Evocotive railway remains, what derelect or abandoned structure stirs your emotions?

[russ p]

23 hours ago, Pinza-C55 said:

Although I don't have photos to hand it would have to be Bowes Station and Belah Viaduct on the Stainmore Line. I walked the line in 1996 and got talking to the owner of Bowes station and he said he had several offers to buy it but they were just speculators and he would rather leave it a ruin than sell it. At Belah I found a signal ladder and fragments of the cast iron legs in the valley still in the maroon and cream paint of the London Midland Region.

 

 

For some reason you can leave a review for belah viaduct so I duly obliged....

 

https://g.co/kgs/xHEgFK

[DK123GWR]

  

3 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Its a disgrace closing power stations just because of the outcry by those who think they know better ,we will need them as the population grows .Doubtless they will build houses on the site and further increase the demand for electricity ,even gas is on the anti,s list so when will they decide that green will be no good.

Even if it were impossible to replace coal (and eventually all fossil fuels) in electricity generation I think that rationing electricity consumption would be a price worth paying for not wrecking the planet (even more). I do agree that at least one coal power station should be preserved as a museum - they are very impressive structures.

To get back to the thread's subject, Combe Down Tunnel would be great if it weren't for the music and coloured lights through the central section. For that reason, I would have to choose the disused parts of Chippenham station (a former loading bay in the goods yard and the weighbridge) and Black Dog Halt (the most prominent structure remaining from the Calne branch). I often try to imagine a train travelling down the line as when cycling along it.

[Pinza-C55]

7 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

Several years ago Bleath Gill box was dug out (closed in the 1920s, although it stood for longer), and the nameboard was found, apparently in pretty good condition, face down in what was called the "basement" in the article I read (locking room?) so it survived well when everything else eventually came down on top of it (https://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/volunteers-dig-up-bleath-gill-rail-sign.170979.html - pity it doesn't have a photo).

 When I walked it in 1996 the remains of Bleath Gill box were still up to shoulder height and there was an old wooden sign near it which I think had been a "Whistle" sign. Finding the NER enamel nameplate from such an illustrious place was incredible, it would be worth hundreds of pounds in an auction. I used to own a cast iron seat name from Barras station.

[Pinza-C55]

3 hours ago, russ p said:

 

 

For some reason you can leave a review for belah viaduct so I duly obliged....

 

https://g.co/kgs/xHEgFK

 

 

[Reorte]

First time I've seen a picture of the viaduct between being in use and being demolished.

 

[Pinza-C55]

12 hours ago, Reorte said:

First time I've seen a picture of the viaduct between being in use and being demolished.

 

 

I think, in the time honoured style of British Rail, they repainted it about 7 years before it was demolished. In 1996 the pieces of cast iron leg on the sides of the valley were still in BR (M) cream and maroon paint.  Theres a nice simulation of the line here with the viaduct at 42.40

 

 

[Arun Sharma]

Down on the old Test Valley Line between Fullerton Junction and Stockbridge [now an unmade cycle path] there are still the odd platform and a half dozen platelayers' huts and their associated toolsheds.

Like so:

 

[Reorte]

23 minutes ago, Pinza-C55 said:

 

I think, in the time honoured style of British Rail, they repainted it about 7 years before it was demolished. In 1996 the pieces of cast iron leg on the sides of the valley were still in BR (M) cream and maroon paint.  Theres a nice simulation of the line here with the viaduct at 42.40

 

I've got that simulation - the Stainmore route is the only bit of software I've ever pre-ordered and it was well worth the wait. Not only is it impressive a location anyway there's been a lot of work and attention to detail put in to it, as well as getting a bit carried away extending the area covered (it's got the whole WCML stretch over Shap, carrying on down south a bit and then along the coast via Arnside). Very definitely highly recommended for anyone with Train Simulator.

[Trog]

My self I can not help feeling a bit sorry for the flyover at Bletchley.

 

For more than fifty years people run it down and describe it as a white elephant.

 

Then all of a sudden it is a vital piece of strategic infrastructure on the new East - West line. But no sooner has it had a chance to absorb this and start to feel good about its self, than the demolition contractors turn up and start knocking it down.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Trog

['CHARD]

On 12/02/2020 at 18:00, vulcan product fan said:

This is milers dale viaduct a very short walk from Headstone tunnel.

Without wishing to be pedantic, this is actually Monsal Head or Headstone viaduct, seen from the Monsal Head Hotel car park unless I'm very much mistaken.  

