In message
"Peter Masson" wrote:

There was a wartime spur from the SWML to the DNS northbound at Winchester
Junction, so Shawford needn't be a problem - just run southbound freights
via Chesil but northbound via Winchester City.

Not possible, there's a multi-story car park on the station site and a road
on the formation south of Chesil to the edge of the city. Then. assuming you
could reinstate the viaduct, the route is severed by the access roads to the
M3 and possibly the M3 itself.

However, Didcot was always a
flat junction, though as the DNS approached via a fairly steep gradient a
flyover might be possible.

However, I can't see it happening. Much of the freight originates from the
more western parts of the docks at Southampton, even though the Dibden Bay
proposals have been rejected.

Very little originates from the Eastern Docks these days. There used to be a
regular traffic (2 trains a week) of new Fiats but I haven't seen them
operate recently.

So a freight route can be developed via Romsey, Lavernock Spur, Andover,
Basingstoke, Reading and Didcot.

Can trains leave the container port heading west?

Track and signalling alterations at Basingstoke could reduce (but not
eliminate) conflicts. A diveunder from Reading West Spur to the Relief
Lines towards Tilehurst would remove most of the more serious conflicts in
the Reading area.

Would involve going through the depot at Reading, not sure what the knock-on
effects of that would be. Also there's a housing estate and industrial area
north of the GWML about there.

More use could probably also be made of the MML, accessed
via Byfleet, Chertsey, the Kew Junctions, Acton Wells and Hendon, the
flying junctions at Byfleet and Hendon being particularly useful. The MML
would need requadrupling between Bedford and Kettering.

Peter



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Graeme Wall
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