MML upgraded to UIC GB+ (Vectrons in the UK?)

[Class450/4DES]

I was looking at the loading gauge page on Wikipedia. And I came across the fact that the MML is to be upgraded to UIC GB+ loading gauge for European cargo. There seems to be progress made from the electrification. Could this mean the use of Siemens Vectrons or similar locomotives in the UK for this work?

• UIC GC: Channel Tunnel and Channel Tunnel Rail Link to London; with proposals to upgrade the Midland Main Line northwards from London to GB+ standards.[26]

 

[swt_passenger]

It’s not happening, that’s a 20 year old idea that never got going. I’d wait for the wiring experts but doubt very much if the current electrification project does anything helpful in terms of achieving gauge GB+.

 

[Class450/4DES]

It’s not happening, that’s a 20 year old idea that never got going. I’d wait for the wiring experts but doubt very much if the current electrification project does anything helpful in terms of achieving gauge GB+.

Alright, thanks. I think that's my question answered then.

 

[rheingold103]

GB+ would also be incompatible with platform gauge. Enhanced gauge clearance was looked at in detail in the late 1990s. That resulted in W10 gauge (9'6" maritime boxes on flat deck wagons). W11 swapbody gauge had been provided for Channel Tunnel traffic. 'Filling in' the top corners gives W12, which has been provided on a small number of route sections.

 

[zwk500]

I was looking at the loading gauge page on Wikipedia. And I came across the fact that the MML is to be upgraded to UIC GB+ loading gauge for European cargo. There seems to be progress made from the electrification. Could this mean the use of Siemens Vectrons or similar locomotives in the UK for this work?

Upgrading the MML would also require upgrading any link from the CTRL/HS1 to the MML.
Fwiw UIC GB+ is something like an extra 1ft/30cm on the centreline clearance and overall width, as well as a much straighter carriage side profile. While that doesn't sound like much, you'd have to rebuild everything to that clearance between HS1 and the end destinations to be of any use.

 

[Zomboid]

Even if something like this did happen (and it won't), locomotives would remain compatible with other routes - you might see larger freight loads, but everything else needs to have a wider route availability.
So no Vectrons or other off the shelf European power.

 

[John Webb]

The major objection to the building of a rail-linked freight terminal at Radlett has always been that trains for it would be mostly from the south ports (Southampton, Tilbury, Felixstowe etc.) and that you cannot get such trains through the limited clearance tunnels to the south of Radlett without considerable expense in rebuilding them. And the money isn't available, of course!

 

[Bald Rick]

The major objection to the building of a rail-linked freight terminal at Radlett has always been that trains for it would be mostly from the south ports (Southampton, Tilbury, Felixstowe etc.) and that you cannot get such trains through the limited clearance tunnels to the south of Radlett without considerable expense in rebuilding them. And the money isn't available, of course!

An inconvenient truth.

As is that the slow lines are essentially at capacity all day already; AIUI there isn’t timetable space for a long container train to start off from the exit of the terminal, up the steep gradient, onto the up slow and then clear of the junction in time for the next timetabled service to get a clear run.

 

[DanNCL]

A Vectron has of course been to the UK before, on a test run through the channel tunnel over a decade ago. It only made it as far as Dollands Moor.

If a Vectron ever returns to the UK it would most likely be on Channel Tunnel freight and be swapped for a 66 at Dollands Moor. The furthest into the UK one hypothetically could reach is St Pancras on HS1. Vectrons will never run on the MML.

 

[zwk500]

If a Vectron ever returns to the UK it would most likely be on Channel Tunnel freight and be swapped for a 66 at Dollands Moor. The furthest into the UK one hypothetically could reach is St Pancras on HS1.

I think it's not impossible it could reach to Ripple Lane, where the exchange sidings and 1 road in Ripple Lane are UIC-GB cleared.

Vectrons will never run on the MML.

Indeed.