Trivia - longest loop without reversals using the Elizabeth Line core

[flitwickbeds]

Bit of trivia for a Monday morning.

WITHOUT ANY REVERSALS, and starting at Farringdon Elizabeth line, what is the furthest a train could travel?

(For this purpose we're ignoring loading gauge, driver familiarisation, which train classes go on which lines, etc - and only focusing on tracks and junctions).

As a starter:
Farringdon - Liverpool Street - Ipswich - Stowmarket - Soham - Peterborough - Grantham - Doncaster - Wakefield Kirkgate via Knottingley - a Huddersfield -Manchester Picc platform 14 - Liverpool Central via Merseyrail - Wigan Wallgate via Headbolt Lane (is this possible?) - Warrington Bank Quay - Stafford - Wolverhampton - Birmingham New Street - Coventry - Milton Keynes - Watford Junction - Clapham Junction - Guildford - Havant - Winchester - Basingstoke - Reading - Farringdon.

Any further we could go?

 

[Snow1964]

Is this with current 25kv ac only,
or is this hypothetical including 750dc third rail diesel only spurs

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wigan Wallgate via Headbolt Lane (is this possible?)

Not without changing trains. There's buffers on the tracks and no through running is possible. Merseyrail trains all terminate there.

 

[plugwash]

Wigan Wallgate via Headbolt Lane (is this possible?)

I'm pretty sure there is no connection between the Merseyrail and the line to Wigan at Headbolt lane, nor is there one at kirkby. There is a connection at Southport but it requires a reversal (it looks like historically there was a bypass curve, but at some point it was turned into a siding by disconnecting the Wigan side).

Any further we could go?

My immediate thoughts would be to somehow incorporate going up the ECML to Edinburgh and then back down the WCML into your loop.

 

[eastwestdivide]

And add in Birmingham-Exeter StD-Exeter C-Salisbury-Southampton-Reading-Eliz line.

 

[py_megapixel]

A sort of figure-of-eight using the Thameslink core as well, which I think is all possible:


Farringdon
Reading
Newport (but not quite into the station, turning off just before the River Usk)
Shrewsbury
Crewe
Manchester Piccadilly
Carnforth
Barrow-in-Furness
Carlisle
Dumfries
Rutherglen
Shotts
Edinburgh Waverley
York
Sheffield
Derby
London St Pancras low-level
Tonbridge
Hastings
Ashford
Ebbsfleet International
Dartford
Abbey Wood
Farringdon

 

[eastwestdivide]

Ebbsfleet International
Dartford

Don't think that's possible without a reversal

 

[py_megapixel]

Don't think that's possible without a reversal

You are right, I seem to have misread the map.

Is there some other route through Kent that would work, I wonder?

 

[Peter0124]

Don't think that's possible without a reversal

You are right, I seem to have misread the map.

Is there some other route through Kent that would work, I wonder?

Ebbsfleet - Dagenham Jct - Woodgrange Park - Stratford - Farringdon?

 

[flitwickbeds]

You are right, I seem to have misread the map.

Is there some other route through Kent that would work, I wonder?

To Dover and back round through Ramsgate maybe?

Not without changing trains. There's buffers on the tracks and no through running is possible. Merseyrail trains all terminate there.

Ah. Then I need to go back to the drawing board!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

My immediate thoughts would be to somehow incorporate going up the ECML to Edinburgh and then back down the WCML into your loop.

Then given the OP says to ignore any rolling stock and traction issues...

Farringdon - Stratford - Ipswich - Stowmarket - Ely - Peterborough - Edinburgh - Carlisle - Crewe - Shresbury - Hereford - Newport avoiding curve - Bristol Temple Meads - Weston Super Mare - Taunton - Exteter St Davids - Salisbury - Southampton - Basingstoke - Reading - Farringdon.

 

[greatkingrat]

Then given the OP says to ignore any rolling stock and traction issues...

