Possible alternative to the Micklefield Turnback

[Halifaxlad]

Regardless as to where a turn-back East of Leeds was/is proposed.

Instead of a turnback, how about two simply chords.

One chord connecting the Selby Line to the Church Fenton line just below Sherburn in Elmet and the other above Sherburn in Elmet connecting onto the Leeds to Church Fenton line.





Essentially creating one big loop that would allow services to turn-back without reversing.
That way, you could run more services through Leeds as has been suggested numerous times by other members, although without the need to send them all the way to Hull and back.

Obviously for Aire Valley services it would have to be electrified but could be a ideal quick win as it is located upon the West side of the Selby Swing Bridge.

You could also have a new Leeds - Castleford - Leeds service in one big loop!

 

[Iskra]

It's an interesting idea, but why not just go to Selby and terminate there like some TP and Northern services have previously?

 

[30907]

So that's 4 junctions and two curves to achieve much the same result as a plain turnback siding. With no additional capacity between Micklefield and Leeds you can't take advantage of the balloon loop anyway.

 

[Halifaxlad]

It's an interesting idea, but why not just go to Selby and terminate there like some TP and Northern services have previously?

My thoughts about this in comparision to terminating more services at Selby is that, this is much more closer to Leeds and that it would allow a significantly higher number of services to use it to turnback without impacting upon through services.

 

[Iskra]

My thoughts about this in comparision to terminating more services at Selby is that, this is much more closer to Leeds and that it would allow a significantly higher number of services to use it to turnback without impacting upon through services.

But can the Leeds East throat handle extra traffic? It's already congested due to Neville Hill being in that direction? Without quadrupling the route I think you will struggle to add more services.

 

[leedslad82]

So that's 4 junctions and two curves to achieve much the same result as a plain turnback siding. With no additional capacity between Micklefield and Leeds you can't take advantage of the balloon loop anyway.

Have to agree. The eastern approach to leeds is already congested plus with the junction at church Fentonwouldn'tthat reduce capacity there due to crossing from the to york line over the from york line. You would need to have additional track from leeds to improve capacity really which adds cost. All this does really is give sherburn a leeds service which seems and expensive way to provide it

 

[Meerkat]

East of Leeds really needs quadrupling.
Then the lower of the two suggested chords would mean the local Leeds-York train could serve Sherburn and Milford, and keep out the way of the fast trains at Church Fenton

 

[backontrack]

East of Leeds really needs quadrupling.
Then the lower of the two suggested chords would mean the local Leeds-York train could serve Sherburn and Milford, and keep out the way of the fast trains at Church Fenton

Perhaps that's a viable way of speeding up York-Hull services – removing the Sherburn call means that you've only got the Church Fenton calls to replace before you can send York-Hull services down the fast lines. (Ulleskelf we needn't worry about too much.)

 

[Halifaxlad]

Have to agree. The eastern approach to leeds is already congested plus with the junction at church Fentonwouldn'tthat reduce capacity there due to crossing from the to york line over the from york line. You would need to have additional track from leeds to improve capacity really which adds cost. All this does really is give sherburn a leeds service which seems and expensive way to provide it

My inital thoughts were running services in a one way direction towards Hull then up through Sherburn in Elmet so that the only time you would have to cross the line would be at Micklefield. In the long term you could put a dive under in at Micklefield. I thought I better leave that one out as I didn't want to seem too crayonista.

Fully support and very much want to see four tracking all the way to Neville Hill by the way. Have an idea of how the case for that can be increased, although that is for another thread.

 

[Ploughman]

For 4 tracking all the way back to Leeds Station is it possible to rebuild the 2 track viaduct for 4 tracks?
There was talk of retaining enough space to allow this to happen.