Boxing Day and work continues apace.

I managed to find a bit of time to visit the west side of the work site where the work to install the new Hitchin North junction has continued all over Christmas taking advantage of the shutdown.  There were a lot of construction workers in evidence and quite a lot of equipment stretching all the way along the embankment from the Grove Road bridge to the start of the viaduct.  It certainly looked as if the junction was in place.  Unfortunately there are no immediate vantage points from which to photograph.   I took a number from the back of the scrapyard and some from Bury Mead Road.  I will edit these and put them up tonight.  Family commitments require my presence now unfortunately!

This a shot of the finished link between the ECML and the viaduct.  The River Hiz was running quite high and I was only just able to get under the bridge.  The Bury Mead Springs area was very sodden which is not surprising really.

Not a great location to take a picture, this shows the general area of activity from the edge of the sewage treatment works.

Looking back from the Springs, a mobile crane lowers a length of rail onto the link.

 Two more shots of the same machine from the higher ground looking through the viaduct piers.

 Here it is moving another length of rail into position.

 Rail dropped into place guided by a colleague.

 I had wondered if was rail mounted but this shot shows it was running on caterpillar tracks.

 This picture was taken from Bury Mead Road across the sewage works. 

 Looking a bit closer, this certainly looks like newly laid track.

 This final shot shows workers standing on top of the River Hiz underbridge.  The guard rail that can just be made out behind the two workers on the left is on the Great Northern three arch side of the bridge in Cadwell Lane.  The more modest Midland Railway single arch is protected by scaffolding just visible bottom left.   By the time I left the crane was moving rail onto the viaduct itself.