25/6.25 kV electrification removed

[paulb1973]

Some sidings in the Nuneaton area. The Rugby to Clifton Mill (and return single-line loop across the viaduct) line has been mentioned - but I assume the old DED has been de-wired, in the main, too. It seems there has been some thinning of the 'wirescape' in the Blisworth area. Has a short section been de-wired in the Northampton station area, just south of the platforms ? The short Coventry station parcel siding has lost its track and that was previously wired.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Nu Yard just south of Preston Station was fully wired but all has been removed, the sidings, the wiring, the gantries. Everything.

Ladywell House sidings were never electrified.

 

[A0wen]

Graham Road curve (Hackney).

You sure about that one ? Google Streetview from last summer suggests the OHLE is still there.

 

[contrex]

The inner London suburban lines of the LBSCR were electrified at 6.7kV DC and replaced with 650V DC

ER, the LBSCR scheme was AC, frequency 25 cycles.

 

[stuu]

ER, the LBSCR scheme was AC, frequency 25 cycles.

Fair point, that's what I meant, just not what I actually wrote!

 

[adamedwards]

Carlisle goods lines which avoided the station.
Freight loops at Stoke on Trent
The down slow at Norton Junction north of Stafford, removed when the new alignment was built with the flyover for Birmingham to Stoke trains.

 

[507 001]

The Liverpool Grid Iron, reportedly enough equipment being scrapped to electrify the entire Chat Moss route.

 

[Lloyds siding]

Bury -Holcombe Brook was electrified with OLE in 1913 at 3.5kV dc. This was removed in 1917-18 to convert to the same third rail system as Manchester-Bury: 1.2kv dc side contact.

There were OLE round Aintree and North Mersey Goods Yard at the time the L&Y had their experimental electric locomotive 'Beetle' in action. This bi-mode loco could run off third rail or overhead.

The National Railway museum tweeted about it a while ago.
Here's a picture at Aintree:

Picture of Beetle at Aintree

I believe that the Meols Cop depot at Southport had overhead wires for a time (did this coincide with Beetle...I don't know).

 

[TheHovisKid]

The crossover 3.9 miles north of Preston on the WCML just before the Barton loop has been removed and the OHLE along with it and an extra wicket keeper foundation and mast installed.

Bay Horse too?

 

[mcmad]

1. A siding adjacent to the up platform at Berwick upon Tweed. ( Why this very short siding was wired has always been a mystery to me .)

Oddly, the siding is still wired but the track has been lifted. Google maps/streetview shows it fairly clearly but yes, always been a mystery why it was wired although there is a plaque on the termination post.

 

[MarkyT]

Heysham - Morecambe - Lancaster Green Ayre, an early experimental 6.6kV Midland scheme from 1908 that was converted from 25Hz to 50Hz in the 1950s for trials leading to wider mainline wiring. Heysham - Morecambe section remains unwired today, connected to the former LNWR Morecambe line while the Midland line to Lancaster was closed in 1966.

Edit: Apologies to @Agent_Squash for missing their previous reply mentioning this line.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Bay Horse too?

I assume so but do not know as I have not been that way in years. The one in Broughton is right outside my mothers back garden though.

 

[The Puddock]

Oddly, the siding is still wired but the track has been lifted. Google maps/streetview shows it fairly clearly but yes, always been a mystery why it was wired although there is a plaque on the termination post.

The OLE in the Fish Bank siding at Berwick was converted to a PES - permanently earthed section - some years ago, so it isn't energised at least. I don't know why it wasn't removed at the same time as the track.

 

[randyrippley]

Morecambe - Heysham.

actually Lancaster-Morecambe-Heysham

 

[adrock1976]

Some more in the West Midlands:
Windsor Street goods - closed entirely in the 70s
Albion oil terminal - de-electrified in the late 70s/early 80s the terminal itself closed in the 90s (I think)
Wolverhampton Steel terminal - line is still open but de-electrified in the late 80s/90s

Also, the original northbound track on the slow line in the vicinity of Norton Bridge was removed, together with the overhead wires when the grade separation to/from Stone was done in recent years.

