Electrified Rail Lines which have either closed or are now diesel operated

[steamybrian]

Do Underground sidings count? If so White City Depot has been replaced by White City Sidings. And at the other end of the Central Line there were also sidings at Newbury Park.

Can I add the closed former London Underground carriage depots at Drayton Park and New Cross.

 

[Geeves]

Kearsley Power station Railway would be my addition.

Kearsley Power Station

One of 4 steeple-cab electrics that worked on the short but very steeply graded branch line from the exchange sidings adjacent to the ex L&Y Manchester to Bolton line to the power station in the background. I'm not sure which one of the 4 this is - I can't read the number. It was taken on a...

www.flickr.com

 

[snookertam]

Outside the scope of the topic as it didn’t actually close…. Williamwood to Neilston was proposed for closure in the early 1980s.

(A link would have been created to the East Kilbride branch at Clarkston and OHL equipment redeployed there).

 

[Furrball]

The spur serving the depot at Hyndland

Hyndland Depot - RAILSCOT

This EMU depot opened on the northern part of site of Hyndland [1st] station in 1960. The station was able to remain open while the depot was established.

www.railscot.co.uk

 

[Mgameing123]

An interresting one is the Woodhead Line because it was electrified with 1,500 volts DC overhead wires.

 

[snookertam]

Reminds me of an absolute lunatic proposal from West of Scotland politicians in the early 2000s to convert the Cathcart Circle to a diesel powered tram.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

There was also the hare brained idea going around in the 2007/2008 timeframe ? iirc, to take the wires down north of Newcastle all the way to Edinburgh and run on vegetable oil.

 

[TB]

If it hasn't already been mentioned, while the Lancaster Castle to Morecambe line is closed, the section from Morecambe to Heysham is still open but de-electrified.

 

[plugwash]

Speaking of the metrolink.

Pre-metorlink the railway through Navigation road and altrincham was electrified. Now that railway has been split in half. The northern track is used by the metrolink and has metrolink electrification, but the eastern track, which is still part of the national rail network is no longer electrified.

 

[snowball]

Speaking of the metrolink.

Pre-metorlink the railway through Navigation road and altrincham was electrified. Now that railway has been split in half. The northern track is used by the metrolink and has metrolink electrification, but the eastern track, which is still part of the national rail network is no longer electrified.

And the two through (eastern) platforms at Altrincham station were de-electrified as part of the same exercise.

 

[themiller]

Carlisle avoiding line round near Denton Holme. Does that count?

Proof of the electrification of the former freight avoiding line. Some of the formation is now a footpath.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Digressing somewhat, in Germany after WW2, most OHLE on DR lines in the Soviet Zone was dismantled and taken to the USSR as reparations (along with much track from lines that were singled in the same process).
I think Leipzig was at the centre of the pre-war DR electrified railway.
Whole factories and industrial infrastructure were also moved east.
It took the rest of the DDR period for the lines involved to be re-doubled and re-electrified.

This sort of reparation action was also planned for the western zones, but the 1948 Berlin crisis and the Marshall Plan put an end to it.
The western allies concentrated instead on moving people with special skills westwards, eg the rocket scientists and chemical experts.

 

[Bill57p9]

Within the letter but probably not spirit of the thread: Falkland Yard to Ayr CSD….

 

[Pinus contorta]

If it hasn't already been mentioned, while the Lancaster Castle to Morecambe line is closed, the section from Morecambe to Heysham is still open

Went to a football game there last week. Wondered why the bridge near the ground was such a large clearance over the track. Hadn't realised that the Heysham branch was electrified as well. Thighht it was just the Scale Hall line.

 

[JKF]

There was a short section of line onto Holbeck viaduct in Leeds, which was used for stabling stock before the 2001(?) rebuild which severed this connection. I assume this was electrified as I can recall class 91+Mk4 sets there.

Not so far away from there, the standard gauge Wortley Fireclay Works line was electrified and connected to the Leeds City tramway system. There were also branches from this system to Busk Pit (near Macro on the ring road) and Elland Rd, quite a few miles to the network. There is a photo on Leodis showing the construction of a rail bridge over the Ring Rd when the road was constructed, and you can see the masts for the fire lay branch in the background.

 

[Deepgreen]

Redhill p4 (Post Office). Not sure if Clapham Junction p1 was electrified...

A slight digression, but I seem to recall that, when I was there years ago, at least one significant line in Sardinia was de-electrified but I don't know if it's even still operating.

 

[grumpyoldman01]

Wiring has also vanished from sidings wired in the early 1960s around (eg) Crewe and Edge Hill.

Wasn't there also an electrified connection beneath the WCML which connected the Crewe - Kidsgrove line towards Basford Hall sidings?

 

[jfollows]

Wasn't there also an electrified connection beneath the WCML which connected the Crewe - Kidsgrove line towards Basford Hall sidings?

The reversible Stoke goods, shown on the attached diagram.
EDIT NB It's not shown in my October 1990 Quail track map, whereas the attached hand-drawn diagram is from 1979 or so, so it went at some point between these years.

