Trivia - Cities and large towns visible from lines which don't serve them

GrimsbyPacer · 15 Nov 2016

Deepgreen said:
It's unusual in having a cathedral but not being a city..

Not really, other non city cathedral towns include:
St Edmundsbury, Southwell, Southwark, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Arundel, Northampton, and most of Scotland. Ofcourse many cities don't contain a cathedral, namely Hull, Brighton and Hove, Bath etc.

I know Rotherham can be seen on the avoiding line through the old Masborough station.

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IanD · 15 Nov 2016

DeeGee said:
Rochester is, of course, visible from the Medway Valley Line which only goes as far as Strood.

And from the HS1 Ashford line as it crosses the Medway. Although these days, on some services, you will actually arrive in Rochester 2 hours or so later if you do the round trip.
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Not sure if Hayle is classed as a large town but I'm sure it's visible from the St Ives branch around Lelant.

Kendal is clearly visible from the WCML.

61653 HTAFC · 15 Nov 2016

An obvious one would be Gloucester from the Bristol to Birmingham main line.

jfisher21 · 15 Nov 2016

Brixton on the London Overground Dalston Junction to Clapham Junction route. Goes right through the centre but cannot build a station as line is too high up on bridges apparently.

MK Tom · 15 Nov 2016

There's a section of the WCML south of Cheddington where the Pitstone cement works used to be where the large town of Aylesbury is clearly visible. The Bucks County Council offices stand proud on the horizon if you know where to look.

As has been said Northampton is clearly visible from the Weedon lines - look out for the elevator test tower and the Camp Hill leisure complex among other things.

Surely Worcester must be visible from the bypass lines there?

Busaholic · 15 Nov 2016

jfisher21 said:
Brixton on the London Overground Dalston Junction to Clapham Junction route. Goes right through the centre but cannot build a station as line is too high up on bridges apparently.

East Brixton station used to perform this task, lying very slightly to the east of Brixton station (unsurprisingly

). This was in South London Line days, but closed decades ago.

cuccir · 16 Nov 2016

Morecambe is usually visible over the Bay at various points along the Furness Line.

I'm trying to remember if there's places up the ECML where you can see the factories of Middlesbrough/Teeside? Surely there must be!

A0wen · 16 Nov 2016

Trying to recall if you can see Portsmouth from the IoW line between Ryde Pier Head and Esplanade.

Ibex · 16 Nov 2016

Northampton is visible from the main line via Weedon between MK & Rugby, mainly the lift testing tower and a few buildings surrounding.

unlevel42 · 16 Nov 2016

Blackpool
Douglas
Liverpool
Dublin
Bangor

Snowdon Mountain Railway and/or Great Orme Tramway

FS-2-11 · 16 Nov 2016

Grinner said:
I'm pretty sure you can see the Blackpool Tower from the WCML north of Preston, which presumably counts as being able to see Blackpool?

Definitely - it's something I always look out for when I'm travelling on that stretch, and it always cheers me up when I see it.

gimmea50anyday · 16 Nov 2016

Washington COULD be served if the leamside was reopened, indeed tyne and wear metro are looking at a loop from south hylton back towards pelaw using the leamside line. That could however have a detrimental effect on other ECML proposals also looking at the leamside line.

Ashington can be seem from ECML but not served, again, blyth and tyne reopening proposals should change this.

Newton Aycliffe can also be seen from ECML yet is served on the bishop auckland branch.

Peterlee will be served by a proposed station at Horden, but as usual theres too much talking about it and not enough actually doing!

Haydn1971 · 16 Nov 2016

Sheffield from HS2

haha

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route101 · 16 Nov 2016

Kirkcaldy from ECML east of Edinburgh
East Kilbride from WCML after Motherwell.

kieron · 16 Nov 2016

6Gman said:
Chester from the Wrexham-Bidston line?

Definitely, you'd be able to see it straight down the river. I'm wondering about Liverpool, though.

...

