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


33C
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12 hours ago, melmerby said:

Looks like it went ito the building which it is alongside via a wagon turntable:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=19&lat=50.11681&lon=-5.53177&layers=168&right=BingSat

 

EDIT

Closer inspection of Google maps seems to show the rails going into the doorway:

https://goo.gl/maps/6FZ2mHLKdtkmEChZ6

Further to this.

The building is the former Trinity House depot, where warning buoys, lights etc. would be serviced and presumably the track was to wheel them to & from the building to the service tender waiting in the dock.

It is now a Grade II listed building.

There is a picture here at the bottom of the page:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1210362#contributions-banner

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11 hours ago, Neil Phillips said:

 

Nice going Keith, and many thanks for your efforts! It was unfortunate the vehicle was parked there because now I know what to look for I can just see one of the rails still going into that doorway. As the sign on the white part of the wall indicates the building has been converted to residential use, but it would be interesting to know what activity carried out in it required rails and presumably some kind of trolley........engine overhauls?

Great gates too!

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The Penzance photos is as stated above of the former Trinity House Buoy store.

The Buoys were moved by hand propelled rail trollies across the road and out onto the dock arm to be loaded onto the Tender.  The Buoy store closed in 1989 however the rail link was by then disused with Buoys being moved by road trailer towed by a mobile crane.

After closure the store was a Lighthouse museum up till 2005, I seem to recall seeing a rail trolley with a Buoy load on display.

 

Pete

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Just now, IWCR said:

The Penzance photos is as stated above of the former Trinity House Buoy store.

The Buoys were moved by hand propelled rail trollies across the road and out onto the dock arm to be loaded onto the Tender.  The Buoy store closed in 1989 however the rail link was by then disused with Buoys being moved by road trailer towed by a mobile crane.

After closure the store was a Lighthouse museum up till 2005, I seem to recall seeing a rail trolley with a Buoy load on display.

 

Pete

 

Fantastic Pete, I think the wraps it up nicely, and less than 24 hours after I even knew it was there!!

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1 hour ago, Neil Phillips said:

 

Fantastic Pete, I think the wraps it up nicely, and less than 24 hours after I even knew it was there!!

There really is a lot of hidden history out there just waiting to be revealed.

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Back to the factory floor, in Leeds...

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Leeds/@53.7924709,-1.5585193,71m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48793e4ada64bd99:0x51adbafd0213dca9!8m2!3d53.8007554!4d-1.5490774

 

No idea what the factory was, but you can clearly see the rails from the train as you leave the west end of Leeds station

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These abandoned rails are on a wharf in Knysna on the southern coast of South Africa. This is the seaside end of the narrow gauge railway (2', I think) that ran from deep in the Knysna forest down to the Thesen's sawmill, which is not visible but to the right of the picture. Before the main line SAR branch to Knysna was built in the late 1920s, most exports were shipped from this wharf as the road trip was difficult and hazardous. The entrance to this harbour is also hazardous (the Royal Navy lost a ship attempting entry in the 1800s). The forest was indigenous yellow wood and stinkwoods, among others, which were exploited without much regard to long term effect. (My mother had a stinkwood breadboard acquired in the 1960s - it doesn't stink once in use - but it is sacrilegious use of a rare timber). The terrain is difficult and construction and operation of the railway posed numerous difficulties. I hope this is close enough to specification!

1114257052_Knysnawharf.jpg.43ed84660f0cfd0e11bda28826653aeb.jpg

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Very obscure bits of evidence for the former gated spur off the NER Wear Valley branch (now the Weardale Railway) into Parson Byers Quarry exchange sidings.  The spur ran across the minor road from Frosterley to Stanhope on the south bank of the Wear.  The quarry exchange sidings site is now comprehensively overgrown but the differing levels of the sidings can still be seen through the foliage as you walk along the road.  The quarry's internal railway system was reached by a self-acting incline which kicked back from the exchange sidings up the south side of the dale.  The incline is now the access track to a couple of houses and is walkable as part of the Weardale Way.

 

Remains of the gate across the spur in the lineside hedge of what is now the Weardale Railway.

1462851314_2008-08-05AbandonedgateacrossParsonByersexchangesiding.JPG.0a9c83ef938189e8eb70c6a35ee3e92e.JPG

 

One rail of the access spur that crossed the minor road at an angle visible in the near puddle.  The eye of faith can see where another rail is likely to be underneath the patched tarmac.  The remains of the gate are in the foliage beyond the post and rail lineside fence on the right.

