Wartime connections

[AberdeenBill]

Hi all,

 

It seems that we've had a few war-related threads recently, so here's another.    The LMS and GWR at Oxford were only connected by a siding until WW2, when the full junction was installed.    Who can supply other such wartime connections?

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

 

[Fat Controller]

Wasn't there  a connection installed at Canterbury between the former London, Chatham and Dover and South Eastern Railway lines?

[Edwin_m]

The one at Northallerton that would have allowed ECML trains to pass through on the low level and re-join the high level towards Darlington.  Passed under the Wensleydale line at less than full clearance so the latter was put on a temporary structure that could be removed quickly in the event of the connecting line being needed. 

[Kris]

SR & GWR line in Plymouth at St Budeaux. This new link line is the one still used today for trains going to Gunnislake.

[flyingsignalman]

In the late 19th century, the Cheshire Lines Committee and the Birkenhead Joint lines built a junction at Mickle Trafford which would have allowed trains from the Northwich direction to run off the CLC and into Chester on the Joint line. Agreement over its use could not be reached and it was later removed.

In 1942 (I think), as part of the war effort, a junction was laid in again but this time to allow trains from Warrington to pass onto the CLC and so reach Wrexham, Hawarden Bridge and Birkenhead Docks (via the LNER) without passing through the Joint station at Chester.

This arrangement lasted until 1969 when the junction was again remodelled to allow Chester Northgate station to close.

[Bernard Lamb]

North of Carlisle to Gretna.

Rather complicated to explain on here.

Gretna must have had at one time more stations per head of population than any other town.

Bernard

[phil-b259]

I believe the connection between the SR and GWR lines at Reading (on the down side - NOT the recently reinstated dive under to the up side) was a wartime installation.

 

North of Winchester a new connection was dug through the chalk to link the GWR with the SR at the point where the Alresford branch joined the main line in case the GWR viaduct across the water meadows to the south of their Winchester station was bombed

 

At Dorking the never used (and lifted after WW1) connection between the Reigate - Guildford & the Dorking - Horsham line was put back in. Again it never got used and was lifted as soon as the war was over.

 

As for the connection at Canterbury - it was also quickly lifted after the war but put back in 1953 after the Sorm surge took out lots of embankments on the route via Herne Bay (and removed again when repairs had been completed).

[The Stationmaster]

I believe the connection between the SR and GWR lines at Reading (on the down side - NOT the recently reinstated dive under to the up side) was a wartime installation.

 

 

 

The connection between Reading New Jcn (GWR) and Reading Spur Jcn (SR) was a wartime addition - a pair of running lines plus loops off them.  That made it the second connection between the GWR and SR on the GWR downside at Reading and the connection under the bridge was also retained and could be used right up to the very early 1960s to exchange through trains under special working instructions if the other connections were not available.

 

Were the GWR to ex LNWR lines connections at Leamington also a wartime addition?

[LNERGE]

Claydon LNE Junction - Calvert North and Sandy LNE Junction and Sandy North. Both had an LMS standard box at one end and a brick built ground level LNER box at the other..

[jonhall]

Was GWR-SR at Staines/Staines West a wartime addition?

 

Jon

[phil-b259]

Was GWR-SR at Staines/Staines West a wartime addition?

 

Jon

 

Yup - again it was removed after the war, then reinstated to maintain access to an oil terminal when a section of the branch was shut pending construction of the M25

[phil-b259]

Also I think Romford (LNER) got a physical wartime connection to the Upminster line (LMS) for docks traffic

[jamie92208]

There were quite a few put in.  I think the one from the Southbound Midland line to the southbound  Trent Valley lines at Tamworth was a wartime connection.  There was also one  installed at Heck during WW1 from the southbound ECML to the eastbound Knottingley Goole line.  This was taken up shortly after the war thiugh there were plans to reinstrate it in the late 1980's for coal traffic from Gascoigne Wood along with a flyover connection at Hambleton to bring the trains out of Gas Wood.

 

Jamie

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

Were the GWR to ex LNWR lines connections at Leamington also a wartime addition?

No, there were connections shown both ways at least as far back as the 1909 Junction Diagrams, although the southern-most one to the other side of the canal from the loco shed wasn't on the 1905 OS maps

 

 

I think the one from the Southbound Midland line to the southbound  Trent Valley lines at Tamworth was a wartime connection.  

