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


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2 hours ago, Rivercider said:

Heddon Mill Crossing on the former Barnstaple and Ilfracombe line is clearly owned by a railway enthusiast.

 

IMG_9635.JPG.b787a4ec02879ed4af6711ecffbf2b7b.JPG

Heddon Mill Crossing looking east with the A361 Barnstaple - Ilfracombe road in the background. 23/6/21

 

IMG_9636.JPG.ba785f105d7b4a3f82bd5e9fd3ba1e75.JPG

Heddon Mill Crossing looking north towards Ilfracombe. 23/6/21

 

IMG_9637.JPG.a8004848ba34d33a0d02faf60edbddda.JPG

Sign and gradient post, 23/6/21

 

IMG_9638.JPG.d0224ab64a9f54f49bb4c52fa94400ac.JPG

Looking west at Heddon Mill Crossing, the line rises to the right towards Ilfracombe 23/6/21.

 

IMG_9639.JPG.1426f22b4e7aa35ccf83b4f69ddc08d6.JPGHeddon Mill Crossing, I assume the crossing box is original? The cottage has clearly been extended. 23/6/21 

 

cheers

 

 

 

 

Great sets of pictures.

The costs due to the number of manned crossings must have counted against the line when closure was being contemplated. As you say, a lot are close to the main road and would have caused a lot of congestion in modern times if the line had survived.

The current Heddon Mill Crossing box may well be the original shape & roof, but the original box had a lot more glass - basically the top half of a late LSWR signal box , like ⅔ of Umberleigh 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129659811@N08/48327840891

 

Edit to say, nice pictures of Heddon Mill in 'The North Devon Line' book by John Nicholas and George Reeve

Edited by Ramblin Rich
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21 minutes ago, Ramblin Rich said:

Great sets of pictures.

The costs due to the number of manned crossings must have counted against the line when closure was being contemplated. As you say, a lot are close to the main road and would have caused a lot of congestion in modern times if the line had survived.

The current Heddon Mill Crossing box may well be the original shape & roof, but the original box had a lot more glass - basically the top half of a late LSWR signal box , like ⅔ of Umberleigh 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129659811@N08/48327840891

 

Edit to say, nice pictures of Heddon Mill in 'The North Devon Line' book by John Nicholas and George Reeve

Level crossings were the death knell for quite a few lines, including some quite late closures (i.e. Ilfracombe in 1970).  The old East Coast Main Line (Boston - Grimsby), also closed in 1970 must have had at least 25 manned crossings; the savings from automating them would have been huge but by then, governments were reluctant to allow BR throw even more money around, when you consider what they'd squandered in the previous couple of decades.

A few years earlier, the direct York - Hull was famously busy, but the cost of manning so many crossings counted against it.  A plan to modernise/automate most the crossings was abandoned due to cost and the line closed instead.

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23 hours ago, Rivercider said:

Heddon Mill Crossing on the former Barnstaple and Ilfracombe line is clearly owned by a railway enthusiast.

 

I'm pretty sure that Heddon Mill Crossing was a Block Post (i.e. Signalbox) and not just a Crossing Box.

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On 02/07/2021 at 17:15, bude_branch said:

 

I'm pretty sure that Heddon Mill Crossing was a Block Post (i.e. Signalbox) and not just a Crossing Box.

Yes, Info again from 'The North Devon Line' book by John Nicholas and George Reeve: from the time the line was doubled in 1889 it was a block post, allowing the section from Braunton to Mortohoe to be split & therefore allowing more trains to ascend / descend Morthoe bank. Heavy trains might take 15-17 minutes to climb so having the section post at Heddon Mill allowed a 2nd train to start off once the 1st got past Heddon Mill. There was a 'closing switch' to switch out the box and make the single section Braunton to Morthoe when traffic was lighter; in that state it was just acting as a crossing box.

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On 30/06/2021 at 21:06, Porcy Mane said:

 

Quarry and brickworks perhaps?  I'm sure there was a thread on RM web about that crossing.

 

Aerial pic here:

 

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/cy/image/EPW039037

NLS map:

1955189116_map1.thumb.png.10f81e59bcdd965ba7d743b2e91a6094.png

 

 

Bentley's Brewery was here under this housing estate, further north:

(Image Lost)

 

 

map2.thumb.png.b979b5e641030c3ea12b5b28ee2cdfe7.png

 

Edited by melmerby
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Whitwell Crossing, Sherburn House County Durham.

This was the 'Old Mainline' more recently known as the Leamside line which ran from Tursdale, north of Ferryhill to Pelaw in South Tyneside...There are serious plans to reinstate this route as part of the freight upgrade to the ECML and also as part of the Tyne and Wear Metro...only time will tell if trains run here again.

      https://www.google.com/maps/@54.7609989,-1.5239448,3a,75y,27.65h,64.56t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sn8o5GZbSLvaFog8fAQWoYA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

Ooh back end of an Allaggro.

