Trivia: Creation of Dead-End Branches Through Closing of Through Lines

[Ken H]

Yes, but an earlier post suggested only through running should count. Has a train ever run off the W&C onto the wider network?

It never could. Till about 20 years ago the cars were moved between the main line level and the W&C by a hoist. The current trains were craned in. Dont know why the hoist went.

 

[D365]

Has a train ever run off the W&C onto the wider network?

The Armstrong lift was only capable of carrying one car at a time, no?

 

[dastocks]

Of course, since partially restored! There's quibble about if Highbury and Islington counts as a proper connection, but New Cross Gate certainly does. New Cross remains a branch, but then I think it had always been a branch with no connection to the SE lines?

When I posted I had looked for evidence of a connection at New Cross on the cartometro site here: https://cartometro.com/cartes/metro-tram-london/?r=cmf

However, looking at the satellite image of the station area suggests a connection there was very likely and Clive Feather reckons it was removed around 1970:
https://www.davros.org/rail/culg/eastlondon.html (scroll to Connections at the bottom of the linked page)

 

[30907]

When I posted I had looked for evidence of a connection at New Cross on the cartometro site here: https://cartometro.com/cartes/metro-tram-london/?r=cmf

However, looking at the satellite image of the station area suggests a connection there was very likely and Clive Feather reckons it was removed around 1970:
https://www.davros.org/rail/culg/eastlondon.html (scroll to Connections at the bottom of the linked page)

The OS maps show the connection on the Up Fast side at New Cross lasting post WW2 and (on the 1:10k maps, which I would not regard as definitive) into the mid 60s.
At the latest, those connections disappeared with the London Bridge resignalling in the 70s, and I doubt they were much used before then , simply because if you wanted a day excursion Brighton via NXG was that much nearer.

 

[Peterthegreat]

On the Western the Penarth and Severn Beach lines once ran through.

 

[507020]

An interesting one was the Great Central London Extension in its final years when it ran from Nottingham Arkwright Street to Rugby Central. The result was a completely isolated passenger route, surely unique on the UK mainland?

Throughout the 1830s as the first few lines became part of the network, all were completely isolated. Prior to the 1882 completion of the West Lancashire Railway in time for the Preston Guild, only the section from Hesketh Bank to Hesketh Park operated, completely isolated from both Southport and Preston, with several miles to the next station at either end.

It never could. Till about 20 years ago the cars were moved between the main line level and the W&C by a hoist. The current trains were craned in. Dont know why the hoist went.

I thought it went due to Eurostar platforms being built at Waterloo.

 

[Ken H]

The OS maps show the connection on the Up Fast side at New Cross lasting post WW2 and (on the 1:10k maps, which I would not regard as definitive) into the mid 60s.
At the latest, those connections disappeared with the London Bridge resignalling in the 70s, and I doubt they were much used before then , simply because if you wanted a day excursion Brighton via NXG was that much nearer.

The East London Railway Company was a joint venture between the Great Eastern, The South Eastern and the London Brighton and South Coast Railways. There were 2 stations at the South end, one for the SER and one for the Brighton railway.

 

[Rescars]

Yes, but an earlier post suggested only through running should count. Has a train ever run off the W&C onto the wider network?

No, but it was tried once (unsucessfully) in the other direction! In 1948, M7 0-4-4T number 672 fell down the hoist shaft whilst shunting and had to be cut up on site. I think this was the first M7 to be scrapped.

 

[Helvellyn]

It never could. Till about 20 years ago the cars were moved between the main line level and the W&C by a hoist. The current trains were craned in. Dont know why the hoist went.

The hoist went with the building of Waterloo International. The area where the crane is used is on the opposite side of Waterloo station.

 

[John Griffiths]

Just about everywhere to Kings Lynn?

Very strictly speaking the main station might have been a terminus but it was linked with just about everywhere in East Anglia.

 

[Magdalia]

Just about everywhere to Kings Lynn?

Very strictly speaking the main station might have been a terminus but it was linked with just about everywhere in East Anglia.

The ex GER station at Kings Lynn is and always has been a terminus. It had very few through trains, apart from trains to/from Hunstanton, most of which were summer only. And Hunstanton also being a terminus, that's not a through line.

On the other hand, the ex M&GN station at South Lynn was a through station.

 

[frodshamfella]

Hooton to Ellesmere Port, is pretty much a dead end branch line. Maybe if Merseyrail take it over it and we will see regular services through to Helsby again.

 

[D6130]

Hooton to Ellesmere Port, is pretty much a dead end branch line. Maybe if Merseyrail take it over it and we will see regular services through to Helsby again.

