Trivia: Disused Railway Infrastructure that is still visible today

[Ash Bridge]

The Newton Abbot signal gantry in the Brunel retail park. I'm not sure if this is exactly in its original position, but the retail park is built on the site of the old sheds.

View attachment 80211

(not my image)

Sorry but couldn't resist, this was its original location

 

[DelW]

How about a railway cutting dug in 1847, but never saw any rails?

Similarly there's various remnants of the never completed Ouse Valley Railway (LBSCR) from the Brighton Main Line to Uckfield (and thence beyond to Polgate). Construction (including bridges (or bits of them!) and embankments still extant) started May 1866; abandoned Feb 1867.

I can think of a few more examples of infrastructure that was never used (which I don't think have been mentioned up-thread) :

Shalford Junction, south of Guildford, embankment for an east to south curve, built as part of territorial skirmishes around the Portsmouth Direct, no track ever laid.

London Underground Northern Heights extension, delayed by WW2 and finally abandoned a decade later - station works at Finsbury Park and Highgate high level, and a part built viaduct in a field north of Edgware. The intended depot at Aldenham was used for aircraft building then bus overhauls, but has since been demolished.

South of Beddgelert in Snowdonia, a bridge over the A498, and two abutments in the middle of a field, built by one of the forerunners of the Welsh Highland, which was later built on a different alignment.

 

[marsker]

Most of the line, closed in 1929, between Battersby Junction and Rosedale (both east and west) is visible and can be walked or cycled. The last mile into Battersby in not very visible, nor is it accessible, but the rest over the moors is. There are interpretation boards at top and bottom of the Ingleby incline.

 

[Train Maniac]

How much of the line through Birkenhead Docks remain ?

I visited Liverpool on a Rail Rover trip last year in May. i found this, i believe its part of the old Birkenhead Docks Line. (large image warning).

 

[vic-rijrode]

Similarly there's various remnants of the never completed Ouse Valley Railway (LBSCR) from the Brighton Main Line to Uckfield (and thence beyond to Polgate). Construction (including bridges (or bits of them!) and embankments still extant) started May 1866; abandoned Feb 1867.

...and about 200 yards of embankment branching off to the east of the Oxford Birmingham line north of Fenny Compton, which was the embryo Oxford Rugby Railway intending to join up with the LNWR before railway politics changed. (Actually the line from Oxford up to that abortive junction was built by the Oxford Rugby Railway). The embankment is still visible from passing trains (if you know where to look).

 

[Worm]

That was me. Reckon that it was a section of old sidings in the triangle between Todmorden Viaduct Junction and Hall Royd Junction. Anyone able to assist?

Thank you for popping up we used to go on walks in the woods around Todmorden when I was a child, so these tracks sounded intriguing.

 

[nuneatonmark]

There is an example of railway infrastructure built but probably never used very near me. A line was built between the defunct Nuneaton to Market Bosworth line and the existing Nuneaton to Hinckley line back in the 1860s, going from just south of Stoke Golding to the south of Hinckley next to the A5, the southern end is obliterated by industrial development but you can still see most of the alignment, I walk over it regularly.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Thank you for popping up we used to go on walks in the woods around Todmorden when I was a child, so these tracks sounded intriguing.

Wonder whether the overgrown tracks east of Todmorden (if still in situ) can be readily viewed from other than a passing passenger train service?

 

[vic-rijrode]

Buckingham Station - both platforms are still in situ, together with the goods loading bay (and loading gauge)

 

[WilloughbyGC]

A year or so ago I was in Woodford Halse and the overhead railway bridge was still in place. The GCR station has completely gone, replaced by housing in a small close. I wonder why the bridge has been left untouched.

A few miles north of there, just north of the old Braunston & Willoughby station is a concrete-posted distant signal gantry (no signal) which won't have seen a train for 54 years.

 

[John Hunt]

Leicester Stn - Station St. - just past the old Red Star Parcels office. All that remains of the original Leicester station is two stone columns now supporting a steel gate.

 

[Cletus]

Noticed this picture with in-situ rails near Altrincham on the disused line towards Glazebrook.

When would that track have last been used?

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

 

[Mcr Warrior]

That's the old line from Skelton Junction towards Carrington. Picture has been taken from underneath the Turnbull Road overbridge in West Timperley near to the Waitrose store on Sinderland Road.

Possibly last used in early 1990s. Maybe!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

More here from this 2016 thread.... (Post # 19 refers).

New Over/Under Bridges on Mothballed Lines

Something that's cropped up sporadically is new bridges build at 3rd party expense to safeguard mothballed lines. Typically this occurs when a new road is built and Network Rail (Railtrack) exercises it's right to safeguard it's network - aside from whether a train will ever run along a given...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Cletus]

Thanks for the info

 

[mememachine175]

The platforms of the former Holywell Junction station are still around (albeit covered in vegetation).

