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Disused Railways That Have The Fewest Remains

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steamybrian

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I would suggest in London-
Ravenscourt Park- Kensington Olympia (the viaduct at Hammersmith is the only identifiable remains.
Lewisham Road- Greenwich Park. Only remains is a short section of embankment adjacent to St Johns station. A few bridge parapets walls remain on the branch which only the most diligent researcher would find.
South Acton- Hammersmith & Chiswick. Some sections of the trackbed form footpaths or roads but the casual "normal" would not identify them as a former railway.
Blackwall- Millwall Junction Construction of the Docklands Light Railway removed any lingering remains. Area heavily redeveloped in recent years.
Gallions- Custom House Construction of the Docklands Light Railway removed any lingering remains. Area heavily redeveloped in recent years
East Croydon- Central Croydon- Only remain is a landscaped section of cutting forming part of Queens Gardens.
Merton Park- Tooting Part of it is now Merantum Way and another part is redeveloped. Short sections are footpaths.
 
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Taunton

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There can't be much that still exists of the Brighton & Rottingdean.
The B&R was one of those railways which had its stock destroyed within a day or two of opening. Not unique in this respect, for example the Snowdon Mountain had a similar experience.
 

A0wen

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The Hemel Hempstead branch of the Midland Railway was completely obliterated between Hemel station at the gasworks sideing apart from one tiny section of viaduct on Boxmoor. Until the web allowed me to look it up I assumed that the remaining fragment was quite a few centuries older.

That closure was actually pre Beeching - with much of the formation being obliterated during the building of Hemel New Town in the early 60s.
 

geoffk

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A lot depends on the local topography. Near me in the Pennines, there are surviving bridges, viaducts and tunnels on the Queensbury lines as they were heavily engineered, whereas in East Anglia and Lincolnshire. for example, trackbeds could be incorporated into fields or widened roads with not much to show they were ever there.
 

edwin_m

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There doesn't seem to be much evidence left of railways on Jersey.
The entire route of the Jersey Railway is walkable. Much of the St Helier station remains as the bus station, I think there's another surviving station towards that end and the western terminus survives as a house (and was on Grand Designs I believe). There's also the tunnel behind St Aubins. The site of the Jersey Eastern terminus at St Helier is also pretty obvious.
 

billio

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This thread reminds me of a personal hobby of mine. When travelling by train I try to spot locations where a closed line joined, passed over or below the line I am travelling on. In many cases this can be quite tricky, the remnants of the closed line being quite subtle and not seen so easily when flashing past at 125 mph.
 

Harbornite

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This thread reminds me of a personal hobby of mine. When travelling by train I try to spot locations where a closed line joined, passed over or below the line I am travelling on. In many cases this can be quite tricky, the remnants of the closed line being quite subtle and not seen so easily when flashing past at 125 mph.

Have you tried it for the Harborne Branch? Quite an easy one.
 

Calthrop

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The entire route of the Jersey Railway is walkable. Much of the St Helier station remains as the bus station, I think there's another surviving station towards that end and the western terminus survives as a house (and was on Grand Designs I believe). There's also the tunnel behind St Aubins. The site of the Jersey Eastern terminus at St Helier is also pretty obvious.

(My bolding) The building of Millbrook station is now a cafe.
 

SteveT

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bnm: "Very little remains of the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway."
AndrewE: "The route from Yatton to Clevedon is still very clear on the 1:25000 OS map, but it is difficult to spot the route onwards towards Clevedon."


That's the GWR branch, not the WC&PR.
 

Waldgrun

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I've just thought of a line, the old East Southsea branch from Fratton (Portsmouth) no remaining traces, as far as I know!
 

CarltonA

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There does not seem to be much remaining of the Aylesbury - Cheddington line. The Aylesbury Town station site has been obliterated but the route remains for a distance past the back of the prison, though far from obvious. Further away from the town centre on the far side of a newish roundabout an overgrown strip remains. The OS map shows that a lot of the formation beyond has been ploughed into adjoining fields. I've never managed to see any remains from the WCML at Cheddington.
 

