Tracing The Goblin Extension – A Detour To Brockley
When I first saw the route it in TfL’s Transport Plan for 2050, it looked like they had found some way to connect the Brighton Main Line to the Nunhead to Lewisham link at Brockley.
But as the pictures of the Nunhead to Lewisham Link going across at Brockley show it is an impossible connection.
Unless of course TfL are going to demolish half of the area or develop flying trains.
The only improvement needed here is to paint the bridge, as they have done at Hackney Downs.
Brockley incidentally, is a very good coffee stop.
Tracing The Goblin Extension – Wimbledon To Norwood Junction
This part of the route was fairly straightforward even though in this exercise it was three separate trains.
- Wimbledon to Sutton
- Sutton to West Croydon
- West Croydon to Norwood Junction
Obviously, the Goblin Extension will do it without changes, by a direct route.
As an exercise, I tried to see what National Rail Train Enquiries said about how you get from Wimbledon to Norwood Junction. Some routes it gives are of the if-you-want-to-go-there-I-wouldnt-start-from-here variety, with up to two changes in a forty minute journey.
So perhaps one of Transport for London’s objectives is to simplify the rail routes in South London.
London Has A New Island And Bridge
City Island is a housing development in a bend of the River Lee. The island has been connected to Canning Town, by a new bridge, that was lifted in place by the UK’s largest mobile crane.
Unfortunately, by the time I got there the bridge was in place and the crane was virtually dismantled.
Tracing The Goblin Extension – Hounslow To Wimbledon
I started this by taking a train direct to Hounslow from Waterloo, which is something I’ve never done before. This train runs on the Hounslow Loop Line, which is joined by the North London Line between Kew Bridge and Brentford stations. The trains running from Upper Holloway in the section of the line described previously join at this point.
After running through several stations, the trains will arrive at Hounslow.
Hounslow Station
This is a simple two platform station, that is on a fairly small site, so it would be unlikely to have any space for any terminal platforms.
But this doesn’t really matter as all trains at present just continue round the Hounslow Loop Line and that’s what I think trains on the Goblin Extension will do.
One interesting point is that the off peak typical frequency on this line is four trains per hour with perhaps a few extra in the peaks. So fitting in extra trains on the four trains per hour frequency of the Goblin might not be difficult.
Continuing round the loop, you come to Whitton and Twickenham stations, the latter of which is being refurbished for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Refurbishing Twickenham Station
Note the orange rails! Is this a clue, just coincidence or are they using a Dutch contractor and they used what the Dutch always have handy?
At Twickenham the route turns south onto the Kingston Loop Line and I had wondered if there would be space to put a curve in so that trains could go direct.
No Space For A Connection At Twickenham
There is little space, so trains would go into Twickenham station, the driver would move to the other end of the train and then after unloading and loading passengers, get the train on its way again. There may be a small amount of track and platform work, but I suspect all the substantial work being done for the Rugby World Cup will probably be enough to accommodate the Goblin Extension.
I did think looking at the work being done, that Network Rail may have incorporated a bay platform, where trains could terminate or as in the Goblin Extension’s case reverse direction.
I had to change trains at Twickenham to get a train to continue my journey and this one was on its way to Wimbledon, by way of Kingston, New Malden and Raynes Park, which I think is the proposed route of the Goblin Extension. At Wimbledon it’s another turn south onto the Sutton Loop of Thasmeslink.
No Space For A Connection At Wimbledon
Again as the picture shows there is no space for a curve to turn direct onto the Sutton Loop, so it will have to be another reverse in Wimbledon station to continue the journey.
Wimbledon is a busy station, but there still seems to be plenty of space around the station, so that just as at Twickenham, the reversing of the train could probably be achieved without causing too much disruption to other services.
I did have one thought about the double reverse the trains will probably have to make at Twickenham and Wimbledon and that is will some clever methods of working, eliminate the need for the driver to move cabs twice and perhaps allow them to drive from the other end using some trusted modern technology.
Tracing The Goblin Extension – Upper Holloway To Hounslow
In May this year, I spent time searching for an old Railway line in London called the Dudding Hill Line, which curves its way around North West London, from Cricklewood to Acton via Harlesden, Neasden and Old Oak Common. This is an index to all my original posts on the line.
In my conclusion post, I said this.
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.
I didn’t mention extending the Gospel Oak To Barking Line this way, as I didn’t realise how easy it was to get between the original Goblin and the Midland Main Line.
At the western end of the Dudding Hill Line, the route joins the North London Line and then turns onto the Hounslow Loop Line to complete the journey to Hounslow.
The latter two sections of the line are electrified using third rail,so once the Goblin and Dudding Hill Line are electrified, the current dual-voltage Class 378 trains could be used.
As the platforms on the Goblin will have to be lengthened to take even four coach trains and many stations on the Hounslow Loop Line already accept ten coach trains, it would probably be easier to increase capacity on the line, by running longer trains, than by increasing frequency from the current four trains per hour. As too, the Class 378 is effectively two half-trains, where you can slot extra coaches in the middle, I think it’s fairly likely that more than four coach trains will feature at some point, if the politicians back the engineers to create the Goblin Extension.
A New Job For A Beautician
This report from the Thurrock Gazette tells how London Gateway is making a big effort to recruit more women. Here’s an extract, which explains the title of this post.