Sticking out from the riverbank of the Alyn in Mold there are some old rail wheels (possibly all that remains of the Mold - Denbigh line?)

First North Western signage at Holyhead station.

Sidings at the Port of Mostyn.

Disused platform and sidings at Talacre.

 

[Bobdogs]

Cullen Viaductv, bridge over the River Spey, incline down to the harbour Portsoy, Great North of Scotland Railway.
Highland Railway between Forres and Grantown-on-Spey now the Dava Way

 

[DerekC]

I recall in the 1970s walking the course of the 2ft gauge Gorseddau Junction & Portmadoc Railway, high up in the parallel valley west of Beddgelert (I forget its name). Although it closed and was lifted in the 1870s the sleeper marks were still clearly visible. I wonder if they still are?

 

[Trainfan2019]

Has the island platform at Norton Bridge been demolished yet? Last time I was there around 3 years ago it was still fully visible and the only remnant of the station.

 

[John Hunt]

Some of the elevated sections of the Great Central are still visible as it passes through the area around St Margarets pasture in Leicester.

 

[sharpley]

Melton Mowbray station approach, the siding that was extended into the petfood factory (was Pedigree Petfoods at the time, now called Mars Petcare) hasn't been used since the early 90s. All of the sidings next to the station were tarmac'd around to accommodate the short-lived piggyback trains, lorry trailers driven up ramps onto wagons, loaded with petfood. Only one part of the sidings now remains in service, the rest is now used as a car park thanks to the tarmaced surface. Melton Mowbray Petfoods is still listed on Real Time Trains. The grassy rails looks quite cool imo.

 

[Gostav]

There is a short section track still in Trafford Park, l think this is one of few places in the UK that people can walk on the ballast and close to see the track and no worry about trespass.

 

[james60059]

There is an example of railway infrastructure built but probably never used very near me. A line was built between the defunct Nuneaton to Market Bosworth line and the existing Nuneaton to Hinckley line back in the 1860s, going from just south of Stoke Golding to the south of Hinckley next to the A5, the southern end is obliterated by industrial development but you can still see most of the alignment, I walk over it regularly.

Part of the alignment still visible alongside Tesco Hinckley RDC too

 

[Paulie558]

On the B1135, just north of Debenham, are bridge abutments each side of the road, and embankments both sides. These are the remains of a spur line that ran off the Haughley to Laxfield light railway(closed 1952) but this spur was built in 1906 in anticipation to linking at Westerfield with track, but never used!

 

[Capybara]

The footpath from South Bermondsey station to the away end at Millwall follows, for the most part, one of the lines that used to go into Bricklayers Arms. The path continues behind one of the stands (though it is locked when a game is on) and between the path and the stand there are remnants of the railway tracks.

 

[Dr_Paul]

The footpath from South Bermondsey station to the away end at Millwall follows, for the most part, one of the lines that used to go into Bricklayers Arms. The path continues behind one of the stands (though it is locked when a game is on) and between the path and the stand there are remnants of the railway tracks.

A few years back I rode my bike down Coldblow Lane, by where the old Den used to be, and there was still some track in the road; it was where the line that went to the dock at Deptford crossed the street. It's on this map at grid 3580 7762, marked 'Coldblow Crossing'. Looking at Google Streetview today, it seems that it's now gone, and the area has been redeveloped.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Parts of the Mold Jn-Mold-Denbigh-Ruthin-Corwen line and the branch from Foryd Jn near Rhyl to Denbigh (LNWR) are still visible.
The trackbed through Mold now offers council car park access (Mold station is now a Tesco, which used to have railway photos in the cafe, sadly replaced by generic tat).
Railway gates and the platform are still visible at the old Llong station, similar at Penyffordd.
Broughton & Bretton station building is now a vets practice.
Ruthin station site is now a craft centre (old platform is marked out and there's a railway crane in the car park).
The railway corridor south of town is called "Beeching Close", even though the line closed to passengers in 1962 before the Doctor's infamous plan came out.
The route south to Corwen is easily traced in the largely empty landscape.
Plenty of old railway routes (mainly GC/GWR) still visible in the industrial areas west of Wrexham, right up to Brymbo steelworks and the mines at Minera.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The stone railway bridge near Urquhart on the (closed for over 50 years) Elgin to Garmouth line in North East Scotland always makes an iconic photo now that the adjoining embankments have been flattened and the rural trackbed largely ploughed up.

 

[colchesterken]

One platform of Shoreditch on the GEML cannot see where the other one was. the old arches to Bishopsgate goods depot
are Victorian so cannot see how the other on fitted in.

 

[Mikey C]

The footpath from South Bermondsey station to the away end at Millwall follows, for the most part, one of the lines that used to go into Bricklayers Arms. The path continues behind one of the stands (though it is locked when a game is on) and between the path and the stand there are remnants of the railway tracks.

I never realised that. A bit of a contrast to the peaceful and picturesque converted railway lines elsewhere in this thread