Ghosts in the Machine.

[Ben B]

Quote

Found this in the trees near Workington harbour last weekend. I assume it was something to do with the old steel works. The lights were red, amber and green. The track was long gone but the single track rails were still in situ where it crossed the adjacent road.

 

Had a hunt and found the shots from the erstwhile Workington Harbour/Steelworks.  Didn't find the shot of the shunter on the actual crossing, but on the approach...

 

 

This is one of the locomotives that the N Gauge Society are doing isn't it?

 

 

A shot from the public footpath which crossed the end of the Harbour Bridge, which was back behind the loco in the top shot.  This is the structure which got critically damaged in the floods a few years back.  When we visited we assumed it was already out of use, hence our surprise when the shunter rumbled over it about ten minutes later...

[Ben B]

Whilst hunting for the pictures from Workington Harbour I came across some more shots which might be of interest, from around the same time.  My girlfriend and I were on the photography course at Carlisle, and she was doing a project on the declining industry of the Cumbrian Coast, I tended to accompany her on her jaunts and mooch around looking for railway stuff to photograph.

 

 

Remains of the Barrow in Furness docks railway I think, near to the back of the BAE submarine factory.  On our first visit there'd been quite a long stretch of preserved track, but it was being removed by the time of the above trip.  And it was properly preserved on that first jaunt, with neatly manicured surroundings but very much isolated from any other railway.  In the above shot Tesco were bulldozing a chunk of it to improve the access route to their site.  A glance on google earth just now reveals it's all gone, including an ornate gateway which straddled the tracks near the dock museum.  Tesco have covered most of it with the approach to their supermarket, the rest by the expansion of the BAE grounds and main road.

 

 

Barrow at the time still had lots of remains of the old industrial tramways near the docks, set into the roads.  There was some nice double-track in cobbles used as parking in a couple of places.  The above was also near the BAE facility, crossing the street from one new building to the older one above.  I remember wanting to get more shots, but the local constabulary were starting to pay us attention.

 

 

Back in Carlisle, the old London Road goods yard, passed by the still operational lines to Leeds via Settle, and the Tyne route to Newcastle.  Most of the goods yard was derelict at the time (2007), and despite the shiny rails this crossing couldn't have seen a train in years.

 

I wish I could find my pictures of it, but another Carlisle relic at the time was the remains of the bridge over the Caldew, half-demolished in the 80's by the tail end of an uncoupled, runaway freightliner train.  The damage bought down a chunk of the bridge and led BR to abandon the whole goods avoiding lines which bypassed Citadel Station, and whilst we were there the remaining half of the bridge was still visible.  There was some talk of reopening the avoiding lines at the time we still lived in the city (2004-07), but they appear to have been built over and the remains of the bridge removed now.

 

 

Still in Cumbria, this time in Appleby where the mothballed line to Warcop crosses the road at Appleby East, not far from the Settle-Carlisle station.  This is interesting, in that it is technically still connected to the national network, the exchange sidings are periodically used (a few years ago "Tornado" was serviced there during the point where it was running those regular tours over the curtailed route) and a preservation society are trying like hell to get trains back from Warcop to Appleby.  There's a scrapyard on the track at the station site, though a while ago it was cleared enough for some EMU vehicles to be delivered, and when we visited I remember a load of road/rail vehicles were lined up at the old platform which indicated these ancient wooden gates were still operational.  Looking on Google Earth, as of 2020 the sign has gone but the gates are still there, and the track looks if anything better manicured...

 

 

Trawsfynned, North Wales, and signs still up (and in good nick) warning about a railway which at that point had been out of use for well over a decade, and had trees growing through it.  The sign had been nicked the last time I was in the area, but the rails are still there.  Again, another 'mothballed' line which gets periodically mentioned as a prospect for reopening.  

 

 

And a bit of a weird one to finish with, Baggeridge, Himley (near Dudley) in the west Midlands.  I think by this time (2007) the quarry vehicles had ceased to run on the haul road.  The railway connection is that this is an ex railway line, an industrial branch of the Earl of Dudley which once connected Baggeridge Colliery with both the GWR at Askew Bridge, and the Earl of Dudley/Pensnett Railway for moving coal to the Round Oak Steelworks.  The National Coal Board operated it latterly, when they closed down the trackbed was taken over as a route for lorries to access Baggeridge Brickworks, itself now closed and gone.  Last summer the route was still there and fenced off with level crossings of a sort, but no lorries could possibly use it now, it's so overgrown.

[melmerby]

Where the goods lines rejoined the passenger lines just north of Citadel is now covered in retail sheds.

