European Railroad Discussion > Lewisham

Lewisham is an inner SE London suburb which also happens to be an important railway junction on the former South Eastern Railway out of Charing Cross and Cannon Street stations in central London. I was there changing trains en-route to a business workshop. Luckily, or maybe rather rather well planned :-), changing trains coincided with the passing of the 6O88 Crossrail spoil train from Paddington (Crossrail) to Northfleet, which is on the south bank of the River Thames east of London. From there the spoil is transferred by ship to Wallasea Island in the Thames Estuary where it is being used to create a man made coastal nature reserve, 4.5m tonnes in the next four years. GBRf has the contract for the spoli trains which run three or four times a day, seven days a week. On this occasion 66719 Metroland was in charge. Running slightly early it had to wait for the passage of a South Eastern stopping train to Orpington, formed of a pair of 465 Networker units. The spoil train is coming off the link from Nunhead and the line across the Thames via Chelsea.

Crossrail is a new east to west subterranean line being dug from Paddington to Pudding Mill Lane and Victoria Dock in East London and from North Woolwich under the Thames to Plumstead in SE London. Started in 2011 the project will deliver 21km of new twin bore tunnel under London. It is claimed to be the biggest engineering project in Europe just now and will be complete, in theory, in 2018, a mere 70 years after it was first proposed! Never mind, better late than never.

---

Very interesting junction. And third rail, to boot. Almost unimaginable for line haul rail on this side of the Pond - the lawyers would have a field day. Another fine shot, Nick. Thanks much for your continued fine work.

MC
Columbia, Missouri USA

My pleasure, glad you like it.