asdf wrote:

On Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:18:53 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:

I'll throw in this idea: it could be used by a future high speed
inter-city line, as part of its route from the city to the outskirts,
saving lots of expensive tunnelling.

Broad Street to Glasgow! The thing is, it would only save a few miles of
tunnelling, and would make the portal arrangements more complicated, so it
probably doesn't work out worth doing.

I'm trying to think of a way to connect it to the soon-to-be-abandoned
Farringdon - Moorgate stretch of the Widened Lines. Oh, and a reason to do
so!

Bonus points for including the Aldwych branch, the Waterloo & City,
Charing Cross Jubilee, and the Kingsway tram tunnel. ;-)

And King William Street for a rollercoaster ride.

Or how about retaining the Moorgate tracks it and reinstating the
railway and goods station under Smithfields Meat Market for use in
delivering fresh carcasses, just like they used to do. - there's an
awful lots of HGVs that arrive there at night and it'd take them off
the road. The Moorgate tracks could be used by freight trains queueing
to enter the Smithfields goods station - some reversing necessary so
each train would need to be topped and tailed by loco on each end,
unless you could somehow add a few shunters into the mix - no, I don't
think that would work out. Why can't the loco go on one end and a
driving carriage on the other end, so the loco can either push or pull,
a bit like the one Anglia intercity trains or the old Gatwick Express
do it. I'm way out of my depth here on this loco business, I think the
bods at uk.railway would rip me to shreds!

The Met & Circle line platforms at Moorgate might have a certain whiff
about them in the morning though!

See http://www.loveplums.co.uk/Tube/Holborn_Viaduct_station.html for
a map of the Smithfield route. There is a better page somewhere on the
web that at least has a photo of the entrance to the underground goods
yard turned car park, but I can't find it, and you can see that with
your own eyes if you go there. There have been past discussions on
uk.railway and/or utl that have mentioned it.