Trivia: Electric Railways that closed

[181]

Graham Road Curve (Hackney)

According to
https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ure-built-post-ww2.207205/page-2#post-4698454, 'The curve is still open, complete with OHLE, but only used by occasional movements.'

Thinkig about lines closed ony to passengers, what about the curve enabling trains to run from Waterloo onto the West London line? I think it had regular passenger trains for a few years when the Cornish sleeper and one or two trains from the north ran to Waterloo to connect with Eurostar.

 

[Gloster]

According to
https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ure-built-post-ww2.207205/page-2#post-4698454, 'The curve is still open, complete with OHLE, but only used by occasional movements.'

Thinkig about lines closed ony to passengers, what about the curve enabling trains to run from Waterloo onto the West London line? I think it had regular passenger trains for a few years when the Cornish sleeper and one or two trains from the north ran to Waterloo to connect with Eurostar.

I thought about the West London Junction-Latchmere Junction curve, but it originally closed in 1936, long before Beeching.

 

[steamybrian]

Former junction at 78 m 33 ch on Waterloo-Southampton Terminus line to former junction at 78 m 28 ch on Waterloo-Dorchester Junction line.

I do not think it was electrified.....?
Southampton Terminus closed in 1966 before Bournemouth line electrified in 1967

 

[Gloster]

I do not think it was electrified.....?
Southampton Terminus closed in 1966 before Bournemouth line electrified in 1967

According to the the Signal Box Register: Volume 4 (Signalling Record Society, 2009) the line as far as Canute Road and the curve were electrified along with the rest of the Bournemouth electrification in 1967. It was presumably for boat and parcels trains.

 

[181]

I thought about the West London Junction-Latchmere Junction curve, but it originally closed in 1936, long before Beeching.

But then reopened to passengers in the 1990s before losing its regular passenger services again, so I would have thought it did count for this thread -- except that it's just occurred to me that none of the (few) passenger services were electric, so I suppose it doesn't. Does anyone know if it has ever carried an electric train with passengers on board?

 

[Beebman]

But then reopened to passengers in the 1990s before losing its regular passenger services again, so I would have thought it did count for this thread -- except that it's just occurred to me that none of the (few) passenger services were electric, so I suppose it doesn't. Does anyone know if it has ever carried an electric train with passengers on board?

Sometime in the late 90s I'm sure I read somewhere about an incoming Eurostar which was initially diverted to Kensington Olympia due to Waterloo having to close for some reason, but on arrival at Olympia the crew were informed that Waterloo had just reopened and they were instructed to immediately reverse the train and run via Latchmere Jct and W.London Jct.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Anyone mention Bury - Holcombe Brook. ?

Technically the Mumbles Tramway (classed I think as a railway)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Bury to Holcombe Brook

Anyone mention Bury - Holcombe Brook. ?

Yep. @D6130 already did in post #11.

 

[GLC]

Couple of short Scottish ones to add to the list

Singer Works Platform Branch
Neilston Carraige Sidings beyond station
Bothwell Branch Sidings, Shettleston
Hyndland Depot Branch
Craigendoran Pier Platform

In a similar vein, are Smithy Lye sidings outside Glasgow Central closed? They’re certainly abandoned!

 

[Taunton]

I suppose we could include the very substantial set of wired sidings west of Stratford, that were removed for the 2012 Olympic stadium. Some of them ended at right angles to the GE main line.

Nearby, the status of the electric line from Stratford to Fenchurch Street is not clear. Wired up in the 1949 Great Eastern DC scheme, it never had a service at first, but from about the 1980s some Tilbury line services went this way to serve Stratford and then come back to Fenchurch Street; others went through Stratford but to Liverpool Street instead, and things seem to have gone back and forth.

 

[341o2]

Industrial line: Serving the brickworks south of Bedford, known as Coronation works as it was opened in 1935, and their exchange sidings on the west side of the Midland line at Houghton Conquest. Closed early 1970s. Used a 'steeple' cab loco with twin trolley poles.

The Stratford-North Woolwich line has been mentioned by a few. This was a late-comer to electrification as it was only electrified in 1985 on the 3rd-rail system and closed 2006.

You got there first, the railway was featured in the National Trolleybus association newsletter, the overhead and current collection was basically trolleybus.

