Abandoned lines crossing

[railsquid]

I was looking something up on Google maps after reading a thread here (can't remember which one), anyway I noticed a stretch of what was evidently abandoned railway and followed it for a while, fascinated by how its course was still a very visible landscape feature (even where it's been subsumed into a field, its traces are very visible). At some point south of Brackley in Northamptonshire it crosses another abandoned line on an intact-looking bridge, which I find kind of fascinating for some reason:

 

http://goo.gl/maps/xIHym

 

I presume the line going more vertically on the map, the one crossing the bridge, is the former Great Central.

[Jenny Emily]

On the  former GCR there is a rail over rail bridge that survives alongside the M1 between junctions 20 and 21. It can be seen during the winter months when the leaves are off the trees. The rail route that went under was closed before the M1 was built.

[The Bigbee Line]

Old railway lines are a hobby of their own. The last two holidays away have had their spotting days. My good lady can spot railway structures at a considerable distance. What's even better is the "would you like to stop". The subsequent research is usualy interesting as well. Cheaper than model trains. Just the occasional OS map and book to purchase.

[railsquid]

On the  former GCR there is a rail over rail bridge that survives alongside the M1 between junctions 20 and 21. It can be seen during the winter months when the leaves are off the trees. The rail route that went under was closed before the M1 was built.

 

Aha, I guess it must be here? http://goo.gl/maps/0hHwp

[railsquid]

Old railway lines are a hobby of their own. The last two holidays away have had their spotting days. My good lady can spot railway structures at a considerable distance. What's even better is the "would you like to stop". The subsequent research is usualy interesting as well. Cheaper than model trains. Just the occasional OS map and book to purchase.

 

I just found me a new timewaster...

[Phil Bullock]

Old lines are fascinating!

 

The Mid Wales from Moat Lane to Talgarth is an expedition I have persuaded SWMBO we must do this summer - as I fish both the Upper Wye and Severn for trout and grayling I know the area well but in some parts - eg the Marteg valley - I cant visualise how the railway coped with the topography,

 

Will update with some photos when we make the trip

 

Phil

[corneliuslundie]

What must be one of the oldest closed lines which is still,evident on the ground is the original route to Newmarket, closed when the Cambridge to Newmarket line opened.

 

The line under the bridge at Brackley was an LNWR route from Cockley Brake Junction near Banbury Merton Strreet (with theSMJ) to Verney Junction (on the LNW line from Oxford to Bletchley - also the far outpost of the Met).

['CHARD]

On the  former GCR there is a rail over rail bridge that survives alongside the M1 between junctions 20 and 21. It can be seen during the winter months when the leaves are off the trees. The rail route that went under was closed before the M1 was built.

 

That's a great shout!  The GCR crossing the Midland's Rugby - Ullesthorpe - Leicester line.  I must've driven past here a hundred times without ever realising.

['CHARD]

Aha, I guess it must be here? http://goo.gl/maps/0hHwp

 

Spot on.  If you 'drive' along the A426 a short way from one of the default Streetview pictures, you cross the Midland Counties' line on a brick bridge; the BRB asset number for the structure can be just about deciphered.

['CHARD]

Travelling east on the A14 at Thrapston.  Just before you reach the viaduct running parallel to the north, that line (the Midland) crossed the LNWR on a girder bridge.

 

http://www.rutnet.co.uk/pp/gold/viewgold.asp?ID=1044

[big jim]

i dont know if its just me but your google maps links just send me to bourne end?

 

regards the lines around brackley i went for a nose around them last year while i was on a lodge turn staying in the town, the pics are up here somewhere but i'll have to find the thread!

 

there is something about the GC that fascinates me, its only recently ive become interested in the old infrastructure and i absolutly love driving up to claydon jn through the remains of calvert station etc, it fascinates me that the mileposts north of quaindon road to calvert are still miles from manchester piccadilly on what is now a railway backwater!

 

you may find this site interesting, has OS maps with the GC overlaid onto them

 

http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/map/osIndex.php

Edited January 3, 2015 by big jim

[railsquid]

i dont know if its just me but your google maps links just send me to bourne end?

 

 

 

 

Hmm, that was evidently what I was originally looking for. Original link worked for me, but Google Maps does funny stuff some times, especially with the new version. This should work: http://goo.gl/maps/8t4FM

 

regards the lines around brackley i went for a nose around them last year while i was on a lodge turn staying in the town, the pics are up here somewhere but i'll have to find the thread!

 

there is something about the GC that fascinates me, its only recently ive become interested in the old infrastructure and i absolutly love driving up to claydon jn through the remains of calvert station etc, it fascinates me that the mileposts north of quaindon road to calvert are still miles from manchester piccadilly on what is now a railway backwater!

 

you may find this site interesting, has OS maps with the GC overlaid onto them

 

http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/map/osIndex.php

 

 

Thanks, I was reading your Colas thread (which is what caused me to go poking around that direction). Haven't got all the way through it yet.

