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

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, 4069 said:

The former MoD sidings on the quayside at Neyland, apparently added as late as 1962, just two years before the line closed. Now the only remaining trace of the station and yard.

Generally known as 'The NATO sidings' IIRC

[watfordtmc]

Quote

On 15/05/2021 at 16:32, 33C said:

Second picture; wagon turn-table under the resurfacing? And i do love a wagon capstan. Were these steam/electric powered for hauling wagons onto the short, stub sidings?

When I was employed nearby in 2016 there WAS a wagon turntable connecting the two lines, and it still appears on the satallite view of Google Earth.

 

The image suggests that its now been obliterated to allow an extention of the Lighterman bar, or for another retail unit to be put in place instead.

 

Regards

TMc

17052021

 

 

 

[HonestTom]

21 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Generally known as 'The NATO sidings' IIRC

Where they kept their rocket launching wagons, searchlight wagons and exploding boxcars, presumably.

[Allegheny1600]

You can just make out the rails here;

and you can see that this line has been abandoned for a while here;

Where is this?

It is the former metre gauge SPAP line into Nafpliou central or town railway station, Greece.

 I don’t know how long ago it was abandoned but it must be a few years now. The central station area is now a pleasant park with a couple of “stuffed” coaches and a lovely little steam loco while it’s replacement, the harbour station has itself been abandoned since 2008 when the whole Peloponnese metre gauge network was closed in the financial crisis.

[Philou]

Hi,

 

I've been following this thread with great interest - fascinating stuff especially all the nearly forgotten narrow and industrial railways.

 

Here's my contribution and it's mine! It's an abandoned section of single track crossing a dual-carriageway at Talbot Green in S Wales. There are two links below showing the crossing in 2008 with working wig-wags and barriers and the other showing it in 2018 fenced off. The pictures are in the attached .doc as I don't know how to embed the pictures here.

 

The reason why I say it's mine is because I did the preliminary design of the crossing when I and my colleagues worked in the highways department all of *gasp* 40 years ago designing the Talbot Green by-pass (now built). At the time, the single rail line was reasonably busy, linking a coal processing plant at Beddau to the SWML at Pontyclun - about a mile between the two. We had even interlinked the nearby traffic light controlled junction to the crossing so that vehicles couldn't be stuck on the crossing at an awkward moment! The road design was slightly complicated as the carriageway cross-fall had to be married to the cant of the track and the falls were not going the same way!

 

Bit sad to see it all but gone now.

 

A473 Talbotgreen.doc

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5328233,-3.3911092,3a,90y,280.03h,84.53t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suCtd-ABhkznoAyrRwVb4OA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5328559,-3.391012,3a,75y,265.17h,79.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syj_TKFV9hLwHU57tTm5eqg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Ben B]

Whilst I was looking for some other work last week in some old research books from Uni, I found some pics from a jaunt to Barrow-in-Furness I made in 2006 or 07.  My then-Girlfriend (now wife) on the same photography course was doing a project on the industrial archaeology of the Cumbrian Coast, I accompanied her mooching around taking pics of old railway lines.  Barrow was a fascinating place full of odds and ends of industrial railway lines.

 

Apologies for the quality of these pics- the original digital compact I was using for this research visit was a bit basic anyway, and these basic inkjet prints haven't aged well stored in a loft for the last decade and a half...

 

 

Someone earlier up the thread posted similar views- there's just something so tempting about this angle!  I love how the old tracks emerge from one building, cross the road, then disappear into another.  It would make for a lovely feature on a layout, where a loco and a single flat just trundles out from one doorway to another, especially with the contrasting ages of the buildings.  Michaelson Road.

 

 

 

Someone else photographed this too.  Hard to find it without loads of cars parked obscuring the old lines.  Ramsden Dock Road (I think).

 

 

This rather wonderful bit of line leading to an ornate old gateway was beside North Road, with the Dock Museum on the right, and the Submarine Yard on the left.  Our first visit in 2006 had this stretch of line reasonably well preserved, all it was missing was a loco plinthed inside the gateway to complete the effect.  The track inside the gates was particularly well-manicured and kept.

 

 

By the time we returned in 2007, it was all being dug up as the road was getting redeveloped.

 

 

The gate itself, and the old tracks just visible inside.  We didn't get any more shots, as some rather heavily armed members of the Constabulary started paying us interest. 

 

Our attempt to return on a later visit was abandoned because a slow-moving nuclear flask road convoy was here, and there were rather too many machine guns around to make us comfortable taking pics.  But at this point, all the rails both sides of the gates seemed to have gone.