Much of the old goods avoiding lines is still clear elsewhere however and the junction by Currock Road bridge is still in situ but goes nowhere

[Ben B]

7 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Where the goods lines rejoined the passenger lines just north of Citadel is now covered in retail sheds.

Much of the old goods avoiding lines is still clear elsewhere however and the junction by Currock Road bridge is still in situ but goes nowhere

 

Thanks for the info- I've only been back to the city a couple of times since graduating, but not down the end by the railway.  When I worked at the station in the mid 2000's there were rumblings about rebuilding the old avoiding lines to re-route the MGR trains away from the station, but I suppose there just isn't the need anymore, given the collapse in that traffic.  I don't suppose the normal lines struggle much with capacity nowadays.

 

I did like just how much of the old railway infrastructure there was in Carlisle, it seemed like all over the western side of the city there were bits of old trackbeds and abandoned bridge parapets.  It appears the lovely old NBR viaduct over the Eden is still there; there was an unofficial public footpath over it when I lived in Stanwix, and I think I must have shot half a dozen photography projects around that viaduct, never mind how much I used to walk over it just as a circular walk to excercise.  At the point I was leaving there was talk of building the proposed bypass over the top of it, or just demolishing the whole thing.

[The Border Reiver]

23 minutes ago, Ben B said:

 

Thanks for the info- I've only been back to the city a couple of times since graduating, but not down the end by the railway.  When I worked at the station in the mid 2000's there were rumblings about rebuilding the old avoiding lines to re-route the MGR trains away from the station, but I suppose there just isn't the need anymore, given the collapse in that traffic.  I don't suppose the normal lines struggle much with capacity nowadays.

 

I did like just how much of the old railway infrastructure there was in Carlisle, it seemed like all over the western side of the city there were bits of old trackbeds and abandoned bridge parapets.  It appears the lovely old NBR viaduct over the Eden is still there; there was an unofficial public footpath over it when I lived in Stanwix, and I think I must have shot half a dozen photography projects around that viaduct, never mind how much I used to walk over it just as a circular walk to excercise.  At the point I was leaving there was talk of building the proposed bypass over the top of it, or just demolishing the whole thing.

 

A group are trying to to re-open the NBR viaduct over the Eden as a footpath and eventually a cycle path

 

http://www.carlislewaverleyviaducttrust.co.uk/

[Ben B]

Do ghosts of miniature railways count?  Back in the summer I ended up seeing one of the ex-Dudley Zoo Miniature Railway locomotives at Rhyl, and when visiting my parents who still live in the West Mids, I ended up going hunting for the remains of the line with my Dad (he could remember the line running along the full extent of its route before its gradual contraction).  I can juuuuust about remember riding on the railway before it closed, in a slightly odd, angular railcar with hinge-up sides.  I did contact the Zoo for info on the line and got a little bit back, and a firm "we have no plans to reopen the railway, ever" kind of message.  The old station site is sealed off out of view and inaccessible (tried to have a look whilst taking the kids to the zoo in early August), so thought I'd have more luck on the public footpaths around Castle Hill.

 

 

Where the trackbed leaves the zoo site.

 

 

And looking the other way, along what is apparently a well-used footpath.

 

 

Being as the line was lifted in the early 1990's I wasn't expecting to find anything, but about a third of the way along, Dad spotted something angular poking out of the mud, and a bit of scraping with the side of a boot revealed a sleeper with the remains of spikes...

 

 

…and another, which apparently had been flipped over for reuse at some point in the long history of the line, given it was spiked on both sides.

 

 

A bit of rail marked where possibly a fencepost or gatepost had stood beside the track, perhaps where a path had crossed the line.

 

 

Walking back from the terminus site (a grand term for the spot where the line just used to dead-end in the woods) and where the only relic was the base of what had once been an anchor for some steel cables, we hit a treasure-trove of bits.  At the base of an embankment, there were about a dozen concrete sleepers in very good nick.  If these were just dumped because they were too heavy to cart away, or had been put there to reinforce the embankment, wasn't clear.

 

 

One more find, a fishplate which was half-buried in the mud near the dumped sleepers, now a little souvenir which now graces my garden,

[PhilJ W]

Station for sale >>

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88570877.html

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Station for sale >>

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88570877.html

Pity the location map has the wrong property!

 

This is it:

https://goo.gl/maps/wQGeT7h8bAcMfSiL8

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

Pity the location map has the wrong property!

IIRC the map link on Rightmove takes you to the centre of the postcode.

[PhilJ W]

I see it has a cellar used as an office, make a good layout room?

 

[melmerby]

9 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

IIRC the map link on Rightmove takes you to the centre of the postcode.

Why, when you can do it properly?

I expect when the custom pin has been made for it to be on the property, not somewhere else.

 

I can do it for my house so why not the one for sale?