 

[Rescars]

Digressing somewhat, in Germany after WW2, most OHLE on DR lines in the Soviet Zone was dismantled and taken to the USSR as reparations (along with much track from lines that were singled in the same process).
I think Leipzig was at the centre of the pre-war DR electrified railway.
Whole factories and industrial infrastructure were also moved east.
It took the rest of the DDR period for the lines involved to be re-doubled and re-electrified.

This sort of reparation action was also planned for the western zones, but the 1948 Berlin crisis and the Marshall Plan put an end to it.
The western allies concentrated instead on moving people with special skills westwards, eg the rocket scientists and chemical experts.

If we can include lines outside the UK, the mountain section of the Furka Oberalp Bahn was "bypassed" with a base tunnel below Realp a few years ago. The mountain section has now lost its OLE and is operated as a heritage line with steam.

 

[D6130]

A slight digression, but I seem to recall that, when I was there years ago, at least one significant line in Sardinia was de-electrified but I don't know if it's even still operating.

The planned electrification was abandoned in the 1990s half-way through the project due to political shenanigans causing the funding to dry up. The unused stanchions can still be seen on some stretches and the 25 Kv ac electric locos built for the island were scrapped a few years ago after having been stored for years at Foligno works on the mainland.

 

[Class15]

The planned electrification was abandoned in the 1990s half-way through the project due to political shenanigans causing the funding to dry up. The unused stanchions can still be seen on some stretches and the 25 Kv ac electric locos built for the island were scrapped a few years ago after having been stored for years at Foligno works on the mainland.

Which line was it, may I ask?

 

[Peterthegreat]

Which line was it, may I ask?

The Mainline north from Cagliari.

 

[Gloster]

There was talk a few years back of de-electrifying the Lymington branch.

 

[busesrusuk]

The Shoreditch terminus and approaches were lost when the East London Line was re-routed via Shoreditch High Street and the old viaduct out of Broad Street. That's another closed former electrified section, Broad Street and its approaches, part of which is occupied by some 1983 tube stock in use as some kind of studio space.

here you go...

Jubilee 83 stock May16

What to do with an old tube train? Turn them into a creative workspace, then put them on top of a couple of shipping containers on an abandoned viaduct in Shoreditch. May 2016

www.flickr.com

 

[etr221]

The Mainline north from Cagliari.

The project - authorised in 1981, as part of a larger programme of works for the FS - was for electrification of the mainline from Cagliari to Oristano, Olbia and Golfo Aranci; and the branch to Sassari and Porto Torres; also including significant upgrade works - double tracking, etc. It was, to a significant extent, to get Italian industry into the 25kV 50Hz game, and included (in 1983) an order for 25 locos (classes E491 & E492).

If I recall correctly, the first bit of the line from Cagliari was 'fully' electrified (at least at first glance) , to (I think) Decimomannu, and beyond there to Sanluri with only the main track wired through stations. At least some of the electric locos were shipped over to Sardinia, and ran trials from 1989 (some earlier trials had been run on the mainland, between Civitavecchia and Aurelia, on stretch of line suitably equipped for these).
There was something of scandal over the project (as a waste of public money - one of many such at the time), with legal investigations, before it was eventually cancelled in the early 1990s. Attempts were made to interest the French, or others, into taking the locos, but nothing came of these.

So that was a never quite electrified line.

But elsewhere in (mainland) Italy there are/were I believe a number of electrified lines, both FS and not, that were electrified, but either de-electrified or closed, over the year, but I don't know details.

 

[Taunton]

Redhill p4 (Post Office). Not sure if Clapham Junction p1 was electrified...

Back in older times, there were direct electric services formed of emus with the seat cushions (supposedly) reversed and filled with mailbags, from Redhill to Twickenham, the comparable bay platforms on the north side there, these being two major postal sorting offices for Surrey. The service was reinforced leading up to Christmas.

 

[Steve Harris]

The reversible Stoke goods, shown on the attached diagram.
EDIT NB It's not shown in my October 1990 Quail track map, whereas the attached hand-drawn diagram is from 1979 or so, so it went at some point between these years.

Which ties in with my observations, as I first went to Crewe in the mid 80's (as a lad) and I don't remember it.

Those maps back then never used to be so up to date like they are now, so it wouldn't surprise me if the line actually went anytime between 1979 ( or slightly before ) and 1983/84 when I made my first visit.

 

[Western Sunset]

Anyone mentioned the Hellingly Hospital railway?

 

[Malaxa]

Redhill p4 (Post Office).

Chelmsford too had Royal Mail sidings which took class 302 EMUs, overheads since removed and converted to an aggregate terminal.

 

[jfollows]

Which ties in with my observations, as I first went to Crewe in the mid 80's (as a lad) and I don't remember it.

Those maps back then never used to be so up to date like they are now, so it wouldn't surprise me if the line actually went anytime between 1979 ( or slightly before ) and 1983/84 when I made my first visit.

I remember it, which is why I included it in my diagram at the time.
I suspect it went along with Crewe South Junction in the 1985 resignalling, given that CS83 was one of its signals. It may have been out of use for a period before this too.
I first went to Crewe about 10 years before you did, I guess. AC electric from Stockport at the age of 12 or so, maybe a couple of years earlier.