Abandoned rails in the road.....(or elsewhere...)

[melmerby]

Is that Eagle Road/Bagnall Lane?

The Black Country Route passing over just behind where you are standing?

 

Trams in a couple(?) of years!

 

 

[SM42]

7 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Is that Eagle Road/Bagnall Lane?

The Black Country Route passing over just behind where you are standing?

 

Trams in a couple(?) of years!

 

 

 

It is.

I was stood near enough under the Black Country Route to take the photo.

 

Really ought to be reopened as another cross city heavy rail  route. 

 

The trams should be replacing buses in the town centres

 

Andy

Edited May 15, 2022 by SM42

[Engineer]

Again, stretching definitions of abandoned rails in the road, this time from a visit to Prestongrange Mining Museum, just east of Musselburgh.  Many years ago, the B1348 used to pass through the former colliery and industrial site but was shifted to a new and better alignment further north.  The old road remains to give site access at the west end while the eastern end of the road is truncated, and now has a railway line laid on top of the former road surface.

Further into the site, an isolated section of track has a path and a roadway laid across it. 

Behind the 'engine house' there is a short section of embedded narrow gauge line. 

[Engineer]

Thanks to a recent visit to Burntisland, more rails, along the dockside and across an access road:

Rails continue along the dock; bufferstops remain:

Rails emerge from under a storage area, and disappear under grass:

Remains of another bufferstop beside the former station building:

[rodent279]

I have posted these elsewhere on the forum, but no harm in repeating.

 

Remains of the tramway terminus at Bristol Temple Meads still in situ, knocking on 90 years after last use.

 

 

 

[pH]

This afternoon, I walked the route of the Uphill loop of the Nelson Street Railway, which ran from 1910 to 1949. I found no signs of the tracks, which were all on streets, with the possible exception of an unusual entrance to the yard of a house, which could have been on the line of a safety switch.

 

However, my daughter-in-law had told me about rails in the sidewalk of another street, and I found those. The tramway didn’t run on that street, but there were tracks one street and two streets west at different times. I assume rails recovered from the tramway were re-used in making the sidewalk.

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by pH

[jmh67]

On 05/07/2022 at 12:59, rodent279 said:

Remains of the tramway terminus at Bristol Temple Meads still in situ, knocking on 90 years after last use.

So that was the tram! Having spent some time in Bristol, I always wondered. I thought it might have been carriage sidings, but it didn't seem to fit in, what with the grooved rails. Thanks for the photos!

[Engineer]

In a recent visit to Wateringbury [Kent] I thought there might have been more abandoned rails.  It turned out to be another instance of buried rail, but clearly and logically not part of a former track layout.  Still a feature of interest, perhaps for modelling.

Seen from the footbridge, the single rail top surface can be seen from the mid-left side of the image and sweeping in a curve to the right.  It encloses the apron between the station entrance and the approach road.  

The rail continues towards the station building, now re-purposed, and runs in a straight section across the former entrance then turns, with a tight radius, towards the station building.

[SHMD]

I came across these rails, yesterday, here in central Granada Spain.

 

I think it is the old meter gauge tram line through the city centre.

That "Optica" building must have been erected after the line went out of use.

 

 

That's pretty much the extent of it really, and there was not much I could find on a (quick) search online.

 

 

Kev.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, SHMD said:

I came across these rails, yesterday, here in central Granada Spain.

 

I think it is the old meter gauge tram line through the city centre.

That "Optica" building must have been erected after the line went out of use.

 

 

That's pretty much the extent of it really, and there was not much I could find on a (quick) search online.

 

 

Kev.

I went to Granada when it still had a thriving tramway system (late 60s) but when I returned in 1975 they were all gone.

I found out later that they had closed the year before.

Edited September 11, 2022 by melmerby

[Engineer]

At fairly short notice I discovered an 'Open House' series of visits this week to a factory in Darwen, Lancashire.  The details are here:

http:// http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/news/?p=46244

There are some visit sessions remaining - and probably there will be a repeat 'Open House' next year as well.

