Conclusions On The Dudding Hill Line
Except for taking a trip in the cab of one of the freight trains on the line, I think I’ve had a pretty good view of the length of the The Dudding Hill Line from Cricklewood to Acton.
The line gives the impression of being well-built and well-maintained and probably except for the bridge-cum-tunnel at Craven Park would not be in the difficult and expensive category to open up to a loading gauge suitable for containerised freight trains and electrify, especially if you judge it against this post, which discusses the problems of electrification.
So I stick with my conclusion that the line should be electrified.
The main reason would of course be for the freight, but it of course opens up the possibilities for passenger services. How about?
Brighton-Gatwick-St.Pancras-Heathrow.
Southampton-Reading-Heathrow-Luton-Sheffield-Newcastle.
The list is pretty endless and depends very much on what passengers want and what an operator is prepared to try.
But did I get any answers to any of the other questions I had in this post?
1. I have found no information on how to get from the North London Line to the Midland Main Line. So it would appear that it will be a difficult rail journey from London Gateway to the new Radlett Freight Distribution Centre, unless you unload the containers onto trucks. One or other of the two ends of the journey is in the wrong place.
2. I looked at the Acton area of the North London Line and its proximity to North Acton station and came to the conclusion, it might not be a good idea, as it has the Brixton problem with one line on a high bridge and the other in a cutting. It looks like politicians are trying to design a railway.
I’ll leave the other questions, as most aren’t concerned with the Dudding Hill Line.
My last conclusion is a bit of a cop-out! Because of the lack of a sensible connection between the Midland Main Line and the North London Line, is holding back full utilisation of the Dudding Hill Line.
As the more I investigated the Dudding Hill Line, the more it hit me, that we need a line around North East London.
Come back Palace Gates Line, all is forgiven!
A Professional View Of The Problems Of Electrification
Anybody interested in the future of the railways should read this article from Global Rail News.
It is mainly about the electrification of the Great Western Main Line and is full of interesting and sometimes surprising information.
Take the important subject of getting electricity to the wires.
As an electrical engineer by training, I was surprised by the fact that the overhead wire all the way from London to Cardiff is fed from the main 400 kV grid at just four points; Kensal Green, Didcot, Melksham and Cardiff, with Kensal Green to be shared with Crossrail. My intuition and 1960s training said there would have been a lot more.
I think that this gives further credence to the thought behind the interesting snippet from Modern Railways I commented on here.
A project manager’s nightmare is also detailed. If you are connecting your new electric railway to the National Grid, then you have to program your work for one of their shutdowns, as you can’t for example, let London go dead. So as with all projects, good project management is essential.
The article also talks about a variety of issues like creating enough height under bridges, the problems of the Severn Tunnel and heritage problems.
Was It A Mistake To Close The Palace Gates Line?
I must be one of the few people still alive, who regularly watched trains trundle up and down the Palace Gates Line between Palace Gates and Seven Sisters stations. I’ll admit that I didn’t see many trains, as I sat in my father’s office in Station Road Wood Green on a pile of ledgers in the early 1950s. Admittedly, most trains were just a single coach pushed or pulled by an ancient tank engine, but they kept this then five-year-old amused. Some psychologists might argue, it created my life-long fascination with trains.
But think what could be happening now to East Coast Main Line freight trains travelling to or from London Gateway or the Channel Tunnel, if the line hadn’t been closed and dismantled? The Palace Gates Line was linked to the Hertford Loop, so would it be that the line was used to get freight trains through North East London?
If nothing, it shows how those in charge of the railways in the 1960s were very bad at predicting what the railways would be like fifty years on.
But now Alexandra Palace is being proposed as one of the northern terminii of Crossrail 2, with the line being in tunnel from there to Seven Sisters and then on to my local stations at Dalston Junction and the Angel.
It would not probably be the most difficult of projects to add a junction at Seven Sisters, that allowed trains using the Crossrail 2 tunnel, to have access to the Gospel Oak to Barking line.
Such access would allow freight trains to travel under North East London. But I doubt that Transport for London would want freight trains running through their tunnels. But with platform edge doors, at any intermediate stations, would this still be the problem it is now? I wonder if anybody has put a tunnel under a city big enough to take freight trains and shared the line with the city’s local passenger trains or metro? I can’t find one in Wikipedia.
But if freight can’t use the Crossrail 2 tunnels, what about a third tunnel on the same alignment?
This is probably very fanciful, but we do need some way of getting freight through East London to the railway lines to the North. One alternative would be to make the M25 five or six lanes each way!
Closing the Palace Gates Line just removed an option and closing it today if it still existed, would probably not be contemplated.
Searching For The Dudding Hill Line – Neasden
After Cricklewood, I got a bus to Kilburn and then went on to Neasden to continue my search.
I actually caught sight of the Dudding Hill Line as I approached Neasden station and once I had exited the station onto Neasden Lane, it is not difficult to spot.
Searching For The Dudding Hill Line – Cricklewood Again
My trip to Cricklewood yesterday, was just an outdoor cold bath. But I got these pictures of the Dudding Hill Line this morning.
Note that I have included the pictures of the Midland Main Line at Cricklewood to show how wide the railway is, with seven tracks through the station.
It would appear that both the North and South curves to the Dudding Hill Line are double-tracked.
Please Stand On The Right
I’ve not seen this before on the Underground.
Please Stand On The Right
But it probably is a good simple idea.
Unless it was someone who forgot to clean their boots!
The Anonymous Widower 