Trivia: Examples of avoiding lines used by (in service) passenger trains to bypass a major station...

[Senex]

We can. What is now known as "Hansard" has been in evolution since the early 19th century and carries a comprehensive record if not a true transcript of Parliamentary proceedings. It should therefore be relatively straightforward to identify the relevant Act of Parliament and its content should it exist at all.

THC

Indeed. Can't we finally lay this myth to rest (like the one about the Great Central and Bern Gauge)? Back in 2012 the MP Andrew Gwynne wrote that he had asked the parliamentary library and the parliamentary archives to look into this question, and they had found no evidence of any such act (http://andrewgwynne.co.uk/2012/08/29/rail-services-to-london-via-stockport-to-be-retained-mp/): "Sadly no such Act of Parliament exists, although it is common currency in the town that it does. I made enquiries with the House of Commons Library and the Parliamentary Archives back at the time some intercity trains stopped using Stockport. It appears it is purely an ‘urban myth’." If those two bodies couldn't find evidence of anything, it does rather suggest there's nothing to be found!

The lines between 2 & 3 were the slums. They were sidings.

They do appear to have been genuine through lines at a much earlier date. See https://maps.nls.uk/view/114581257.

 

[TheSel]

...

I should rephrase that. I meant is that the only Victoria - Salford Crescent train that goes via the Windsor Link, an illogical route when a direct line exists ...

I believe so, yes.

 

[MarkyT]

They do appear to have been genuine through lines at a much earlier date. See https://maps.nls.uk/view/114581257.

Although the map shows at the time the viaduct only had two tracks carrying all traffic, so the through lines at the station could have been more useful for freight passing through or awaiting a path clear of the platforms. Once the layout had been expanded to four tracks across the viaduct, freight would be more likely to use the outer slows so getting across the fasts to the middle lines through the station would be more difficult. I expect that's when their status changed to sidings.

 

[plugwash]

The signalling is also flexible in that all platforms can be accessed from all lines: no, that's an untrue statement now that "platform 0" has been introduced which is seriously compromised in only being accessible from the up slow and only having a route back out to the up slow. So that's the weak point in the layout, and hence the reason why it's not used much and only when the services have ramped up to pre-Covid levels.

I would argue that the weakest point is that none of the platforms are signalled for bidirectional operation. So even though there are five through platforms, losing one of the northbound platforms to a breakdown represents a 50% hit to northbound capacity.

 

[Taunton]

When Reading was getting rebuilt some XC services did go that way, calling at Reading West instead of Reading. I've even had a GWR 16X that way back in the past which reversed at Tilehurst

The Reading west curve had long been used for through trains to the south coast, given the notably strange UK attitude to reversing en-route. Among other things it led in final steam days to Southern locos from Bournemouth etc working through to Oxford. It would surely have been more practical to reverse in Reading General. Like a number of such curves it was used far more heavily on summer Saturdays than at other times. Trains stopped at Reading West, in a manner that seemed similar to the use of Bristol Stapleton Road by others.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The Grantham avoiding line, Allington West to North Jns, is used by a small number of Nottingham - Skegness trains.

The Sheffield and Leeds avoiding lines (Dore West to South Jns and Whitehall Jns) have no scheduled trains at present. Nor have the Shrewsbury (Abbey Foregate - English Bridge Jns), Chester (Chester N to S Jns) or Barrow (Dalton - Park South Jns) avoiders.

The Branch Line Society produces a comprehensive list of Passenger Services over Unusual Lines (PSUL) which you can use in conjunction with Baker's Rail Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland to seek out exotic workings.

 

[swt_passenger]

Indeed. Can't we finally lay this myth to rest (like the one about the Great Central and Bern Gauge)? Back in 2012 the MP Andrew Gwynne wrote that he had asked the parliamentary library and the parliamentary archives to look into this question, and they had found no evidence of any such act (http://andrewgwynne.co.uk/2012/08/29/rail-services-to-london-via-stockport-to-be-retained-mp/): "Sadly no such Act of Parliament exists, although it is common currency in the town that it does. I made enquiries with the House of Commons Library and the Parliamentary Archives back at the time some intercity trains stopped using Stockport. It appears it is purely an ‘urban myth’." If those two bodies couldn't find evidence of anything, it does rather suggest there's nothing to be found!

