Imaginary Railways

[The Johnster]

2 hours ago, Talltim said:

Still pondering a metre/3' guage line on Lanzarote. Trying to work out what you could (hypothetically) dig out of the lava fields that would be worth mining and carrying in hoppers to the coast.

 

Sorry, can't think of anything commercially valuable that can be recovered from basalt rock in quantities requiring trains of hoppers.  The best I can come up with is obsidian, which can be napped to a perfect blade for a weapon but is too fragile for tool use.  Basalt itself is not much use even as a building material.

[melmerby]

9 hours ago, Talltim said:

Still pondering a metre/3' guage line on Lanzarote. Trying to work out what you could (hypothetically) dig out of the lava fields that would be worth mining and carrying in hoppers to the coast.

 

Tenerife has deposits of Sulfur around the volcanic vents, not sure you would be into wagon loads though!

[melmerby]

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Sorry, can't think of anything commercially valuable that can be recovered from basalt rock in quantities requiring trains of hoppers.  The best I can come up with is obsidian, which can be napped to a perfect blade for a weapon but is too fragile for tool use.  Basalt itself is not much use even as a building material.

One enterprising high end vinyl turntable manufacturer used obsidian as the deck.

You can get pumice from volcanic areas

[Talltim]

I think, to make a railway worthwhile, it would need to be something that’s processed at the coast, away from the area it’s mined/quarried. This gives you a reason for carrying large quantities, without actually producing large quantities. Maybe something that required a lot of water to process.

I’m wondering about nickel bearing  ore, with the nickel either extracted on the coast or the ore shipped elsewhere. Although AFAIK nickel bearing ore is not found on Lanzarote, it is associated with volcanos (and meteorites!)

[ElTristan]

On 23/05/2019 at 06:12, Talltim said:

Still pondering a metre/3' guage line on Lanzarote. Trying to work out what you could (hypothetically) dig out of the lava fields that would be worth mining and carrying in hoppers to the coast.

I came for the C&O historical fiction but kept reading to suggest that, regarding Talltim's query, they used to quarry the "oro blanco" from the salt ponds at Las Salinas de Janubio in Lanzarote.  A small operation, with not much to see for the tourist. 

But I can think of two historical examples of extensive narrow gauge salt railways -- the Leslie Salt Company (later Cargill) in Newark, California and the Western Salt Company in San Diego, California -- which looked and operated much like peat bog railways.    On Lanzarote, there's apparently plenty of clay soil to expand the salination ponds to the required industrial magnitude.  Should that have ever occured, the sight of  salt being dumped into rakes of side-tip hoppers on portatrack as it's mechanically stripped from the crystallization ponds brings tears to my eyes...     

[Catkins]

I don't know if this would count as an imaginary railway, but;-

The Midland & Great Eastern Joint Railway - A Mainline built from the Newark-On-trent/Sherwood Forest area across the Fens to to Kings Lynn, a route that is currently filled by the A17.

I can't imagine that there would be much of a commercial need that couldn't be met by the routes that were built by the various "railway mania" and pre-grouping companies, but then again, It's not unknown for different companies to fall out over running rights.
My rationale for the route is that it allows the Midland Railway access to the east coast ports of King's Lynn, Yarmouth and Lowestoft ( via the GER ) for coal exports, and it allows the Great Eastern Railway access to the midlands for fish and agricultural traffic. I'm not sure, yet, how or where the line would cross the Trent, Welland, Nene, or Ouse rivers, but at this stage in time I am only looking at a rough route anyway.

[melmerby]

21 hours ago, Catkins said:

My rationale for the route is that it allows the Midland Railway access to the east coast ports of King's Lynn, Yarmouth and Lowestoft ( via the GER ) for coal exports, and it allows the Great Eastern Railway access to the midlands for fish and agricultural traffic. I'm not sure, yet, how or where the line would cross the Trent, Welland, Nene, or Ouse rivers, but at this stage in time I am only looking at a rough route anyway.

The Midland already reached all three ports on it's share of the M&GN Jt railway!

