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

[Pacific231G]

 

This track looks a bit  like  cheap O gauge tinplate!

 

Brian.

 

Detail of track.

1-DSC_0273.JPG

Bernard

I think that's maybe because 0 gauge tinplate track such as that produced by Hornby (I'm not sure it was all that cheap!) was based on the portable all metal prefabricated track invented by Paul Decauville for agriculture and industry and produced under license (AFAIK) by various other manufacturers such as Hudson in the UK. If you look at a Decauville catalogue the sections on track and that on wagons does seem rather like a Hornby tinplate catalogue.

 

[luckymucklebackit]

My nomination is the Caledonian Railway Airdrie Branch, built relatively late (1886) at hugh cost to try and invade the NBR territory, it was an early casualty and closed to passengers in 1943 and freight in the 1980s.  It has left some major structures such as the viaduct at Whifflet which used to carry Whifflet upper station, and the overbridge and viaduct at Coatdyke, now a cycle path.

If you look hard enough there is also remnants of Glasgow Buchanan Street Station to be found, such as the tunnel mouth and pits of a platform and station building walls.

[Steve Purves]

Another one that gets me is the old Great Northern Goods Warehouse in Derby...

 

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/32947-Derby-Great-Northern-Railway-Warehouse-13-09-08

[tomparryharry]

Now that winter is approaching, it's time to play 'Spot the DN&S' on the A34.

 

Passing South, a lot of the old trackbed is still there, even at 70 MPH. In some areas, the new road is built alongside, but not on, the trackbed.

Ian

[sir douglas]

last friday i was walking around Stourton and Hunslet,  remnants of the LNER's Beeston to Neville Hill branch at Wakefield Road and Pontefract Road, indicated by these red circles on this google maps screen shot

 

And the Middleton railway north of Moor road station, the abutments for the bridge over the midland are still there, and the gaps between the buildings. the route is indicated on this screenshot by the red line.

 

I started at about a mile down Pontefract road first came the remnents of the LNER line by the road which are now very subtle and not so easy to spot in the roadside, went through the estate on Sussex Avenue and Midland Road (although it is today a housing estate of ill repute, a branch of the Middleton once ran along the road here to the canal next to what is now George Mann road) over the railway down to the end of Moor Road, turning right at the junction with Old Run road (so called because it was the Middleton's original route), past Moor road station, followed the midland line up to Jack Lane  to look at the Hunslet and Manning Wardle office buildings, from there i went over the old Hunslet cutting to where the Middleton crossed the road , then turned back to go round onto Kidacre street.

 

PS. sorry no photos as this galavant was a secondary plan for that day so i didnt want to take the camera in case i lost it or damaged it.

 

[PinzaC55]

Seen in 1988 this track was in a small yard leading to Tynemouth Pier. I think it was closed during WW2.

 

Tynemouth Pier Goods Yard 4.8.88 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

[4630]

The long disused platforms at Penistone on the Manchester - Sheffield via Woodhead line looking towards Manchester.  Assorted businesses now occupy many of the former station buildings.  The remaining platforms to the right are used for the Huddersfield - Barnsley line.

 

 

[unravelled]

A few examples of inset track survival.

 

On the South bank of the Thames, just west of Anchor and Hope Lane. These tracks lead out on to a jetty with wagon turntable. I'd post a Google maps link but can't seem to do so at the moment.

 

RIMG0452 by unravelled, on Flickr

 

More just alongside

 

RIMG0455 by unravelled, on Flickr

 

More thamesside trackwork, this time once part of Mortlake Brewery

 

RIMG2337-002 by unravelled, on Flickr

 

I think this is one of my favourite finds, although not in situ. A few hundred metres of Barlow rail, reused as a kerb /fence rail in the Brentford dock area.

 

Brentford area by unravelled, on Flickr

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[PinzaC55]

In 1977 I visited the remains of the Parson Byers rope hauled incline at Stanhope, County Durham. At the bottom of the incline still had it's track buried under 12 years veggie with this ancient level crossing gate guarding the road.

 

Parson Byers Level Crossing Stanhope 1977 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

 

In 1989 I revisited and found this intact engine shed at the top of the incline and it still had a workshop at the rear. Surprisingly from Google Earth it seems to have been repaired, presumably by a farmer.

 

Parson Byers Engine Shed Stanhope 1989 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

[Porcy Mane]

A few examples of inset track survival.

