Trivia: Buildings with never used railway infrastructure

[Lloyds siding]

The original Mersey road tunnel (Queensway) was designed to have a twin tram track in the lower half. The current road deck fits across the diameter of the tunnel leaving half the space beneath free (it is of course used for maintenance, vehicle and material storage)
from "The Story of the Mersey Tunnel, officially named Queensway"

"In this, the original scheme, through tram services between Liverpool and Cheshire boroughs were a prominent feature. It was for that reason that the great diameter of 44 ft. was provided for throughout, except in the branches, a diameter sufficient for four lanes of traffic on the upper deck and two sets of tram rails on the lower".

The tram plan seems to have been abandoned at the same time as the Wallasey and Bootle tunnels were (these were two potential routes rather than to Birkenhead as built...it seems Birkenhead obected because it would be in competition with its ferries).

 

[trebor79]

Haymarket station on the Tyne and Wear Metro has extended sections of platform beyond the official platform ends, originally built to fit longer trains that never operated.

I read in a book once that Haymarket had long platforms because it was the terminus for a while whilst the route through monument, central and over the river was completed. The platforms were longer to allow stabling of stock between services.

 

[busesrusuk]

Yes - in Bloomsbury + Stockwell - Clapham South.

An interesting titbit about these tunnels is that after the war the southern tunnels around Clapham were used as temporary accommodation for the first of the "Windrush" generation and was one reason why the area around Brixton has a high afro-Caribbean population as many of them settled in the area once they secured employment.

A second titbit is that once the tunnels were no longer required to accommodate people, the beds (which doubled up as stretchers during WWII) were removed from the tunnels and used as fencing around the post war council estates built in the area - some are still there if you know what/where to look.

Wildly off topic but may be of interest to some

 

[urpert]

Ooh! I knew the first but not the second (Brixton was apparently the nearest labour exchange to Clapham).

 

[Mikey C]

I should think the most likely explanation is that the second span, and the widened area alongside the railway, were to accommodate a north-westward extension of the east cross route. Similarly the north end of the west cross route has unused stub-ends of slip roads on the north side of the Westway roundabout.
The north end of the M23 has a large unused bridge originally built to carry the since cancelled extension of the motorway over the southbound A23.
However we're getting into unused road rather than railway infrastructure here!

Those disused spans are railway ones, built for goods yard traffic...

Aerial photos reveal that, apart from two tracks of the North London Line railway, the bridge is empty. It was designed for the many tracks of a goods yard that existed on this site when the road was designed, but as construction began in 1970, British Rail's goods services were collapsing at such rapid speed that the yard had closed before the motorway opened. Most of the railway bridge has never carried trains and probably never even had tracks laid on it.

East Cross Route

The strangest part of London's planned inner Motorway Box - not just because it's nothing like the other three sides, but also because it actually got built.

www.roads.org.uk

 

[Ashley Hill]

I can't remember, but something is telling me around the Lego store.

EDIT: I was right, it's under Topshop.

Found these photos from the Manchester Evening News about the PicVic tunnel.

 

[DelW]

Those disused spans are railway ones, built for goods yard traffic...

East Cross Route

The strangest part of London's planned inner Motorway Box - not just because it's nothing like the other three sides, but also because it actually got built.

www.roads.org.uk

Oh, thanks, that's interesting - I first knew that area in the 1980s, and hadn't been aware of a goods yard having been there. I think a study on NLS's side-by-side views is called for....

From the route map on the site you linked, the road was intended to continue north-westwards as I supposed, but evidently not using those particular bridges.