12/08/2014 BBC Points West

Good evening from Points West. That's all from us.

The electrification of the Great Western train line from London

It's a project which is costing ?1.5 billion and will change the shape

Over the next two years the work will move westwards from London

Paddington into Wiltshire, then Swindon, onto Bath, Bristol and

Normally that kind of work would mean lane closures and replacement

bus services but a special train has been designed to carry out the work

in the middle of the night so normal services can keep running in

These piles hold the gantries on which power lines

It is the first stage of the transformation

We have come through the testing and commissioning phase and are now into

This ?40 million train is called Brunel.

It carries everything it needs to dig holes, mix and pour concrete,

erect overhead gantries, and install wires.

We have got to install 18,000 of these piles all the way

The adjacent line can remain open, so services can still run through

The train creeps over a level crossing at walking pace.

The location for each new pile is fixed by satellite.

So, this GPS is accurate to 15 millimetres?

But, despite all the fancy kit, measuring still comes down to

a spirit level, a tape measure and boots on the ballast.

We are investing a huge amount of money,

to ensure that by December 2016 we have faster, greener trains.

The train works up to five times faster than conventional gangs

The price tag for the whole project, around ?1.5 billion.

By breakfast time, trains will be running again.

A man on remand at Bristol prison has been charged with the attempted

The alleged attack is said to have taken place during

an exercise period and has left 37`year`old Mohamed Sharif in a coma

34`year`old Ryan Guest from Yate in South Gloucestershire has been

The family of a Swindon man whose body was

found at a recycling plant has paid tribute to him saying he was a

The body of 34`year`old Matthew Symonds was found at the Biffa site

Today police said his death is not being treated as suspicious.

Somerset's tourist trade is being told to make itself

a year`round business, rather than rely on just a few summer months.

At the moment 8% of the county's income is generated

But a leading economist says more needs to be done to cash`in

on a predicted tourism boom in this country over the next decade.

All this week on Points West we're looking at engineering wonders

Science journalist Jheni Osman chose her five favourites

from the region and today she's been discovering how Wells Cathedral was

It is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in England. It escaped

the Civil War, the Reformation, and its builders survived the Black

death. But it would not be here today if it was not for some unique

engineering solutions to a serious problem. In the 14th century, Wells

Cathedral was sinking. The Cathedral archaeologist says the East End of

the cathedral was built on gravel, and the West End on clay. The real

problems came after they added the tower. There was a letter saying the

fabric is broken at the heart. So they had to call in a master mason,

and he designed the great scissor archers. Elsa has written

extensively about the cathedral. She likes to imagine the outright panic

amongst the builders. When of these cracks started appearing, some as

tall as a pillar, they must have been

cracks started appearing, some as tall as a pillar, they must have

been petrified. They were scrabbling round, I feel, like frightened

rabbits, really. What do we do next? In this period, several towers in

the country, they were all experimenting, they fell down. The

way they did arches is special. Instead of the arch going like

that, they connected the whole thing up. I sat in on a class in Wells.

Pupils were finding out wide arches are so good at carrying weight. Dry

spaghetti may not be the best building material, but the results

illustrated the point that the scissor arches could indeed carry

more weight. As well as looking nice, it is incredibly strong, much

stronger than the original. So, they did not get off to a great start,

but then the great rebuilding work turned out to be an engineering and

artistic masterpiece. Football now and a mixed bag

of results in the first round Cheltenham lost 2`0 away to

Championship Brighton, and Bristol City also lost against Oxford at

Ashton Gate where the score was 2`1. Better news for Swindon who

won 2`1 away at Luton. But disappointment for Yeovil who

lost 2`1 at home to Gillingham. More news on the BBC website. We are

back with you tomorrow. Good night. Still a fuchsia was around at the

moment, but as we head through into tomorrow, generally speaking there

will be more in the way of dry weather about. Certainly not as

Manish ours as in the last couple of days. A moderately breezy day.

Temperatures getting down to 10 Celsius. Most of the showers focused

through the mouth of the River Severn, the M4 corridor. By

tomorrow, the winds move towards the north`westerly direction, giving us

better shelter. If you showers towards the West and northern parts

of the Cotswolds. Generally speaking, a good deal of dry and

sunny weather. Moderate pollen count tomorrow with temperatures slightly

up on today. However, a return of heavy showers on Thursday, less as

we move into Friday, and fewer showers for Saturday,

of a messy couple of days with some heavy rain and showers but here'sing

Matt with the national weather. Good evening. Given the recent

change in weather conditions I am esure a few of you have mentioned

"autumn" who would blame new western Scotland today a mid-August day,

driving wind, strong winds, temperatures at one po incompetent

were just 13. A better day tomorrow, here, though. The cloud we have had

today will work southwards. You will notice still unstable air across

England and Wales. Lively thunderstorms through today. They

are fading away by in large. One or two showers in the West but longer,

clearer periods here. We still have that cloud,