899404876_2008-08-05ParsonByersexchangesidingrailinroad.JPG.10d1e600ffd869765491883efd79cf9e.JPG

 

The foot of the former incline up to the quarry (with the grass in the centre).  Remains of a small retaining wall at the incline foot can be seen in the hedge to the left. The track on the incline originally ran straight across into the bottom left corner of the photo.  The curved gravel track now connects the incline foot to the minor road for access to the houses - effectively this photo joins onto the left hand edge of the photo above.  An image of the incline head in use sometime between 1890 and 1920 can be seen on the East Cleveland Image Archive site at http://www.image-archive.org.uk/?p=455851981896621_2008-08-05ParsonByersinclinefoot.JPG.b1ff2646b56e6ac5c53129f93aba244e.JPG

 

Extract from the 1921 OS map showing the exchange sidings complex on the south side of the Wear Valley branch (copied from https://maps.nls.uk/os/)

image.png.c9fb04de975fff1ee3ce384d6813f1d5.png

 

The spur joining the main Wear Valley branch when in use, showing the gate in somewhat better condition than it is now ...

1841244616_ParsonByerssidingWeardalebranch.jpg.a620c549a6b4e8b55fe45457cf5a3ae2.jpg

 

Richard T

image.png

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53 minutes ago, RichardT said:

Very obscure bits of evidence for the former gated spur off the NER Wear Valley branch (now the Weardale Railway) into Parson Byers Quarry exchange sidings. 

 

 

Richard, there was still track in the exchange sidings until at least 1980. I had a friend who had a caravan just up the road and of course we explored every inch of the railways around Stanhope...sadly I didn't have a camera back then, but I can tell you the fields up to Parsons Byers quarry were the best mushroom fields for miles around...but you had to get up just before dawn to beat the locals to the best of the days crop.

 

I've just checked it out on Street view...

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.7352258,-1.992354,3a,75y,306.7h,55.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZPnrclyn1MnADqSCBxIO7A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

...and you were right, there is still at least one rail down by the crossing

 

Edited by Axlebox
check it up on street view
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I think you can just about make out the rails still in situ on this pier in the Firth of Forth:

 

spacer.png

 

There's a slightly clearer view of the tracks in the photo on RailScot here, and you can see them clearly in the Google Maps satellite view here.

 

The pier is a remnant of the Port Laing Submarine Mining Station, which you can read a lot more about here.

 

The pier originally connected to the land - you can still see the concrete abutment from which the pier ran out in to the firth - and the tracks continued along what is now part of the Fife Coastal Path to Port Laing (a rather pleasant beach, notable for the number of oyster shells which wash up on the sand) where the submarine mines were prepared for deployment, and from where they were controlled.  I first visited the site a few weeks ago: the pier and its rails are still there* but I can't actually remember whether there were any signs of the tramway remaining in the path, though if pressed I'd say that there weren't any.

 

Apparently the submarine mining station ceased operation in 1906, but Port Laing was retained by the Navy, and was subsequently used as a floatplane base by the RNAS until shortly before WWI.  From the photo in this thread on another forum it looks like the massive concrete platform on which the submarine mining station stood was later was used for the floatplane hangars.  That concrete platform is still there, now with modern houses built on it.  There is a plaque at one corner of the platform commemorating a Lt George Paton of the Royal Scottish Fusiliers who died while trying to save his comrades in an accident during a grenade training exercise on the site in 1916: https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/14570422.soldiers-brave-sacrifice-on-beach-recognised/

 

The land above the shoreline from Port Laing round to North Queensferry is now a Scottish Wildlife Trust nature reserve, with no remaining military presence, but a fair amount of interesting abandoned infrastructure (including some iron rings part-hidden in the grass in  the floor of Carlingnose Quarry, which are all too easy to trip over, and which were originally tethering points for barrage balloons during WWII).

 

* It's actually grade B listed, which does seem a trifle optimistic given that it's over 100 years old and has been sitting unused and slowly rotting away in the Firth of Forth for most of that time.

Edited by ejstubbs
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If we are doing factories.

Metro-Cammell Birmingham, site to be used by HS2:

 image.png.a07bbf70d633fe53073cf3cc850d7226.png There is a more up to date view in the HS2 thread

 

As it used to be:

40551827841_4beee52278_c.jpg

Edited by melmerby
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49 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

What gauge was this?

 

No idea, sorry.  You might be able to make an estimate from this photograph on the web site I linked above:

 

spacer.png

 

Estimating the railings to be about 3ft high, I could make a wild guess at around 18"?