Thinking a bit more about it, while you can see Chester from by there, you probably wouldn't be able to identify anything from a moving train past the metalwork of both the railway bridge and the blue bridge further upstream.

misterredmist · 16 Nov 2016

MidnightFlyer said:
I'm pretty sure you can see the eastern reaches of Coventry from the WCML between Nuneaton and Rugby.

I am pretty sure Birmingham can be seen in the distance on that stretch too

PHILIPE · 16 Nov 2016

Liverpool Cathedral from the North Wales coast.
St Woolos Cathedral, Newport from the Cardiff to Ebbw Vale route at Ebbw Jcn

kieron · 17 Nov 2016

PHILIPE said:
Liverpool Cathedral from the North Wales coast.

Where by? Neither cathedral is particularly prominent in the landscape, so I'm struggling a bit to think where you'd see them past the Wirral.

Rick1984 · 18 Nov 2016

A0wen said:
Trying to recall if you can see Portsmouth from the IoW line between Ryde Pier Head and Esplanade.

I think so. My local station but can't think if the angle of pier blocks view

61653 HTAFC · 18 Nov 2016

Rick1984 said:
I think so. My local station but can't think if the angle of pier blocks view

Though as through tickets are available from Island Line to the whole national network, would the ferries not constitute a direct service from Ryde to Portsmouth?

Apologies if that puts a cat among the pigeons!

156443 · 18 Nov 2016

Gateshead Town Centre as the Durham Coast Line runs through but doesn't stop with the nearest stations being Heworth or Newcastle Central Station

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johnnychips · 18 Nov 2016

kieron said:
Where by? Neither cathedral is particularly prominent in the landscape, so I'm struggling a bit to think where you'd see them past the Wirral.

Re Liverpool Cathedrals.

I wondered about this too. You can certainly see them from the A55 in a lay-by high above Prestatyn with good eyes or binoculars, but from the coast? However I stand to be corrected.

I would also refer you to the excellent 'Alarm' record, 'The Spirit of 76', which refers to 'Mersey lights shine in the Distance', rather than 'Liverpool lights' - though I suppose it wouldn't scan.

PHILIPE · 18 Nov 2016

johnnychips said:
Re Liverpool Cathedrals.

I wondered about this too. You can certainly see them from the A55 in a lay-by high above Prestatyn with good eyes or binoculars, but from the coast? However I stand to be corrected.

I would also refer you to the excellent 'Alarm' record, 'The Spirit of 76', which refers to 'Mersey lights shine in the Distance', rather than 'Liverpool lights' - though I suppose it wouldn't scan.

I may be mistaken re Liverpool Cathedral by rail but certainly from the A55 and quite prominent as well as lay by near Prestatyn.

45rpm · 18 Nov 2016

Calais can be seen from the Dover - Folkestone line.

iphone76 · 19 Nov 2016

Basildon (including the tractor factory mushroom) can be seen when travelling between Wickford and Billericay on the GA line.

1018509 · 19 Nov 2016

thenorthern said:
Nope Guildford isn't a city as GirmsbyPacer has pointed out, it likes to pretend to be one in many ways such as Guildford City FC but no its a town.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines 'city' as 'a large town' or 'any town in the UK which has a cathedral'.

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford.

It's a city.

Bevan Price · 19 Nov 2016

You can see parts of Leigh (Lancs.) from the LIverpool - Chat Moss - Mancheste line.

muddythefish · 20 Nov 2016

1018509 said:
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines 'city' as 'a large town' or 'any town in the UK which has a cathedral'.

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford.

It's a city.

No it isn't

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/guildford-says-no-city-status-4815000

MidnightFlyer · 20 Nov 2016

1018509 said:
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines 'city' as 'a large town' or 'any town in the UK which has a cathedral'.

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford.

It's a city.

Could do with telling Blackburn Council then, they've got a cathedral and keep applying for city status...

muddythefish · 20 Nov 2016

Blackburn with Darwen has a pop of 120,000 plus and has a much better claim to be a city than Guildford.

Trivia - Cities and large towns visible from lines which don't serve them

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