Tracing The Goblin Extension – Peckham Rye To Bexleyheath And Abbey Wood
This is the last leg, although I skipped the last bit from Bexleyheath to Abbey Wood, as it’s just a turn round the corner towards the station, that will be one of the termini of Crossrail.
Peckham Rye is not one of London’s best stations. It always reminds me of being two separate stations or two separate lines that happen to be chose enough together, to be able to be connected by a maze of dingy passages and steep staircases to a rather nice building.
It is one of the worse eyesores on the UK rail network.
I had arrived from Tulse Hill and to get to Bexleyheath I needed to get a Dartford train. This was not an easy walk down and then up two of the worst public staircases I know.
It also meant, I had to wait twenty minutes or so, in a station, where the only toilet was locked.
If the Goblin Extension happens, there will of course be no change of train, if for instance you wanted to go from Tulse Hill to Bexleyheath. And like I found, you won’t have to waste twenty minutes.
I took these pictures on the journey.
One point to note, is that on the whole journey, the stations are two platform ones and there would appear to be few places to have a turn back facility. The latter would probably mean that you’d have difficult finding somewhere to turn an interim service, until Crossrail is opened.
If you look at the details of the Crossrail station at Abbey Wood, you might wonder how everything will fit together there. But I’m not really worried, as I doubt TfL would mention the Goblin Extension in their 2050 Transport Plan, if it wasn’t possible.
London’s Plans For Trams
In TfL’s Transport Plan for 2050, trams don’t get much of a mention.
The document talks in vague terms about increasing frequency and capacity on the existing Tramlink and about extending it to Sutton.
So does this mean that effectively any new tram routes are off the agenda as TfLbelieves like I do after seeing the operation of bus route 38 in recent months, that new Routemaster buses are a more flexible and affordable option.
Tracing The Goblin Extension – Norwood Junction To Peckham Rye
As Brockley was an error on my part, I got the A to Z out and looked for another route to get on the Nunhead to Lewisham Link. The less direct route with a change of trains at Crystal Palace seemed to be a way to go.
This was another section, where I got two or more trains.
Norwood Junction to Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace to Peckham Rye
It was trouble free and passed through many stations that I’d never heard of before.
The only problem was that I had to wait twenty minutes for both trains. Is this a problem on this route, when perhaps you need to get from Gypsy Hill to North Dulwich, which might be solved by a four trains per hour Goblin Extension service?
I took these pictures along the route.
Note that you can also interchange with Thasmeslink at Tulse Hill and the East London Line at Crystal Palace and Peckham Rye. There are also good connections to Victoria and London Bridge at various stations in this section.
Should You Adjust Your Overdraft Limit To Your Peer-To-Peer Account?
I am going through a high spending period of the year at the moment. I’ve had a lot of expenses and my roof is being fixed. It’s also around my birthday, when I give money to various charities.
I like to keep my current account in credit or at least I don’t let it go over my agreed overdraft limit.
I also use the interest and repayments on my Zopa loans to balance my accounts, by taking amounts out from Zopa towards the end of the month and then reinvesting it around the middle of the next month.
On top of that I have a small agreed overdraft limit, so that if say, I need something urgently and don’t want to use a credit card for the purpose, I can facilitate the purchase on my terms.
Hence the question in the title of this post.
As I get about three percent of my invested sum available for withdrawal every month on Zopa, I have just adjusted my overdraft limit to that figure, to give myself headroom so that I manage my money to my advantage.
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.
The Anonymous Widower 