Camden Road derailment questions

I think most intermodal freight from Felixstowe going via the NLL is for terminals in the West Midlands (I may be wrong!) so I expect a large % of freight to be diverted via Peterborough, Leicester and Nuneaton.

There are many paths booked by freight operators but never used as demand varies from day to day. I'm no expert but I expect many of what would normally be unused paths to be put into use.

Plans are being put in place for diverting the freight, and most of it will be running via the Barking to Gospel Oak line or specifically South Tottenham to Gospel Oak. However as that route is not electrified, it means that all the electric operated freight (which 80% of the NLL freight is) needs to be dragged by a diesel loco. Many freight trains are being significantly delayed due to lack of paths or shortage of available diesel loco's. Diverting the Felixstowe traffic via Ely and Peterborough would be the preferred option for many people, however as this route is not electrified either, trains need to run round at Ipswich to get to and from Felixstowe and there is a large proportion of the route which is single track meaning paths are not always available. However the de-railment stresses how key some of the arterial freight routes our and how limited the diversionary routes are. Also on another note London Overground are going to struggle to get units to Stratford to work the shuttle to Highbury. The units are currently being stabled in Stratford but however a week is a long time with out any maintenance.

How are trains reversing WB-EB at Highbury & Islington? Using the crossover just west of Canonbury to enter platform 8 at H&I?

Very early this morning 378224 was dragged by a Network Rail Class 57 between the East London Line Platforms at Highbury and the Eastbound North London Line Platform via a reversal at Caledonian Rd & Barnsbury and Canonbury, this was just to get a forth unit to Stratford, no unit was returned back to new cross depot yet. I don't believe 378's are cleared via South Tottenham so units would not be able to be dragged back to Willesden that way.

Wasn't 70007 the loco involved in the accident? (Not that it was the cause - the derailment seems to have happened further back down the train)

The line has not re-opened, 70007 was the loco involved in the incident. The train was yesterday split in two with the front four wagons and 70007 running east out of the possession to Tilbury, the loco then returned to the western end of the site to collect the remain wagons which where 'after' the de-railed wagon. The loco and remaining wagons have since been moved to Willesden where they await onward movement to Felixstowe I am told. The de-railed wagon still remains on site and is likely to be craned out as it is unfit to be moved by rail.

Amazing this has taken 7 days to sort out, when the craning down to road level of the defective wagon and its two containers was completed by dusk, 1900 hrs on Wednesday 16-10. I walked round the streets for an hour or so, bit nippy, and watched the crane retract and prepare to leave the site. The wagon with its severely damaged bogie and wheels was on an Alleys artic ready to go. The containers had already been taken away by road. There is some more detail on London Reconnections which many DD members also contribute to.
For clarification the damaged parapet wall shown in the Camden New Journal's web page was above Camden Gardens, and the damaged vehicle and container came to rest on the bridge over Camden Street, not Kentish Town Road. 70007 took the front undamaged part of the train back to Willesden, not Tilbury, going the Horseshoe route to Stratford, Temple Mills, South Tottenham, T&H (GO-B) then NNL to Willesden, then it returned to collect the back end of the train, which is shown in various photos including NR's Website and Twitter page. Track is being returned to operators from 04.00 Sunday as several contributors have already commented. LOROL will be doing it's ECS moves to start normal services from just after 06.00.
What this event throws up is several shortcomings in the trackwork and LOROL's operating kit. A trailing crossover is needed east of Highbury as part of the Canonbury West Junction facility, to maximise flexibility when there is a part closure for repairs etc. Eastbound trains could have departed alternately from Platforms 7 and 8. The connection from platform 2 towards the new Westbourne Rd Jct, under the covered way redevelopment, should be livened up with an extra 250m of third rail, to stop this nonsense between NR and TfL over the ridiculous cost NR wanted to liven it up. A Senior TfL manager told me several years ago that the amount in dispute was around £900k; ridiculous. 250m of steel conductor rail, about 30 pots and one weld? The signal is live, it just shows red. Is there a problem with the signalling interface between Upminster and New Cross? The other thing that would be useful is a spare Class 73 to move stock around, suitably modified with the necessary Dellner couplings or a translator vehicle using one of the 508 vehicles at Easleigh. With a bit of ingenuity it could even be converted to a DVT!

Any way the good news is back to Normal as I write this in a state of insomnia 21/10 am!

The benefit of using a 73 was exactly the same reason that Merseyrail had some of the original batch of 6 73s after Southern had finished with them, they run on DC and can shunt. LOROL would not get the use of NRs 57s in normal circumstances.
And there were the infamous 501 Motorcoach conversions used at both Hornsey and Birkenhead. Back in those days our railway workshops were ingenious and thought how they could recycle old vehicles into sort of new(er) ones.
The 73 would be LOROL's piece of kit, they hardly need a bright yellow (or whatever) 57. I'm a bit out of touch on these things but hasn't NR got a 73 or two somewhere?

Network Rail only have one Class 73 now, with most of its time taken up spent plodding around third rail land with one of NR's test trains, the remainder of the mainline registered fleet are either privately owned or run by GBRF (and are quite often in use), none retain there couplings for moving units without the use of a barrier coach, whereas the Network rail fleet of Class 57's are operated by GBRF and all except 301 and 306 have the Dellner couplings, which can be used to move units within the classes 171, 350, 375, 376, 377, 378 (thanks to last weeks events) 444 and 450. 57301 and 57306 received Tightlock couplings. The Class 73's are great when on third rail but really struggle do anything when on diesel and as in most cases when units need to be rescued or moved the power is off. The class 57 is much more capable on diesel with its 2750hp engine compared to the 73's 600hp diesel.

OK, so an official investigation has been launched, and this is the usual point at which a member of staff quotes the forum rules and locks the thread:


On this occassion I am going to exercise my discretion (as per 7.3c) and allow discussion to continue as so far no-one has branched off into speculation, indeed the thread was started with a questioning tone about work-arounds. As per the information point in the forum rules quoted above if this thread goes anywhere near speculating as to the cause and/or development of the accident it will be locked.

Am I correct in remembering a story in one of the magazines about a re-engine project for the Class 73 so that when running on diesel they would have a higher power output? It's also interesting to note that MerseyRail have got rid of all their class 73s, I'm still not quite sure how they got the 508 out that fell off on the loop.

I don't think it's just wishful thinking

My OH spilt wine on my copy of Rail two hours after I bought it, so I'm waiting for it to dry out now before I can read it!