Trivia: isolated standard gauge lines

[GrimsbyPacer]

Fleetwood Branch is probably the newest edition, line severed only when electric lines went to Blackpool North.

 

[RH Liner]

Any tram system, except Sheffield's.

Not sure why the Holyhead breakwater would have been Brunel gauge. - the railway to Holyhead was built by the Stephensons. The last motive power on the breakwater were two (standard gauge) class 01 diesels.

When the Nottingham tram system was at the planning stage there was a proposal that it would share Robin Hood Line tracks, but in the event that never happened, and although the tracks run side by side there is no physical connection. It meant an extra stretch of the RHL was singled. However, an island platform at Hucknall has trains on one side and trams on the other.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

When the Nottingham tram system was at the planning stage there was a proposal that it would share Robin Hood Line tracks, but in the event that never happened, and although the tracks run side by side there is no physical connection. It meant an extra stretch of the RHL was singled. However, an island platform at Hucknall has trains on one side and trams on the other.

It's similar at Bulwell too. the Nottingham tram was originally planned to run onto ex-Great Central Mainline under the Victoria Centre too.

 

[RH Liner]

It's similar at Bulwell too. the Nottingham tram was originally planned to run onto ex-Great Central Mainline under the Victoria Centre too.

Not quite. At Bulwell both sides of the island platform are tram tracks, and the single bidirectional train platform is opposite.

 

[73128]

A quick check on the map of heritage lines suggests the following isolated standard gauge heritage lines in the South of England :

• Helston Railway
• Plym Valley Railway
• Avon Valley Railway
• Bristol Harbour Railway
• Swindon & Cricklade Railway
• Kent & East Sussex Railway
• East Kent Railway (I think)
• Chatham Historic Dockyard Railway

and a few others that I am not sure about, but I am sure others will know:

• Cholsey & Wallingford Railway
• Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway
• Epping & Ongar Railway

I could carry on and do the whole of the British mainland if I had time - but so could the OP!!

Epping - Ongar is isolated, at least by buffer stops, but could (physically) be connected to the LU network fairly easily, although this appears most unlikely to happen.

 

[steamybrian]

Going back into history prior to closure in 1969-
Ryde Pier Tramway between Pier Head and Esplanade was double track but with two isolated independent single lines.

 

[plugwash]

I have interesting want know how often the link in use, l means usually if a tramway system that no tram-train service should isolated with railway.

I would imagine such links are used for bringing in materials and equipment for track maintenance.

I would presume the reason for maintaining multiple links is that metrolink has several sections of "rail style" infrastructure with street tramway in between and it is presumably not practical/safe to run material trains or tampers through the street tramway sections.

 

[janahan]

Pedant example: The Liverpool & Manchester Railway in around 1830

The "Machester" end of that original line, is itself now isolated from the mainline since the orsall curve was built.

 

[D6130]

As mentioned in another thread earlier today....the West Somerset Mineral Railway, from Gupworthy to Watchet Harbour, closed in 1910.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Are there many examples of standard gauge lines in Great Britain which are totally disconnected from the main network? The one which springs to mind is the Island Line for obvious reasons. Is there a theoretical possibility of a standard gauge vehicle* travelling every inch of track without having to be lifted off the rails , or are there lines which are physically separate? For example, the Waterloo and City Line – does that have a running connection to the main line anywhere, however circuitous? What about other Tube lines, or heritage railways?

*assuming it's small enough to meet the smallest loading gauge such as the tube lines, and not dependent on a particular power supply.

All London Underground lines have a track connection to the outside world somewhere, apart from the W&C. Though in some cases it means transferring to another tube route first. Or is there now no link for the Victoria at Northumberland Park?

 

[philthetube]

Don't know about that but the vic has a link to the pic which links to the met so there is deff a way out there, all be it a convoluted one.

 

[Dstock7080]

Or is there now no link for the Victoria at Northumberland Park?

There is no link at Northumberland Park, only provided during construction.

