Trivia: Railway Infrastructure (e.g. buildings) that was built but never used

[MadMac]

In a similar vein to the thread on lines, here are three examples to get things rolling:

1) Maryhill Park Junction signal box in Glasgow was destroyed by fire. A new box was built and design for the signalling was completed. The decision was then taken to close the Inner/Outer Circle lines to Anniesland, rendering the box redundant. The box still stands today in use for commercial purposes.

2) G&SW Singling. Several relay rooms were built between Kilmarnock and Dumfries, cable routes were constructed and cables laid. The job was then cancelled.

3) I think a power signal box was built at Stafford for WCML Electrification and never used?

 

[150219]

Atmospheric Pumping House in Torre.

 

[Strathclyder]

Hunterston Junction Signal Box?

Hunterston Junction Signal Box. 1984.

One of Scotland's more modern but also short lived signal boxes, Hunterston Junction. The signal box was built in 1978 to a standard Scottish Region Relay Room design with signalman's area combined. It opened with the commissioning of the short branch off the Largs line into the British Steel...

www.flickr.com

(linked image copyright of Flickr's Adrian Nicholls)

 

[MadMac]

Hunterston Junction Signal Box?

Hunterston Junction Signal Box. 1984.

One of Scotland's more modern but also short lived signal boxes, Hunterston Junction. The signal box was built in 1978 to a standard Scottish Region Relay Room design with signalman's area combined. It opened with the commissioning of the short branch off the Largs line into the British Steel...

www.flickr.com

(linked image copyright of Flickr's Adrian Nicholls)

The “blurb” is completely wrong. Hunterston (not Hunterston Junction) opened as a block post and controlled trains on the main line from “day one”. It subsequently became a remote relay room of Paisley in 1986 in conjunction with singling and electrification to Largs.

 

[pdeaves]

Some stations shown here: http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/stations/trivia.shtm#notopened

 

[Strathclyder]

The “blurb” is completely wrong. Hunterston (not Hunterston Junction) opened as a block post and controlled trains on the main line from “day one”. It subsequently became a remote relay room of Paisley in 1986 in conjunction with singling and electrification to Largs.

A case of 'don't shoot the messenger' here, but I'm grateful for the correction nonetheless. Best take it up with Mr. Nicholls to get that blurb sorted lol

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Some stations shown here: http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/stations/trivia.shtm#notopened

That list only shows two of the five fully-built railway stations, ready for use in 1916, on the line of the Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Joint Railway that never were used for passengers. My records in alphabetical order of these are:-
Doncaster (York Road)
Snaith and Pollington
Sykehouse
Thorpe-in-Balne
Warmsworth

 

[pdeaves]

That list only shows two of the five fully-built railway stations, ready for use in 1916, on the line of the Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Joint Railway that never were used for passengers. My records in alphabetical order of these are:-
Doncaster (York Road)
Snaith and Pollington
Sykehouse
Thorpe-in-Balne
Warmsworth

Always grateful for additional information! As far as I can see, all five are already on the list. Was there a column 'off screen', perhaps?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Always grateful for additional information! As far as I can see, all five are already on the list. Was there a column 'off screen', perhaps?

Unfortunately yes, my monitor screen is beginning to play its favourite game...."Now you see it, now you don't"...

As a brief aside, the Tickhill and Wadworth station on the South Yorkshire Joint Railway was closed from April 1926 to April 1927, as it had been infected with a bacterial outbreak of horse faeces...

 

[MadMac]

A case of 'don't shoot the messenger' here, but I'm grateful for the correction nonetheless. Best take it up with Mr. Nicholls to get that blurb sorted lol

Fully understand that you’re not the messenger

 

[Strathclyder]

Fully understand that you’re not the messenger

Fair enough, I just tend to get my back up in such situtations, oftentimes unnecessarily lol

 

[matchmaker]

In a similar vein to the thread on lines, here are three examples to get things rolling:

1) Maryhill Park Junction signal box in Glasgow was destroyed by fire. A new box was built and design for the signalling was completed. The decision was then taken to close the Inner/Outer Circle lines to Anniesland, rendering the box redundant. The box still stands today in use for commercial purposes.

2) G&SW Singling. Several relay rooms were built between Kilmarnock and Dumfries, cable routes were constructed and cables laid. The job was then cancelled.

3) I think a power signal box was built at Stafford for WCML Electrification and never used?

Maryhill Park Junction - the story of the unwanted armchair!

 

[pdeaves]

OLE masts were put in place quite a way from Didcot to Oxford before the electrification scheme was cancelled (hopefully only temporarily). Similarly, all the preparation work was completed through Box tunnel and in Sydney Gardens (Bath) before that scheme was cancelled (again, hopefully only temporarily).

 

[Railsigns]

A bridge was built in Connel for the never-completed third side of a triangular junction at the start of the Ballachulish branch. Constructed c.1903 and demolished in 2010, it never carried a single train.

 

[steamybrian]

At Chessington South station the up platform and canopy was built in the late 1930s for the planned extension to Leatherhead. In addition the land was purchased and about one mile of earthworks built included one undertrack bridge. The project was abandoned post war due to the "Green Belt" . A short section of track was used to access the coal yard which more recently has been closed. The abandoned unused platform is still in situ today.

