Unusual Freight Routing?

[Dr_Paul]

By chance I noticed on Real Train Times a freight routing 4L73 Tinsley > London Gateway today which struck me as unusual. It went via Doncaster and Lincoln as one would expect, then at Peterborough went across to Ely, then went via Cambridge, Cheshunt, Turkey Street, Seven Sisters, South Tottenham, Leyton Midland Road, Barking and Tilbury. I wondered if this might have been because of the incident at Huntingdon, but an earlier freight from Doncaster to London Gateway went the usual way via the ECML to Finsbury Park and then via Canonbury and Stratford to Barking, so there might have been some other reason. Is this a common routing?

 

[GW43125]

It's a flat move off the north London Line, across the entire GEML towards Barking, which is banned at certain times of day due to the performance risk it'd introduce.

 

[Dr_Paul]

It's a flat move off the north London Line, across the entire GEML towards Barking, which is banned at certain times of day due to the performance risk it'd introduce.

That explains it. Thanks!

 

[ac6000cw]

By chance I noticed on Real Train Times a freight routing 4L73 Tinsley > London Gateway today which struck me as unusual. It went via Doncaster and Lincoln as one would expect, then at Peterborough went across to Ely, then went via Cambridge, Cheshunt, Turkey Street, Seven Sisters, South Tottenham, Leyton Midland Road, Barking and Tilbury. I wondered if this might have been because of the incident at Huntingdon, but an earlier freight from Doncaster to London Gateway went the usual way via the ECML to Finsbury Park and then via Canonbury and Stratford to Barking, so there might have been some other reason. Is this a common routing?

Via Ely and Cambridge is the normal route for 4L73 - I see it frequently at those places.

I think it's only freight train to London Gateway that goes that way (I think it used to go to Felixstowe as 4L85, and that path is still listed on RTT as a Q path, with the same route and timings as far as Ely) - e.g. todays freight paths through Ely: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...1-04/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=freight&order=wtt

 

[ChrisT]

Yes, here it is at Little Downham near Ely on 1st May this year with 66588 at the front.

Chris Turnbull

 

[Adrian Barr]

By chance I noticed on Real Train Times a freight routing 4L73 Tinsley > London Gateway today which struck me as unusual.... Is this a common routing?

Apart from 4L73, that routing for intermodal traffic via Cambridge isn't common because it's not W10 gauge cleared. 4L73 has to use a set of low-deck wagons (mostly FLAs with the small wheels and also some KTA pocket wagons) to carry "high-cube" containers. Wagons with a standard deck height (like FEAs) can only carry 8 foot 6" containers, when the majority of the containers are high cubes.

I mentioned 4L73 in this post discussing freight paths south of Peterborough on the ECML. Even if daytime paths were available on the ECML, post #2 makes a good point that there's another challenge navigating through Stratford and crossing all the lines at Forest Gate Jn...

Comparing the timings of 4L73 with the two daytime intermodals running via ECML / Canonbury / Stratford (4L19 and 4L98) they all take about 3 hours between Peterborough and Barking. Running via Cambridge is 104 miles against 85 miles via the ECML, which would be quicker except that 4L98 has half an hour standing at Canonbury and 4L19 has half an hour at Connington loop, both for pathing purposes I assume.