Luton Bute Street... mooching about in the weeds...

[Rugd1022]

It's amazing what you can discover when when you're at work with a bit of time on your hands.... yesterday morning I was working the 6C79 Mountsorrel - Luton Yard Redlands train and whilst waiting for the offloading staff to arrive at Luton I thought I'd go for a wander. Over on the down side of the Midland Mainline is the remaining infrastucture of the old Luton Bute Street branch, which was recently uncovered by Network Rails 'tree slashing' crew. I've been meaning to go and have a look as apparently it's going to become a bus lane of some sort, so I thought I'd grab a few photos before it all disappears for good. Not only is some of the track still intact, but hidden in the trees until a few months ago was a complete colour light signal, with it's West Hampstead Signalbox identity number plate still attached! Just beyond the signal was a short section of track leading up to the down fast line, I presume this made a connection to allow trains access to the stub of the branch which I believe was still in use till about 1990.... can anyone shed any light on the branch and it's history....?

 

As if finding the colour light signal wasn't enough, as I walked around I stumbled (literally) on something solid and metallic in the undergrowth, I looked down and there lying face down was a semaphore stop arm! I can't believe the NR bods just left it there but they did, they must have seen it as some of the red enamel has been chipped off by their strimmers....

 

Nidge

[edcayton]

There is a Middleton Press book "Branch Lines to Dunstable" which covers both the GN (from Hatfield) and LNW (from Leighton Buzzard) parts of the line, and that has a fair chunk on Luton Bute Street.

 

Ed

[brian daniels]

I assume that arm has a new home now I found one in Hinksey last year half buried and a hole rusted through but as you say Nidge it's surprising what is still out there.

[giz]

There is a page on Luton Bute Street on the Disused Stations website:

 

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/luton_bute_street/index.shtml

[Rugd1022]

Thanks for the gen Ed and Giz

 

Bri... well, be a shame to leave it rusting away in the undergrowth eh... . There are half a dozen or so telegraph poles lying about at Luton too, I managed to bag a couple of porcelain insulators off of one that didn't have a mark on them. Not been into Hinksey for ages, hope the lads down there are still in full employment mate. Last time I looked, the old LNWR swing bridge was still there at the north end of Oxford... I can remember 08 936 trundling across it years back, pushing some 16 tonners into the coal yard.

 

Nidge

[coachmann]

B&R Video Vol. 29 Steam Around the Midland will be right down your street. A nostangic look back at scenes on the midland railway centred on Luton and its many branches north, south, east and west. Much of the film was shot in 1959 when dieselisation of the Midland mainline was just beginning. Push pull trains, Midland 1F's at Stavely Works, Luton Town soccer specials etc etc.

[hairyhandedfool]

I seem to remember on carnival days they would run a DMU up and down the branch. that was before the 'Relief road' was built down the side of it, must have been late 80s. I think the line that was there back then went down the back of the bus station in Luton, which would appear to be in a different place to where the station was, albeit not by much, in anycase it'd probably be under the car park now anyway. Until the recent years, the line from Dunstable town centre to the car park in Luton was still intact.

 

When the Council came up with the Guided Bus Route (back in '95/6), they had three other ideas, a diesel railcar (to shuttle between Luton and Dunstable), a tram (which would serve the town centres) and an electrified line connected to the Midland Mainline (to allow trains from Dunstable and local stations along the way (Skimpot Roundabout, L&D Hospital, Chaul End, Bury Park) to go to London and maybe beyond), but I think the idea all along was to bypass the traffic jams that clogged up the A505 (Luton/Dunstable road) and the (at the time) brand new relief road (which did not reach Dunstable Town centre - the whole idea of the road in the first place!).

 

Amusingly enough, when Government announced they would give money to the scheme, the local press said that South Beds Council admitted they didn't want the bus route and had only said yes to the scheme because they thought the money would not be found to fund it!

[richard_t]

Fond memories of the 31's and 33's coming off that line with the cements, and the reversing through Platforms 4 and 5, before heading south (I think - memory isn't as good as it was).

 

On the downside: a mate and I have both had cars bricked off the bridges along the route. That's one of the reasons why the bridges have been fenced off.

 

I assumed the clearance work along there was for the bus route; if not what's it for? NR have been along the Bletchley/Claydon Junction strimming in the last few years, but nowt else happened as far as I know.

[Rugd1022]

Thanks for those interesting replies chaps

 

The day I took the pictures I drove home in the staff van via the A505 to Dunstable then up the A5, as I came into Dunstable itself I noticed several NR bods working on one of the bridges so something is definitely afoot.

 

Cheers, Nidge

[lmsforever]

Fond memories of the 31's and 33's coming off that line with the cements, and the reversing through Platforms 4 and 5, before heading south (I think - memory isn't as good as it was).

