Lines that should have been mainlines

[Pinza-C55]

Leeds to York should have been quadrupled at some point. I know several of the bridges such as the one at Garforth station appear to be built to 4 track width.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Leeds to York should have been quadrupled at some point. I know several of the bridges such as the one at Garforth station appear to be built to 4 track width.

Unfortunately not the viaduct immediately East of Leeds station, which would be the most expensive to widen now!

In an "alternative history" scenario, I could imagine the Huddersfield to Sheffield line (the pre-1981 routing via Deepcar) being part of a major North-to-South mainline, particularly if the cross-Bradford link had also been built. Such a line might have led to Bradford becoming the dominant West Yorkshire city rather than Leeds.

 

[chorleyjeff]

The West Coast Main Line north of Preston...

Where are the constraints to capacity ? Euxton to Wigan seems to be OK with more traffic than N of Preston.

 

[david l]

Where are the constraints to capacity ? Euxton to Wigan seems to be OK with more traffic than N of Preston.

Not really. Its very tight on many occasions. Its Wigan to Balshaw Lane Junc (south of Euxton Junc) that is the two track section, Wigan to Standish Junc was always two track, Standish Junc to Balshaw Lane was de-quadrified prior to electrification during the Preston re-signalling, but yet the headspan wires which are prevalent generally cover the space.
The worst restricted bit is actually now Wigan NW station, the turnouts from/into the loops at the north end is 10 mph, platform 2 has just been removed, and platform 1 (short - only 6/7 cars) sees far more use than it has done for many years, which when Bolton-Wigan NW is electrified will only get worse. Platform 6 has been used for 10 years for Liverpool terminators, which leaves very little leeway if there is any WCML disruption which needs a loop for examination/stabling/terminating/holding. Perhaps the old platform 10 needs to be re-instated (still there since closure in 1971)!

 

[Pigeon]

Arguably, the Midland was quadrupled to Sheffield around 1900.
It's just that the additional tracks went via Nottingham and Rugby and were called the Great Central.

Eehh... more like 1880, all on their own track
And then with the LMS, 1920s, nearly all the way to Leeds.
Even more than 4 on some bits...

 

[Pinza-C55]

Unfortunately not the viaduct immediately East of Leeds station, which would be the most expensive to widen now!

In an "alternative history" scenario, I could imagine the Huddersfield to Sheffield line (the pre-1981 routing via Deepcar) being part of a major North-to-South mainline, particularly if the cross-Bradford link had also been built. Such a line might have led to Bradford becoming the dominant West Yorkshire city rather than Leeds.

It's true that the viaduct would still be a bottleneck but there used to be a tunnel just before Marsh Lane which the NER opened out into a cutting. The book "North Eastern Album" by Ken Hoole has some photos of this being done. It's just a shame they didn't widen the viaduct when they had the money and power to do so.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Welwyn Viaduct and the Welwyn Tunnels not being four tracked by the GNR is another bottleneck.

Like the Catford Loop mentioned elsewhere, the Hertford Loop was supposed to solve that but, again like the Catford Loop both lines attracted suburban traffic.

Further north there is the very early example of the GNR's duplicate "Towns Line" and "Fens Line" between Peterborough and Doncaster. The former was more direct, but more steeply graded (Stoke Summit - in supposedly flat Lincolnshire - is the highest point on the entire ECML) whilst the latter was much flatter, crossing the fens to Boston and then via the banks of the River Witham and the Foss Dyke Canal to reach Retford, making use of the Lincoln Gap to negotiate the ridge that the Towns Line surmounts at Stoke Summit. The Fens Line proved ideal for the very long coal trains that were the GNR's bread and butter - their length only limited by the requirement that they not obstruct all three level crossings in Lincoln at the same time.

The Fens Line survives at each end, but most of the route between Lincoln and Spalding is lost. It was largely superseded by the "Joint Line" which took a more direct route via Sleaford but was essentially built for the same purpose - getting freight off the ECML. As originally built it was even better at that than its modern incarnation, as instead of rejoining the ECML at Peterborough it continued to March, from where the goods trains ran down the GER main line, to the mutual advantage of both the GNR (which had access to industrial Yorkshire) and the GER (which had the capacity through the Home Counties that the GNR lacked, and also access to the London Docks)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Dec 2021 ==

Maidstone line has a very sharp curve at Otford junc:

Reflecting that the original route ran to Sevenoaks and the Maidstone line was an afterthought. Given sufficient will and money a bypass could have been built to straighten it out, but it was never the LCDR's main line - that ran from London, through Chatham, to Dover (hence the name)

 

[Ex-controller]

Cowlairs incline. The portal for a second tunnel was even created.

 

[M&NEJ]

Where are the constraints to capacity ? Euxton to Wigan seems to be OK with more traffic than N of Preston.

Lancaster to Morecambe South Junction (or even to Carnforth) is a constraint.

When VT introduced the "very high frequency" WCML service, Morecambe lost a Lancaster service in the morning peak (and all its through services to Liverpool). Some locals would like a half-hourly Morecambe shuttle but there isn't capacity. The Bentham line (Leeds - Morecambe) can't get a morning commuter service into Lancaster, so when it's introduced in next week's timetable change it will terminate at Carnforth, 6 miles short, with a connection to Lancaster.