Still kick myself for not photographing Riverside and a number of other derelict railway sites while living in Liverpool in the early 90s.

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On 01/07/2021 at 20:20, Ramblin Rich said:

Great sets of pictures.

The costs due to the number of manned crossings must have counted against the line when closure was being contemplated. As you say, a lot are close to the main road and would have caused a lot of congestion in modern times if the line had survived.

The current Heddon Mill Crossing box may well be the original shape & roof, but the original box had a lot more glass - basically the top half of a late LSWR signal box , like ⅔ of Umberleigh 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129659811@N08/48327840891

 

Edit to say, nice pictures of Heddon Mill in 'The North Devon Line' book by John Nicholas and George Reeve

You linked this in the level crossing gates topic:

https://goo.gl/maps/vb5F3vzkNvavHiER9

 

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On 09/07/2021 at 19:37, burgundy said:

Rails beside the road in Portishead.

IMG_20210709_093810.jpg.6a1f81dc137037c143098a4ca9520918.jpg

The other side of the fence will, hopefully in the not too distant future, be the site of the new Portishead station. 

IMG_20210709_093835.jpg.e31f5e1fa9205d38364df08e481ffbdd.jpg

Best wishes 

Eric 


In the first photo, is that looking at the fence from the road? If so, the station will be exactly where the road is (the road itself will be aligned to fit in the station). 

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Once in amongst a spiders web of railway lines and a multitude of level crossings, a 2016 view of the water tank at what was once Durham Paper Mills, Burn Road, Stranton, British West Hartlepool.

Now all demolished.

 

932516065_H-pool_Show2016-19PwD-EditSm.jpg.8fb98ab0fbb4726de6c01b66bcfdeeda.jpg

 

Here's a Slaters 20 ton wooden hopper doing what it was designed for is sat on those very tracks in this Britain from Above image.

 

https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW052377

 

Durham Paper mills on old maps:

 

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/451221/531787/13/101329

 

P

Edited by Porcy Mane
Get rid of some p's.
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1 hour ago, Porcy Mane said:

Once in amongst a spiders web of railway lines and a multitude of level crossings, a 2016 view of the water tank at what was once Durham Paper Mills, Burn Road, Stranton, British West Hartlepool.

Now all demolished.

 

932516065_H-pool_Show2016-19PwD-EditSm.jpg.8fb98ab0fbb4726de6c01b66bcfdeeda.jpg

 

Here's a Slaters 20 ton wooden hopper doing what it was designed for is sat on those very tracks in this Britain from Above image.

 

https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW052377

 

Durham Paper mills on old maps:

 

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/451221/531787/13/101329

 

P

Is there a town in the UK which has seen a greater percentage reduction in its track mileage, as Hartlepool?  Post-war maps show acres of sidings and multiple rail-served industries; barely anything still exists now.

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6 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Is there a town in the UK which has seen a greater percentage reduction in its track mileage, as Hartlepool?  Post-war maps show acres of sidings and multiple rail-served industries; barely anything still exists now.

 

I was talking to a friend who was a driver at hartlepool the other day , we reckon the number of sets of points in the greater teesside area ie hartlepool,  Stockton and Middlesbrough area was probably more in its heyday than the total on the entire UK network today 

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On 12/07/2021 at 15:11, Cheekypaul said:


In the first photo, is that looking at the fence from the road? If so, the station will be exactly where the road is (the road itself will be aligned to fit in the station). 

Yes - the photo was taken from the footpath. 

Looking at the plan of the proposed station, I can see what you mean about the road being slewed northwards - actually occupying some of the former track formation. However, as far as I can see, the platform will extend quite a long way beyond the fence, so prospective passengers will still need to take a machete to get through the undergrowth shown in the second photo.  :rolleyes:

Best wishes 

Eric  

PS Know your place shows rather vividly the extent to which Portishead has spread southwards.

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18 hours ago, burgundy said:

Yes - the photo was taken from the footpath. 

Looking at the plan of the proposed station, I can see what you mean about the road being slewed northwards - actually occupying some of the former track formation. However, as far as I can see, the platform will extend quite a long way beyond the fence, so prospective passengers will still need to take a machete to get through the undergrowth shown in the second photo.  :rolleyes:

Best wishes 

Eric  

PS Know your place shows rather vividly the extent to which Portishead has spread southwards.


That'll be a challenge, to go through the undergrowth! 

I take it you're from Portishead? 

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Rails across a road.  These cross the access road to fisheries and a nature reserve near Canterbury, formerly an aggregates site.  These are short sections of main-line type rail, no apparent rails either side.  Even though it looks like check rail, the paired rails seem not to be truly parallel or levelled.  The 'check' gaps aren't the same and the 'gauge' is about 6' 6".  No explanations are available, could be boundary markers, though in the distant past the site may have been connected to the main line through Sturry, not far beyond the vegetation in the background. 

IMG_20210717_120148.jpg.6d14dca0393406dad07dab5783e20850.jpg

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