 

Millers Dale viaduct(s) are twin lattice spans a couple of miles north in the direction of Buxton and look very different!

Edited August 25, 2020 by 'CHARD
clarity

[Reorte]

46 minutes ago, 'CHARD said:

Without wishing to be pedantic, this is actually Monsal Head or Headstone viaduct, seen from the Monsal Head Hotel car park unless I'm very much mistaken.  

 

Millers Dale viaduct(s) are twin lattice spans a couple of miles north in the direction of Buxton and look very different!

My dad once described camping below it as trains were going over it.

[highpeakman]

30 minutes ago, Reorte said:

My dad once described camping below it as trains were going over it.

 

Like many of my era I have watched both steam and diesel trains travel over it and then, later, both walked beneath it and walked over it. I have enjoyed all of that but treasure the memory of watching a Jubilee or Scot hauling an express over it.

[Reorte]

34 minutes ago, highpeakman said:

 

Like many of my era I have watched both steam and diesel trains travel over it and then, later, both walked beneath it and walked over it. I have enjoyed all of that but treasure the memory of watching a Jubilee or Scot hauling an express over it.

I'm envious!

[vulcan product fan]

3 hours ago, 'CHARD said:

Without wishing to be pedantic, this is actually Monsal Head or Headstone viaduct, seen from the Monsal Head Hotel car park unless I'm very much mistaken.  

 

Millers Dale viaduct(s) are twin lattice spans a couple of miles north in the direction of Buxton and look very different!

Agreed sorry yes taken near the cafe as we walked down to the viaduct . i was taking the kids to see a railway tunnel that you could walk through.  

Edited August 25, 2020 by vulcan product fan

[highpeakman]

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

I'm envious!

Don't be. It just means I'm getting old!  

[Busmansholiday]

Sometimes, it's the things you've walked past a hundred times and never noticed.

The old light for the Littlefield Lane railway crossing on the Wath upon Dearne to Manchester via Woodhead route.

[Pinza-C55]

In 1977 I visited Bowes station which was more or less intact though uninhabitable. Most of the wood was rotten from 15 years exposure to the ferocious Stainmore elements but inside the waiting room a poster survived from the last day.

 

Bowes Station 28.2.77 by A1 Northeastern, on Flickr

[Bernard Lamb]

A walk yesterday took me to Tollesbury Pier. The station was just a short distance in land. Fairly near to high tide while I was there, but at low tide some stumps are still visible out to and beyond the pill box. The pill box seems to be a popular roost for cormorants. Far distance left is the white elephant of Bradwell nuclear power station. 

Bernard 

[PatB]

2 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

A walk yesterday took me to Tollesbury Pier. The station was just a short distance in land. Fairly near to high tide while I was there, but at low tide some stumps are still visible out to and beyond the pill box. The pill box seems to be a popular roost for cormorants. Far distance left is the white elephant of Bradwell nuclear power station. 

Bernard 

So presumably the Germans were expected to invade at low tide? 

[PhilJ W]

There's a lot of pillboxes along the Essex coast like that due to coastal erosion.

[Bernard Lamb]

8 hours ago, PatB said:

So presumably the Germans were expected to invade at low tide? 

No. The pier went out to the deepest part of the channel. The middle section was blown up to prevent the pier being used for an invasion. The floods of 1953 destroyed most of what remained.

Bernard

[Hibelroad]

The remains of the Tiviot Dale line through Stockport. I managed to photograph some of it in the early 90s but all has now been swept away.

[PatB]

55 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

No. The pier went out to the deepest part of the channel. The middle section was blown up to prevent the pier being used for an invasion. The floods of 1953 destroyed most of what remained.

Bernard

It was a tongue in cheek reference to the somewhat submarine nature of the pillbox.

[keefer]

That pic reminds me of the various bits of railway that used to criss-cross Glasgow.

Tunnels, bridges, arches & track beds either still there or removed when redevelopment has taken place.

A pity in some cases, as some would be ideal for re-use as a commuter rail system (rail or tram-type) now that so many of the main roads are clogged with traffic.

They managed to modify and re-use some of it over 40 yrs ago when the Glasgow Central Low Level line was brought back into use as the Argyle Line in 1979, having been closed and abandoned since the mid '60s

Edited September 18, 2020 by keefer

[60091]

Remains of Sunderland South Dock coaling stage. 

Photos taken 1997-9