The Anonymous Widower

Disbelief Over Gospel Oak To Barking Electrification

This article sums up a lot of the responses to the news that the Gospel Oak To Barking Line is going to be electrified.

I was rather surprised too, as it’s not just a matter of putting up overhead wires, as there are lots of places that will be difficult to electrify and some of the platforms are a bit short. Even so the sum of £115million looks to have a bit of fat in it, which might be used for  other purposes, like improving stations with longer platforns and better access and possibly extending the line to Barking Riverside.

Longer trains are obviously on the table, as London Overground is already committed to extending its Class 378 trains from four cars to five and common sense says that where possible, the same trains run all over the lines of the London Overground.  So at worst, the Gospel Oak to Barking Line might get a few three-car Class 378 trains.

At best though, there is scope to reorganise things a bit. Plans have been discussed in and on various informed magazines and web sites, where some or all Barking Trains don’t stop at Gospel Oak, but carry on to Willesden and then go down the West London line.

I think too that there is a bit of disbelief at Transport for London, as they have got what they wanted over the Gospel Oak to Barking Line and they now must decide how best to turn a Cinderella line into the belle of North London. They have welcomed the announcement, but seem to me to have been rather quiet otherwise.

July 1, 2013 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | Leave a comment

The Carriages Are Coming

The London Overground is overcrowded, which is more due to the fact that it has attracted more passengers than was predicted.

But within a year or so, things will be better, as Transport for London, has just bought 57 new carriages to lengthen the trains by 25 %. The story is reported here on the BBC. This is the second time, that some of these Class 378 trains have been lengthened.

All it needs now is some more carriages for the Gospel Oak To Barking Line.

It is worth looking at the economics of the lengthening trains by inserting carriages. the fifty-seven carriages are costing £88 million, so that works out at £1.54 million per carriage, one of which is inserted in each train.

There must be a few advantages in terms of certification, training, maintenance and other issues, in lengthening trains, rather than moving the old stock elsewhere and bringing in new trains.

So could other trains benefit in the same way?

In fact, quite quite a few projects are on the go, to shuffle carriages and make longer trains.

So don’t be surprised if your train actually is a few years older than it looks!

May 8, 2013 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | 3 Comments

The First Cranes Have Arrived

There are reports this morning about the new cranes arriving for the new container port at London Gateway.  The arrival is reported here in the Daily Telegraph.

I will be following the development of this port with interest, as I suspect that getting it into operation will not be all plain sailing. My biggest worries concern the road and rail links to get freight containers to and from the port. After all the freight train route through London on the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking lines are not the easiest places to move heavy freight trains, especially as the local residents don’t like Class 66 locomotives at all hours of the night.

March 2, 2013 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

London’s Freight Problem

I have hinted in my ramblings around the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking lines, that London has a rail freight problem, which mainly concerns getting large numbers of long heavy freight trains,  to and from London Gateway and the Haven Ports in the east and the West Coast and Great Western Main lines in the north and west.

Without repeating what London Reconnections have done, I would suggest, that before you pontificate down the pub, you read their three part analysis.

Part 1: Reshaping the Network

Part 2:The Freight Must Flow

Part 3: A Quart Into A Pint Pot

The title of part 3 sums up the problem so well.

At the present, all I can see that more and more freight traffic is going to pass through London.

For my own part, I would never buy any house, that was anywhere need the North London or Gospel Oak to Barking lines, as the noise problem is going to get horrific.

The following should also be done as soon as possible.

There should be electrification of the Felixstowe to Nuneaton rail line , so that freight trains from the Haven Ports to the Midlands and the North don’t have to go via London. This would have the benefit of opening up paths on the Great Eastern Main line and also making services from East Anglia to the Midlands electric-hauled.

The Gospel Oak to Barking line should be electrified.  There are always good environmental reasons for electrification, but here the main reason is that replacing noisy diesel engines with quieter electric ones will reduce the noise substantially.

But these will only be stop gap measures and surely in around 2020, the problem of getting the freight through is going to get worse.

Something radical will need to be done.

September 24, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , | 3 Comments

Walking From Manor House To Harringay Green Lanes

According to Wikipedia this is considered to be a walkable interchange between Manor House and Harringay Green Lanes stations between the Piccadilly and Gospel Oak to Barking lines.

Yesterday I walked it from the Manor House end and took these pictures.

It was a reasonably easy walk, as it’s all downhill. It was also very pleasant going into and out of Finsbury Park and past a cafe and a nursery, that sold plants.

Note the Manor House Pub, which was famous in the 1960’s for its rock music.

Coming back, I took a bus from Harringay Green Lanes to the Angel to do some shopping.

