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Rails in the Road - not tramways

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Mutant Lemming

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I checked out a thread Rails in the Road which referred to a book about the tramway systems but it had me wondering about actual railways that operate or used to operate on public streets. I can think of two obvious ones - Weymouth Quay and the MD & HB system but am sure there must be others.
 
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billh

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Mineral railway, Openshaw ,Manchester. Linking several industrial premises with GCR at Ashburys and the L & Y ,Ashton Branch. Part of the line passed along Wood St, crossing Ashton Old Road and Whitworth St. The southern part of Wood St has been preserved with rails and stone setts in situ . I can just remember trains holding up the traffic on Ashton Old Road.- A man with a red flag served to control the crossing. Some trains carried huge red hot billets of steel from the English Steel works, formerly Armstrong Whitworth, to the Crossley engine works near Ashburys.
 

edwin_m

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There was a line out of the goods yard at Altrincham along Marsh Lane for a few hundred yards to serve a gasworks.

When Castleshaw reservoir was being built, a contractor's line went from the buffer stops at Delph along the A62 for some distance before diverging.

There is still a double track "tramway" along Alexandra Road in Dublin, carrying freight trains to terminals in the docks.
 

Llanigraham

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I would say any Dock area had tracks that ran along roads, even if only for short distances, such as over swing bridges, or along quay sides. I can certainly remember them in Cardiff Docks.
There are certainly rail lines in roads at Gloucester Docks and at Sharpness.
For narrow gauge, part of the old "backs" route of the Welshpool and Llanfair ran along some streets in Welshpool and there are photos of the train delayed because someone had parked their car on the track.
And of course there is the famous Mumbles Railway in Swansea that ran along the "promenade". Parts of that were non-segragated.
 

Mag_seven

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There used to be loads around the shipyards in Glasgow - I suspect it was the same in most other UK Cities that had a shipbuilding industry.
 

Mag_seven

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If we are allowed to venture abroad then there is substantial street running of the Rhaetian Railway in Chur in Switzerland.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Technically it was (for the most part) mostly a tramway, but there was formerly heavy rail goods access (with a severe weight restriction, mind!) along sections of Huddersfield Corporation Tramways, including access to the gas works (parts of the rails still visible in the entrance to The Gas Club car park) and along Bradford Road.
 

Highlandspring

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Dundee docks had an extensive system of embedded track; there are still plenty of short isolated sections left. Aberdeen Harbour likewise had a huge system.
 

Altfish

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There was a line out of the goods yard at Altrincham along Marsh Lane for a few hundred yards to serve a gasworks.
Can I just correct this, it was Moss Lane, not Marsh Lane

There's a good article on it here...
http://www.altrinchamheritage.com/w...rks-Railway-Bylines-Vol5-Iss-5-April-2000.pdf

...I remember the rails in the road but I never saw it in action. The tracks by the side of the bridge over the Altrincham to Hale line were still present into the 1970s (?)
 

neilmc

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Does the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway count? It was certainly a real railway, and even in diesel days the locos used on the line had to have valances and cowcatchers in view of the fact that it ran on public roads, although I don't know whether the rails were embedded in the tarmac at any point.
 

A Challenge

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Does the temporary situation when the cliff collapsed on the Kyle Line count?
 

PeterC

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Does the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway count? It was certainly a real railway, and even in diesel days the locos used on the line had to have valances and cowcatchers in view of the fact that it ran on public roads, although I don't know whether the rails were embedded in the tarmac at any point.
All the photos that I have seen of the Wisbech and Upwell had the track alongside the carriageway. My own first thought was the track that shared the road through Big Arch near Abersychan but again I think that was alongside rather than embedded in the road. It was always rather odd though to see coal wagons parked at the roadside.
 
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L&Y Robert

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Maybe this doesn't count, but it's interesting anyway. Sometime in 1960 I and my pal were driving to Oban, for the ferry to Tobermory. In the early morning, well before daylight, we were driving along a long straight street in Glasgow, somewhere to the west of the city and north of the Clyde. Coming along the street we encountered a train comprising (I think) an electric locomotive and three wagons, running on the tram lines. I was too tired after a long drive to take much notice, but I have since wondered about it.
 

Train wasp

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Farnborough had a line that went along the streets of Farnborough to an airfield. The line closed in 1968.
 

bishdunster

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The branch from Poole to Poole quay in Dorset used to run about half a mile down West Quay Road to the sidings on Poole Quay, also set into the tarmac in use by ordinary road vehicles !
 
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30907

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Why is the Weymouth Quay line nearly always referred to as a tramway then?
It's a (street) tramway because it runs on or beside the public highway, not on fenced-off land owned by the railway.

On the general topic, there were railway-operated tramways at Great Yarmouth and IIRC Lowestoft. The LNER had the largest number of "tram engines" (think Toby!) in the UK, complete with side sheets to cover the motion and cowcatchers (I'm sure that's not the right term in the UK!), and BR had diesel successors.
The line along the seafront at Dover would be another, and I suspect there were plenty more in dock areas round the country.
 

6Gman

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Maybe this doesn't count, but it's interesting anyway. Sometime in 1960 I and my pal were driving to Oban, for the ferry to Tobermory. In the early morning, well before daylight, we were driving along a long straight street in Glasgow, somewhere to the west of the city and north of the Clyde. Coming along the street we encountered a train comprising (I think) an electric locomotive and three wagons, running on the tram lines. I was too tired after a long drive to take much notice, but I have since wondered about it.

I think they were using tramway tracks to access a works of some sort (possibly power station or gas works).

EDIT, The interweb says it was to transport steel to shipyards, but on the South bank (around Govan).
 

6Gman

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I seem to remember meeting an ICI diesel loco on a bridge in the Northwich area on one occasion.
 

edwin_m

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The track gauge on the Glasgow tramways was slightly narrower than standard so rail wagons could run on the tips of their flanges (which are closer together than tramway flanges). I assume Huddersfield and possibly others were the same. Blackpool-Fleetwood also carried heavy rail wagons but not on the street section.
 

kentuckytony

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OT in a way, but google "La Grange railroad videos". These are full trains moving through downtown La Grange, Kentucky. Not too far from where I live and I have been there quite a few times (and blocked by trains - believe me, if you are parked, just stay where you are). This is definitely not a "tramway". The tracks were there before the town and the the railroad refused to move as the town grew up around it. Now a bit of a tourist attraction. Lots of choices to view.
 

Dr_Paul

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There was a long branch in the streets down to the Navy depot at Deptford, south-east London. See this map. The OS 25" and other large-scale maps are excellent for finding such lines.
 

Dr_Paul

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There was a line from the Southern at Feltham to a military depot that went along the roads part of the way. I think it survived into the 1960s. See this map.
 
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