Abandoned rails in the road.....(or elsewhere...)

[33C]

I'm fascinated by "rails in the road"! Where i live and work, i am coming across more and more of these abandoned lines, some in really tight spaces! One, 10 foot length bugged me for ages about how and why it was there. Turns out it was the head shunt for a long demolished gas works! Amazing! Now it may be preserved as a feature in a development of new flats to perplex the new residents! Anybody got any plctures of mysterious rails or obvious railway bits in now plainly non railway environments? Docks, wharves, etc welcome.

[The Johnster]

Rails embedded in roadways often remain in situ for a long time, mainly because they are not causing a problem once the flangeways fill up with mud and are difficult to remove. 
 

[Rivercider]

There are a few sections of narrow gauge track around Pentewan harbour. The line was used to bring china clay down to the harbour. Unfortunately the harbour was very prone to silting up.

The original Pentewan Railway ceased operating in 1918, though a later railway here used beach sand for making concrete blocks.

 

A single rail visible beside Pentewan harbour photographed by shadowman is part of the original railway. 9/10/2018.

 

 Lines leading to the old loco shed. On the left it can be seen that the harbour entrance channel is completely silted up. 9/10/2018

 

cheers

[melmerby]

A lot of tramway rails were simply covered over, only to re-emerge when major re-construction of the road is undertaken and then get removed.

 

My favourite is this:

It's the Tram Terminus at Rednal, Birmingham.

AFAIK they are not actually preserved as such, just not taken up

The adjacent building, now a Chinese Restaurant was the tram office.

[drjcontroller]

 

The short branch from Ponteland to Darras Hall (opened 1/10/1913, closed 17/6/1929) continued for another 7 ½ miles to Belsay Colliery and Waldridge. The colliery and branch were very short lived (1923 to 1930).
In 1986, a friend took me to Limestone Lane, north west of Darras Hall to see the site of a level crossing where a small remnant of track remained either side of the road. The course of the line towards Darras Hall is visible and is now a public footpath. 
Amazingly, Google Earth shows these rails still in situ some 90 years after the branch closed!

[F-UnitMad]

No photos of my own, but any number of docks in the UK still have rails embedded in their environs.

Sharpness (Gloucestershire), Avonmouth, Purfleet, Liverpool & Southampton are just a few I've seen myself that I can recall off the top of my head.

[Rivercider]

There is a lot of rail still around Bristol Harbour, some of course still in use for steam trips in connection with the M Shed museum. But other rails still survive as I found when I made my first visit to the SS Great Britain for about 30 years (a great day out).

Here are rails on the approach to Redcliff Tunnel

Redcliff Tunnel in the distance, with I think Guinea Street on the right, I don't know the area well.

5/7/2019

 

cheers

 

cheers

 

 

 

[Hunslet]

Rye & Camber railway 2014

 

 

Golf links station ?

 

[simontaylor484]

There are some on Newmarket lane just outside Wakefield. They cross the road from the old Newmarket pit site. Sorry I don't have a photo 

[Bucoops]

Hull c1996 - still there now but they have tarted it up a bit including replacing the turntable timbers.

 

[RANGERS]

Rockingham Station crossing in Leics was resurfaced in 1971 with the rails still in situ, I'd imagine they're still under there.

 

I've some pics somewhere of the Yarmouth Union line around the quayside, near the brewery and just beyond Haven bridge taken between 1979 and 2005, I believe resurfacing removed those around Haven bridge in the 1990s but not sure if any of the others survive.

[33C]

Loving it, keep 'em coming!

[ejstubbs]

Some remnants of the Caledonian Railway's Granton Branch still visible at the junction of West Harbour Road and Oxcraig Street on Google Streetview here.

 

The line, which originally ran from Granton Pier to Granton Saw Mills, the Western Wharf and a couple of iron works, was originally just above the high water mark of spring tides for this part of its route.  The harbour between the pier and the wharf was filled in sometime in the latter part of the 20th century, so all the land from a few feet beyond the embedded rails visible in that Streetview view has basically been reclaimed from the Firth of Forth.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Going away from the centre of town just up from Shrewsbury Abbey station on the RHS, there are embedded rails up a side alleyway/entrance.

 

Mike.

['CHARD]

Both up and down line metals  are still clearly visible at the level crossing site in Station Road, Long Marston, tantalisingly close to the extant route towards Honeybourne. 

[Kris]

The rails for the Bodmin to Wenford line are still present on the A389 https://www.google.com/maps/@50.4760607,-4.753323,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQioU7vI6xS3t1gKuwTYNag!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

You do not want to hit these at speed. 

[cctransuk]

14 minutes ago, Kris said:

The rails for the Bodmin to Wenford line are still present on the A389 ....

 

..... and in all the minor road crossings further up the Camel valley.

 

John Isherwood.

[signalnorth]

No photos right this mo but on a similar theme, I’m always amazed how you can follow an old dismantled French line  and then find in the middle of nowhere an isolated stretch say  a thousand yards or so that was never lifted and is in splendid isolation . Very odd . I’m not talking about velo rail here either , these are stretches that were simply not lifted . I’ve always found it very curious . Following routes in google Earth I would reckon I’ve come across this at least twenty to thirty times.

[Bernard Lamb]

13 minutes ago, signalnorth said:

No photos right this mo but on a similar theme, I’m always amazed how you can follow an old dismantled French line  and then find in the middle of nowhere an isolated stretch say  a thousand yards or so that was never lifted and is in splendid isolation . Very odd . I’m not talking about velo rail here either , these are stretches that were simply not lifted . I’ve always found it very curious . Following routes in google Earth I would reckon I’ve come across this at least twenty to thirty times.

Walking the old route over the col du lautaret a few years ago I came across a section of what looked like 600mm gauge track hanging from a rock face. It had been abandoned a long time ago as it was very overgrown.

Bernard

[Barclay]

In Braintree, Essex, the line at the station once crossed the road into an area serving a variety of buildings. In this Google Earth view from Station Approach you can see the remains of the rails directly under the sill of the van, and 4' 8 1/2" to the left, just a couple of feet visible. Until about 5-7 years ago none of these new flats were here and where the black builders' hoarding is was an old timber yard utilising one of the old structures. Why didn't I photograph it? You never do until it's too late. The rails in this location were clearly visible then, but Google Earth got there just in time - it's all new flats now and the rails are gone (Or are they under the fresh tarmac ???)

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Barclay
Replaced photo

[Johann Marsbar]

The now rather gentrified/touristy Fells Point area in Baltimore, Maryland, still has eveidence of various rail lines in the cobbled streets which used to serve the docks/warehouses there...

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

A couple of streets in the Georgetown (Washington DC) area still retain some decent lengths of conduit tramway tracks, disused since the early 1960's........

 

 

 

 

[Bernard Lamb]

The canal just south of Leighton Buzzard.

The loading point for the sand quarries.

 

[Reorte]

Some buried near me, around the Whaley Bridge canal basin. They emerge from the canal transhipment shed into the tarmac, and at least some are still present under there (the top of one appeared in a pothole a few years ago).

[Rivercider]

I have noticed rails still embedded across roads on the route of the former Ilfracombe line, north of Braunton at Stony Bridge Crossing, and looking at Google there are still rails at Heddon Mill Crossing a little further to the north.

 

cheers

Edited April 1, 2021 by Rivercider
clarification