AndrewE

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bnm: "Very little remains of the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway."
AndrewE: "The route from Yatton to Clevedon is still very clear on the 1:25000 OS map, but it is difficult to spot the route onwards towards Clevedon."
That's the GWR branch, not the WC&PR.
Sorry about that, I hadn't realised there were 2 separate alignments. Working at Temple Meads I was told a joke that porters at Yatton, when asked where the train for Clevedon was, would say "over to the WC and pee, madam!" Very daring, from an elderly railway servant!
 

Dr_Paul

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I've just thought of a line, the old East Southsea branch from Fratton (Portsmouth) no remaining traces, as far as I know!

The curving course of the line can still be traced on OS maps by the course of the streets on each side.

It's like that with the curved part of the course of the LSWR Hammersmith to Olympia line, marked by Sulgrave Road, Minford Gardens and Sinclair Road, although the entire trackbed has been built on. There is, or was when I was last there some time back, a bricked-up plate-girder arch where the line went under what is now Goldhawk Road station and one remaining bridge abutment on Trussley Road. South of Trussley Road the course of the trackbed has been obliterated.

Parts of the course of the Hammersmith and Chiswick line can be detected on a map, but some parts towards the end of the line have been built on and a section near South Acton integrated into a park and the course of these parts has been obliterated.

There is nothing remaining of the Acton Town to South Acton line north of Bollo Lane; there is a bridge abutment on the south side of Bollo Lane with an embankment behind it curving towards Acton Town. The footbridge over the North London Line north of South Acton station is wide enough to span four tracks, as the junction between the NLL and the connection was north of the station.

The course of the connection from Gunnersbury round to the LSWR Brentford line can be detected by the curve of the block of flats that is somewhat euphemistically called Chiswick Village. When I was a kid, the platform for that curve was still there, as was the island platform on the east side of the station. Neither had any track by then, and all signs of them were later obliterated by new buildings.

The start of the east curve from what is now the Piccadilly line to the terminal station in Hounslow is indicated by a row of houses, but everything beyond that has disappeared; the bus station occupies the site of the station.

The line from Latimer Road to Shepherds Bush has completely disappeared, with just a stump remaining on the viaduct to the west of Latimer Road station showing the site of the junction.
 

PeterC

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That closure was actually pre Beeching - with much of the formation being obliterated during the building of Hemel New Town in the early 60s.
Apart from one very small section the embankment across Boxmoor was totally removed and that part of the moor restored to open space. The remaining fragment by the old A41 looks more like the remains of a medieval castle mound than a railway embankment.
 

Basher

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Here in the north east there is plenty of the Stainmore line available. I cycle a lot of old railway and canal paths, my favourite is the Monsal track. All the tunnels are open and electric lighting is on during daytime hours. Just today I've purchased a Sustrans book of traffic free cycle routes and its full of old railway tracks, i plan to cycle the north Norfolk track soon.
 

Ianno87

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There does not seem to be much remaining of the Aylesbury - Cheddington line. The Aylesbury Town station site has been obliterated but the route remains for a distance past the back of the prison, though far from obvious. Further away from the town centre on the far side of a newish roundabout an overgrown strip remains. The OS map shows that a lot of the formation beyond has been ploughed into adjoining fields. I've never managed to see any remains from the WCML at Cheddington.

The old curve on the opposite side of the current Down Fast platform at Cheddington is still pretty obvious.
 

steamybrian

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Kemp Town branch in Brighton finally closed completely in 1971 and there are virtually no remains. The short branch traversed a now demolished viaduct and a tunnel which has been infilled at its north end. The south end of the tunnel now forms part of an industrial estate which covers the site of Kemp Town station. The junction near London Road is now covered by industrial units which also covers the site of Lewes Road station..
 

Thebaz

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If I have things rightly, the T & D followed the road between the two places quite closely; but (as you indicate) only for some of the way did it do so in strict roadside-tramway-fashion. Again IIRC, its locomotives never had the wheels-covering "skirt" arrangement (not that that was universal even for all fully-fledged roadside steam tramways). A 1920s Ward Lock guide to south-west Ireland which I have, says "...the light railway from Tralee to Dingle runs parallel with, and, in some parts, on the road itself..." .