September 21, 2012 Posted by | World | , , , , | 3 Comments

Tesco’s Poor Offerings

I went back to Woodgrange Park station, to see if I could learn more about the junction between the Gospel Oak to Barking line and the Great Eastern Main line.

But as one does, I got hungry and popped into a local Tesco Express to get a snack.

I did manage a drink, as small Innocent Smoothies were on offer, but for snacks, it was either usual gluten-rich rubbish  or packs of three chocolate bars. No wonder half the country is going to Hell in a handcart!

So I left hungry!

September 20, 2012 Posted by | Food | , , | 4 Comments

A Stray Airliner?

In my exploration of the Gospel Oak to Barking line, I decided to follow the line on Google Maps. All went well and I was able to see where the electrification stopped and kicked in around South Tottenham. And then I found this image, as the railway passes south of Seven Sisters station.

I wonder how many stray planes are available to view on Google Maps?

Can anybody identify the tail to determine the airline? Judging by the silhouette, it looks like it’s some variant of Boeing 737.

If you want to find it, type “Seven Sisters station” into Google and then select maps.  The plane is just south of the station.

As someone, who has over a thousand hours in command of an aircraft, you are taught under Visual Flight Rules to fly with the line feature on your left. So it could be they’ve taken off from Stansted and they’re following the railway. But then, they wouldn’t be under these rules over London, except in very special circumstances.

Identifying the airline would help solve the puzzle!

September 20, 2012 Posted by | Computing, Transport/Travel | , , , , | 6 Comments

Wires At Woodgrange Park

Woodgrange Park station is the first station, as you come along the Gospel Oak to Barking line from it’s eastern end.

Note .

The station is wired for electric trains to pick up current from overhead wires.

The c2c Class 357 electrical multiple unit passing through.  It was probably going somewhere for something like maintenance or modification.

The wires petered out soon after we left the station and crossed the Great Eastern Main Line.

But why?

If it was fully wired like the North London line, then they could use the same type of train.

September 19, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | 5 Comments

Why Are These Containers On the London Overground?

The North London Line of the London Overground is not only a passenger route, but a main freight artery.

Why Are These Containers On the London Overground?

As I waited at Homerton station today, this long train of boxes passed through.

Many of these trains are going to and from the Port of Felixstowe and the West Coast Main line.  As the North London line, is the only electrified route between the Great Eastern Main line and the West Coast Main line, there is virtually nowhere else the trains can go.

The main new route will be a more direct line from Felixstowe to Nuneaton. But this route is not complete yet and there are no plans to electrify it, so it may need an engine change or two.  It also requires reversing at Ipswich, due to the nature of the track layout, where the Felixstowe branch joins the main line.

There is also an alternative route via the Gospel Oak and Barking line of the London Overground.  This takes four freight trains an hour and by-passes eight stations on the North London line. But unlike the North London line, it is not electrified.

This problem is going to get worse when London Gateway, a new port on the Thames east of London starts operating in late 2013. Trains to and from London Gateway will probably feed in directly to the Gospel Oak and Barking line, via the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway.

As to the size and number of trains, read this press release from DB Schenker, who will be handling the rail traffic. Here’s an extract.

The agreement will see DB Schenker Rail introduce at least four rail freight services a day (four in, four out), subject to volumes, and will serve a range of inland terminals including potential new UK locations. Additional rail freight services will be introduced in the future. 

DB Schenker Rail will also pursue the development of rail freight services from London Gateway to mainland Europe using the Channel Tunnel.

Something most certainly needs to be done! In the meantime, I certainly wouldn’t buy a house that backed on to either the North London or Gospel Oak to Barking Lines.

September 18, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Searching For Mint Imperials

This trip didn’t start out as the title, but I do find those little tubes of Bassetts Mint Imperials difficult to find these days.  Perhaps, they are a casualty of the takeover of Cadburys by Kraft.

I had gone to Stoke Newington to deliver some pictures for framing to A & B Frames and as it was raining with a certain ferocity, I decided that to go somewhere for lunch was not the best idea.  So I decided to return home to cook some scrambled eggs to eat with some left over new potatoes and some smoked salmon. But the rain meant it would be better to go north to Seven Sisters as this avoided the walk to a stop for a 76.

In the end I decided to go to Blackhorse Road station, by taking a bus to South Tottenham station and then the Gospel Oak and Barking line of the Overground, as I wanted to see if you could see the Markfield Museum from the train. I made another change of mind at Blackhorse Road and instead of taking the Victoria Line home, I reversed direction and went to Harringay Green Lanes station to get a bus home.

Here are some of the pictures I took.

But I was able to buy some Mint Imperials in the kiosk at Blackhorse Road.

Note the two staircases at South Tottenham and Blackhorse Road.  They’re not good, but at least they are better than those on the Lea Valley lines.

August 23, 2011 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

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