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Colchester - Unlikely Survivor?

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kermit

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There are, it seems to me, few places where the railway infrastructure post WW2 has survived more or less intact. Can anywhere rival Colchester?

An MPD, a triangle with all three sides extant, a terminus branch to the town centre, and no track removed at all, as far as I can tell. Can anywhere match that?
 
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450.emu

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There are, it seems to me, few places where the railway infrastructure post WW2 has survived more or less intact. Can anywhere rival Colchester?

An MPD, a triangle with all three sides extant, a terminus branch to the town centre, and no track removed at all, as far as I can tell. Can anywhere match that?
They also still have the postwar OHLE for authenticity which is a nice touch (except when it sags when it gets hot in the summer) :roll:
 

thenorthern

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Glossop and Hadfield could in a sense rival that with 3 staffed station (Glossop, Dinting and Hadfield) on a triangular junction with overhead lines although the Woodhead line has closed.
 

GB

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Post war is a good thing isn't it?...certainly better than prewar!

In any case, I'm struggling to remember when there were any OLE problems in the Colchester area.
 

kermit

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Glossop and Hadfield could in a sense rival that with 3 staffed station (Glossop, Dinting and Hadfield) on a triangular junction with overhead lines although the Woodhead line has closed.

Good try, but the fate of Dinting locomotive shed, and the massive loss of traffic and infrastructure since the glory days of the mid fifties to the late sixties renders that area a shadow of its former railway self. As for Guide Bridge.......
 

martin2345uk

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I used to wonder how the little stub to Colchester Town survived the axe - is it simply that it's very heavily used?
 

Islineclear3_1

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There are, it seems to me, few places where the railway infrastructure post WW2 has survived more or less intact. Can anywhere rival Colchester?

An MPD, a triangle with all three sides extant, a terminus branch to the town centre, and no track removed at all, as far as I can tell. Can anywhere match that?

But to be picky, the terminus was originally called St Botolphs, there were at least 3 tracks in the station and a signalbox - until rationalisation and closure of the latter in the 1980s. Then East Gates signalbox at the Colchester end of the triangle closed in 2009 upon resignalling
 

QueensCurve

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There are, it seems to me, few places where the railway infrastructure post WW2 has survived more or less intact. Can anywhere rival Colchester?

An MPD, a triangle with all three sides extant, a terminus branch to the town centre, and no track removed at all, as far as I can tell. Can anywhere match that?

The Cumbrian coast still mostly runs on 19th Century technology although quite a lot of tack (and loads of signals) have gone.
 

306024

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Well considerable changes took place with the 1960s electrification to Clacton, which is auto tensioned so doesn't sag in the heat. The depot closed as a maintenance facility about 20 years ago from memory, meanwhile a new power box replaced the old signal box (which had itself replaced the post war one) and took over the route from Colchester all the way to Norwich. There is also a reasonable sized tamper depot beyond the carriage sidings. More recently the entrance on the up side of the station has reopened, which may be the one bit that was open in 1945.

As for St Botolphs (Colchester Town for younger readers) yes it is well used, being located in the town centre helps. Colchester is referred to locally as North station, and it is a hike up North Hill to get to the town centre.
 
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RichmondCommu

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I think Kirkby Stephen runs it close. There is still a signal box (although I admit not the original one) and the refuge sidings still remain on both the up and the down. The station of course still exists although the platform shelter has been replaced and a footbridge added. Finally the goods shed has also survived and is used by a local road haulage company.
 

kermit

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I think Kirkby Stephen runs it close. There is still a signal box (although I admit not the original one) and the refuge sidings still remain on both the up and the down. The station of course still exists although the platform shelter has been replaced and a footbridge added. Finally the goods shed has also survived and is used by a local road haulage company.

Which is all good. But there is rather a lot of former LNER trackbed that you have to cross between the village and the remaining extant railway station!
 

dk1

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I always find it amusing that East Gates crossing comes down so many times an hour & often its for a 12-car 321/360 doing a shuttle before going through to London & often carrying less than a dozen punters. The road users must fume :lol:
 
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RichmondCommu

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Which is all good. But there is rather a lot of former LNER trackbed that you have to cross between the village and the remaining extant railway station!

I concur but I assumed that we were discussing separate railway stations as opposed to general local railway infrastructure :)
 

AM9

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I always find it amusing that East Gates crossing comes down so many times an hour & often its for a 12-car 321/360 doing a shuttle before going through to London & often carrying less than a dozen punters. The road users must fume :lol:

I remember the gates when I lived there in the early '70s. The gates were a bit of a pain (I was a bus passenger then). For those heading east out of town, drivers seeing the back of the queue woiuld slip left up Ipswich Road and along the A133 (which was then the main bypass and route to the Tendring coast, (can't take the 'sunshine coast' soubriquet seriously).

I remember one day in 1974 I think, when the 06:42 Clacton to London Class 309 pulled the knitting down as it pulled in to platform 3. There were bits and pieces everywhere including a complete insulator in the middle of the platform 1/2. It's a good job that there wasn't anybody waiting there to catch it!
 

kermit

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I concur but I assumed that we were discussing separate railway stations as opposed to general local railway infrastructure :)

Ah.Yes, sorry, I didn't really specify any rules, I was just looking at a postwar OS 1:25000 map of Colchester (courtesy of the SABRE maps site - highly recommended), and was struck by the way that so little had changed, compared with most towns of that size. London, of course, has done fairly well, with threats to Marylebone and St Pancras seen off.
 

RichmondCommu

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Ah.Yes, sorry, I didn't really specify any rules, I was just looking at a postwar OS 1:25000 map of Colchester (courtesy of the SABRE maps site - highly recommended), and was struck by the way that so little had changed, compared with most towns of that size. London, of course, has done fairly well, with threats to Marylebone and St Pancras seen off.

No worries about the rules :) You are of course right about London in general although of both Marylebone and St Pancras have both lost refueling / maintenance depots since the late 1970's and St Pancras had the whacking great Somers Town goods yard next to it.

If you ignore the obvious rebuild of Euston station I don't think the approaches to it have changed since the days of steam.
 
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