Atomic Systems

Is it right what I saw on the news that the old Woodhead line may be re-opened & used for carrying freight between Sheffield & Manchester?

http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArtic ... ID=1366710

Something like that?? Sounds interesting...

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the Woodhead line will not realistically reopen in the near future without a major change in both government policy and the will of freight operators to take lorries off the roads. In the years that the line has been closed large parts of the line have been developed, housing, roads cycleways and national park etc. Now I know that theoretically these are not insurmountable, but in the real world they are.

More importantly the Woodhead line is not very convenient, it serves no major communities along it's length. We no longer have the West Yorkshire coal or steel traffic to justify its reopening. To take lorries off the M62, A57 and A628 the alternative would have to be fast and cheap. The journey times by HGV are in the order of 90 - 120 minutes (Sheffield to Manchester) taking into account loading times at the railheads, how much time will be saved? Fuel costs? An HGV doing 10mpg will cost about £50 for the journey, are costs likely to be less? There may be many other reasons, but convenience and cost will always win out in the end.

However the biggest stumbling block to any reopening of the Woodhead Route would be the forced reloacation of the St******c Re****e.

Although it could be reopened fairly easily between Penistone and Hadfield, presumably with the national grid diverted via the original tunnels it really wouldn't be worth it, especially for the traffic they're planning on carrying. I can't see there being a big improvement in journeys times once loading and unloading are taken into account.

Its part of the Liverpool docks-channel tunnel scheme reopening the GCR i fink Be good for the high speed lime to use it thou so high speed elctrics can use a great route again.

High speed electrics? Hmm. Not on freight up there!

Guess we won`t be seeing any of these then.

<IMG width="545" height="354" SRC="http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/108897/DC03.jpg">

Nooo!!

rtracey wrote:Guess we won`t be seeing any of these then.

You can see 26020 in the National Railway Museum any time you like

It would be great putting Electra or 1501 (i think thats its number, the one in Holland) to run double heading on an excursion or a reopening special.

If the line is electrify, you can guarantee that those trains will not be running on it (if it even does open) - they use a non standard and outdated 1500v DC system as opposed to the 25kV AC system that is the current electrification station, and having it as an isolated stand alone route would make the route once again, fairly dodgy.

Reopening between Tinsley and Mottram is just unviable - it's far too short for a freight train run - even a RoLa - 'Rolling Motorway' - scheme which it sounds like is being proposed. I can see the precedent, trying to achieve the Swiss-style RoLa scheme across the Pennines, but the distances for the Swiss trains are considerably longer - Freiburg in Germany to Novara in Italy is not the same as Manchester-Sheffield! The only way it could work would be to apply tolls to all Pennine and Peak District routes, charging the hauliers punitive rates - even then there would be a lot of diversionary traffic routing through Staffordshire, or via the M62 (presumably it would be exempt from the tolls). That said, if part of the Central Railway scheme for a new freight line between the Channel Tunnel and the North West, reopening becomes more viable.

As to the old EM1/EM2s - does T&W need any load-bank testing done?

viperskil wrote:It would be great putting Electra or 1501 (i think thats its number, the one in Holland) to run double heading on an excursion or a reopening special.

If it's a one-off ceremonial thing, I can't see why you couldn't drag one over the route providing the panto isn't raised.

John

I belive these two locos have met in preservation, as Electra returned to Holland briefly in 1989 for the NS 150th aniversary clelbrations. I think I read somewhere that there is a plan to build a generator car to power her, so we may yet see her running on our main lines again

Why not re-open it gets all those poluting lorrys off our roads less fumes from those diesel engines and all the people living along the line get some public transport and a quick way to get from sheff to manchester