Nice one. This needs to be framed and hung up throughout Stockport. Or at least saved for the next time someone mentions the “Stockport myth” in these forums…

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The Branch Line Society produces a comprehensive list of Passenger Services over Unusual Lines (PSUL) which you can use in conjunction with Baker's Rail Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland to seek out exotic workings.

Good resource that, although it doesn't necessarily always show the more regular in service GB passenger workings that also use avoiding lines and so completely bypass a major station (or Frome, as the case may be).

 

[Senex]

Although the map shows at the time the viaduct only had two tracks carrying all traffic, so the through lines at the station could have been more useful for freight passing through or awaiting a path clear of the platforms. Once the layout had been expanded to four tracks across the viaduct, freight would be more likely to use the outer slows so getting across the fasts to the middle lines through the station would be more difficult. I expect that's when their status changed to sidings.

Yes, that map's from the 1870s and the viaduct was four-tracked in the 1880s, and given that it was pairing by direction rather than by use I suspect you're right that having most freight on the outer lines would have made the old centre through roads pretty well redundant. In addition, I think longer platforms may have led to problems with fouling-points at the north end had central through running lines been kept. Another station that lost down and up central through lines to a new use as sidings was Sheffield (Midland). Crewe has been mentioned. And Normanton which also had this sort of layout was replaced entirely by the island platform still there.

 

[MarkyT]

In addition, I think longer platforms may have led to problems with fouling-points at the north end had central through running lines been kept...

An increasing problem at many sites as trains became longer.

 

[Kite159]

The Grantham avoiding line, Allington West to North Jns, is used by a small number of Nottingham - Skegness trains.

The Sheffield and Leeds avoiding lines (Dore West to South Jns and Whitehall Jns) have no scheduled trains at present. Nor have the Shrewsbury (Abbey Foregate - English Bridge Jns), Chester (Chester N to S Jns) or Barrow (Dalton - Park South Jns) avoiders.

The Branch Line Society produces a comprehensive list of Passenger Services over Unusual Lines (PSUL) which you can use in conjunction with Baker's Rail Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland to seek out exotic workings.

Although the Sheffield avoider does get used by some EMR services if they are hopelessly late to try and regain some time. Although very much ad-hoc.

 

[Purple Orange]

Could the Trent Valley line be considered as such a line, by avoiding Birmingham?

 

[Sean Emmett]

No-one mentioned Temple Meads yet? Last September I travelled from Bristol Parkway to Weston, via St Phillips Marsh, avoiding Temple Meads entirely.

Back in the day, with the now lifted South to East chord at North Somerset Jn, the Pylle Hill lines provided a useful alternative route for the famed Ocean Mail specials from Plymouth to London. Via Bristol, but not Temple Meads.

 

[mmh]

No. And in any event, isn't the only line through Rugby station that doesn't run alongside an adjacent platform, the (Northbound) Down Fast line, between platforms 1 and 2?

You're right, thank you! It seems I'm thinking of Rugby before the remodelling! Which means it was probably about twenty years ago, and the trains wouldn't have been Avanti of course. Senility...

 

[richw]

No-one mentioned Temple Meads yet? Last September I travelled from Bristol Parkway to Weston, via St Phillips Marsh, avoiding Temple Meads entirely.

Back in the day, with the now lifted South to East chord at North Somerset Jn, the Pylle Hill lines provided a useful alternative route for the famed Ocean Mail specials from Plymouth to London. Via Bristol, but not Temple Meads.

They have mentioned it earlier in the thread. There’s one journey a day booked by the temple meads avoiding line

 

[racyrich]

Does the HS1 flyover at Ashford count as an avoiding line?

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Could the Trent Valley line be considered as such a line, by avoiding Birmingham?

The more obvious Birmingham avoiding line is Landor St Jn to St Andrews Jn which, I believe, has no booked passenger workings

 

[paul1609]

Ashford International?