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Most effort/work spent on a railway project that ultimately never happened?

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Carlisle

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I had a wry smile at this because Network Rail still shunts naughty managers, typically after they’ve had a disastrous audit, off to invented ‘Program Manager’ roles to plan ill defined imaginary schemes that will never happen or be put in charge of the spreadsheet showing how many pairs of boots have been ordered.
Being demoted for a certain period was regularly used as a disciplinary throughout BR times & as far as I recall applied to all grades, not just management.
 
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Highlandspring

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Being demoted for a certain period was regularly used as a disciplinary throughout BR times & as far as I recall applied to all grades, not just management.

Yes, conciliatory staff can still be downgraded too. Uusually to an actual vacancy rather than a job invented specifically for the purpose.
 

mpthomson

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For those far too young to recall, a play on the 1960s-70s ITV television series of past times "Man in a Suitcase", about a disgraced espionage agent trying to clear his name.

The very opening shot of the first episode is of a BR 4-car dmu at Denham Golf Club station, nearest to Pinewood studios. Here on YouTube?

Man in a Suitcase (Intro) S1 (1967) - YouTube

With a theme tune by Ron Grainer later used as the theme for Chris Evans' TFI Friday programme.
 

Dave W

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That certainly killed the viability after the war of the extension beyond Edgware to Bushey. However, you could make a reasonable case that the rest of it south of Edgware - so Mill Hill East - Edgware electrification, Alexandra Palace - Finchley - Finsbury Park and onto the Northern City Line might have still been viable.

Another one which was stopped due the expansion of the Green Belt was Ruislip - Denham on the Central Line.

I often wonder how different this part of London would be if this had happened. The W7 might not have been quite as frequent and the "Highgate Borders" not quite so leafy with 95 Stock thundering down the Parkland Walk :)

Yes, the large square building west of Crouch Hill was built as a substation. Another was built at Muswell Hill but was demolished decades ago. Cable ducting was still visible in Highgate Woods, and until Finsbury Park bus station was rebuilt, it was overlooked by steelwork which would have supported high level tube platforms.

If you can find a copy of "Northern Wastes" by Jim Blake and Jonathan James, published by the North London Transport Society in 1987 and reissued in 1993, it tells the full story.

Thanks for this DelW - I shall have a scout for it. I think on the aforementioned Tube thread I pointed out the LU signs along the North Parkland Walk which advise of underground cabling. I always find it quite jarring to see Johnston on a little sign in the middle of the woods!
 

A0wen

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I often wonder how different this part of London would be if this had happened. The W7 might not have been quite as frequent and the "Highgate Borders" not quite so leafy with 95 Stock thundering down the Parkland Walk :)

I think journeys from Edgware to the City would have been quicker. The ECML electrification would have had to take a different course - so either all inner suburbans into Kings Cross or Broad Street rather than via the Northern City. I suspect by the late 60s the terminus of the Northern City at Moorgate would have been called into question and options to extend that elsewhere would have come into play - question is to where ? The obvious thing would have been to shadow the existing Northen Line to London Bridge then strike out South-East (where the current goes South-West), probably ending up at New Cross or Bromley.
 

John Luxton

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MerseyTram?

Purchase of rails had started by the time the scheme was abandoned.

If I recall correctly many rails ended up being sold cheaply to Isle of Man Transport and Crich Tramway museum.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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In the past year NR has been selling the unused electrification component stock, made redundant after the cancellation of the work via Bath to Bristol and the Oxford branch.
 

Bikeman78

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Can't be that highly specified - I think 4 car trains are the limit on it (limited by power supply)
I've been on 12 car slam door trains on that line. Diverted Charing Cross to Hastings trains with a portion for Ashford. I think the 375s still go via Redhill sometimes.
 

bramling

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Can't be that highly specified - I think 4 car trains are the limit on it (limited by power supply)

Do you have a source for this? The only restriction I can find relates to class 92s, and I believe that’s more to do with signalling. Certainly 8 and 12 car Electrostars can and do work the line on diversion for Southeastern. The substations are certainly closely spaced compared to something like Tonbridge to Hastings.

There may well be an issue with platform lengths though.
 

Megafuss

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I will throw the Glasgow Airport Rail Link into the hat. Lots of money has been spent (part of the Class 380 EMU order was to supply trains for the GARL, but Scotrail found a use for them elsewhere, resignalling, OHLE works, junction remodelling, Platform 12 at Glasgow Central), yet in the end the project never happened. It might in the future, but we'll see.
I'll chuck EARL with this. Over 30mil spent without a shovel in sight. And to make matters worse over £40mill spent on Edinburgh Gateway (double the budget)
 

Ianno87

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I've been on 12 car slam door trains on that line. Diverted Charing Cross to Hastings trains with a portion for Ashford. I think the 375s still go via Redhill sometimes.