The relevance here is that the Company, Ritherdon, is housed in the former Darwen Corporation Tramways sheds, and rails remain in the floor.

Of course, the factory and its products are of interest, too - a great variety of steel cabinets and enclosures and other derivatives that use all the cutting, stamping, folding, fabrication, finishing and electrical fit-out capabilities.  Many of the cabinets produced are seen around the nation's highways and industry, and the company's present and future activities sound good.  The company has an interesting history, too, with some connections to magic and motorcycle sidecars.  The visit was well organised and the company team were very hospitable and well-informed.  Pictures here were taken with permission of managers and employees and relevant safety precautions, and the visit was on a working day.

The ex-depot is formed of three sheds, and from the OS map, there were three entry tracks from a single line in a short side street:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/126518495#zoom=6&lat=3808&lon=6691&layers=BT

Perhaps each entry line had a fan of two or three roads.  Much of the floor is occupied by factory production but there are some rails to be seen.  Generally, the grooves have been filled with steel sections, tack welded to retain them. Track gauge in Darwen and the other connected tramways in the area was 4'.

 

 

 

Mezzanine floors have been added in the sheds and these make it easier to see the structure and roof steelwork.  There are some surviving components of the overhead wiring.  At the top of structural uprights, several mountings, links, and insulators survive, together with the tightly-bound eyes formed at the ends of span wires.  The span wires were cut away and removed, together with the contact wires above every track, and the metal ears that suspended the contact wire from the span wires.

 

 

As with several other outings, there were other unexpected, different finds in the area.  To avoid confusion I'll do a separate message.
 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Engineer
Replacing failed uploads

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

 

 

The line between Earls Colne and White Colne is now a footpath, part of the way along a bridge has been removed, so, to continue, a set of steps has been made into the embankment sides, supported by these narrow gauge rails.

I wonder where the rails came from?

 

Mike.

[Engineer]

Following on from the previous note on the Darwen depot ...
On my way to Darwen via a circuitous and interesting route, I'd entered Hoddlesden and just turned the corner from Johnson New Road into Queen Street.  inside this corner there was a tree-covered, deeply-shaded inclined road, not much used, and there were rails, cut short.  The rails continued up the slope of the road and curved to the left into the foliage.

 

 

 

I knew there had been a tram terminus at Hoddlesden but it had been at a higher level and on a different alignment.  No tram rails remain at the terminus but the tram shelter is still standing after renovation and improvement works, with roof restored in 2009:

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4339640.historic-hoddlesden-tram-shelter-given-new-lease-life/

 

As an aside, with the depot, the reversing triangle in the south of the town, and several shelters in the area perhaps Darwen is among those few towns that have a good collection of surviving tramway artefacts mostly accessible to the public.
http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/news/?p=33446

Returning to the rails in the road, subsequent checking has shown that Hoddlesden, long ago, was quite industrial with a cotton mills, collieries, brickworks and pipe manufacture.  It's clear that the track in question was an extension along the Goods Station yard access road, and across the street to serve the colliery, pipe works and brickworks areas.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110615061850/http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?pageID=1259

 

The OS map confirms this and shows the track to the tram terminus entering to the left and the shelter alongside.  At the top is the Goods Station, terminus of the standard gauge branch.  Descending from the yard is the approach road with the single line that crosses Queen Street to the collieries and works.  
https://maps.nls.uk/view/126518627#zoom=5&lat=9485&lon=10711&layers=BT

[jjb1970]

I posted this in the Asia section, but one of the bridges on the abandoned railway line from Woodlands Checkpoint to Tanjong Pagar in Singapore now forming a national parks nature walk. Interestingly they left the track on the bridge for effect.

 

[bradfordbuffer]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I posted this in the Asia section, but one of the bridges on the abandoned railway line from Woodlands Checkpoint to Tanjong Pagar in Singapore now forming a national parks nature walk. Interestingly they left the track on the bridge for effect.

 

Looks less weedy than parts of UK network! 

[melmerby]

UK would class that as a trip hazard!