[PannierTanker14]

I’ve gone and created a whole fictional town in the countryside that revolves around railways! I designed the Castle Rock Heritage Railway to be like a heaven for railway enthusiasts (or at least my idea of heaven  ) with preserved locomotives like two Q1s and several ROD 2-8-0s and a whole Blue Pullman. It also has space for aircraft and naval vehicles too, along with the town’s love of armoured vehicles. It sits in the middle of the ‘Big Four’ railway companies and was shared by the GWR and the LMS.

One of the main parts of the railway is it's workshops, the Riverside Locomotive and Wagon Works. Locomotives can be heavily overhauled in a matter of months or a year. The Works also scratch-builds extinct locomotives like the Bulleid Leader or a version of the 4-6-4 LNER W1 ‘Hush Hush’ locomotive.

 

I also made it because it’s easier to model a preserved railway in O gauge because there are no region or era limits. I have a Southern E4 loco with an LMS brake van and a 16t mineral wagon.

 

(I hope this contribution to this Topic is any good)

Edited September 16, 2019 by PannierTanker14

[scots region]

I like it, though I will have to deduct a point for not including a Zeppelin, or a functioning rocket launch pad, or a tramway. Plus I suppose we should include a place for people to... bring their... classic cars. Maybe a field.... far away... behind some trees... or a large wall.   

[PannierTanker14]

1 hour ago, scots region said:

I like it, though I will have to deduct a point for not including a Zeppelin, or a functioning rocket launch pad, or a tramway. Plus I suppose we should include a place for people to... bring their... classic cars. Maybe a field.... far away... behind some trees... or a large wall.   

 

Castle Rock has everything.

Mainly trains but still...

 

A replica of the L30 Zeppelin was proposed by those of the Riverside Works and the east of the town was the least blown up in the war so it’s tramways are still there. As for classic cars: they’re all over the town.

[scots region]

5 minutes ago, PannierTanker14 said:

 

Castle Rock has everything.

Mainly trains but still...

 

A replica of the L30 Zeppelin was proposed by those of the Riverside Works and the east of the town was the least blown up in the war so it’s tramways are still there. As for classic cars: they’re all over the town.

 

Oh....lovely. 

[HonestTom]

I'm currently playing with the idea of an imaginary Underground line, because I have a few Underground bits and pieces and nowhere to run them. In real life, there was a proposal in the 1860s for a sub-surface line that would have run from Euston to Charing Cross. It went through various name changes, finally settling on the London Central Railway before quietly disappearing in 1874. The route would have broadly followed that of the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line. My imaginary history changes things up a little, based on real life happenings.

 

By 1874, Edward Watkin was firmly in place as Chairman of the Metropolitan Railway and also the South Eastern Railway. His great rival was James Staats Forbes of the District Railway (and also the LCDR, which was where their beef began), and their rivalry was a significant factor in the early years of the Underground. It's also commonly believed, though disputed, that Watkin's grand plan was to use his interests in the MSLR, Met, SER, Submarine Railway Company and Chemins de Fer du Nord to run trains all the way from Manchester to Paris.

 

In my alternate history, Watkin became very interested in the London Central Railway, as it would allow him to get a railway across the city without having to use the Inner Circle and deal with the troublesome District Railway (the District had constructed the Cromwell Curve in Kensington for similar reasons). The scheme was taken over by a new company jointly owned by the Met, the SER and the LNWR. The first stage of construction followed Tottenham Court Road using cut-and-cover, with a temporary terminus being constructed roughly opposite the present Tottenham Court Road station (and named Holborn).

 

A further tunnel was dug, in the form of a short branch to Seven Dials. The roads around Covent Garden were becoming congested, so the Metropolitan Board of Works supported the idea of an underground railway to free things up a little. This was also seen as a good way to make some money off the line and raise funds for completion.

 

Unfortunately, while the Seven Dials branch saw a decent amount of traffic, the line was otherwise drastically under-used. Aside from a little digging at the Charing Cross end, subsequently incorporated into the rebuilding of the Northern Line station in the 1970s, the LCR got no further. Matters weren't helped by the aggressive Underground Electric Railways of London's Hampstead line, which followed much the same route, but was quicker and went further. By the 1950s, when my planned micro-layout will be set, passenger services are only run by the Metropolitan Line and then only at peak time. By 1958, the former LCR stations at Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road (confusingly still called Holborn) have been earmarked for closure, finally closing altogether in 1975.