Do you have a source for this? The only restriction I can find relates to class 92s, and I believe that’s more to do with signalling. Certainly 8 and 12 car Electrostars can and do work the line on diversion for Southeastern. The substations are certainly closely spaced compared to something like Tonbridge to Hastings.

There may well be an issue with platform lengths though.

Could indeed be the platform lengths I'm thinking of.
 

swaldman

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Under the 1955 modernisation plan, you could put up:
- the whole diesel-hydraulic saga (and a good many failed diesel-electric types too).
- new 1960s marshalling yards
I think they all got *some* use?
If including them, one could also include the Standard class locos :)
 

Roast Veg

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Could indeed be the platform lengths I'm thinking of.
Must be - until SE drivers have finally lost competence on it Hastings trains of 8 (12?) car 375s went via East Croydon during Thameslink works so nothing wrong with the supply.
 

ChiefPlanner

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The part built and never completed Gwaun Cae Gurwen to Pontardawe section (pre WW1 and sporadically post war) , included a bored tunnel and never saw a train, a few million pounds in today's cash.
 

najaB

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I'll chuck EARL with this. Over 30mil spent without a shovel in sight. And to make matters worse over £40mill spent on Edinburgh Gateway (double the budget)
To be fair, I think that's a good thing. EARL wasn't the best idea in the world - flat junctions in tunnels under a runway anyone?
 

Ianno87

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To be fair, I think that's a good thing. EARL wasn't the best idea in the world - flat junctions in tunnels under a runway anyone?

However, it would help balance out the use of the North and South Lines approaching Haymarket, with some E&G services diverted via EARL.
 

najaB

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However, it would help balance out the use of the North and South Lines approaching Haymarket, with some E&G services diverted via EARL.
A Dalmney Chord would achieve the same and could be grade-separated too.
 

Dr_Paul

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A smaller abortive project was the GWR branch into Birmingham Curzon St at Deritend. The LNWR forced them to build it in the original Act, but then relented when New St station was authorised, meaning Curzon St would close to passengers. It was never fully completed or used, except for wagon storage. Today, of course, Curzon St is once more a hive of activity for HS2.

Another abortive line was the Manchester & Milford branch south of Llanidloes, where it left the Cambrian. The line was completed as far as Llangurig (about 5 miles), but after one goods train ran, the whole project was abandoned. The track bed is still easily visible in places, and strategically it links the Severn and Wye valleys close to their source on Pumlumon/Plynlimon.
I read about the Birmingham line elsewhere, and being curious had a look at maps and Streetview. To my surprise the viaduct, or most of it, is still in existence. Presumably, there are sufficient motor repairers and other typical denizens of railway arches to keep it a going concern.

The line west of Llangurig would have had some fearsome grades and/or long tunnels. I'm not surprised it was never built.

Not quite within the criterion of this thread, but, I think, worth noting was the Barry Railway route south-west from the Rhymney Valley. Intended to cut journey times down to Barry docks, it was used for barely two decades: it was opened in 1904, abandoned in 1926 and dismantled in the mid-1930s, having been a commercial flop. It had extensive earthworks and two hefty viaducts, so it would have been costly to build. There's a film of the demolition of one of the viaducts.
 

Taunton

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Does the Crossrail "December 2018 opening" fit with the thread title ... :)
 
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The North Eastern's "Collywell Bay" [read: Seaton Sluice] branch was a remarkable example I only found out about recently - it seems to have got nearer completion than a lot of other unfinished lines. From Disused Stations:

Construction was at an advanced stage when World War I broke out in August 1914, and the project was halted. A double line of permanent way was in place as well as the station platforms, bridges and signal boxes. A stretch of electric ‘third rail’ was laid at the Monkseaton end of the Avenue branch, the signal box at Brierdene Junction was constructed, and the new Monkseaton station was nearing completion: this station opened the following year. On the outbreak of war house building in the area ceased. In 1916 the Ministry of Munitions and Railway Executive Committee, faced with a shortage of essential materials, decided that new rails could be acquired by singling lightly used lines. In 1917 the rails of the Collywell Bay branch were therefore lifted. However a 1 mile 1,754 yard stretch of single line was restored using second-hand track... to be used by a naval coastal defence gun, mounted on a specially built railway wagon.

After the war the local council expected the line to be completed. The LNER reviewed the project in 1924 but did not proceed because little housing development had taken place at Seaton Sluice.
In November 1930 the cost of completing the project and operating a half-hourly passenger service and goods trains was weighed against the potential revenue, and the outcome was a decision to abandon it...
 

Spartacus

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Remarkable - I was never aware of this plan, although I can see their logic in drawing up the idea when looking at a map. That does go to show the scale and ambition of these companies pre c1914 - and of course the money they must have had at their disposal, as well as the potential profits they foresaw as being available during that era from such investments. I suppose UK was one of if not the wealthiest country in the world at the time (or saw itself as being).