Farringdon - Stratford - Ipswich - Stowmarket - Ely - Peterborough - Edinburgh - Carlisle - Crewe - Shresbury - Hereford - Newport avoiding curve - Bristol Temple Meads - Weston Super Mare - Taunton - Exteter St Davids - Salisbury - Southampton - Basingstoke - Reading - Farringdon.

You can make the Peterborough - Edinburgh bit a lot more interesting then just going direct.

Peterborough - Spalding - Sleaford - Lincoln - Newark Castle - Nottingham - Derby - Chesterfield - Beighton - Sheffield - Dore - Hope Valley - loop of the Peak Forest freight lines - Man Picc - Man Vic - Stalybridge - Huddersfield - Dewsbury - Leeds - Church Fenton - York - Northallerton - Eaglescliffe - Sunderland - Newcastle - Edinburgh

 

[eastwestdivide]

Add to the above, from Edinburgh via Falkirk and Coatbridge to Carlisle

 

[8stewartt]

You can make the Peterborough - Edinburgh bit a lot more interesting then just going direct.

Peterborough - Spalding - Sleaford - Lincoln - Newark Castle - Nottingham - Derby - Chesterfield - Beighton - Sheffield - Dore - Hope Valley - loop of the Peak Forest freight lines - Man Picc - Man Vic - Stalybridge - Huddersfield - Dewsbury - Leeds - Church Fenton - York - Northallerton - Eaglescliffe - Sunderland - Newcastle - Edinburgh

Cant do the Peak Forest freight lines without a reversal at Buxton SB.

Are we doing loop as in circle, or loop as in continuous line back to the starting point without a reversal? If just longest continuous line without reversal but not wanting the loop to look like a circle then:

Farringdon - Stratford - Ipswich - Stowmarket - Ely - Peterborough - Leicester - Nuneaton - Camp Hill lines - Lifford Curve - New Street - XC North - Burton - Chellaston - Nottingham - Lincoln - Wrawby - Ulceby - around Immingham docks - Great Coates - Wrawby - Gainsborough - Doncaster - Wakefield - Leeds - York - Edinburgh - Glasgow - G&SW - Carlisle - Cumbrian Coast - Preston - Blackburn - Hebden Bridge - Mirfield - Barnsley - Sheffield - Hope Valley - Guide Bridge - Piccadilly - Victoria - Denton Junction - Stockport - Northwich - Chester - Gobowen - Shrewsbury - Hereford - Newport avoiding curve - Bristol Temple Meads - Weston Super Mare - Taunton - Exeter St David's - Salisbury - Southampton - Basingstoke - Reading West - Didcot - Tyseley - New Street - Soho - Walsall - Sutton Park - Nuneaton - WCML - EW Rail - Aylesbury - Ealing Broadway - Farringdon.

Doesn't use the same pair of rails twice, but uses Brocklesby to Wrawby, Nuneaton to Water Orton, St Andrews to Bordesley and Proof House to New Street North in both directions. Would look pretty wild drawn out on a map, and there probably other circles you can still into that!

 

[Trainguy34]

Also looks like you can't go Marshlink from Hastings to Ebbsfleet via Ashford as you can only access HS1 from the HS1 and Eurostar platforms, not the Marshlink and classic line.

 

[Peter0124]

Add to the above, from Edinburgh via Falkirk and Coatbridge to Carlisle

And via Paisley and Dumfries aswell

 

[waverley47]

For the record, just so that it's written down somewhere, the longest loop possible in Scotland, entering at Berwick and exiting at Carlisle, or vice versa, without passing over the same line twice is:

ECML to Monktonhall Jn, via Millerhill and the Edinburgh Sub to Slateford, Carstairs, Law Jn, Holytown, Mossend, Greenhill Lower Jn, Stirling, Alloa, Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Dalmeny Jn, Linlithgow, Greenhill Upper Jn, Cowlairs, Maryhill, Anniesland, Partick, Glasgow Central Low Level, Uddingston, Bellshill, Motherwell, Hamilton, Newton, Kings Park, Pollokshields West, Paisley Gilmour St, Newton on Ayr, Mauchline, Gretna Jn, Carlisle.