[big jim]

here are the pics of brackley, first post on the page

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86750-evocotive-railway-remains-what-derelect-or-abandoned-structure-stirs-your-emotions/page-6

[railsquid]

Thanks

 

"top of a backfilled great central under bridge on the buckingham road"

 

Aha, I thought that might be the case.  Appropriately enought the actual bridge carries a stretch of abandoned road (link: http://goo.gl/maps/nZDVy); I guess it was easier to fill in the cutting and route the new road around the old bridge rather than replace/widen the bridge.

[Edwin_m]

What must be one of the oldest closed lines which is still,evident on the ground is the original route to Newmarket, closed when the Cambridge to Newmarket line opened.

This was crossed, many years after closure, by the Cambridge to Haverhill route.  Stations on the respective routes were a few yards apart and almost at right angles to each other.  They currently feature as a recent update on Disused Stations. 

 

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/sites.shtml

 

If you're looking for disused railways the ultimate timewaster is probably this one:

 

http://www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php

['CHARD]

Thanks

 

"top of a backfilled great central under bridge on the buckingham road"

 

Aha, I thought that might be the case.  Appropriately enought the actual bridge carries a stretch of abandoned road (link: http://goo.gl/maps/nZDVy); I guess it was easier to fill in the cutting and route the new road around the old bridge rather than replace/widen the bridge.

 

Extremely familiar with the eradicated GC at that point.  Many a time I used to drive back that way (the very long way round) from Wolverton to Brum to take in as much GC as possible.

[The Stationmaster]

here are the pics of brackley, first post on the page

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86750-evocotive-railway-remains-what-derelect-or-abandoned-structure-stirs-your-emotions/page-6

Thanks for that Jim - I missed it first time round.  It has changed massively from the days I first knew it as I can just about recall the level crossing on the (by then closed) LNWR line.  The GC line I knoew rather better as I travelled over it plus the viaduct south of Brackley remained there for many years after closure - in fact I was quite surprised to find that it had gone!

[roger440]

here are the pics of brackley, first post on the page

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86750-evocotive-railway-remains-what-derelect-or-abandoned-structure-stirs-your-emotions/page-6

 

Ahh, yes, i remeber that industrial estate with the station at the top of the drive. Our new buisness was based there for the first 2 years after i left the railway.

 

Always rather fancied the station as a house. The station masters building at the other side of the entrance drive has been demolished now i believe

[russ p]

There is a little known one just outside guisborough in Cleveland. The station was at the end of a branch as this was the end of the Middlesbrough and Guisborough railway. The line to the East was originally part of the Cleveland railway which started on the Tees and went across the branch at Guisborough to reach the mines of East Cleveland. When the two companies were taken into NER ownership they were linked and the Cleveland north of Guisborough abandoned. This was in the 1870s and amazingly the bridge abutments still survive

[TheQ]

There is a railway over a green lane bridge just north of Ludgershall on the old MSWJR line.

Bridge number 14 I think. I used to camp the in the late 60s and collect bits of coal off the track bed to keep the fire going!

[black5f]

Hi OP

 

Can I point you at this site:

 

http://www.oldmapsonline.org/#bbox=-0.834641,52.348934,-0.584702,52.448648&q=&datefrom=1000&dateto=2010

 

Lots of old maps to waste a lot of time on. Especially if you are using them to trace surviving evidence of very fleeting industrial lines!

 

T

[tetsudofan]

....and down in this part of the world we've still got a bridge over Horn Street at Seabrook where the branch from Sandling Junction to Seabrook/Sandgate used to run.

 

Keith

[highpeakman]

On the  former GCR there is a rail over rail bridge that survives alongside the M1 between junctions 20 and 21. It can be seen during the winter months when the leaves are off the trees. The rail route that went under was closed before the M1 was built.

 

I think you will find that it was still open when that section M1 was built and opened. The decision to close the GC had probably not been made when the M1 was planned. Further north the bridge built to carry the GC over the M1 is still in place next to Whetstone Golf Club.That's probably why the track bed was not built over by the new road.

 

I can remember travelling down the M1 (hitch hiking, every weekend between Nottingham and Luton) in the late 60s and seeing DMUs on the line between Nottingham and Rugby/Marylebone(?).

[62613]

I think you will find that it was still open when that section M1 was built and opened. The decision to close the GC had probably not been made when the M1 was planned. Further north the bridge built to carry the GC over the M1 is still in place next to Whetstone Golf Club.That's probably why the track bed was not built over by the new road.

 

I can remember travelling down the M1 (hitch hiking, every weekend between Nottingham and Luton) in the late 60s and seeing DMUs on the line between Nottingham and Rugby/Marylebone(?).

I think the post meant the other route, not the GC

[The Stationmaster]

I think you will find that it was still open when that section M1 was built and opened. The decision to close the GC had probably not been made when the M1 was planned. Further north the bridge built to carry the GC over the M1 is still in place next to Whetstone Golf Club.That's probably why the track bed was not built over by the new road.

 

I can remember travelling down the M1 (hitch hiking, every weekend between Nottingham and Luton) in the late 60s and seeing DMUs on the line between Nottingham and Rugby/Marylebone(?).

I remember travelling along the GC mainline watching parts of the M1 under construction.