 

On the downside: a mate and I have both had cars bricked off the bridges along the route. That's one of the reasons why the bridges have been fenced off.

 

I assumed the clearance work along there was for the bus route; if not what's it for? NR have been along the Bletchley/Claydon Junction strimming in the last few years, but nowt else happened as far as I know.

 

 

The clearance on Bletchley Bicester line was purely to see what was there hopefully work will start in a couple of years ,all the undergrowth has grown back and the track was nicked a few years ago.

[beast66606]

The semaphore is probably the colour light's predecessor, West Hampstead was commissioned roughly 30 years ago in that area.

[hairyhandedfool]

The route is being made ready for buses, but last I heard, the track was being kept for a preservation group who have plans to re-use it on a Heritage line close to the bus way at the Dunstable end. I suspect the NR bods are just recovering the track.

 

http://www.luton.angle.uk.com/forum/?read=3473

 

ISTR that a group tried to show the councils the error of their ways by repairing a section of track near Dunstable. I think the SRA had words with them about safety, tresspassing, criminal damage, and so on.

 

I was looking for a link for the above, maybe a news report or something but no luck, anyway whilst doing so I saw a snippet about Chris Green (then head of NSE) wanted to re-open the line (which does explain why Dunstable was on many NSE destination blinds.

 

 

 

 

[Jenny Emily]

I was hoping that the Cambridge farce coupled with government cutbacks would have seen the end of yet another misguided busway nonsense. Where is the money coming from for this scheme, and how is it safe from having the plug pulled?

[edcayton]

Wasn't there something fairly recently about a diesel loco being stolen from Dunstable and driven along the line?

 

Ed

[Jenny Emily]

I'm not sure that it was stolen - from memory, there was an abortive preservation attempt and so the story I heard goes, some people within the group decided they would take something for a trip along the line without anyone's permission, and overlooked the fact that it triggered track circuits and caused calamity as a result in a powerbox somewhere.

[South of 1E]

I'm not sure that it was stolen - from memory, there was an abortive preservation attempt and so the story I heard goes, some people within the group decided they would take something for a trip along the line without anyone's permission, and overlooked the fact that it triggered track circuits and caused calamity as a result in a powerbox somewhere.

 

The Ruston shunter was driven over Church St bridge on technically a closed, isolated line.(Bute st car park tracks had been long lifted by then). The fuss i believe was that Church St bridge the loco crossed wasn't checked by engineers prior to the loco crossing it. It showed that trains could run on the Dunstable branch without the millions of £'s Network rail were quoting and fortunately Church street bridge did take the weight of a train some years after the branch weedkiller in 1990 but a bus way was adopted anyway.

 

some gen from the branch in 1988, happy days on the branch

 

31112 25/04/88 eve cem

47638 28/04/88 u oil

31229 28/04/88 light

31144 04/05/88 am cem

33111 08/05/88 Dunstable-Portsmouth Adex

45141 10/05/88 am cem

31290 13/05/88 eve cem

31424 16/05/88 am cem

31247 27/05/88 last eve cem

53359} 30/05/88 Dunstable-Luton Shuttles

54122}

31409 07/06/88 u oil

31275 21/09/88 u oil

 

 

NR, www.leightonlogs.org

[33040]

Happy memories. For thirteen years while growing up I lived in a house with the Luton-Dunstable branch at the end of the garden. Cement trains (Blue Circle from Northfleet in Kent to Houghton Regis Cement works) was the most common, with some oil train and even scrap metal from the Vauxhall Bedford truck plant in Dunstable (once the largest truck plant in Western Europe, now no more). Class 45s, particularly on the morning cement train, and class 25s were common. Class 33 often made it as far as Luton Bute Street, including a pair of 33/2s, but I only saw one working the branch. At some point class 31 began to replace the other traction.

 

The plan is to convert the track bed into a bus way and tree clearance work has been undertaken. The track is still in situ around Dunstable Church Street but the sleepers are completely rotten. In October 2010 the railway bridge over Dunstable Church Street / Luton Road was removed, and I believe a number of bridges were removed in Luton at the same time so the chances of re-instating the railway are gone.

 

When the Luton relief road (Hatters Way) was built the Luton-Dunstable branch had to be re-aligned to allow for the road. It is believed that no trains actually used this new alignment as the route was already mothballed when the work was undertaken.

[Rugd1022]

Thanks for that '33040' and a warm welcome to the forum

 

I've been working into Luton Yard again this week and notice that the NR bods have started putting up wooden fence posts between the remains of the branch and the Midland Mainline. It's all go....

 

Nidge

[PGN]

You never know ... there might be some redundant boundary markers capable of liberation.

 

We have two or three Midland Railway boundary markers at the edge of our paddocks. But as they still mark the boundary of the railway land, I'm content for them to stay there.

 

(Now if only NR would come along and do something about all their bloody rabbits which enjoy my grazing so ... )