On Fri, 19 Sep 2008, Jamie Thompson wrote:

On 19 Sep, 16:02, Tom Anderson wrote:
How important is the ECML as a freight route?

Enough to have freight lines between Ally Pally and Finsbury (the ones
being upgraded to passenger grade)....though I'd imagine the Welwyn
bottleneck forces much of the traffic onto the WCML and MML.

It may be more a case of there once being enough freight to have such
lines. Quail 2005 only calls one of these, the up, a goods line - the
downs are fast, slow 1 and slow 2. I wonder if the retention of the
specific up goods is to do with providing access to the depot and sidings,
which are on the east side of the formation, rather than being for goods
per se.

There's already a link from the westbound (what you call southbound there)

Yeah, I was taking the NLL as my base, and it runs North-South through
the site, so that's what I went with. You are of course correct.

Goblin to the northbound MML, which is what freight trains need. A link
from the westbound Goblin to the southbound MML seems less useful - unless
you're thinking of opening a freight terminal at Kentish Town?

Point noted...IIRC that curve was formerly used for the passenger
services to Moorgate before electrification, and Kentish town
afterwards, and would be useless for freight unless this was 1930-odd
and freight was still running to St Pancras goods or via the snow Hill
tunnel

Quail does indicate that there's a freight terminal just outside St
Pancras: Churchyard Terminal, used for cement and similar. I have no idea
if that predates the rebuild, was temporary during the rebuild, or still
exists.

Anyway, never mind that, bring back Thameslink freight!

Indeed, what's currently missing from the system is your blue line - a
way for westbound freight on the NLL to get onto the MML. Score one for
the Goblin! I don't believe there's any way for it to do this without
reversing at the moment, and even with a reverse, it has to go via the
WCML, Acton Wells and Dudden Hill. Or am i missing something?

What stops freight running west to Hampstead Heath, reversing through
Gospel Oak to Junction Road, then running west via Junction Road
Junction to the MML?

Two reverses! That could work, i just didn't think of it. The challenge is
at the second reverse: getting from the eastbound Goblin to the westbound
track on the link to the MML. You can't do that at Junction Road Junction:
you either have to carry on to Upper Holloway, where there's a crossover,
and reverse east of that, or run wrong-rail along the link and use a
crossover that's down there just before the junction with the MML. I
imagine running on the Upper Holloway would be preferable.

tom

--
Just because Congresspeople do it, doesn't mean it's right. -- Ian York