Image shows locomotive Ruth, image from Google


Also the Govan shipyards used similar locos over the tramlines, and what about battery locomotives in mines such as Geevor Cornwall, or the mustard gas factory for which the locos on the Hythe pier railway were built

 

[Helvellyn]

Bog Junction to Willowholme Junction (Carlisle Goods Loop) closed 1984

Must be one of the shortest periods of electrification too, a decade tops?

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

The Heathrow Express depot at Old Oak Common was electrified until closed earlier this year.

 

[John Webb]

You got there first, the railway was featured in the National Trolleybus association newsletter, the overhead and current collection was basically trolleybus.

Image shows locomotive Ruth, image from Google

View attachment 101652
Also the Govan shipyards used similar locos over the tramlines, and what about battery locomotives in mines such as Geevor Cornwall, or the mustard gas factory for which the locos on the Hythe pier railway were built

Thanks - slightly better view than the one in J E Conner's "St Albans to Bedford" book published by the Middleton Press. I saw this loco 'in the flesh' when I started travelling to Bedford for work purposes in the early 1970s.

 

[Carlisle]

Must be one of the shortest periods of electrification too, a decade tops?

It’d probably still exist today had the whole saga of the runaway Freightliner not happened .

 

[jumble]

It's a common misunderstanding that Lancaster-Morecambe-Heysham was converted to 25kV in the 1950s. What was actually being trialled was the National Grid frequency of 50Hz, so it could be connected straight to the national supply without fiddly mechanical converters or using a custom generating station (as the LMH originally did), and to see the trains could handle it with on-board rectifiers to straightforward DC motors. The voltage was by the by, and couldn't really be increased beyond what was in place as the original insulators were used, which are determined by voltage, so they just used the voltage which was previously in place.


Bizarrely, one of their open-top double deck tramcars was exported to Detroit USA, where it was used on a heritage tramway in the city. I actually rode on it upstairs one day in 1980 after a business meeting in the city - and was the only passenger. Later given up.

Going slightly OT
Even more bizarrely that tram has been repatriated and restored to running order albeit battery powered
It is now in service on the Statfold Barn Railway in Staffordshire

 

[Strathclyder]

Must be one of the shortest periods of electrification too, a decade tops?

The Singer Works Platforms cited in post #50 barely lasted a decade after electrification before closure; does anyone have a precise date for their falling out of use? I know Wikipedia cites 8th May 1967, but I just wanna be 100% sure lol

 

[d9009alycidon]

The Singer Works Platforms cited in post #50 barely lasted a decade after electrification before closure; does anyone have a precise date for their falling out of use? I know Wikipedia cites 8th May 1967, but I just wanna be 100% sure lol

Wikipedia is indeed wrong, I have a WTT for the year May 1968 to May 1969 and it still shows one train from Bridgeton and one from Springburn in the morning and return in the afternoon.

 

[JKF]

Was the carriage siding tunnel out of Euston electrified?

on the obscure freight front I’ll give you Gipton Colliery to Wortley Fireclay Works, with branches to Busk Pit, Elland Rd and another colliery I’ve forgotten the name of on the other side of the ring road in Wortley. The core of this network ran over the Leeds tram system, and used ‘tippler’ cars that came from the depot next to Kirkstall viaduct which was also served by heavy rail. There was a photo on Leodis of the construction of the ring road bridge at Wortley where you could just about make out the line and overhead masts, but I can’t find it!

Not the U.K., but the branch from Carvalheira Maceda to the fuel depot at Aeròdromo Manobra No.1 was electrified at 25kVAC and some of the masts are still there:

 

[Beebman]

Was the carriage siding tunnel out of Euston electrified?

Yes, the 'Rat Hole' was electrified and I did it electrically on HR's 'Blue Train Railtour' on 04/09/1982 which used a pair of 303s.

 

[Grumpy]

Didn't the original WCML electrification include wiring the Rugby-Market Harborough line as far as Clifton, and the loop line back, to facilitate moving locos across the layout?

 

[D6130]

Didn't the original WCML electrification include wiring the Rugby-Market Harborough line as far as Clifton, and the loop line back, to facilitate moving locos across the layout?

....and likewise, IIRC, the first few hundred yards of the Donnington and Uttoxeter lines at Stafford and the Market Harborough Line at Northampton?

 

[Beebman]

Didn't the original WCML electrification include wiring the Rugby-Market Harborough line as far as Clifton, and the loop line back, to facilitate moving locos across the layout?