Would that warehouse that be the large brick built (with modern cladding on roof) Bibby Turboflex brick built building on Cannon Way WF13 1FF that I can see on google streetview?

Yes, that’s the one. There’s identical brickwork going down Mill Street West towards the bridge too, which was built at the same time as the station, probably by the railway also. It’s likely a similar bridge would have been used to get the railway over the Calder.

There was a heck of a lot of industry in the area at the time, as well as the famous wool trade the area was dotted with mines of various sizes, almost all served by rail, often using wagonways which were sometimes remarkably long themselves, certainly at least on a par with areas more famous for mining. One went from Brighouse to Low Moor, rope worked over a couple of serious inclines, one engine house was close to the Harefield Farm Shop, the pond near it was the reservoir for the engine. That line can still be followed if you know what you’re looking at right into the canal wharf at Brighouse. The extent of mining now’s largely forgotten, the wagonways almost totally.

I suspect like most newer lines the Midland’s line would have ignored these as they were already served by existing lines.
 
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WesternLancer

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Yes, that’s the one. There’s identical brickwork going down Mill Street West towards the bridge too, which was built at the same time as the station, probably by the railway also. It’s likely a similar bridge would have been used to get the railway over the Calder.

There was a heck of a lot of industry in the area at the time, as well as the famous wool trade the area was dotted with mines of various sizes, almost all served by rail, often using wagonways which were sometimes remarkably long themselves, certainly at least on a par with areas more famous for mining. One went from Brighouse to Low Moor, rope worked over a couple of serious inclines, one engine house was close to the Harefield Farm Shop, the pond near it was the reservoir for the engine. That line can still be followed if you know what you’re looking at right into the canal wharf at Brighouse. The extent of mining now’s largely forgotten, the wagonways almost totally.

I suspect like most newer lines the Midland’s line would have ignored these as they were already served by existing lines.
Thanks for confirming, and for additional interesting info.
 

najaB

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And yet according to the DfT it's only paused....
Well, it's possible that selling what they have in stock and then re-ordering it when the projects are approved would be cheaper overall than storing it for an indeterminate period.
 

yorksrob

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Stockport remodelling and resignalling during WCRM (although Manchester South was allegedly a local not a WCRM project).
Passed through several stages over a number of years, but all had to be taken out with reversion to the old layout.
The "Stockport 5" mechanical boxes are still there, after 120 years or so.
Meanwhile the supplier of the failed signalling kit, Ansaldo (now Hitachi), continues to win major NR signalling projects.

Under the 1955 modernisation plan, you could put up:
- the whole diesel-hydraulic saga (and a good many failed diesel-electric types too).
- new 1960s marshalling yards
- Bletchley flyover (still costing money to reconstruct for EWR)

APT has been mentioned, but there was some positive fallout in terms of IC225 and eventual tilting 390s.
Regional/Night Eurostar are up there too, but I think the DfT funded all that rather than the railway.
You can add most of the class 92 fleet too.
The NLL and Redhill-Tonbridge lines were (re-) electrified on the strength of non-existent channel tunnel traffic.
Waterloo International and North Pole depot have only recently been re-purposed after the move to St Pancras.
Some of the connections expensively built for Waterloo traffic remain unused/dismantled.

I'm still to be convinced about ECML grade separation for freight traffic (eg at Shaftholme).
We'll have to see if the Werrington dive-under has any purpose in the future.
It all looks a bit different today to how it looked 5 years ago.

Redhill - Tonbridge electrification was arguably an infill that would have needed doing anyway.
 

Dr_Paul

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Yes, that’s the one. There’s identical brickwork going down Mill Street West towards the bridge too, which was built at the same time as the station, probably by the railway also. It’s likely a similar bridge would have been used to get the railway over the Calder. There was a heck of a lot of industry in the area at the time, as well as the famous wool trade the area was dotted with mines of various sizes, almost all served by rail, often using wagonways which were sometimes remarkably long themselves, certainly at least on a par with areas more famous for mining. One went from Brighouse to Low Moor, rope worked over a couple of serious inclines, one engine house was close to the Harefield Farm Shop, the pond near it was the reservoir for the engine. That line can still be followed if you know what you’re looking at right into the canal wharf at Brighouse. The extent of mining now’s largely forgotten, the wagonways almost totally.
A pal of mine has just moved to Brighouse and I noticed these tramways when I looked at the old 25" maps of her area -- lots of them, and they went for miles, often dead straight and across hilly countryside.
 

davetheguard

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Well, it's possible that selling what they have in stock and then re-ordering it when the projects are approved would be cheaper overall than storing it for an indeterminate period.

True, and I suppose it would be an opportunity to electrify the Didcot - Oxford line, which isn't 125 mph, with less-ugly masts.

But, presumably the scrap value of the earlier components will be less than what was originally paid?
 
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