ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

Anyone gonna point out we've hit #page300?

Thanks for doing it for us!

• First 100 pages: 12 months
  
• Second 100 pages: 5.5 months
  
• Third 100 pages: 4 months
  

At this rate, we may hit 1000 pages by the time the LRT is operational!

[Canard]

I should be good for at least 1/3 of those when the first train arrives later this year. Brace yourselves.

(Joking/not joking lol)

(And I'll use this post as my "Thank you" for anyone involved in keeping this forum running, financially, time-wise or otherwise - it is absolutely fantastic that we have a resource like this to discuss our interests!)

[tomh009]

Lots of work happening to tidy up loose ends on Charles.  No sign as of yet of finishing the concrete between Queen and Ontario, though.  And some welding still needs to be done in front of Cameron Heights.

Between Queen and Benton: New concrete strip between the tracks and the curbs.
   

At Cedar: Intersection closed and almost ready to pour the concrete.
   

Between Stirling and Borden: Working on the forms so the concrete can be poured
   

[Canard]

There is still some trackwork to go in, in 2 places, between Cedar and Borden (right around Cameron Heights, and that "weird hill" road.

I hope Charles opens soon.

[tomh009]

Weird hill road? I think that's Madison maybe.

Yes, some of the rails on the south/east side of the station still need welding.

[Canard]

Not just welding - they need rails, period! That's what I keep getting at. There are two big gaps with no track at all. One large, one smaller.

[tomh009]

There are some spare (?) rails sitting next to the curb in that area.  I don't know whether those are for the gaps.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, traffic lights and LRT signals are being installed at Queen and Charles:
   

[chutten]

This morning they were laying track on the ties and ballast for the northern track at Waterloo Town Square (nothing that extends into Caroline or King, just through the parking lot). It's a lot lower than the existing track, and I'm not sure why. I guess there might be a little bit of raised pavement on King where the freight line crosses, which they could remove with a lower grade... eh. I just hope they replace those brick segments of "trail" between the buildings. They're too narrow and too uneven to meet regs, near as I can tell.

[Canard]

They're laying the new freight line right now, which is separate from ion. I posted a bunch of diagrams a few weeks ago on the fb group explaining. Will cc: here later tonight when I get a chance.

Edit: see if this works for you: https://www.facebook.com/groups/81680629...244474051/

[Markster]

I just hope they replace those brick segments of "trail" between the buildings. They're too narrow and too uneven to meet regs, near as I can tell.

Be careful what you wish for... if they were to make that area meet regulations, I'm pretty sure it would be closed entirely to pedestrians. And/or tear down some adjacent buildings.

[Canard]

They are working on the transition at Queen right now.

[GtwoK]

For the curious, I've been amassing a bunch of combined Functional Design Plans for the Ion route. I've been combining them in Illustrator for the purpose of my updating Google Maps, but I might as well share them if anyone else would like to see!

I'm hosting most of them on my server because the majority of them are too large to upload to something like imgur.

Courtland / Fairway
Downtown
Midtown
Northfield / Conestoga
Waterloo Park / Uptown
Frederick
University
Charles / Charles pt 2
Borden


Would love to combine them all into one big one, but Chrome can't seem to handle any image larger than 10,000px wide, which is what I had to downsize some of these to!

[Canard]

That's absolutely fantastic - thank you!

I tried to do this on a much smaller scale (in the facebook link above) and had enough trouble just rotating the one sheet to the correct angle to get the break line to align.  

1/2 - Tuesday, July 5

   
Grade Separation work.

   
...a little closer.

   
Track is being laid out through the curve from Francis onto Victoria.

   
Lots of formwork on the Southbound platform track at Borden.

[Canard]

2/2 - Tuesday, July 5

   
Track for the new freight line has gone in.

   
This is the switch where the freight traffic will connect to the ion track.

   
Another shot of the new freight line.

[KevinL]

So GrandLinq is providing concrete sleepers for everything they replace? I guess it's cheaper to dip into their own supplies and use their existing equipment.