 

On the South bank of the Thames, just west of Anchor and Hope Lane. These tracks lead out on to a jetty with wagon turntable. I'd post a Google maps link but can't seem to do so at the moment.

 

Looks like Durham Wharf. Probably originally used to import Durham Coal. Possibly then rebuilt to export bottles?

 

One of the partners in the large bottle works that was established behind  where the photographer was standing was Robert Candlish of Seaham Bottleworks. (A street in Seaham near were the Seaham Bottle/Chemical works was, is called Candlish Street) With Seaham being a major Durham coal shipping harbour and London being a major market there was a probable link.

Nice phot.

 

Porcy

[Raised On Steam]

Track workings surviving among the jungle at Black Fell incline on the former Bowes Railway. This stretch was featured in the 'Bowes Line' documentary just before it was closed by the NCB in the 70's. 

Black Fell bridge where the Pelaw Main branch once passed under on it's way down to Birtley and Ouston. Right next to the Bowes cycle track. You can tell thanks to the bent bike wheel lying in the grass!

Fortunately a few yards from here they're doing up Black Fell engine house and of course further up the hill are many more of the sterling achievements against adversity of the Bowes Railway centre as seen here.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Raised On Steam

[Pacific231G]

Seen in 1988 this track was in a small yard leading to Tynemouth Pier. I think it was closed during WW2.

 

Tynemouth Pier Goods Yard 4.8.88 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

Bit later than that. I think it closed in the mid 1960s though the mainline connection it once had seems to have gone earlier. I think the inset track on the pier itself may still be there. There was a similar railway running out along the other much longer South Shields pier. I was at college in S. Shields in 1969-1970 and the railway on that pier semed only fairly recently disused (it may even have still had sporadic use though I saw no evidence of that) The line ran the length of the mile long pier and had supplied stone blocks to a rail mounted crane that straddled the outer section of the pier (though that had gone by then) and smaller rocks that were tipped into the sea to reinforce the inner section. At the shoreward end there was a fenced off three road yard - rather like a giant Inglenook sidings- and the maintenance train was still parked there. In earlier years it had been part of a larger system that ran in one direction to Trow quarries a mile or so down the coast and in the other to a private pier on the Tyne- to supply stone blocks from the quarry for the Tynemouth pier. Most of the Tynemouth pier yard had I think been lifted by 1970 but it seemed to have followed a similar pattern to the one in South Shields. Both piers and their railways were built and maintained by the Tyne Improvement Commission. Edited October 8, 2014 by Pacific231G

[Andy Kirkham]

 

Near Fishguard (or more properly, Goodwick) is this underbridge, which in the above view looks quite normal. But if we pass through and look back...

 

 

...we see that it is incomplete - just a brick arch with no parapet or facing masonry.

 

 

Closer inspection reveals how abruptly the work was broken off.

 

This was to have been the new, more easily graded route from Letterston Junction to Fishguard to accommodate the heavy transatlantic  liner traffic that the GWR hoped to capture. It was authorised in 1903 but work proceeded slowly because the corresponding upgrades to the harbour were incomplete. There was a decade of stop-go construction and changes of plan until work ceased in the First World War. After the war the Cunarders failed to return, and so construction never resumed.

 

The route would have been expensive, requiring two tunnels, one over a mile in length, but in the end only about a mile of earthworks were constructed with that one incomplete underbridge and an overbridge.

 

 

Also in Pembrokeshire was the extension of the Pembroke Dock branch into the dockyard. I am always fascinated by lines like this that thread through urban areas and squeeze between houses.

 

The view from the road towards the buffer stops at Pembroke Dock

 

The gap in the houses through which the railway passed

 

The surviving section of the formation with a level crossing next to the Jobcentre.

 

When I first visited Pembroke Dock in 1973, the route was intact and the track nearly all in place. Now the formation has almost entirely been obliterated by building developments and a new road. I would be most interested to see any pictures of this line in operation, or even in its derelict state, but have never come across a single one.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Andy Kirkham

[Rivercider]

Last month we had a walk along the route of the Strawberry Line from Sandford (after visiting the small museum there) to Cheddar.

It was a very enjoyable day out and quite a few structures remain along the route.

Our first station stop was Winscombe where the platform still remains

 

On the surface of the platform the outline of various buildings still remain, I found this one interesting!