 

Jamie

The one on the northwest side of Tamworth station was built c1847 and stayed in up to the 1960s. The one on the northeast side which was further out was shown as a dismantled railway as far back as the 1880s. The earthworks were still visible when I started on the railway but I have never found any evidence of if or when it was used. An old Lineman at Tamworth told me he didn't remeber it having any track on it.

[PhilJ W]

Also I think Romford (LNER) got a physical wartime connection to the Upminster line (LMS) for docks traffic

The connection had been removed circa 1934. 

[Oldddudders]

Launceston - connection between SR and GWR opened 22.9.1943. Another strategic spur to enable traffic to/from Plymouth if the SR route were blocked.

[Tequila Sunrise]

There was a series of articles in The Railway Magazine around 1949-50 covering this topic fairly comprehensively.

[phil gollin]

.

 

This book MIGHT help :-

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rail-Atlas-1939-1945-Br/dp/0711036306/ref=sr_1_119?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386414066&sr=1-119

 

It is due out on 9th January, however. I wouldn't hold my breath as its publication date keeps going back and back.

 

.

[PenrithBeacon]

There was a connection at Carnforth from west to north put in during WW2 which IIRC was removed in the mid sixties.

 

Regards

[jonhall]

IIRC the embankment for a West-South Junction between the SR at Yeovil Junction and the GWR Westbury-Dorchester line was built but never had track laid? It strikes me that it would be a very handy bit of track to have these days, to give a same station change at Yeovil between the two lines by diverting the Westbury-Weymouth service into a quick reversal.

 

Jon

[Rugd1022]

 

Were the GWR to ex LNWR lines connections at Leamington also a wartime addition?

 

I don't think there were any signalled connecting moves from one side to the other Mike, aside from shunt moves that is, not until the whole layout was simplified and modified in 1966, which was when access from the GWR station platforms to the Coventry branch was laid in (ie: the current layout we have now).

[LNERGE]

Here's an oddball one...

 

 

The connecting line took you through to Palace Gates and onto Seven Sisters.. The were several more sidings off this line but every one had a facing point lock so it could be used for passenger trains.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I don't think there were any signalled connecting moves from one side to the other Mike, aside from shunt moves that is, not until the whole layout was simplified and modified in 1966, which was when access from the GWR station platforms to the Coventry branch was laid in (ie: the current layout we have now).

There were signalled moves between Leamington South Junction (GW) and Leamington GW Junction (LNW). The connection was presumably put in when the GWR box was built in 1908. The double junction was bolt locked by both boxes to maintain interlocking between the ends.

 

At the north end I think as you say it was a shunt through the sidings between Leamington North (GW) and Avenue (LNW) boxes as I can't find any definite through running connection at the moment.

[dibber25]

Yup - again it was removed after the war, then reinstated to maintain access to an oil terminal when a section of the branch was shut pending construction of the M25

No, that's not strictly correct. Curiously enough, I've just started work on an article for Steam World about the Staines spur. It connected the WR branch near Yeoveney with the up line of the Windsor branch of the SR and was used a number of times during the war. It was abandoned, overgrown but still intact in the 1960s. There was a proposal to re-open it so that West Drayton-Staines trains could go into Staines Central (SR) and avoid the need for the A30 Staines By-pass to bridge the Staines West branch. It came to nothing. When the M25 was built in the early 1980s a substantial part of the Poyle interchange was built on the branch trackbed. In order to serve a central heating oil terminal at Staines West, a new connection was put in between the down Windsor line and the WR branch but this was nowhere near the old wartime spur. Oil trains from Stratford then ran via the SR and not the WR. 

CHRIS LEIGH

[TheSignalEngineer]

There were signalled moves between Leamington South Junction (GW) and Leamington GW Junction (LNW). The connection was presumably put in when the GWR box was built in 1908. The double junction was bolt locked by both boxes to maintain interlocking between the ends.

 

At the north end I think as you say it was a shunt through the sidings between Leamington North (GW) and Avenue (LNW) boxes as I can't find any definite through running connection at the moment.

In addition there was a connecting line between the LNW at the north of Avenue station to the GW by the South box. The GW end only had an elevated ground signal for the exit i think. Also at the North end the LNW was about 5' lower than the GW, so running connections would have been difficult.