[melmerby]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I see it has a cellar used as an office, make a good layout room?

 

Even better is a very large workshop:

"The Workshop
29'9" x 38'8"
With covered entrance area (16'8" x 11'9") with extensive fluorescent lighting, 9' double doors, 7' to head, and an electric roller door serves out onto the platform."

[TheSignalEngineer]

45 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I expect when the custom pin has been made for it to be on the property, not somewhere else.

It probably depends on which agent puts the location information into Rightmove. If you put in just the postcode or street name it will give you the centre of a range. Some seem to put in the exact address. With our local agents sometimes on streetview you end up 200 yards away, with others you are right outside.

[PhilJ W]

There is a bespoke furniture business operating from the site that is what the workshop is for. 

[melmerby]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

There is a bespoke furniture business operating from the site that is what the workshop is for. 

It wont be after it's sold...

[sem34090]

With that land, and if you can buy more, why not just go for 12" to the foot scale with 1435.1mm Gauge?

 

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, sem34090 said:

With that land, and if you can buy more, why not just go for 12" to the foot scale with 1435.1mm Gauge?

 

I would be tempted to get a few track panels and get a railway vehicle to put on it.

Get a bogie parcels van (GUV etc.) and you could have a model railway in it!

[Mark Saunders]

26 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I would be tempted to get a few track panels and get a railway vehicle to put on it.

Get a bogie parcels van (GUV etc.) and you could have a model railway in it!

 

Not that common now but a Pacer body may fill the gap?

 

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

Not that common now but a Pacer body may fill the gap?

 

Much better than it's original use!

[melmerby]

On 23/01/2020 at 14:23, Ben B said:

 

 

Still in Cumbria, this time in Appleby where the mothballed line to Warcop crosses the road at Appleby East, not far from the Settle-Carlisle station.  This is interesting, in that it is technically still connected to the national network, the exchange sidings are periodically used (a few years ago "Tornado" was serviced there during the point where it was running those regular tours over the curtailed route) and a preservation society are trying like hell to get trains back from Warcop to Appleby.  There's a scrapyard on the track at the station site, though a while ago it was cleared enough for some EMU vehicles to be delivered, and when we visited I remember a load of road/rail vehicles were lined up at the old platform which indicated these ancient wooden gates were still operational.  Looking on Google Earth, as of 2020 the sign has gone but the gates are still there, and the track looks if anything better manicured...

 

 

 

The latest Google satellite view is 20/9/2019 and the Streetview is 2009

[justin1985]

This relic caught my eye at East Croydon station ticket counter today. "Network SouthCentral" branded leaflet dispenser! 

 

 

I don't know how long that era of shadow privatisation lasted? After Network Southeast but before Connex?

[Wickham Green]

Do you mean you actually managed to take a photograph at East Croydon without getting pounced upon by the Security Ogres ??!? ( or is it just taking photos of trains they object to ? )

[uax6]

The downside running board here at Littleport has just fallen off, revealing the old purple WAGN Welcome to Littleport sign... sadly not got my camera with me... I wonder how long it will remain on show?

 

Andy G

[ejstubbs]

On 18/03/2015 at 14:00, ejstubbs said:

Just found this on Google Streetview: https://goo.gl/maps/siSgl - it's on the side of a building on the other side of South End Road from Hampstead Heath station.  For six or seven years in the 1980s I lived less than a quarter of a mile away from that location.  I can't begin to count the number of times that I took the train from Hampstead Heath to Broad Street, caught the 24 bus from South End Green, or walked up past the Royal Free to get the tube at Belsize Park.  In all that time, I never noticed the advert     The Streetview photo is dated June 2014 so I guess it's likely still there.

 

Following up on my own post from five years ago (!), two things:

i) The advert is still visible in the 2019 Streetview shot;

ii) In the 2008 Streetview shot there is a TfL billboard covering most of the painted-on LNER advert.  The billboard seems to have been removed sometime between 2008 and 2012.  That could explain both why I never noticed the LNER advert in all the years I lived just round the corner, and how it managed to survive until now.

Whether it is likely to last very much longer I have no idea, but I can't help thinking it would be worth preserving somehow.

[Titan]

11 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

Following up on my own post from five years ago (!), two things:

i) The advert is still visible in the 2019 Streetview shot;

ii) In the 2008 Streetview shot there is a TfL billboard covering most of the painted-on LNER advert.  The billboard seems to have been removed sometime between 2008 and 2012.  That could explain both why I never noticed the LNER advert in all the years I lived just round the corner, and how it managed to survive until now.

Whether it is likely to last very much longer I have no idea, but I can't help thinking it would be worth preserving somehow.

 

I would think that it would be a nice publicity exercise for the current LNER !