 

A look on Google Earth just now shows it has all been obliterated; between the new road junction, and the expansion of the Sub pens, there is now no trace of the tracks.

 

Gordon Edgar has some nice pics of the harbour shunters, that survived until quite late; a very 'My Little Pony'-pink Hudswell-Hunslet shunter amongst them.  Does anybody know what happened to the locomotives?  I'd guess they got the chop.

[bradfordbuffer]

Does this qualify as...(or elsewhere)?

[Ben B]

 

Here's an interesting one, Bradford Industrial Museum, a shot taken about a decade ago.  This was a 'new build' tramway when the mill was converted into a museum, installed at 4ft gauge to match the gauge used by the electric trams in the city, and part of the replica street scene in the museum grounds.  It seems to have run in a u-shape around the site at one point, though by the time I first visited the museum in 2005 it was more of an L-shape, part of the line being tarmacked over on the approach to the car park.

 

It did have a replica horse-tram in use, though I never personally saw it working.  Around 2011, because Horses Cost Money and how dare the nation spend money on the museum sector, the very popular working horses were sent to live on a farm (surprisingly not a euphemism for being turned into glue, they actually genuinely went to a horse sanctuary).  A shame as people seemed to really like them, but (and here I fully admit I'm speculating) at a time of Government cost-cutting it probably looked embarrassing to still have 'stable hand' and 'farrier' on the books.  It was the start of what seems to have been a spiral of cost-cutting at the museum, including getting rid of the cafe in favour of vending machines... anything to try and apparently get the place operable by about two people.  Very disappointing, and I'm always slightly surprised to visit the museum and find it's still even open, and hasn't been sold for housing redevelopment.

 

I've not been since the Covid crisis started, I'd assume the rails are still there, but don't know for certain.

[melmerby]

On 18/05/2021 at 21:51, bradfordbuffer said:

Does this qualify as...(or elsewhere)?

Those cans of rat piss disqualify it

[bradfordbuffer]

26 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Those cans of rat piss disqualify it

Could you please quote your CAMRA membership number? Hope the pic of real stuff makes you happy? I like them as a change from rats urine! Suppose there too cold and thay need to be wrapped up in a little nitted jacket...

My man fridge my man cave my rules!...any way back to the rails...!

[bradfordbuffer]

On 11/05/2021 at 20:12, bradfordbuffer said:

Old contractors flat bottom rail holding up a wall over a small stream Embsay reservoir as res was completed 1908ish its stood the test of time..you can see fish plate holes on left end.few other bits of rail that are scattered round but vegetation has reclaimed...I did find a track spike in crumbled side into the res when water level was low...just got to open eyes stuff in plane view....some contractors rail also on Leeds Liverpool canal holding canal side in place near skipton so prob came off when midland route was made or line to ilkley as quite near Bridge over canal south end of skipton.

 

Bottom of contractors flat bottom has given up to rust but web an top looks good for another century

Contractors track spike found near the location of rails supporting wall

Edited May 21, 2021 by bradfordbuffer
Forgot to add photo...dumb ass

[melmerby]

11 minutes ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Could you please quote your CAMRA membership number? Hope the pic of real stuff makes you happy? I like them as a change from rats urine! Suppose there too cold and thay need to be wrapped up in a little nitted jacket...

My man fridge my man cave my rules!...any way back to the rails...!

That's better (I've got some of those in at present) and it's 351632

 

If you get caught drinking Bud you are likely to get expelled

[Adam88]

Here the rail is not in the road but in the wall.  This is a tramway rail seen repurposed in Guernsey.  I imagine that this is a relic from the Guernsey Steam Tramway Company which operated from 1877 until its early electrification in 1892.  This is now on its side but I think these rails were originally run along wooden baulks.

 

[bradfordbuffer]

31 minutes ago, melmerby said:

That's better (I've got some of those in at present) and it's 351632

 

If you get caught drinking Bud you are likely to get expelled

Once visited Froxfield pub near barrow...(real ale pub) asked for a pint of fosters....bar and pub fell silent! Oops 

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 hours ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Once visited Froxfield pub near barrow...(real ale pub) asked for a pint of fosters....bar and pub fell silent! Oops 

 

I dare you to go back and ask for Coors light!

 

Mike.

[Re6/6]

8 hours ago, Adam88 said:

Here the rail is not in the road but in the wall.  This is a tramway rail seen repurposed in Guernsey.  I imagine that this is a relic from the Guernsey Steam Tramway Company which operated from 1877 until its early electrification in 1892.  This is now on its side but I think these rails were originally run along wooden baulks.

 

 

It's amazing that anything has survived on Guernsey.

 

Ctsy Oakwood Press 'Railways of the Channel Islands' by Judge.

