Trivia : Longest stretch of disused but largely/wholly intact track?

[RichmondCommu]

A shade over 17 miles from Shirebrook to Fledborough (end of the track), and may well now (recently) have fallen into disuse, since the closure of Thoresby Colliery - unless there is still some residual coal traffic.

All of the coal traffic finished in July but I'm pretty certain that there is a test track at High Marnham in which case one would have thought the entire line is still in use.

 

[TrainBoy98]

Slightly OT: Is the length of track under the roundabout at Holborough (just off the Medway valley line) still in place? Not all that long, but has never been used or even connected up.

https://goo.gl/maps/kJKmh8Lcgez

That looks like the most useful piece of track (or roundabout for that matter!) ever contructed...

 

[nuneatonmark]

The line from Gaerwen to Amlwch is still in situ as far as I can see. I've looked in on several sections over the last 12 months.

How long is that? Possibly the longest so far mentioned excepting the the E-W Claydon to Bletchley.

 

[RichardN]

That looks like the most useful piece of track (or roundabout for that matter!) ever contructed...

I can understand passive provision for later rail connection (the scheme is for a future cement works), but not why they laid such a short section of track instead of waiting until they could build the rest of the line in one go.

 

[Radedamer]

Is the line to Radstock still there. It was a couple of years ago.

Bits of track are still there but I don't think it's continuous.

Similarly, the track to Portishead mostly but not completely remained in situ from whenever it closed (1981, google tells me) until it reopened about 20 years later. Presumably it reopened with new rails, but some of the old stuff can still be seen beyond the docks.

Edit: Bristol to Portishead is about ten miles, the length that's unused now can't be more than two miles or at the very most three.

 

[Ploughman]

Is the Spen valley line still in situ?
During the early 90s we were contracted by Yorkshire Water to replace 2 panels of track that they had removed to lay a new water main.
We had trees to fell before we could lay anything.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Is the Spen valley line still in situ?
During the early 90s we were contracted by Yorkshire Water to replace 2 panels of track that they had removed to lay a new water main.
We had trees to fell before we could lay anything.

Bits of it (mostly signals but some stretches of track) remained in place for a long time after closure, but most if not all was removed when the Greenway was constructed in the early 2000s. Your mention of that did remind me of the Horbury chord (around 2 miles-ish, Horbury Bridge to Calder Grove) though, which definitely still had most track in place a few years ago when I walked it.