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Trivia - how many electrified railways in the UK have closed and been abandoned?

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geoffk

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"and been abandoned" has been added to exclude lines closed and later reopened as part of London Overground, Croydon Tramlink and Manchester Metrolink.

Obviously the big one is Woodhead and branches, but which others?

High Street - Bridgeton Central (Glasgow)
Lancaster - Morecambe Promenade
Southport - Crossens
Bury - Holcombe Brook (de-electrified before closure so doesn't count!)
Epping - Ongar
Acton Town - South Acton
Croxley Green branch
Balloch - Balloch Pier

There will be other spurs and connections in the London area especially, and disused stations and their approaches such as Liverpool Exchange, Holborn Viaduct and Broad Street.
 
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Dr Hoo

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Nunhead-Crystal Palace High Level
Tilbury Riverside (via two spurs)
Rickmansworth (LMS)
Dover Western Docks (via two spurs)
Folkestone Harbour
Bidston-Seacombe Junction (?)
Obviously several ‘light railways’ such as Grimsby & Immingham and Swansea & Mumbles
 

edwin_m

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Riverside line (Tyneside)
Addiscombe branch
Shildon to Newport (only ever freight only I think, closed way back)
Newcastle Quayside branch (freight only)
 

d9009alycidon

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High Street Junction to Bridgeton Central
Hyndland Electric Depot (On branch from main line)
Smithy Lye Sidings (overhead structures still in place over abandoned yard)
Bothwell Branch Sidings (Shettleston Station)
Singer Works Platform Station
 

Surreytraveller

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Selsdon Road to where the Croydon Tramlink joins the line. Addiscombe to Woodside.
I was going to say Haywards Heath to Horsted Keynes, but that's obviously freight to Ardingly now, although beyond there until it joins the Bluebell
 

2392

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The Harton Railway in South Shields. Surprisingly a Colliery Railway that was electrified, using overhead lines powered at 500-700 volts DC. Can't remember the exact voltage off hand, in the early 1900s' pre First World War, using locomotives supplied by Siemens of Germany, then English Electric due to the War. The system gradually shrank through the sixties early seventies leaving the Westoe St Hilda's Staithes as the last electric section. That section was converted to a conveyor in 1989, just a few years before Westoe was closed.

Edit: The last electric section ran up/down Erskine Bank from Westoe Colliery pasted South Shields Town Hall in a cutting to St Hilda's sidings/staithes. The locos would once at the staithes uncouple then propel the wagons full of pit waste rather than coal, up an incline which, once "over the top" of this incline the wagons would run through the staithes by gravity. To then be collected on the other side by the loco as empties and taken back to Westoe. The coal being shipped out by rail, with the waste being taken out to sea and dumped.
 
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Ianigsy

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Southport-Crossens was actually part of a triangle which included Meols Cop (and the works in the middle).

Bidston-Seacombe was never electrified though.
 

swt_passenger

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Tyneside Riverside branch electrification had been removed, (as had the South Shields line and Coast Loop before conversion to Metro), so doesn’t meet the original poster’s criteria, IMHO...

Not sure about the Newcastle Quayside branch. It may have been de-electrified before closure, I’m pretty sure I saw a diesel shunter in use in the mid sixties but wouldn’t be able to confirm. I think the electric shunters were out of use well before closure.
 
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mailbyrail

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two industrial lines were:
industrial line to British Aluminium works in Kinlochleven
oil shale works at Winchburgh, West Lothian
Also the line from Leekbrook to Cheddleton assylum
 

Mag_seven

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Westerton-Milngavie has had bits of it singled which must have meant the closure of one electrified line in the singled sections.

Also the "Carlisle avoider" was wired before it closed as a result of the freight train derailment on it in 1984.
 
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MadMac

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Westerton-Milngavie has had bits of it singled which must have meant the closure of one electrified line in the singled sections.

Also the Carlisle avoider was wired before it closed as a result of the freight train derailment.

Good point on the Carlisle one. If we include Milngavie, then the Balloch branch and Craigendoran-Helensburgh Central come into it too.
 

Mag_seven

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On the ECML in Scotland there was the closure of a short stretch of wired line at Dolphingstone near Prestonpans as the line was diverted there due to subsidence. This happened in about 2002.
 

Altfish

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Could one of the shortest lasting electrifications be the section of Metrolink through Oldham Mumps that was abandoned when the Oldham Town Centre section opened.
 

John Webb

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If including industrial lines, then south of Bedford where sidings linked the Midland Main Line to the Coronation brickworks, there was an electric shunter in use when I first saw the line around 1970. It was unusual in using a twin overhead wire system rather like a trolleybus. The sidings closed soon after I first saw them.
 

Malcmal

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One really clear example which fits the criteria must be the Tyne And Wear Metro test track.

While the North Tyneside Steam Railway has reused parts of this facility there are sections that were abandoned.
 

181

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Aldwych branch.

Acton Town to South Acton.

The original course of the City & South London Railway between Borough and King William Street.
 

30907

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Farringdon – Moorgate
Merton Park – Tooting
Bootle - Aintree
Merton Park to Tooting was never electrified.

Coulsdon North station - if it counts as a railway in its own riThe connection from the West London to the Hammersmith and City, the curve at Whitechapel and Shoreditch station.
Norwood Jn to Selhurst.
 

matacaster

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I believe there was an extremely short section of electrified track in Healey mills yard but not certain, not sure whether it was energised or not. Can anyone clarify please?
 

bishdunster

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that picture of the section of track on the High Royds wiki page would have any P.Way man rolling in the aisles with laughter, obviously installed by someone without a clue of what keys do !!!
 
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TheSel

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... Bidston-Seacombe was never electrified though.

True - but if you're referring to the comment from "@Dr Hoo" (post #2), he suggested Bidston - Seacombe Junction, which definitely WAS electrified, and provided a 'Birkenhead Avoider' for workings between New Brighton and West Kirby. Mainly for ECS use, but if I recall correctly, there was a once a day (possibly once a week) early morning run in service until about 1970. Others on the forum will know the actual date of cessation of service, I'm sure. This section is no longer connected at the north (Seacombe Junction) end, but provides a (rarely used) headshunt for trains terminating at Bidston to stand clear of the West Kirby - Birkenhead North running lines.

So technically, I guess a hundred yards or so of it qualifies as 'closed and abandoned'?
 
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