 

A very good book for those interested in the railways of The Channel Islands which includes the railways of the German occupation.

[009 micro modeller]

12 hours ago, Ben B said:

 

Here's an interesting one, Bradford Industrial Museum, a shot taken about a decade ago.  This was a 'new build' tramway when the mill was converted into a museum, installed at 4ft gauge to match the gauge used by the electric trams in the city, and part of the replica street scene in the museum grounds.  It seems to have run in a u-shape around the site at one point, though by the time I first visited the museum in 2005 it was more of an L-shape, part of the line being tarmacked over on the approach to the car park.

 

It did have a replica horse-tram in use, though I never personally saw it working.  Around 2011, because Horses Cost Money and how dare the nation spend money on the museum sector, the very popular working horses were sent to live on a farm (surprisingly not a euphemism for being turned into glue, they actually genuinely went to a horse sanctuary).  A shame as people seemed to really like them, but (and here I fully admit I'm speculating) at a time of Government cost-cutting it probably looked embarrassing to still have 'stable hand' and 'farrier' on the books.  It was the start of what seems to have been a spiral of cost-cutting at the museum, including getting rid of the cafe in favour of vending machines... anything to try and apparently get the place operable by about two people.  Very disappointing, and I'm always slightly surprised to visit the museum and find it's still even open, and hasn't been sold for housing redevelopment.

 

I've not been since the Covid crisis started, I'd assume the rails are still there, but don't know for certain.

 

More information about the replica tram: https://www.discoverbradford.com/copy-of-industrial-museum-outside-y

 

The cost-cutting is a real shame. Has the tramway ever been used to move the electric trams (which I think they have there on static display) in and out of the site? I assume none of it is actually electrified.

 

[Ben B]

12 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

More information about the replica tram: https://www.discoverbradford.com/copy-of-industrial-museum-outside-y

 

The cost-cutting is a real shame. Has the tramway ever been used to move the electric trams (which I think they have there on static display) in and out of the site? I assume none of it is actually electrified.

 

 

I'm not sure if the garage-space where the electric tram is kept is actually linked to the outside line.  I've been to the museum a couple of dozen times, and yet I can't remember off the top of my head.

 

I wonder if the museum would do better if it was located somewhere a bit easier to get to, as its quite some way out of the city centre, in terrace-house suburbia.  And with the surrounding former quarry and farm land being turned into more housing, I think I'd be getting worried if I was working for the museum.  The problem is, I can't imagine the collection being moved anywhere else, or a new museum being opened anywhere else in the borough at this point...

[Enterprisingwestern]

8 hours ago, Ben B said:

The problem is, I can't imagine the collection being moved anywhere else, or a new museum being opened anywhere else in the borough at this point...

 

It could move to Transperience, oh wait, Bradford seems to have form!

 

Mike.

[HonestTom]

On 22/05/2021 at 08:07, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I dare you to go back and ask for Coors light!

 

Mike.

 

That seems like a lose-lose situation. Either you get barred from the pub or you wind up with a pint of Coors Light.

[bradfordbuffer]

15 minutes ago, HonestTom said:

 

That seems like a lose-lose situation. Either you get barred from the pub or you wind up with a pint of Coors Light.

Love a cold fizzy pint of rats urine! But even I have standards....ill take been bared out if the bar!

[Allegheny1600]

Browsing Flicker yesterday, I came across this;

Copyright: Roger Marks.

 I don’t recall seeing this on here, hopefully not, I just couldn’t resist it. For information, this picture is listed in some cracking albums too.

Cheers,

John

[Axlebox]

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.7195879,-2.4725739,3a,75y,199.45h,71.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0gPUda5UKeK_zNWWSWzcNA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Sharpness Docks...

[Porcy Mane]

1 hour ago, Axlebox said:

Sharpness Docks...

 

Aw haway! Onybody can do Gigglestreetv veiw:

 

All within a few yards of the "Black Path"

 

Into/out of one of Head Wrightsons Works:

https://goo.gl/maps/JRbQnkoXmroWu4yHA

 

Cochranes.  (O Lucky Man).

 

https://goo.gl/maps/jCjQZEqdKLzXQ6RX8

 

Into D/L's Slag Reclamation  and South Bank Chemical Works.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/uWDCGzaQq35TAQmPA

 

Must scan some of the Swansea Docks stuff.

 

 

[Axlebox]

47 minutes ago, Porcy Mane said:

2 hours ago, Axlebox said:

Sharpness Docks...

 

Aw haway! Onybody can do Gigglestreetv veiw:

 

Quantity over quality Uncle P...can you do double tracks in the road like at Sharpness?