One of these is former beautician Nicki Allabush from Stanford-le-Hope, who has been a terminal operative for 18 months.
“I absolutely love the challenge that this job offers,” she said. “I thought, if men can do it, women can too.”
Note that the paper didn’t bother mention Ms. Allabush’s age, something that many papers find essential information.
Let’s hope this campaign is as successful as the one by the London Underground to recruit more female train drivers, by placing an advert in Cosmopolitan.
Sharp Infrastructure Growth Predicted
That is the headline on this report in New Civil Engineer. Here’s the first two paragraphs.
The infrastructure new build market will grow by more than 50% over the next five years, according to respected forecasts published today.
The Construction Products Association’s closely-watched summer forecasts predicted a strong and steady increase in the value of new civils work to 2018.
So if you’re a manufacturer of orange high visibility clothing, you must be pleased.
Bernie Gets Out Of Jail
There is a report on the BBC about how Bernie Ecclestone has paid a very large fine to end his bribery trial. This is the start of the report.
A German court has agreed to end the bribery trial of Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in exchange for a $100m (£60m) payment from him.
Mr Ecclestone’s offer was based on an existing provision in German law.
I would suspect that there are only two other people in history, could have extracted themselves from the predicament in which Bernie found himself.
Machiavelli himself and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
And of course like Wolsey, Bernie was born in Suffolk.
Suffolk is a county of England unlike any other. Someone described it as curious, but I disagreed in this post calling it independent and forgotten.
Bernie is definitely independent, but he will never be forgotten.
The First Off Licence In Frinton
Frinton had a reputation that it was a town, where the buying of alcohol was difficult and there were no pubs or shops selling the demon drink.
In the early 1980s, C was a pupil barrister in Ipswich and she was asked to do a case, where normally barristers would not be required.
She was asked to do an off-licence application for the Co-op, who were opening a small supermarket in the town. They thought that they wouldn’t get the licence, so that had approached her Chambers for some heavy weaponry to do the necessary.
When she met the man, who would actually hold the licence, she knew it would be a forgone conclusion.
He was a charming man, of Asian origin, who had been chosen well by the Co-op to knock down the barriers in the oh-so-genteel town of Frinton.
Whether she played the race card in Court, I do not know, but from fellow lawyers, who’d faced her in various cases, I know she had a subtle skill with words, that told those that matter, what she would do if she lost.
That was the last she ever heard of the case after the application for an off licence was approved.
Musings On Freight And The New Thames Tunnel On The Goblin Extension
It may seem strange that freight has such a large affect on the Gospel Oak and Barking Line, which is essentially a passenger railway across North London.
But at the Barking end of the line there could be very good connections to London Gateway and the other end has good connections to the main routes to the north. So a container unloaded at the port, which is destined for say the large distribution centre at Daventry, could go on a train up the Goblin to the West Coast Main Line. Other large distribution centres are planned or being constructed, like the one at Radlett, so we will see more trains from the London Gateway taking this route as the port gets larger.
In a few years time, the line will be carrying a lot of freight trains, many of which will be hauled through at night. At least the line is being electrified, so the noisy thuds of the dreadful Class 66 locomotives will hopefully be replaced by smooth electric power.
If a new Thames Tunnel is built between Barking and Thamesmead, this will be a game changer, if it is a tunnel that is capable of taking the biggest freight trains. It should probably be built to the loading gauge of the Channel Tunnel, so allowing any train capable of using the Channel Tunnel to be able to use the new link.
London Gateway is one of the few ports capable of handling the new breed of ultra large container ships. Obviously, this will generate more freight train traffic for the UK out of London Gateway, but will some of these containers be destined for Europe? At present there is a route to get them onto HS1 for the Channel Tunnel, but a new Thames Tunnel might give opportunities for these trains to go along the North Bank of the Thames and then through the tunnel to pick up the North Kent Line for HS1. The advantage is that it avoids sending trains through the crowded North London rail system. Obviously freight going from Europe to London Gateway for onward shipping, could be routed in the reverse direction.
Increasingly, over the last few years there has been a significant stirring of the practice of sending freight trains through the Channel Tunnel. Car components and perishable fruit, are just two of the cargoes seeing an increase.
We will see a large increase in future with exports such as complete cars going both ways on special trains. Although, it’s a common site in Europe, large trains of new vehicles are rarely seen here.
All of these flows will probably be best routed through the new Thames Tunnel and over the upgraded Goblin.
We shouldn’t forget that the main reason for a rail tunnel between Barking Riverside to Thamesmead is to vitalise the housing developments in the east of London, as I outlined in A Divided City.
But could the Goblin Extension be used for extra passenger trains given that it would link HS2 at Old Oak Common to HS1 at Ebbsfleet via the North Kent Line.
During the day there probably aren’t enough paths for an intensive service from the North via HS2 to link with HS1. And anyway, is the demand there for direct trains between say Paris and Manchester or Cologne and Leeds?
But it would allow overnight sleeper services, which might be a better proposition.
On the other hand to run a regular service from Old Oak Common to Ebbsfleet might be worthwhile, especially if it stopped regularly in between, at say Abbey Wood, Barking, Walthamstow and West Hampstead.
The Anonymous Widower 