Page 8 - Rail Express - September 2019

Likeusonfacebook
HEADLINE NEWS facebook.com/RailExpressMag

Morefreight from Felixstowe

Upgrade work means 14 additional freight paths arenow available on the Felixstowe branch.

By ‘IndustryWitness’ accessed by the original line that ranto the hourlypassenger service to the gaugeclearance to carry 9ft 6in
the closed Felixstowe Beach station. terminus at Felixstowe Town can high containers on standardheight
NETWORK Rail has completed a Previously, therehas been asingle be retained. platform wagons.
£60 million project to enable 47 daily passingpoint on the branch at Derby Therehave been subsequent route
freight trains to run on the Felixstowe Road, but double track has nowbeen STEP IMPROVEMENTS improvements, such as the north-to-
branch in each direction. The provided from Trimley, which is where When the branch wasbuilt in 1875 east ‘Bacon Factory Curve’ to the north
investment wassupported by the North Quayline connects to the nobody could have foreseen that of Ipswich that prevents the need for
Hutchinson PortsUKand is alarge national network. This is configured as asmall coastalport would be trains to and from the Midlands to run
step-up from the previous ceiling of 33 a0.9 mile (1.4km) loop, which is long transformed into the largest intermodal into Ipswich to run round. Loop lines
daily paths. enough for775 metre-long trains to facility in Britain, with the line from have also been added at Ely, plus the
The 13 mile line is not electrified, pass each other. Ipswich (Westerfield Junction) being North Chordadded at Nuneaton.
although this wasproposedwhen the The three individualrailterminals single throughout apart from the The latest project has seen
GreatEastern Main Line waselectrified withinthe dock complexhave acapacity original passing loop at Orwell, which is complete modernisation of the branch
in the mid-1980s, which has therefore to handle1.35 million TEUannually(TEU no longer in place. with newsignalling and areduction
resulted in diesel traction being used is the 20ftcontainer equivalentmeasure As trafficfromFelixstowe in the number of levelcrossings and
throughout forcontainerisedfreights. used as astandard). Theport, which has increased, anumber of infrastructure pedestrian footpathswhich followed
The port opened its first container 29 quayside cranes, is abletohandle the enhancements have been made extensiveconsultation with Suffolk
handling facility in 1967 and, as aresult largest operational container shipsthat including resignalling in 1999 that County Council. The line continues to
of continued expansion,opened the have capacitytocarry asingle cargo of brought the installation of the passing be signalledfromColchester but given
twomileNorth Quaybranchin1987 to 18,000 TEU. loop at DerbyRoad. The route also the trafficdensity aseparatesignalling
servethe Central and North terminals. As well as benefitting freight became part of Network Rail’s Strategic workstationhas been installed to
The South terminal continues to be operations, the upgrade work means Freight Network, which resulted in supplement the traditional NX panel. E

Leeds gets high speed
rail research centre

THE Government has confirmed funding
to create ahigh-speed rail research
facility in West Yorkshire. The University
of Leeds’ Institute forHigh Speed
Rail andSystem Integration will aim
to revolutionise the way newrailway
systems areinvented, developed and
brought into service.
It will be located next to the Leeds
City Region Enterprise Zone. This forms
the earlyphase of aplaninvolving
localauthorities and businesses to
position the area as aUKcentrefor rail
engineering that will generate jobs and
inward investment.
The Government has contributed
£11million towardsthe project. Afurther
£40million has come from the University
andrailindustrypartners, adding to
£13 million from the LeedsCity Region
LocalEnterprise Partnership Growth Deal.
The institute will include avehicle
testing facility large enough to put a
fullsize carriage on theequivalentofa
rollingroad to model atrain’s duty cycle,
allowingthe development of high speed
and conventional prototypes before being
allowedonthe mainline. It should help
Britain to be at the forefront of developing
and testing newrailway technologies.

ACTONGRANGE DIVERSIONS:
Engineering work at Acton GrangeJunction,
near Warrington, closed the West Coast Main
Line therefromJuly20toAugust 4with
resulting diversions of freight and passenger
trafficvia Manchester.‘Pendolino’ No.
390011 (upper) made an usual sight at Eccles
on July29with the 11.40 Glasgow Central to
Euston, while failed Nos. 86638+86609 are
pictured (lower) at Patricroft on August 2at
the rear of the previous day’s 17.56 London
Gateway-Coatbridge, which wasbeing
dragged back to Crewe by No. 66531. Doug
Birmingham (upper) /David Ratcliffe(lower)
8 RAIL EXPRESS September 2019