructure at stations like Leura..

But somehow electrical engineers get away with it. Modernisation of the WCML has seen the previously simple masts from the 1974 electrification extended vertically by a bolted on tube to carry this wire at a higher level than previously. This mars the scenery up through the Lune gorge and to Scotland and is a particularly crude engineering solution which looks like an afterthought. Still higher gantries have been erected to feed extra power down to the overhead wieed power down to the overhead wires. High level transformers are proliferating. Surely, lower structures should be their aim? Because the taller a structure gets, the more responsibility the builder has to his neighbours.

If one looks at thes at Wilmslow to carry overhead wires and a signal light bulbs, especially when compared with the size of the supports holding up the Victorian footbridge nearby. How much is all this costing as well as allienating the user with the industrial environment?

Lip service has been paid in the past to the visual environment, for example the use of round poles on the Royal Border Bridge (ast to the visual environment, for example the use of round poles on the Royal Border Bridge (les on the Royal Border Bridge (e design of similar structures on roads, they get the industrial designers attention, for example ‘designer’ gantries on the M42 and the curved variable sign supports on the M4.

The new Crewe-Kidsgrove electrification uses too many casntilevers.

From HSL website: The HSL cuts through the countryside of the provinces North and South Holland and North Brabant. The guiding principland construction of the HSL is that, wherever possible, the railway line must be integrated with existing infra

Manchester: The original bridge was designed to grace the southern crossing of Manchester through the Castelfields conservation area. A rusty support takes advantage of the space provided by the castellated tower (picture).