Infrastructure that will never be used again

[Harbornite]

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

Another example is the rail underbridge built to serve a new industrial development near Bescot; the line it's on is mothballed and hasn't seen a train since 1993.

 

[SWTCommuter]

How about the Hockley Viaduct which used to link the Didcot, Newbury, Southampton line to the LSWR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockley_Railway_Viaduct

 

[Trackman]

Burnden and Darcy Lever viaducts in Bolton

 

[gg1]

Another example is the rail underbridge built to serve a new industrial development near Bescot; the line it's on is mothballed and hasn't seen a train since 1993.

That was one of the bridges on the Walsall - Stourbridge Line I was referring to in post 30.

There are also at least two road overbridges built post closure, one carrying the Black Country Spine Road in Great Bridge, the other carrying Duncan Edwards Way in Dudley. In addition there's the Midland Metro bridge in Wednesbury.

 

[vic-rijrode]

I am an infrequent contributor to this forum (but avid reader). I can think of two examples of "infrastructure" never to be used again - one of which was never used.

Studland Road Junction where the LSWR line from Kensington Olympia (Addison Road) joins what is now the District and Piccadilly Lines west of Hammersmith. Part of the viaduct is still there between the 2 eastbound lines.

Not far from where I live and north of Fenny Compton on the Banbury to Leamington line, there are a couple of hundred yards of an embankment leaving to the right hand side as you travel north. It is discernible if you know where to look and is clearly marked on the OS Explorer map 206 just SE of Bishop's Itchington. It is the remains of the Oxford and Rugby Railway which was abandoned just there because of railway politics - the Oxford and Birmingham Railway replacing it . I suppose it is a smaller victim of the GWR - LNWR wars, like Duddeston Viaduct.

 

[Raul_Duke]

Isn't there an old station building near a retail park around Derby?

Wagon repair shop on “The Wyvern”?

Not sure how much longer it’ll be there.

 

[randyrippley]

when you get down to it theres a lot of infrastructure still around: for instance just locally the Ingleton branch with its various bridges and viaducts.
Another that comes to mind is the Pensford viaduct in Somerset

But if you wanted to expand the concept a bit to railway buildings that will never see railway use again then you have such places as the Dick,Kerr works at Preston (birthplace of DELTIC) and the Lancaster Carriage and Wagon Co sheds in Lancaster

 

[Greetlander]

There's a tunnel in Halifax that was never finished. Does that count?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/41294071@N02/9474838042/

The photos (and Flickr page) by plarailfan

 

[NorthernSpirit]

There's a tunnel in Halifax that was never finished. Does that count?

Interesting that it was used as an air raid shelter, I wonder where the line would have gone?

 

[NorthernSpirit]

I think there's still an arch or two of the old Pickle Bridge viaduct still standing in glorious isolation over the A58 Leeds-Halifax road at Wyke.

About a third of Wyke Viaduct still stands and the entire Thornhills Viaduct near Brighouse is still there, the viaduct that went over the A644 has long since been pulled down as did the one on Clifton Common.

 

[GW43125]

The bridge which once carried the south curve at Virginia water (allowed a direct Chertsey-Ascot move-severed in the resignalling of 1966) still stands, with the former alignment very clearly visible.

 

[Railwaysceptic]

The Wycombe Lines, the ex-GWR section of track between Old Oak and Northolt Junction which used to carry GWR trains from Paddington to Birmingham, is little used today but may well be brought back into regular use if a new and major station is built at Old Oak Common for HS2.

The long disused spur near Hanger Lane Station to Park Royal and to the Guinness works will never see action again. It is now being cleared by a small team of orange army workers using earth moving equipment. I assume this is being done in preparation for HS2. Vegetation has been cleared, and a pile of freshly chopped logs indicates that some of the trees were quite mature. There is a small pile of rails and the track ballast under Coronation Road bridge has been completely removed. A few yards beyond Coronation Road the track bed seems to have been turned into a road several years ago when the Park Royal trading estate was expanded.

 

[Senex]

Not far from where I live and north of Fenny Compton on the Banbury to Leamington line, there are a couple of hundred yards of an embankment leaving to the right hand side as you travel north. It is discernible if you know where to look and is clearly marked on the OS Explorer map 206 just SE of Bishop's Itchington. It is the remains of the Oxford and Rugby Railway which was abandoned just there because of railway politics - the Oxford and Birmingham Railway replacing it . I suppose it is a smaller victim of the GWR - LNWR wars, like Duddeston Viaduct.

A really interesting might-have-been. If that line had been built—preferably as well as the Leamington line and not in place of it—it would have provided an excellent connection from the South Coast to the North-West avoiding the Birmingham area via the Trent Valley line and to the Midland and North-East via the Midland Couinties line. Obviously the 1880s rebuilding of Rugby would have had to be somewhat more complicated ...

 

[DidcotDickie]

The Rhondda Tunnel. However there is work ongoing to examine the feasibility of reopening it as a cycle/footpath (like the Twin Tunnels on the old S&D in Bath).

Interesting Video in Rail Engineer here: https://www.railengineer.uk/2018/05/03/video-rhondda-tunnel-detailed-examination/

 

[southern442]

Most of these answers seem pretty good, although there are a few people that just seem to be listing old railway infrastructure. I think what the OP was after were things that are really unlikely to be used again, bits of things that would remain untouched even if the government decided to do a random mass-reopening of loads of closed down bits. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I don't think this has been suggested before, but there's Osterley and Spring Grove tube station, I believe the platforms and even the stairs down to the platforms still exist but obviously you have another station about 200m west of that.