 

Note that the section of pier that the young man is perched on is no longer extant.  I suppose if you had a kayak or other appropriate vessel it might be possible to take a tape measure out to the bit that's still there and check first-hand.  Rather you than me, though, given the likely state of the structure...  (I suspect that the part of the pier which still connected to the land as late as the 1970s, judging by the young man's fashion choices, was demolished in order to dissuade people from venturing on to the decaying remains).

Edited by ejstubbs
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2 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

What gauge was this?

3 foot. according to the Railscot page.

Edited by 33C
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2 hours ago, melmerby said:

If we are doing factories.

Metro-Cammell Birmingham, site to be used by HS2:

 image.png.a07bbf70d633fe53073cf3cc850d7226.png There is a more up to date view in the HS2 thread

 

As it used to be:

40551827841_4beee52278_c.jpg

Wow. That's good.

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South of Millerhill village in Midlothian, the buffer stop at the end of what I believe to be the only section of track still in situ on the route of the defunct Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway:

 

DSC_2939.png.c8093b20722a22b417b031c1a4f03947.png

 

Behind the photographer is the old alignment of Millerhill Road, which crossed the railway by an overbridge, few if any signs of which still remain.  (It looks as if the road has been re-laid since the line was truncated there.)  Beyong that is the route of the new Borders Railway, with the new alignment of Millerhill Road beyond that.

 

Just visible in the undergrowth on the left of the track in the above photo is the still-illuminated position light signal number EM41:

 

DSC_2942.png.f7ecda887d204a09642b326a9ce76567.png

 

(There is a facing turnout a score or so yards further along.)

 

The tracks run across a field, with mature/overgrown hedgerows along each side but nothing in the way of effective fencing.  It's easy enough with a long lens to get photos without actually encroaching on the track.

 

The tracks which in the photos above are running east-west curve through 90° to cross under Old Craighall Road on a north-south alignment.  Note another still-illuminated signal to the left of the track (I couldn't get close enough to that one to see its number):

 

DSC_2948.png.0a6eb5f2a69e567322a724adfe9148cd.png

 

(I'm pretty sure that this is effectively a remnant of the Waverley Route - or the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway as it originally was at this point.  The maps on the NLS web site do show the EL&RR branching off the E&DR south of Millerhill  station, which seems to have been on the site where the new building is is being constructed in the photo.)

 

Last bit of actual track, looking north from the Old Craighall Road overbridge towards Millerhill 'yard', such as it is these days.  There is a 5mph speed restriction sign just visible in the trees on the left of the track:

 

DSC_2945.png.64f497453724c3b42f514d2a7994ccd8.png

 

We're on the other side of the Borders Railway route here, on an unsurfaced track called "The Kaims" which crosses the route of the old railway on an overbridge.  This shot is looking back east towards Millerhill village.  The remains of the trackbed can clearly be see, but there are no rails at this point:

 

DSC_2951.png.1189e032cf65b4f2fde6b9364413f760.png

 

Final photo, looking the other way from the same overbridge towards the new Shawfair development:

 

DSC_2953.png.375e0ed1c300186dee8053fcac45eb4d.png

 

From Shawfair onwards the route of the EL&RR is now a cycle path as far as Roslin.  The cycle path emerges on to the main road through Shawfair (which appears not to have a name, even on the council's own map) at the somewhat bizarre cluster of 'artworks' here*.  Behind the camera is the other end of the bit of trackbed shown above; for some reason it's obscured in the Streetview image but in any case it's only really identifiable from the road by the hedgerows on each side heading east across the fields.

 

* For some reason the 1:25K OS map still shows actual railway running from this point as far as Gilmerton - and the 1:50K map shows it running beyond there all the way to Loanhead!  The bits of cycle path from Straiton to via Lasswade Road to Shawfair have only been opened withiin the last five years or so but I reckon it must be getting on for ten years since I first rode the bit from Straiton to Loanhead (and on to Roslin) so how the OS have managed not to notice the disappearance of that bit of railway in that time I can't imagine.

 

Edited by ejstubbs
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On 14/04/2021 at 11:49, smiths park said:

Apologies if this has already been posted but these rails are behind the Theatre Royal in Richmond. North Yorkshire. They were used to move scenery between the store and the stage.