 

[Spartacus]

Holbeck Viaduct in Leeds is another; AIUI it was briefly used in the late 80s/early 90s to stable IC225 sets prior to the electrification of Neville Hill. It was dewired and the track lifted after NL went live.

I could have been certain that lasted until the rebuilding of Leeds station, as a convenient place to stable sets with the limited capacity, but increasing number of services, of the time.

 

[Beebman]

On the subject of removed 25kV electrification I've a query regarding the original OHLE erected on the NLL east of Camden Road with the intention of serving Maiden Lane Freightliner Depot which lasted from 1965 to 1971. After it closed it looks like the OHLE was de-energised but left in place until the 25kV electrification through to Stratford in the 1980s when it was replaced with Mk3-type equipment.

I've seen a few photos of the Depot in use but none of them show any wiring in place. Also I've never seen any photos of electrically-hauled Freightliner trains on the NLL at the time, only diesel.

I remember my first trip on the NLL in the mid-70s in a 501 and seeing the OHLE just come to a stop east of the bridge over the MML. Does anyone know if Maiden Lane Depot was actually electrified or did the wiring only go as far as I saw it and it was never completed?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I could have been certain that lasted until the rebuilding of Leeds station, as a convenient place to stable sets with the limited capacity, but increasing number of services, of the time.

That was my memory too... that said, I couldn't actually remember if the remaining headshunt onto the viaduct had ever been wired at all, so I wouldn't put too much stock in my memories. What I do remember is that between electrification and the rebuild, platform 12 (today's platform 15) was not wired. I had thought that this was the only line which had access to the Holbeck viaduct siding, which would obviously render it useless for an IC225 set, but I'm obviously mistaken on that one.

 

[greatkingrat]

You sure about that one ? Google Streetview from last summer suggests the OHLE is still there.

Yes, it's still electrified and is regularly used to turn back late-running NLL trains.

 

[Springs Branch]

More a question than a statement: Were the two tracks of the Motorail terminal at Newton-le-Willows electrified during the 1972/73 WCML project?

Motorail services from NLW to Inverness and St Austell finished after the 1972 summer season, so any OHLE would never have been used in anger. However with the long lead time for design & installation, the catenary may well have gone up before the decision to withdraw the Lancashire Motorail services was taken.

I have a vague memory that those two east-facing sidings were initially wired, but the OHLE was removed fairly early in the piece (maybe late 1970s), leaving behind just a stout vertical girder which had been the OHLE termination structure. Of course, the tracks themselves have long gone too.

Do I have this right, or is my memory playing tricks?

 

[zwk500]

Also, the original northbound track on the slow line in the vicinity of Norton Bridge was removed, together with the overhead wires when the grade separation to/from Stone was done in recent years.

Think it's already been mentioned, but the track itself is still largely there, and a quick peek on google suggests the wires are too. Obviously the down slow track is disconnected at both ends, but no idea if the cable is live.

 

[Merle Haggard]

I don't know whether this will count, as it was never energised, but work was certainly started on electrifying Northampton - Blisworth. Further North, the electrification work had seemed to be 'money-no-object' with for example, a yard near Stockport, I recollect, having O.L.E. to the stops. Money got very tight by Northampton and the scheme was shelved, but certainly there was a length on the stretch in open countryside where post holes were augur-bored and concrete bases laid, and I'm fairly sure there were posts, too. And definitely a few M.A.S..

It's all under the A43 now...