 

[Chris M]

I don't think this has been suggested before, but there's Osterley and Spring Grove tube station, I believe the platforms and even the stairs down to the platforms still exist but obviously you have another station about 200m west of that.

The platforms still exist, but I don't believe the stairs still do. Certainly the footbridge to the westbound platform, which the stairs would have linked to, is long gone.

 

[Ianno87]

Burnden and Darcy Lever viaducts in Bolton

The Burnden viaduct (at least) now does have a cycle path over it. Remarkable it survived the construction of the A666 St Peters Way underneath it (which I think came after the railway closure in 1970?)

 

[paok]

The Wycombe Lines, the ex-GWR section of track between Old Oak and Northolt Junction which used to carry GWR trains from Paddington to Birmingham, is little used today but may well be brought back into regular use if a new and major station is built at Old Oak Common for HS2.

The long disused spur near Hanger Lane Station to Park Royal and to the Guinness works will never see action again. It is now being cleared by a small team of orange army workers using earth moving equipment. I assume this is being done in preparation for HS2. Vegetation has been cleared, and a pile of freshly chopped logs indicates that some of the trees were quite mature. There is a small pile of rails and the track ballast under Coronation Road bridge has been completely removed. A few yards beyond Coronation Road the track bed seems to have been turned into a road several years ago when the Park Royal trading estate was expanded.

The line between Greenford West Junction and Old Oak Common is due to be closed at the end of this year thanks to HS2 works.

 

[The Planner]

Not all of it, some traffic may be required by HS2 for construction to get down towards Park Royal.

 

[paok]

Not all of it, some traffic may be required by HS2 for construction to get down towards Park Royal.

Thanks, makes sense. Will the Park Royal Marcon sidings remain in use?

 

[Railwaysceptic]

The line between Greenford West Junction and Old Oak Common is due to be closed at the end of this year thanks to HS2 works.

I think at present the pencilled-in plan is to re-open the line after HS2 work including the new station at Old Oak has been completed. There has been a lot of discussion about Chiltern running trains to Old Oak.

 

[RichJF]

I'll suggest a few platform faces that used to have trains but will unlikely ever have such luxuries in the future again but are still on stations served regularly by trains.

Lingfield platform 3 (or far side of the ticket office). There used to be an extra platform here so that racecourse trains could be terminated and reversed while the normal service was maintained. There also used to be a siding along the hedge line.
Eridge platform 1 (other side of island platform from Southern platform). Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells trains used to terminate in platform 4 & then shunt into platform 1 before setting off towards Groombridge again.
Cowden station. Disused platform clearly obvious from the remaining single platform.

 

[Dr_Paul]

I think at present the pencilled-in plan is to re-open the line after HS2 work including the new station at Old Oak has been completed. There has been a lot of discussion about Chiltern running trains to Old Oak.

The old Birmingham line from Paddington through Perivale is still useful as a diversionary route: only last weekend long-distance services in and out of Paddington were diverted via Greenford, High Wickham and Oxford to get to Swindon, and the up services used the line; were it still double track I suspect that down services would have used it too. Some freight services use it to avoid reversing at Acton Main Line.

If Chiltern services do go to Old Oak in the future, then I suspect that the line will be doubled. If the semaphore signals are still there, then the signalling will have to be modernised as well.

 

[Railwaysceptic]

The old Birmingham line from Paddington through Perivale is still useful as a diversionary route: only last weekend long-distance services in and out of Paddington were diverted via Greenford, High Wickham and Oxford to get to Swindon, and the up services used the line; were it still double track I suspect that down services would have used it too.

I've just realised that this is surprising. From the Greenford direction, the only existing connection at Northolt Junction is to the down platform at South Ruislip Station. (Chiltern's daily service from South Ruislip to Paddington leaves from that platform) I would have expected this diversionary route to have been used by down services, not up services.

 

[ACBest]

How about the regional Eurostar depot at Manchester?

 

[Y Ddraig Coch]

What about the sidings at Llandudno, they were overgrown, rotting away for years. Network rail spent £500,000 tidying, relaying ballast and the like back in around 2015 and I still don't think they have ever had a train on them, there were plenty of charters visiting in the last couple of years and none of them have used the sidings. So I can't see why they will if ever get used if the charters don't need to .

 

[colchesterken]

Bethnal Green G E Bit of the viaduct into the goods shed at Shoreditch still there, When you think of the price of land in that part of London I am sure in time they will build flats on it
Further along the Bow sand sidings but it looks like some work is going on around there

 

[martin2345uk]

How about the regional Eurostar depot at Manchester?

The what? Where is this..?!

 

[Domh245]

The what? Where is this..?!

Other side of the railway to Longsight, however I thought that it was going to be used by Alstom for maintenance of TPE's new CAF fleets - or was that at Longsight proper?

 

[furnessvale]

Other side of the railway to Longsight, however I thought that it was going to be used by Alstom for maintenance of TPE's new CAF fleets - or was that at Longsight proper?

I'm probably mistaken, but I thought that was converted into a wheel lathe shop years ago?