Paul Terry wrote to uk.transport.london on Fri, 26 Nov 2004:

In message , Mrs
Redboots writes

I was waiting for a connection at Denmark Hill station the other day,
having travelled from Clapham High Street, and heading onwards to
Lewisham. I was amazed how many goods trains I saw on that journey - at
least two in each direction, if not three. And a huge train packed full
of Citroen C3s, which I assume had crossed via the Channel Tunnel

Quite a lot of this traffic probably came from the marshalling yards at
Hither Green.

Presumably most of the trains going towards central London would have
come from the Tunnel, but where do they go after Clapham High Street?

They don't go any further towards Central London. After Wandsworth
Road they turn west on the old LCDR line, first passing under the
Brighton line from Clapham Junction to Victoria, and then under all of
the SWT lines. At this point they meet Lavender Hill junction, where
there is a choice of routes.

Some will take the "right" (NW) fork onto the West London line, joining
the route from West London junction taken by Eurostars when heading
to their depot. This of course goes on to Willesden Junction and points
beyond.

Others (often longer and more interesting trains that are less well suited
to the constraints of the West London line) take the "left" (SW) fork so
that they come in on the north side of Clapham Junction (joining the
incoming West London Line). They then travel down the Windsor Line as
far as Barnes (which, while busy, is four-track all the way).

After that (and here you will see the sense in this second route) they
take the little-used Hounslow loop line out towards Kew Bridge, then
traversing the very tight eastern curve onto the North London line and
up to Willesden Junction - and then out to various destinations.

One of the delights of our "local", which overlooks the Thames near
Barnes Bridge, is seeing the variety of traffic on the Hounslow Loop -
last time I was there for lunch there was a car transporter (probably
Citroens) of staggering length - it must have been a mile of train -
several loads of aggregates, the usual Hounslow loopers, and the Orient
Express on a steam-driven lunch run (towing a miserable EWS diesel at
the rear as insurance, I noticed!). It's almost enough to turn a man into
a train-spotter

Thanks, Paul. Yes, it does sound like a good place to see trains! I
didn't know there were marshalling yards at Hither Green, I shall have
to investigate....
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 22 November 2004