diff --git a/search-services/alfresco-search/src/main/java/org/alfresco/solr/tracker/ExplicitElasticRouter.java b/search-services/alfresco-search/src/main/java/org/alfresco/solr/tracker/ExplicitElasticRouter.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1704809a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/search-services/alfresco-search/src/main/java/org/alfresco/solr/tracker/ExplicitElasticRouter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+package org.alfresco.solr.tracker;
+
+import org.alfresco.solr.client.Acl;
+import org.alfresco.solr.client.Node;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+/**
+ * Routes a document only if the shardInstance matches the provided shardId
+ */
+public class ExplicitElasticRouter implements DocRouter {
+
+    protected final static Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExplicitRouter.class);
+    private final ElasticLastShardRouter fallback = new ElasticLastShardRouter();
+
+    public ExplicitElasticRouter() {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean routeAcl(int shardCount, int shardInstance, Acl acl) {
+        //all acls go to all shards.
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean routeNode(int shardCount, int shardInstance, Node node) {
+
+
+        String shardBy = node.getShardPropertyValue();
+
+        if (shardBy != null && !shardBy.isEmpty())
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                int shardid = Integer.parseInt(shardBy);
+                return shardid == shardInstance;
+            }
+            catch (NumberFormatException e)
+            {
+                if (log.isDebugEnabled())
+                {
+                    log.debug("Shard "+shardInstance+" EXPLICIT_ID routing specified but failed to parse a shard property value ("+shardBy+") for node "+node.getNodeRef());
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            if (log.isDebugEnabled())
+            {
+                log.debug("Shard "+shardInstance+" EXPLICIT_ID routing specified but no shard id property found for node "+node.getNodeRef());
+            }
+        }
+
+        return fallback.routeNode(shardCount, shardInstance, node);
+    }
+}