 

image.png.31cc5817649d8289754e9dcecf671797.png

According to earlier comments it was for transporting products from an iron works to the main street.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3469758

Edited by melmerby
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2 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

South of Millerhill village in Midlothian, the buffer stop at the end of what I believe to be the only section of track still in situ on the route of the defunct Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway:

 

DSC_2939.png.c8093b20722a22b417b031c1a4f03947.png

 

Behind the photographer is the old alignment of Millerhill Road, which crossed the railway by an overbridge, few if any signs of which still remain.  (It looks as if the road has been re-laid since the line was truncated there.)  Beyong that is the route of the new Borders Railway, with the new alignment of Millerhill Road beyond that.

 

Just visible in the undergrowth on the left of the track in the above photo is the still-illuminated position light signal number EM41:

 

DSC_2942.png.f7ecda887d204a09642b326a9ce76567.png

 

(There is a facing turnout a score or so yards further along.)

 

The tracks run across a field, with mature/overgrown hedgerows along each side but nothing in the way of effective fencing.  It's easy enough with a long lens to get photos without actually encroaching on the track.

 

The tracks which in the photos above are running east-west curve through 90° to cross under Old Craighall Road on a north-south alignment.  Note another still-illuminated signal to the left of the track (I couldn't get close enough to that one to see its number):

 

DSC_2948.png.0a6eb5f2a69e567322a724adfe9148cd.png

 

(I'm pretty sure that this is effectively a remnant of the Waverley Route - or the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway as it originally was at this point.  The maps on the NLS web site do show the EL&RR branching off the E&DR south of Millerhill  station, which seems to have been on the site where the new building is is being constructed in the photo.)

 

Last bit of actual track, looking north from the Old Craighall Road overbridge towards Millerhill 'yard', such as it is these days.  There is a 5mph speed restriction sign just visible in the trees on the left of the track:

 

DSC_2945.png.64f497453724c3b42f514d2a7994ccd8.png

 

We're on the other side of the Borders Railway route here, on an unsurfaced track called "The Kaims" which crosses the route of the old railway on an overbridge.  This shot is looking back east towards Millerhill village.  The remains of the trackbed can clearly be see, but there are no rails at this point:

 

DSC_2951.png.1189e032cf65b4f2fde6b9364413f760.png

 

Final photo, looking the other way from the same overbridge towards the new Shawfair development:

 

DSC_2953.png.375e0ed1c300186dee8053fcac45eb4d.png

 

From Shawfair onwards the route of the EL&RR is now a cycle path as far as Roslin.  The cycle path emerges on to the main road through Shawfair (which appears not to have a name, even on the council's own map) at the somewhat bizarre cluster of 'artworks' here*.  Behind the camera is the other end of the bit of trackbed shown above; for some reason it's obscured in the Streetview image but in any case it's only really identifiable from the road by the hedgerows on each side heading east across the fields.

 

* For some reason the 1:25K OS map still shows actual railway running from this point as far as Gilmerton - and the 1:50K map shows it running beyond there all the way to Loanhead!  The bits of cycle path from Straiton to via Lasswade Road to Shawfair have only been opened withiin the last five years or so but I reckon it must be getting on for ten years since I first rode the bit from Straiton to Loanhead (and on to Roslin) so how the OS have managed not to notice the disappearance of that bit of railway in that time I can't imagine.

 

 

I find that the side by side option on the NLS website is quite handy for placing older remnants in the modern context.

 

See here:

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=55.91162&lon=-3.08563&layers=170&right=ESRIWorld

 

(I hope that I've got the bit you were talking about)

 

Regards

 

Ian

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4 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

(I hope that I've got the bit you were talking about)

 

Yes, that's it.  I said I'm "pretty" sure because there could always be someone who has more precise knowledge of how the track layout there might have evolved, rather than my amateur efforts based on the nonetheless fascinating online historical mapping.

 

I actually prefer the georeferenced option on NLS maps, which allows you to fade back and forth between "now" and "back then".  Either way, the NLS web site is an invaluable resource.  I've actually made 'virtual' acquaintance with one of the members of the teams responsible for the NLS maps web site.  Apparently they've done most of what would be useful in Scotland for railway history, but they're planning to get all the OS large-scale town plans for England and Wales online, which should be excellent for urban railways.  See this one for Bristol, for example: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.45045&lon=-2.58294&layers=117746211&b=1  He recommended the georeferenced layer for railways up to about a century ago, and the OS 1:1,250 / 1:2,500 layer for 1940s onwards.  They're in the process of adding 1970s mapping which went out of copyright on 1st Jan this year.

Edited by ejstubbs
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