[Satan's Goldfish]

On 18/05/2019 at 20:27, Catkins said:

Going back to imaginary railways, I keep toying with a "light Railway" network to serve the Thetford Forest area, with links to the GE and M&GN.
The initial reasoning would have been to aid the forestery based industry in the area, but there would have been a basic general freight and passenger service - with the increasing military presence in the forest, the line would have been upgraded to cope.
 

I really could do with some serious planning time.

 

I believe from another thread hiding elsewhere on RMweb that was a narrow gauge line used by forestry, possibly centering around Santon Downham, but whether it had any onward connection to the standard gauge network I don't know. Information or evidence about it is very scant.

 

At one point (earlier this year?) I was playing about on Google maps with a revamped route between Kings Lynn and Norwich, with a re-opened 'City' station and some orbital suburban lines around Norwich to relieve bus routes and serve some Park and Ride locations. Since then, I've still played with it in my head and have some revisions to it that would see 'Norwich Victoria' become an under ground end of the Kings Lynn route as a kind of double ended terminus at a better city centre location. The other end of this would follow the redundant line that used to feed Norwich Victoria and have connections to the London line and Breckland lines. All good fun!

[cctransuk]

4 minutes ago, Satan's Goldfish said:

 

I believe from another thread hiding elsewhere on RMweb that was a narrow gauge line used by forestry, possibly centering around Santon Downham, but whether it had any onward connection to the standard gauge network I don't know.

 

 

Canadian Army forestry line (2'-0'') connecting with SG at Thetford.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[KeithMacdonald]

On 21/07/2017 at 11:45, Killian keane said:

Just supposing the LBSCR had joined up with the LCDRand SER grouping, we would have had the 'London, Brighton, Chatham, Dover and south eastern coast railway' what a mouthful! They would really have had trouble fitting all that onto the side tanks of their smaller engines!

I think it was in the summer and autumn 1968 editions of 'trains illustrated'that I read a fantastic history of the fictitious South British Railway, which I strongly reccomend anybody read should they have the opportunity

 

I think you'll find the LBCD & SEC railway later merged with the Greater Thameside railway.

Now known as the LBGT Railway.

Or the GayWay for short. With a very colourful paint scheme.

[HonestTom]

I keep playing with the idea of a freelance pre-Grouping railway, and just lately I had an idea that I think could work (with a bit of timeline fudging). Near me, there were two railways that met at Wimbledon - the Tooting, Merton and Wimbledon Railway and the Wimbledon and Croydon Railway. The latter was bought out by the LBSC and the former was jointly operated by the LSWR and the LBSC. I found myself wondering what if those two companies merged to form their own independent line - the South London Railway?

 

This initially had its termini at Streatham and Croydon. Then a new branch was built to Kingston-Upon-Thames, which extended further to Twickenham. The Shepperton branch was also a SLR venture. While the SLR ran its own trains, it saw a lot of traffic from other railway companies, most obviously the LBSC, SECR and LSWR, but other companies were seen on the railway in accordance with whether I can think of an excuse. In exchange for this, the SLR was able to negotiate running rights to Richmond and, most importantly, into the South London docks.

 

Locomotives were a dark red. Carriages were a brighter carmine. Goods stock was grey. It has been noted that the markings on locomotives and carriages bore a striking resemblance to those of the LSWR, almost as if someone, I don't know, took LSWR transfers and rearranged them.

[melmerby]

23 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

I think you'll find the LBCD & SEC railway later merged with the Greater Thameside railway.

Now known as the LBGT Railway.

Or the GayWay for short. With a very colourful paint scheme.

GayWay Railway

Another GWR!

[KeithMacdonald]

Can I offer a small imaginary line in North Devon? The "Exbourne Link Railway", with a more direct route from Meeth to Stamford Courtney.

 

Clay traffic from Meeth (etc), but also coal from Bideford coal mine (which really existed) and imported stuff from Fremington Quay.

 

[KeithMacdonald]

Due to overwhelming public demand for "sustainable event transport", we are very pleased to announce the reopening of the Glastonbury branch of the Evercreech Jnc to Burnham on Sea (Somerset & Dorset Jt Rly).

 

It starts at the junction near Cole, west of Bruton.

