Unbuilt railways

[cctransuk]

The Cambridgeshire Records Office have the deposited plans for a narrow gauge 'Oakington & Cottenham Light Railway.

 

A mostly roadside tramway in the style of the Wisbech & Upwell, which would have run from Oakington station, on the Cambridge - St. Ives line, to Cottenham Lode - virtually opposite Cottenham church.

 

The alignment was straight down the main road through Cottenham, with a branch to the local brickworks.

 

I made a start on a model in 1977, but it never got beyond a tiny diaorama and plenty of stock; all based on Tri-ang TT, but in 4mm. scale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Classsix T]

I actually stumbled upon a proposed but never built line after I decided to do a fictional branch.

 

I needed something quintessentially ex-GER but around the late '50s. The Past & Present book had some lovely pictures of the lines around Long Melford etc. and I considered Clare but had to defer to a fictional location from a cost/space and "I want to run this" perspective.

 

Looking through a modern roadmap, I wondered about an extension to the Hadleigh branch to meet up with the Bury-Melford line, the formation of which could hug the River Brett.

 

Having decided this was an ideal solution, further research into the ACTUAL Hadleigh branch revealed it was an original intention to tap traffic from the Midlands to Harwich!

(What did happen was they ran out of funds at Hadleigh, the line closed to pax in 1935 and freight in 1965.)

 

Thus "Akenfield" can boast (via some "creative thinking" of the junctions with prototype lines) diverted expresses, and more interestingly, Varsity trains onwards from Cambridge to Harwich.

 

C6T.

[tractionman]

On unbuilt roadside tramways there was this discussion on one in Somerset which piqued my interest

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/113785-steam-tramways-rural-great-britain-ireland/?p=2400694

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[Coppercap]

One that appears on the huge tiled maps at some ex-NER stations is the never-built North Holderness Light Railway from Beverley to North Frodingham in East Yorkshire. Proposed services were replaced by a bus...in 1903!

[mdh1950]

I actually stumbled upon a proposed but never built line after I decided to do a fictional branch.

 

I needed something quintessentially ex-GER but around the late '50s. The Past & Present book had some lovely pictures of the lines around Long Melford etc. and I considered Clare but had to defer to a fictional location from a cost/space and "I want to run this" perspective.

 

Looking through a modern roadmap, I wondered about an extension to the Hadleigh branch to meet up with the Bury-Melford line, the formation of which could hug the River Brett.

 

Having decided this was an ideal solution, further research into the ACTUAL Hadleigh branch revealed it was an original intention to tap traffic from the Midlands to Harwich!

(What did happen was they ran out of funds at Hadleigh, the line closed to pax in 1935 and freight in 1965.)

 

Thus "Akenfield" can boast (via some "creative thinking" of the junctions with prototype lines) diverted expresses, and more interestingly, Varsity trains onwards from Cambridge to Harwich.

 

C6T.

 

C6T,

The thread entitled "Long Melford and Hadleigh Light Railway - the "South Suffolk Light"?" gives information regarding the planned (and authorised) line from Long Melford to Hadleigh. A magnificent layout theorising on a station at Monks Eleigh was built a little while ago. I live at one of the villages along the route and have been told that there were plans for three other lines in the area - there is a plan to have a rummage through village archives to see what we can find.

 

I am planning a layout based on Cockfield (Suffolk) on the Long Melford to Bury St Edmunds line. The station still exists in a very dilapidated condition. The baseboard is currently under construction and I am considering maintaining a thread or blog on this forum to report progress.

 

Cheers, Michael

[Classsix T]

Thanks Michael.

 

I spent a couple of hours at Monks Eleigh taking photos of the architecture for the purpose of research. I'm also familiar with Cockfield, having dragged Dad on a hunt for closed Suffolk stations armed with a 1950s vintage map. Who knew the Welnetham's had a station!?

 

My idea for the Hadleigh extention had the western junction near Lavenham, so information of a proposal to join at Melford is surprising.

 

C6T.

[mdh1950]

C6T.

The following thread may also be of interest: 

 

Researching light railways that were never built, and Light Railway Orders

 

Michael

[crackedmember]

There is always the Collywell Bay (Seaton Sluice) Branch near Newcastle, which doesn't quite fit in with this topic in that it was actually built.  Completed in 1915, the line was then commandeered and the rails removed for the war effort.  Later what was in effect a long siding was put in along the length of the branch so that a railway gun could be stationed for coastal defence purposes.  It was decided to abandon the line after the war as the housing development it was built to serve did not take place.    Sometime in the 1930's a special act of parliament was passed to allow for the legal abandonment, but allowing all buildings and works to remain.  The proposed Station and platforms existed until a new housing estate was built on the site in the 1990's.  Traces of the line from its junction with the Monkseaton to Blyth Branch can still be seen together with a Bridge abutment at Briar Dene.

If Opened this would have formed part of the North Eastern Railways Tyneside Electric System. 

 

In London there are parts of a Metropoitan Railway Extension scheme which was never completed.
 

 

[TheQ]

Several other unbuilt lines.

On the MSWJR from Collingbourne to Everleigh (AKA Everlea)  only got as far as the planning stage.

 

A line from near Mundesley on the Norfolk coast to join the North Walsham to Cromer line, and the other end to join the line going to Yarmouth Beach station, earth works started but then abandoned as busses were coming in..

 

The Highland railways numerous lines proposed from the Skye line to Ullapool and various other points on the west coast. None ever started

Also several lines from the Far North line that goes to Wick , branches were proposed to various lochs on the west coast.

 

I don't think any of the above would ever have made a profit...

[DCB]

The Northern end of the MSWJR had a planned extension from Andoversford and Dowdeswell to Ashchurch on the MR main line via Winchcomb,  This was before the GW got to Winchcomb and would quite probably have proved quite lucrative.  Also from Andoversford there were planned lines to Oxford via Northleach and Burford and via the Coln Valley and Witney, the MSWJR as built used this route to Withington where it crossed the Coln at least  twice before heading for Cirencester, a quite bizarre route until one factors in it was supposed to keep to the north of the river and head down past Yanworth and Fossebridge not head for Chedworth Tunnel a couple of hundred feet higher....

The Scottish lies are my favourite and a layout based on a line on Skye is definitely on my to do list.

[john new]

On 12/03/2013 at 22:43, the-gog said:

All,

 

I've got round to building PDFs out of each archive set, and have created a web page for them:

 

http://rwj.me/railways/maps.html

 

RWJ

Not working now.

[KeithMacdonald]

On 26/02/2013 at 02:07, DavidB-AU said:

The Bristol and London and South Western Junction Railway, the proposed second route from London to Bristol to compete with the Great Western. It was the brainchild of Sir George White and backed by LSWR.

 

Here's one RMWeb prepared earlier.

 

 

[john new]

On 22/12/2021 at 22:26, john new said:

Not working now.

And after checking with the Internet Wayback archive they must have gone (or have been corrupted) sometime between 12 March 2013 and the wayback site's attempted capture on 13 Sep 2013. They got a file missing error.

[DavidB-AU]

7 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Here's one RMWeb prepared earlier.

 

 

 

Check the name on it.