Gauge Capability

The physical dimensions of a railway vehicle and its load are governed by a series of height and width profiles, known as (loading) gauge capability. This ensures that a railway vehicle will not come into contact with a lineside or over-line structure, such as station platforms, canopies, overhead power supplies (catenary) overbridges or tunnels.

Loading gauge profiles vary by route, reflecting the constraints on rail vehicle size caused by lineside and over-line structures. Historically, Britain’s railways were constructed by separate companies, often to differing loading gauges. Network Rail has a set of separate loading gauge standards for passenger and freight vehicles. A railway wagon built to one of the smaller loading gauges (e.g. W6) is capable of operating on virtually any route on the national rail network. The larger loading gauges tend to have greater headroom, to enable intermodal flat wagons to carry tall containers and swap bodies on certain routes.

In exceptional cases, Network Rail may permit larger 'out of gauge' loads to be moved by rail. This will normally require a survey of the route in question to check available clearances (undertaken at cost to the interested party), and the train may also normally be subject to speed restrictions. There may also be restrictions on trains using adjacent lines while the out of gauge load is moving, which will restrict the availability of train paths.

Publication of information

Subject to the notes below, gauge capability is published in the Route Clearance tables in the National Electronic Sectional Appendix (NESA). To access the details published in the NESA, please use the link provided.

Access to information

Gauge capability is currently available in the following Routes in the NESA:

• Anglia
• Western
• London North Western
• ‘Southern’ routes to/from the Channel Tunnel

For Routes where the gauge capability is not currently available, Train Operators requiring information and/or advice should contact us.

Publication of gauge capability for the remainder of the network is planned to be completed by the end of 2008.

Discrepancies

In the case of gauge capability we have verified records and identified a number of discrepancies in the published information when compared to actual capability. Pending their resolution, details of these discrepancies are provided in the Discrepancy Register which should be read in conjunction with the details in the NESA. The register can be accessed via the further link provided within the NESA.

More information

More general information about network capability is provided in our Network Statement (Section 3), also published on this web-site.