Lullingstone station was built in the late 1930s between Swanley and Eynsford in anticipation of planned housing development and a new airport. The station was completed in 1939 but was never opened. The station was abandoned post war due to the "Green Belt" and the development never took place. The station was demolished in the 1950s but the platforms still survive today. In addition the abandoned concrete approach roads are still existance.

 

[MadMac]

Maryhill Park Junction - the story of the unwanted armchair!

The “Please Explain“ to end all “Please Explains“…..

 

[matchmaker]

The “Please Explain“ to end all “Please Explains“…..

 

[Dr_Paul]

A bridge over the North and South-Western Junction Railway (now North London Line) north of Acton Central, built to carry the proposed GWR line from Acton Main Line down to the West London Line, but abandoned when the line was built on another course. The bridge has been removed, but the abutments remain. My dad always reckoned the bridge was part of an abandoned new railway from London to Wales, and I'm sure that I've heard this from other sources, but this map shows that it was to connect with the GWR.

 

[Man of Kent]

Lullingstone station was built in the late 1930s between Swanley and Eynsford in anticipation of planned housing development and a new airport. The station was completed in 1939 but was never opened. The station was abandoned post war due to the "Green Belt" and the development never took place. The station was demolished in the 1950s but the platforms still survive today. In addition the abandoned concrete approach roads are still existance.

Lullingstone's canopies were relocated to Canterbury East, replacing that station's overall roof.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Torre and Totnes atmospheric pumping station were built but never used. Both buildings happily still exist.

 

[Recessio]

At Chessington South station the up platform and canopy was built in the late 1930s for the planned extension to Leatherhead. In addition the land was purchased and about one mile of earthworks built included one undertrack bridge. The project was abandoned post war due to the "Green Belt" .

When Crossrail 2 gets built, I'm assuming they'll dual-track the line. Given it probably won't be completed for at least another two decades, it might be a record for longest time between infrastructure being built and having its first calling train (that's an idea for a trivia thread in it's own right lol)

 

[steamybrian]

When Crossrail 2 gets built, I'm assuming they'll dual-track the line. Given it probably won't be completed for at least another two decades, it might be a record for longest time between infrastructure being built and having its first calling train (that's an idea for a trivia thread in it's own right lol)

The line is already double track. The up line at Chessington South station has been used as a carriage siding and in connection with shunting the goods yard beyond the station.

 

[Taunton]

There was a lot of infrastructure built for the Northern Line extension from Finsbury Park through Finchley, Edgware and northwards, stopped in 1939 and never restarted. The onetime London bus overhaul works beyond Edgware was built as the train depot but never used as such.

Contrary to much local belief, the upper level part of Highgate station along this line, long abandoned but still there, was used by residual LNER/BR steam trains for quite some years after WW2. It's still left there because it's integral with the station box for the Underground beneath it.

 

[Strathclyder]

The onetime London bus overhaul works beyond Edgware was built as the train depot but never used as such.

Indeed, the erstwhile Aldenham Works. Fully operational from 1956 to 1986 as a bus overhaul facility.

 

[Pigeon]

Worcester, Dean Forest and Monmouth Railway. That would have been a good one if they'd ever managed to get it going, and it seems a remarkable number of people at the time thought so too and thought they would. Unfortunately all they ever did was this.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...onmouth_Railway_-_geograph.org.uk_-_92470.jpg

 

[John Luxton]

Here is something right up to date - it is tramway rather than railway but anyone visiting Douglas, Isle of Man this summer will notice a strip of land on the reconstructed and reconfigured promenade which is intended to be the course of the Horse Tramway.

Following the very lengthy reconstruction of the promenade the Horse Tramway operation has been suspended since 2019 and is only due to recommence at the end of July for the 2022 Transport Festival. When it the tramway does reopen it will operate from Derby Castle Depot to a terminal stub near the bottom of Broadway, close to the Villa Marina.

The timescale for reinstating the track to the Sea Terminal, the line's traditional terminal is as yet unknow. Meanwhile the area set aside for the reserved track is a prominent feature from near the Sefton Hotel to the Sea Terminal. If and when it is reinstated this section will be single track.

 

[stj]

A bit off topic but I remember a proposal for an APT servicing depot at Blackpool North.Also anything regarding the Eurostar Regional Day/Night services was not used as intended.

 

[MisterSheeps]

Teversall (latterly suffixed East), on the GN branch from Skegby (Nottingham - Shirebrook Junction). Station was built, had goods, miners 'paddy' trains from Sutton in Ashfield, and occasional east coast excursions, did not appear in passenger timetables

 

[E27007]

I cannot find anything to exceed the abandoned Northern Line extension scheme of the 1930s, suspended for WW2, the civil engineering scheme was so close to completion, stations, tunnels viaducts by and large completed, the tubetrains constructed and placed in storage.
Post WW2 we were bankrupt, the scheme never restarted.
There is a book and guided walk by the author JIm Blake held most years during July. The un-commisioned low-level platforms at Archway Station North London exemplifies the advanced state of the project until WW2 intervened.

“The Northern Heights”

trainstobeyond.com

Edgware - Bushey Heath

 

[MadMac]

A bit off topic but I remember a proposal for an APT servicing depot at Blackpool North.Also anything regarding the Eurostar Regional Day/Night services was not used as intended.

That's a good shout - there was a fortune spent on a secure compound at Polmadie for Eurostar "North of London" services.