Do you mean Helsby to Ellesmere Port? Hooton to Ellesmere Port is already operated by Merseyrail. I think what the OP had in mind was a physical dead-end branch caused by the closure and lifting of a former through line. Helsby-Hooton is still physically a through line, even though it's passenger services are operated as two separate branches.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Do you mean Helsby to Ellesmere Port? Hooton to Ellesmere Port is already operated by Merseyrail. I think what the OP had in mind was a physical dead-end branch caused by the closure and lifting of a former through line. Helsby-Hooton is still physically a through line, even though it's passenger services are operated as two separate branches.

Although at both Kirkby and Ormskirk the route was severed by the erection of buffer stops, although initially a through line was maintained at Ormskirk on the disused platform side - I am not sure if the same applied at Kirkby - when this was removed two dead end branches were created on what had previously been through routes.

 

[frodshamfella]

Do you mean Helsby to Ellesmere Port? Hooton to Ellesmere Port is already operated by Merseyrail. I think what the OP had in mind was a physical dead-end branch caused by the closure and lifting of a former through line. Helsby-Hooton is still physically a through line, even though it's passenger services are operated as two separate branches.

Yes sorry , meant the part from Ellesmere Port.

 

[Class142sbad]

Does this include lines that were closed then partially reopened for passengers or is that a different thread?
I'm thinking South Hylton on the Tyne and Wear Metro and the Northumberland Line to Ashington

 

[Gloster]

Has anyone mentioned Shanklin-Ventnor? Or some of the Valleys branches, such as Coryton, Rhymney, Merthyr or Treherbert, even Maesteg and Aberdare?

 

[Buttsy]

Stirling - Alloa was a through route to Dunfermline
Balloch branch once extended to Balloch Pier
Hamilton - Larkhall was a through route to Stonehouse, Strathhaven and Kilmarnock
Neilston branch went on to Dunlop
East Kilbride extended to Blantyre

Apologies if these have already been mentioned.

An interesting one was the Great Central London Extension in its final years when it ran from Nottingham Arkwright Street to Rugby Central. The result was a completely isolated passenger route, surely unique on the UK mainland?

Not totally isolated as ECS ran via Weekday Cross to access the old GN route to Grantham and the Midland line East of the Midland station for servicing purposes, but I am being very pedantic...

 

[CarltonA]

The result was a completely isolated passenger route, surely unique on the UK mainland?

A bit late to the party, but The Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore was a completely isolated standard gauge line. I dimly recall a tale of a temporary track being laid over the road bridge in Bideford to extract a loco. Sorry for the topic drift.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Stirling - Alloa was a through route to Dunfermline
Balloch branch once extended to Balloch Pier
Hamilton - Larkhall was a through route to Stonehouse, Strathhaven and Kilmarnock
Neilston branch went on to Dunlop
East Kilbride extended to Blantyre

Apologies if these have already been mentioned.


Not totally isolated as ECS ran via Weekday Cross to access the old GN route to Grantham and the Midland line East of the Midland station for servicing purposes, but I am being very pedantic...

The Neilston Branch went all the way to Ardrossan and Irvine!

 

[Dr_Paul]

The ex GER station at Kings Lynn is and always has been a terminus. It had very few through trains, apart from trains to/from Hunstanton, most of which were summer only. And Hunstanton also being a terminus, that's not a through line. On the other hand, the ex M&GN station at South Lynn was a through station.

I've often wondered had Kings Lynn been a through station, whether the line up to Hunstanton would have been kept open, as a reversal at Kings Lynn would not have been necessary.

 

[zwk500]

I've often wondered had Kings Lynn been a through station, whether the line up to Hunstanton would have been kept open, as a reversal at Kings Lynn would not have been necessary.

The reversal isn't a major problem though, as numerous reversing services show. The problem with holiday trains is that people moved in large numbers to the car. For things like weeklong beach camps that was fatal, to day trips less so. Although if you look at which lines survived it's usually those that had an underlying base traffic to justify service all-year round with holiday being on top of it (Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Brighton) than pure holiday lines.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The Bidston - Wrexham Central line used to continue to Ellesmere via the original Wrexham Central station. Ellesmere was on the Whitchurch - Oswestry line.

 

[Gloster]

The Bidston - Wrexham Central line used to continue to Ellesmere via the original Wrexham Central station. Ellesmere was on the Whitchurch - Oswestry line.

Although it was two lines that met end on: the Great Central from the north and the Cambrian from the south. The lines seem always to have been worked as separate routes, with the exception of through coaches, including Leicester-Aberystwyth, and possibly wartime workers trains to Marchwiel.