[jjb1970]

The area is Bukit Timah station on the Rail Corridor. Bukit Timah was the only intermediate station between Woodlands where the railway joins the island after crossing the Strait of Johor and Singapore (Tanjong Pagar) almost on the waterfront in central Singapore.

[Engineer]

A little while ago, I met a retired colleague who has an interest in transport.  He mentioned a railway feature not far from his home territory that might be of interest, and I felt it justified a detour in a walk to make a 'boots on the ground' visit.  It's in Kent, and I can't find a direct reference in other posts around here.

 

It's not exactly 'abandoned rails in the road', but is relevant in spirit.  There's not much to see when on foot and perhaps a better view might be from the top of a bus.  It's a length of railway track, about 150m of neatly ballasted flat-bottom line, on a curve, laid beneath a roundabout.  Without trespass, I took a picture that shows one end of the line and the absence of earthworks to continue it.  

As I understand it, the 'diorama' was installed in modern times to ensure there was space beneath the roundabout for a rail connection between the nearby BR line and an area where there might be a resumption of chalk extraction in the future.  It looks better from an aerial map view, perhaps this could inspire an alternative interpretation of 'roundy-roundy'?
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3421488,0.4452191,115m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e2?hl=en-GB

[Ian Morgan]

We have a short length of track in the centre of a roundabout here in Basingstoke. It commemorates the former Basingstoke to Alton railway (famous location for the film 'Oh Mr Porter').

 

 

[jjb1970]

This may look like a railway on the verge of abandonment, or actually abandoned, but it is the North - South Re-unification railway which connects Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This is Nha Trang, one of the principal intermediate stations.

 

[Halvarras]

On 22/09/2022 at 21:53, Engineer said:

A little while ago, I met a retired colleague who has an interest in transport.  He mentioned a railway feature not far from his home territory that might be of interest, and I felt it justified a detour in a walk to make a 'boots on the ground' visit.  It's in Kent, and I can't find a direct reference in other posts around here.

 

It's not exactly 'abandoned rails in the road', but is relevant in spirit.  There's not much to see when on foot and perhaps a better view might be from the top of a bus.  It's a length of railway track, about 150m of neatly ballasted flat-bottom line, on a curve, laid beneath a roundabout.  Without trespass, I took a picture that shows one end of the line and the absence of earthworks to continue it.  

As I understand it, the 'diorama' was installed in modern times to ensure there was space beneath the roundabout for a rail connection between the nearby BR line and an area where there might be a resumption of chalk extraction in the future.  It looks better from an aerial map view, perhaps this could inspire an alternative interpretation of 'roundy-roundy'?
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3421488,0.4452191,115m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e2?hl=en-GB

 

How intriguing! Bridges are very expensive so if there was no other reason for building them one has to wonder whether the resumption of chalk extraction at some point is a serious possibility.

 

On 25/09/2022 at 14:58, jjb1970 said:

This may look like a railway on the verge of abandonment, or actually abandoned, but it is the North - South Re-unification railway which connects Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This is Nha Trang, one of the principal intermediate stations.

 

 

The Newquay branch in the vicinity of Middleway Crossing, St Blazey, looks like this all the time! The weed-killer train allegedly pays the occasional visit but I can't say I've noticed the difference......

 

 

 

On 25/09/2022 at 14:58, jjb1970 said:

 

 

[pendlerail]

 

Not in the road but used as fence posts North Berwick last week 

[Lemmy282]

Rails used as part of sea defences at Hornsea East Yorkshire taken last week

 

Nigel L

[melmerby]

Never has the term fishplate been so appropriate!

[ianmacc]

15 hours ago, Lemmy282 said:

Rails used as part of sea defences at Hornsea East Yorkshire taken last week

 

Nigel L

Given their weathering and the location I would give very strong odds that they are from the Hornsea branch itself. 
 

it may just be me but has anybody else ever “sensed” an isolated and disconnected atmosphere at towns that the railways have abandoned? Compare the feel of Hornsea and Withernsea with Filey (similar size) Bridlington and Scarborough just up the road for example. 

Edited September 28, 2022 by ianmacc
Typo