 

 

With stations at Evercreech Junction and Easton Lane (a new station for Royal Bath and West Showground, instead of the old one at Pyle)

 

 

Then the big new station, south of Worthy Farm, with loads of showers and toilets.

 

 

Then runs through to Glastonbury. But where should the new Glastonbury station be? Should it be on the old "Glastonbury & Street" station site, west of town? Or a new site north of town, so it's more accessible for folks from Wells? Who used to have two stations to choose from, but now have none, poor things.

 

 

All suggestions welcome.

[Catkins]

On 18/12/2019 at 19:03, KeithMacdonald said:

Due to overwhelming public demand for "sustainable event transport", we are very pleased to announce the reopening of the Glastonbury branch of the Evercreech Jnc to Burnham on Sea (Somerset & Dorset Jt Rly).

 

. . .  runs through to Glastonbury. But where should the new Glastonbury station be? Should it be on the old "Glastonbury & Street" station site, west of town? Or a new site north of town, so it's more accessible for folks from Wells? Who used to have two stations to choose from, but now have none, poor things.

 

 

All suggestions welcome.

I would suggest TWO stations, one at Wells Road, for the City of Wells, and one at Meare Road - with a good comfortable bus interchange and park and ride parking.

[The Johnster]

And a long platform at the Festival Site.

 

Re-opening this line will cause considerable access problems for vehicles in the setting up and taking down of the Festival, not to mention that preventing the public from accessing the railway will be next to impossible.  

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

And a long platform at the Festival Site.

 

Re-opening this line will cause considerable access problems for vehicles in the setting up and taking down of the Festival, not to mention that preventing the public from accessing the railway will be next to impossible.  

This will be a moot point soon if I remember correctly; the Eavis's are planning to move the Festival from Worthy Farm to another location.  I wonder if the Bath & West Showground can be expanded to cope?  It already has many of the necessary facilities for large events (but probably not this large) and I have previously suggested on this forum that extending to a completely new station across the road from the site entrance should be the aim of the East Somerset Railway, not reopening to a new station in a Shepton Mallet industrial estate.

[The Johnster]

The festival is HUGE, trust me if you haven't been you'e no idea how huge, the physical size in area and approximate population of the City of Bath for 4 days and active in terms of setting up or breaking down for a month each side.  There are 2 main performance stages, half a dozen sizeable venue ones, numerous marquee and big top type venues, and a market, and areas set aside for other activities such as circus and even opera.  The Bath & West showground is hopelessly inadequate and I seriously doubt that the people of Shepton Mallet want to be swamped by festival goers and beset with load continuous music for 4 days, or even 4 minutes.  Access to all areas on Worthy Farm is essential for several weeks during the setup, and a similar time to clear the site afterwards, and for emergency and service vehicles during the fun.

 

Michael Eavis originally had the idea after attending a jazz festival in the Bath & West ground.

[Corbs]

I saw a train when I was there a few years ago...

[KeithMacdonald]

22 hours ago, Northmoor said:

This will be a moot point soon if I remember correctly; the Eavis's are planning to move the Festival from Worthy Farm to another location.  I wonder if the Bath & West Showground can be expanded to cope?  It already has many of the necessary facilities for large events (but probably not this large) and I have previously suggested on this forum that extending to a completely new station across the road from the site entrance should be the aim of the East Somerset Railway, not reopening to a new station in a Shepton Mallet industrial estate.

 

Ah, the powers of rumour and hearsay? Actually, if there was a move, it would be a fair way away:
 

Quote

 

The Glastonbury festival will be moved from its home at Worthy Farm in 2019 to protect the site, under plans outlined by its founder, Michael Eavis. He said the move to a site about 100 miles away was likely to take place every five years. Eavis revealed that he had identified a site in the Midlands, though he did not specify where it was. “I am arranging for one year off, say every fifth year or so, to try and move the show to a site that’s more suitable, I have to say. But it would be a huge loss to Somerset if it went there forever, would it not?” he said.

 

 

But it hasn't happened (yet). And it won't be Longleat.

 

Quote

Earlier this year Eavis said he had held discussions with the Longleat estate, about 15 miles away from Worthy Farm, but they proved unsuccessful.

 

As for the East Somerset Railway, something like this? (New extension from Cranmore in red)