 

cheers

 

 

[GWR88]

I think for me there are two places that stir my emotions which are railway relics. Firsty, its the signal box box at woolston station. Such a grand little thing stood there amongst the empty beer bottles and tablet boxes that were there a few days ago. Also, its the platforms at the old Holmsley station. Whilst doing DofE last year, i knew there were old stations along our planned route and when we got to the station we stopped for lunch. It was rather fitting i belive to the travellers of old to rest my weary feet against the old SR concrete fence posts along the platforms rear and drink a mug of tea.

Lloyd

[sir douglas]

spotted this a few weeks ago while going to Elsecar for the garden railway show.  some anti Scargill graffiti on a bridge over a disused line on the A61 just south of Newmillerdam (Wakefield)

 

"We want to work scargill . out of yorkshire. Miner....   We all want the work back scargill....  (hidden by bush)  ? ill out

 

 

Regards, Sam. 

[Re6/6]

Lifted from my 'disused railways' thread from a couple of years ago.

 

I'm hoping that it will still be all there when/if I get to see it in November!

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47922-seeking-the-trawsfynydd-branch/

[Gwiwer]

Highgate "high level" where tube trains once ran though not in passenger service.  The twin tunnels were used by the LNER until WW2 but were fully equipped for the planned takeover under the 1935 New Works Programme by the LT Northern Line which would have run from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace.  In the event the only tube trains which ran this way were empty stock movements between Highgate and Drayton Park depots which ceased in 1970.

 

The tunnels are now sealed and used as bat reserves though I have walked through them many years ago.

 

 

So nearly the view from tube trains but it was not to be.  Muswell Hill Viaduct is now open as a public footpath offering magnificent vistas across east and south London and far beyond.

 

 

Not much remains beyond the viaduct up to Alexandra Palace but this bridge survives in good condition in the palace grounds near the former terminus.  The rail track bed over the top is now a private access route for maintenance contractors.

 

[rd84]

Grace Dieu Viaduct, Charnwood Forest Railway near Thringstone, North West Leicestershire (Photo Ralph Rawlinson )..........

 

 

Ticknall Tramway bridge, Ticknall, South Derbyshire ( Photo Graham Hogg )..........

 

 

 

Loughborough, Derby Road Goods Shed, ( Photo Richard Vince )............

 

 

Cheers

Paul

Edited October 19, 2014 by rd84

[david12345]

I drove over this line earlier this week when travelling from Irvine to Barrhead.

 

I had meant to look over this bridge to see what the line was like for the past 30 years.

 

I was surprised to see how well it has faired as it must be about 20 years ago since the last train.

 

It was laterly the freight line from Lugton to RNAD Beith.

 

Would have been great to see a class 26 with a couple of VEA's trundling along.

[peanuts]

the remains of the LNWR goods warehouse at Millbrook near Stalybridge hold a certain fascination as a regular visitor over the last six years its long now accelerating  decay is a sad thing to behold each time i visit some part seems to be missing wether it actualy survives long enough to be converted into flats is another matter  .This whole section of the Micklehurst loop is an entertaining walk as its the only section of the line not developed and landscaped into a linea path its just been left to slowly decay and revert back to nature .the old engine shed and coal/fuel point are still extant as are a few of the bridges and culverts quite a pleasent walk  

 

external of the stalybridge end 

internal view through one of the hatches through to the roof 

Edited October 24, 2014 by peanuts

[Bernard Lamb]

Rather smaller than most items in this topic.

A stone block from the original London to Birmingham line.

It stands at the western end of Tring outside the former Britannia pub.

The pub was a regular drinking place for the navies during the building of the line.

My brain is telling me that there are other examples near the line between Watford and Tring.

I will have to have a potter round with the camera.

Bernard

[Graham Hughes]

One that always fascinates me and I have never found any information about is on the Low Level line heading towards Lanark out of Glasgow Central. It is early on, (Before your bum had gone numb from the seats on the "Blue Trains". They were hard if you were going all the way out to Lanark) and still in the underground section but on the right, just visible in the light from the carriage windows there is a large area with a row of ornate columns in front of it. I don't know if it is a long closed station or something else but it is a strange thing to see in what is basically a railway tunnel and a very ornate construction to be hidden, unused, underground. I  would love to know its history.

[peanuts]

is this it ?

 

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=10261&highlight=glasgow+disused+station#.VE7C9PmzIyo

[PhilJ W]

is this it ?

 

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=10261&highlight=glasgow+disused+station#.VE7C9PmzIyo

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