Funny the two of you should mention the Tralee & Dingle Light Railway because I was going to do so myself! I have traversed the route to Castlegregory several times over the last 10 years as my partner's family have a holiday home down there. I always tried to look for signs of the railway as I was driving but could never find anything remotely obvious. Exceptions are the remaining buildings and landscape at what was Castlegregory Junction station (apparently the landlord of the pub there knows quite a bit about the railway.) and the curved viaduct just south of camp on the Dingle route (there's another viaduct to be seen near Anascaul on the same route.) After discovering the online digital historic maps o Ireland via the OSI http://map.geohive.ie/mapviewer.html I soon discovered why I could not find the railway - namely road improvements (possible raising and widening, although haven't checked what work was actually done) which had completely obliterated most of the route. Luckily the historic maps coupled with aerial images showed me exactly where to look. On my last trip there (August 2018) I spent a morning successfully looking for railway remnants! I even found some a couple of holding down bolts which made it back to London in my suitcase. I took a bunch of photos and shot some film on the mobile too. When I get a chance I'll create a thread and upload them.
 

Calthrop

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The Tralee & Dingle does seem to exert a powerful hold on people's imaginations ! Interesting that you see a lot of Castlegregory itself. The Castlegregory Jun. -- Castlegregory branch was closed completely, at the same time as withdrawal of the T & D's passenger services in spring 1939: with the Tralee -- Dingle "main line" continuing to see some degree of use for freight for the following fourteen years, I suppose that in theory, the branch had that amount of extra time for obliteration; though of course, the majority of that process throughout, will have occurred in relatively recent decades.
 

341o2

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Halwill Junction - Almost nothing left apart from the name...
Also the Great Central through the centre of Nottingham - Although us enthusiasts know where the railway was, it’s becoming lost knowledge to the general populace (who have no particular interest anyway).
That’s life though, and I don’t really have a problem with it.

Bude. No trace of a railway, unless someone knows something minor not cleared as with Halwill. The only clue I am aware of is that one road built on the station site is named Bulleid Way
 

duffield

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The big brick viaduct that used to come out of the city centre was only demolished a few years ago- to put the tram viaduct in. The GCR alignment south out out of the city is still visible too, even where it hasn't been made into a footpath.

The viaduct was not completely demolished. The section over the canal (between Canal Street and Station Street) was retained and now supports the tram line. Also some or all (not sure which) of the original supporting pillars through the roof of the midland station (which were left partly in place when the original GCr brisge was removed were reused to support the new bridge.
 

edwin_m

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The viaduct was not completely demolished. The section over the canal (between Canal Street and Station Street) was retained and now supports the tram line. Also some or all (not sure which) of the original supporting pillars through the roof of the midland station (which were left partly in place when the original GCr brisge was removed were reused to support the new bridge.
I think the only remaining part of the original bridge supporting the new one is the very base of the northern pier, and even then it may not be original. It spanned clear over the whole station, as seen from the linked photo which was taken before the current Midland station was built, so there were no piers through the buildings.

http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/aimages/L2437.jpg
 

duffield

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I think the only remaining part of the original bridge supporting the new one is the very base of the northern pier, and even then it may not be original. It spanned clear over the whole station, as seen from the linked photo which was taken before the current Midland station was built, so there were no piers through the buildings.

http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/aimages/L2437.jpg

Ah, I thought there was a central pier, I must have misunderstood the newspaper report (from the time of the tram construction).
 

AndrewE

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I think the only remaining part of the original bridge supporting the new one is the very base of the northern pier, and even then it may not be original. It spanned clear over the whole station, as seen from the linked photo which was taken before the current Midland station was built, so there were no piers through the buildings.

http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/aimages/L2437.jpg
Thanks, I thought I remembered seeing it being bulldozed. A quick look at Canal St on Google Streetview show a long new viaduct supported on twin concrete columns and beams.
 

Bedpan

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The old curve on the opposite side of the current Down Fast platform at Cheddington is still pretty obvious.
And the course of the line is apparent from the curved boundary of the field opposite the branch platform. I'm not sure whether the branch followed a course adjacent to what is now the access road to the station, or whether the access road was always there and the railway was alongside it. In fact, looking at street view, it was probably a bit of both.
 
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