Infrastructure that will never be used again

[snowball]

I believe there's a long-term ambition to reopen through Bronwhills and the route is being protected, and Birmingham is one of the few places with the clout to bring this sort of thing about. So it may get used eventually.

So that's three consecutive bridges over the M6 Toll, within half a mile, of which the middle one carries the A5, and the two others have never been used but may be in the future.

 

[talltim]

Of course, the OP's example shows that while a piece of infrastructure may be disused now, with no current plans for re-use, you don't know what will happen in the future.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The east-bound bay platform at Ellesmere Port has not only never seen a train, it has never even had track.

 

[Dr Hoo]

The east-bound bay platform at Ellesmere Port has not only never seen a train, it has never even had track.

As someone who used to live in The Port I struggle to recall a "bay platform". There used to be a goods Yard next to the station and I recall some steel traffic being handled there as recently as 1978 on a track 'behind the eastbound platform'. This was never signalled to passenger standards.

Going back even further there used to be some freight sidings on the Westbound side as well but again no additional (passenger) platform.

Many stations used to have end-loading docks close to the platforms, commonly on a 'trap end' or headshunt from a nearby goods yard.

 

[CarltonA]

Helmdon Viaduct stands forlorn in a Northamptonshire village once served by two different lines each with it's own station. There is also a very substantial cutting nearby on the GC route. Reopening has been proposed a few times but I can't see it being likely, especially with the much more substantial Brackley viaduct biting the dust in the seventies.

http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/bridges/gallery/helmdon.html

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The Severn Rail Bridge...

 

[snowball]

The Severn Rail Bridge...

Come to that, the viaduct between Bowness-on-Solway and Annan.

 

[keith1879]

More interesting is rail infrastructure built that has never been used. I'll give you two: -

The bridge over the M6 Toll on the Lichfield to Brownhills line
The road overbridge in Broadheath near Altrincham over the Skelton Junction to Partington line

Bridge over the Porthmadog road just outside Beddgelert ....been there for over 100 years and never carried a train (even weirder - the abutments for an underbridge in the adjacent field that never had an embankment next to them). Also what about Tadcaster viaduct - built 170 years ago.

 

[jopsuk]

as I used the station today- the outside faces of the platforms at Letchworth, including the extra arches of Bridge Road. Designed to be a four-track station, has only ever had two. The currently used lift shafts would obstruct new tracks.

 

[RichmondCommu]

The container cranes at Willesden Freight Terminal.

 

[snowball]

Bridge over the Porthmadog road just outside Beddgelert ....been there for over 100 years and never carried a train

Looking on the map it appears to be heading for Gelert's grave.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

The viaduct that would have taken trains direct into what's now Branksome depot without reversing

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Surprisingly large parts of the viaduct leading into the old Leeds Central station are still intact despite being very close to the city centre with its high land values.

 

[Sacro]

Surprisingly large parts of the viaduct leading into the old Leeds Central station are still intact despite being very close to the city centre with its high land values.

Hardly large amount, just the bridge over the Aire at the back of Graingers Way, not much usable land there.

 

[Francis]

At Tadcaster there is a very fine bridge over the river Wharfe, some 300 yrs north of the town centre road bridge. It used to carry a goods line off the Church Fenton to Wetherby line, serving a factory on the east bank of the river.

The main town bridge collapsed in floods on 29 Dec 2015. It cut the town in half. It took 13 months and £4.4 million to rebuild it. Ironically the old railway bridge withstood the flooding, but carries nothing. Built of Magnesian limestone it still looks impressive. I don't know if it is possible to cross it on foot.

 

[XCTurbostar]

Sidings at Daw Mill Colliery.

 

[Chris M]

I'm fairly certain that nobody will ever walk through this doorway to catch a train ever again!

(Location is the former Cooper Bridge station on the Calder Valley line. Huddersfield's first station.)

Similarly the entrance to the old Blackfriars Road station in London
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.504...sST2KdL4luySMEk0jBtQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

 

[keith1879]

Looking on the map it appears to be heading for Gelert's grave.

It would have gone right past it - this was the partly built Porthmadog Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

The Bennerley Viaduct?

 

[SpacePhoenix]

The tunnel between Shanklin and Ventnor on the Isle of Wight (if its never as a railway use)

 

[Cheshire Rover]

Reinstatement of the line between Mouldsworth and West Cheshire Junction. Track lifted, junction and signalbox at Mouldsworth gone and the signalbox at West Cheshire gone.

 

[Tobbes]

Nine Elms flyover which used to take Eurostars on a tour of south London before HS1 Phase 2 was complete. Is this the newest piece of major infrastructure to be in effect abandoned (I know it strictly speaking isn't, but I understood that that was only because it would be more expensive to close and knock it down than it would be to inspect it once a year, and there would be little practical benefit from doing so.)

 

[abn444]

Nine Elms flyover which used to take Eurostars on a tour of south London before HS1 Phase 2 was complete. Is this the newest piece of major infrastructure to be in effect abandoned (I know it strictly speaking isn't, but I understood that that was only because it would be more expensive to close and knock it down than it would be to inspect it once a year, and there would be little practical benefit from doing so.)

If that's the flyover near Waterloo then it hasn't been abandoned as some Southeastern trains used to access Waterloo at the end of August and are planned to again around Christmas time

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Parts of the Manchester - Milford railway near Penpontbren Junction .....

 

[bramling]

At Tadcaster there is a very fine bridge over the river Wharfe, some 300 yrs north of the town centre road bridge. It used to carry a goods line off the Church Fenton to Wetherby line, serving a factory on the east bank of the river.

The main town bridge collapsed in floods on 29 Dec 2015. It cut the town in half. It took 13 months and £4.4 million to rebuild it. Ironically the old railway bridge withstood the flooding, but carries nothing. Built of Magnesian limestone it still looks impressive. I don't know if it is possible to cross it on foot.

The Tadcaster viaduct can indeed be crossed on foot - there's an official path running across it.

 

[billio]

The Tadcaster viaduct can indeed be crossed on foot - there's an official path running across it.

At Newton Kyme, just up the road from Tadcaster, the equally splendid Wharfe viaduct has been renovated and a new path added across the river Wharfe.

 

[kevconnor]

From around Greater Manchester the ones I can think of are
- Cadishead Viaduct over the MSC, i think it is life expired.
- The disused castlefield viaduct
- Stephenson Bridge (look up Ordsall Chord/Mr Mark Whitby Ad nauseum)
- Redbank Viaduct
- blind lane curve

 

[DJames]

Part of the bridge supports that carried the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway over Sedgley Rd are still in place, but the bridge has been demolished and houses now occupy where the tracks once were, up to the Birmingham New Road. It's pretty easy to spot, since there's just a row of houses that are way newer than the surrounding ones. Interestingly, the new street that was constructed has been aptly named "Oxford Way". Andrew Doherty has a good article about it here, if anyone's interested.

 

[billio]

The viaduct and old carriage sidings that run from Manchester Victoria to what is now the Metrolink depot at Queens Road. It seems a shame that such a large area of railway land cannot be of use for the development of either railways or Metrolink.

 

[Llanigraham]

Considering the length of the thread about it........................

The Aberystwyth to Carmarthen Railway.

And to follow on from The ChiefPlanner's reply earlier the whole route of the Cambrian Railway between Moat Lane Junction and Three Cocks, which would include Penpontbren Junction.