"Mrs Redboots" wrote in message
...

Thank you. Where do they de-train the freight, as a general rule - the
old goods yards are obviously a thing of the past, but equally obviously
there must be a few terminals scattered around the country. You mention
Wembley - are there any others in the London area?

Wembley is the major international freight yard for the London area - most
of the traffic that uses that yard (and Willesden Brent) is trainload and
simply recessing for crew or locomotive changes, although a small amount of
remarshalling still takes place. It's things like automotive trains, en
route to/from Europe from/to the relevant car manufacturers' own sidings or
to other places such as Daventry or Hams Hall distribution centres (some of
this bypasses London, having been processed at Dollands Moor, adjacent to
the Channel Tunnel entrance in Kent).

Acton yard, adjacent to the Great Western Main Line, on the north side of
the line just before Ealing Broadway, is significantly smaller and handles
more domestic freight, especially stone trains from Foster Yeoman or Hanson
Aggregates in Somerset. There is a stone terminal at the back of Acton Yard
itself. Acton also splits/joins the 'jumbo' trains that run from/to
Merehead into portions for smaller stone terminals in the South East.

The majority of the other marshalling yards around London have now gone,
most recently Temple Mills in East London. A *very* small amount still takes
place at Dagenham Dock, in the area previously occupied by Ripple Lane
depot. The concentration on trainload freight in the 1980s and the
abandonment of wagonload business has obviated the need for most yards,
since trains run from one private siding to another without (usually)
remarshalling en route, except in the instances given above.