 

[BrianW]

Are you referring to the Allerton fatality, or was Bescot another one?
(As an aside, the manager responsible for Allerton was kept on ice afterwards by being sent to Eastleigh. In 2 years I never saw or heard him. After the court case he was given his dismissal on the way out of the court. He declined the severance offer, went to a tribunal and lost. Greatly to the joy of the other managers - "Xxx Xxx lost. He's got nothing!" was the reaction of one of them.)
Pat

This piqued my interest. What happened? Had the manager been negligent in some way? Why joy? Is there a thread to which I might be pointed? Thanks

 

[Beebman]

I don't know whether this will count, as it was never energised, but work was certainly started on electrifying Northampton - Blisworth. Further North, the electrification work had seemed to be 'money-no-object' with for example, a yard near Stockport, I recollect, having O.L.E. to the stops. Money got very tight by Northampton and the scheme was shelved, but certainly there was a length on the stretch in open countryside where post holes were augur-bored and concrete bases laid, and I'm fairly sure there were posts, too. And definitely a few M.A.S..

It's all under the A43 now...

I've definitely seen a photo of OHLE masts running along the start of the Northampton line at Blisworth, I've tried to find it again just now but without luck. I do though have some BR official notices from the 1960s regarding the energisation of wiring. One notice, BR 31170/17 dated 19th July 1965, includes the following info within the list of energised sections:

"Blisworth and and a point on the Northampton Line, approx. 75 yards on the Northampton side of Blisworth Ground Frame."

And at the Northampton end:

"Blisworth Line, approx. 250 yards south of Northampton No.1 Box."

Also listed are 540 yards of the Oxford Line beyond the South Junction at Bletchley (i.e. not the flyover) and 590 yards of the Dunstable Branch beyond the junction at Leighton Buzzard. (The list of electrification telephones includes one on structure BB/00/14 at Bletchley on the Oxford Line.) The only map in the document is a basic diagram but it does show these 'bits' although not to scale.

 

[Taunton]

I don't know whether this will count, as it was never energised, but work was certainly started on electrifying Northampton - Blisworth. Further North, the electrification work had seemed to be 'money-no-object' with for example, a yard near Stockport, I recollect, having O.L.E. to the stops. Money got very tight by Northampton and the scheme was shelved, but certainly there was a length on the stretch in open countryside where post holes were augur-bored and concrete bases laid, and I'm fairly sure there were posts, too. And definitely a few M.A.S..

The initial WCML electrification certainly seemed to wire all sorts of sidings, junction overruns, etc, which must have been in their original design specification. Maybe the cost (or the way costs were attributed) was a lot cheaper then. Certainly Crewe Basford Hall shunting yard was electrified all roads, which apart from sorting at Crewe, and every 50 miles, being an Old Railway way of working, had been operated fully by LMS diesel shunters since the 1940s. Someone once worked out that the mileage of irrelevant/hardly used wiring at Crewe was sufficient to wire Crewe to Kidsgrove, connecting two electrified lines.

 

[adrock1976]

Unsure if mentioned earlier, but was the North Tyneside Loop (via Whitley Bay) electrified, then dewired, closed down, and brought back into use as part of the Tyne & Wear Metro?

 

[Railsigns]

Unsure if mentioned earlier, but was the North Tyneside Loop (via Whitley Bay) electrified, then dewired, closed down, and brought back into use as part of the Tyne & Wear Metro?

Not so much de-wired as de-third-railed.

 

[Haywain]

Balloch Central-Balloch Pier - line closed

Plus old Balloch Central to new Balloch Central.

I believe Hoo Junction yard had some primitive OHLE system decades ago for some early locos that operated in it, but more powerful diesel locos since made it redundant. Happy to be corrected if this never happened and/or thinking of the wrong yard.

That was 750v DC overhead.

 

[ainsworth74]

Unsure if mentioned earlier, but was the North Tyneside Loop (via Whitley Bay) electrified, then dewired, closed down, and brought back into use as part of the Tyne & Wear Metro?

It was third rail, de-electrified and run as a DMU service then converted to Tyne & Wear Metro with 1500v DC overhead line. It didn't formally close at any point beyond that required for conversion.

 

[MadMac]

Plus old Balloch Central to new Balloch Central.

Good one, although wasn't that old Balloch Central to new Balloch?