There's a photo of the OHLE at Clifton Mill on the RCTS website:

https://www.rcts.org.uk/cache/photographs/mystery/66-33-29.780.jpg

 

[Strathclyder]

Wikipedia is indeed wrong, I have a WTT for the year May 1968 to May 1969 and it still shows one train from Bridgeton and one from Springburn in the morning and return in the afternoon.

Can't say I'm surprised that Wiki fudged that one lol So we can say with some certainty then that Singer Works Platforms officially closed in or sometime after May 1969. In all honesty, I'm surprised they were ever electrified in the first place, given the downscaling the factory would undergo throughout the 60s (which would involve the demolition of the factory's iconic clock tower in 1963) leading up to it's full closure in June 1980 (the works platforms were long since disused by then). Yes, the demand in the late 50s may have justified/warranted it, but said demand quickly ebbed away as the 60s rolled on, as reflected in the WTT timetable you quote for the May '68-May '69 period.

 

[Taunton]

There did seem a lot of overkill on the initial WCML wiring, not particularly relevant to line closures, but of sidings, branch overruns, etc. Speke Junction at Liverpool ahd a forest over the yard there, and someone once wrote that the huge amount of wiring every siding at Basford Hall at Crewe, where everything was always done by diesel shunter, would have been sufficient to wire Crewe to Kidsgrove from the start!

 

[d9009alycidon]

Can't say I'm surprised that Wiki fudged that one lol So we can say with some certainty then that Singer Works Platforms officially closed in or sometime after May 1969. In all honesty, I'm surprised they were ever electrified in the first place, given the downscaling the factory would undergo throughout the 60s (which would involve the demolition of the factory's iconic clock tower in 1963) leading up to it's full closure in June 1980 (the works platforms were long since disused by then). Yes, the demand in the late 50s may have justified/warranted it, but said demand quickly ebbed away as the 60s rolled on, as reflected in the WTT timetable you quote for the May '68-May '69 period.

Add to that much of the workforce would have been decanted from the East End of Glasgow to nearby Drumchapel and other schemes, so the traditional traffic flows were gone.

 

[Strathclyder]

Add to that much of the workforce would have been decanted from the East End of Glasgow to nearby Drumchapel and other schemes, so the traditional traffic flows were gone.

Indeed, there is also that to consider. Looking back on it now (of course, hindsight is just that), it just seems like a bit of a waste of material, equipment and man-hours to wire them up only to shut them within 10-15 years.

 

[Irascible]

Also the Govan shipyards used similar locos over the tramlines, and what about battery locomotives in mines such as Geevor Cornwall, or the mustard gas factory for which the locos on the Hythe pier railway were built

The one I always remember ( possibly because it lasted into the 90s ) is Westoe Colliery, which now I look it up is actually one stop on the Harton Electric Railway, which was a bit bigger than I thought. There's video of that one about.

 

[Rail Ranger]

Liverpool Gladstone Dock L&Y station to Rimrose Road Junction on the North Mersey Branch (section de-electrified 1924, line remained open for goods to North Mersey Yard for until 1971)

At Bidston, the West to North curve was originally electrified & some West Kirby-New Brighton trains ran in the early days. Not sure whether the third rail was removed before the curve closed in 1983.

Several branches in the Manchester area were electrified as part of Woodhead scheme:-
Gorton - Reddish Depot
Fairfield Jn - Hyde Road Jn
Guide Bridge (Stockport Jn) - Ashton Moss North Jn
Ashburys Jn and Ardwick Jn to Midland Jn (on the Philips Park line)

Ardwick Junction to Midland Junction was not electrified.

 

[Beebman]

One short-lived section of 25kV wiring from the original WCML project was from Primrose Hill to Maiden Lane via the now-disused northern pair of tracks through Camden Road station. This section was wired with the intention of allowing electrically-hauled Freightliner trains to access the depot at Maiden Lane which was very short-lived and closed in the early 70s.

For many years I've tried to find a photo of an electrically-hauled Freightliner train along that stretch and I've never found one. The only photo I've ever found of the depot showed no wiring in place (I've tried to find it again but I can't). There was definitely wiring in place along the NLL east of Camden Road on the more northerly pair of tracks, I remember seeing it (or at least the masts) still in situ for some distance in the late 70s, and I've found one photo of it on the RCTS website taken from the MML just north of the NLL overbridge:

https://www.rcts.org.uk/cache/photographs/mystery/Y-61-20.780.jpg

I can't help wondering therefore if the wiring installed in the late 60s actually ran into the depot? Was it an aborted scheme and no electric Freightliners ever used it?