London Rail Freight Since 1985

London's rail freight traffic is dictated by the geography of London. When railways first came to London, each line was built by a different company seeking to link their area to the capital. There was no through service from one side of London to the other, and indeed the railway companies were prevented from entering the central area of the City and West End. In order to transfer freight traffic from one company to another, the various railway companies made links to the orbital North London Railway, which ran from Broad Street station in the east to Richmond in the south-west, and also had a route into the east London docks. This book takes the freight routes around London geographically, in an anti-clockwise direction, starting in East London north of the Thames and ending in South-East London. It covers the period since 1985 and shows the various types of locomotives used, and freight traffic carried over this period.