 

[AlbertBeale]

There is no link at Northumberland Park, only provided during construction.

Don't know about that but the vic has a link to the pic which links to the met so there is deff a way out there, all be it a convoluted one.

Ah - yes, of course - Finsbury Park! It was silly of me to forget that; Northumberland Park is irrelevant. So therefore all Underground lines - other than the W&C - can be reached from "the outside world". Though even moving the tube stock itself around might not always be easy, given different constraints on tunnel clearances, relating to carriage length etc. But that's not the point at issue in this thread. The routes for both the Northern and Victoria are necessarily via the Piccadilly [and then via either Met or District], and I guess the Jubilee is only via the Bakerloo; the Central and all the SS lines are a doddle of course.

 

[McRhu]

Wigan Pier.

 

[D6130]

Wigan Pier.

Coincidentally, I was in Wigan yesterday....but I wasn't aware that there is /was isolated standard gauge track at the pier.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Coincidentally, I was in Wigan yesterday....but I wasn't aware that there is /was isolated standard gauge track at the pier.

There is, but it's not exactly a very long piece of track!

 

[McRhu]

There is, but it's not exactly a very long piece of track!

Four feet of track is four feet of track. It's not used very much though...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Mar 2022 ==

Coincidentally, I was in Wigan yesterday....but I wasn't aware that there is /was isolated standard gauge track at the pier.

Flat bottom although probably not UIC 60

 

[MattRat]

Four feet of track is four feet of track. It's not used very much though...

If only it was a bit longer. You could have a loco on there as a static display to get some use out of it.

 

[Enthusiast]

Since we've moved on to short stretches of track rather than routes, the former station at West Bay, Bridport in Dorset (setting for "Harbour Lights" starring Nick Berry and more recently "Broadchurch" starring Olivia Coleman) has a stretch of standard gauge track about 50m long:

Disused Stations: Bridport West Bay Station

It has stabled variously one or two carriages and is currently home to "The Station Kitchen" seafood restaurant:

Restaurants West Bay | PLATFORM | Bridport

Looking for the best restaurants West Bay, Bridport, Dorset? PLATFORM offers a mouth watering menu for your special occasion dining experience.

www.thestationkitchen.co.uk

 

[D6130]

Not sure whether this has been mentioned before, but there are still a couple of very rusty tracks set into the cobbles of the old pre-Tay Bridge train ferry slipway at Broughty Ferry.

 

[John Luxton]

Smeaton's Pier - St Ives.

Length of standard gauge track provided above the arches at the landward end for a rail mounted crane used to lower timber baulks into slots at seaward side of pier.

Albert / Canning Dock - Liverpool length of standard guage track between two buffer stops outside Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Single siding leads into an arched doorway in the former warehouse now the museum.

This dates from circa 1984 when first stage of Albert Dock redevelopment was completed. I recall in early days a rail mounted crane from the docks stood on it. I imagine when laid there must have been plans to accommodate a small industrial loco in the building and run it on the length of track. The track has never been used and in recent years the flangeways have been concreted in presumably to reduce the trip hazard.

 

[A S Leib]

Are the tracks at Gloucester and Bristol Docks standard gauge?

 

[Undiscovered]

I've not been there for ages, but is the Weymouth Quay line still connected?
There was talk of removing the level crossing and spur by the station. Has this happened?

 

[Tester]

I've not been there for ages, but is the Weymouth Quay line still connected?
There was talk of removing the level crossing and spur by the station. Has this happened?

Well and truly severed!

There are rails to be seen, but it is far from complete. The level crossing is gone.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Was the stump of trackwork at Wigan Pier (adjacent to the Leeds and Liverpool canal) ever part of a longer system, perhaps part of the Winstanley Colliery Railway, or is it replica track? Believe the tippling mechanism adjacent to the canal is almost certainly a later replica, the original having gone in the late 1920s, as George Orwell apparently discovered when researching his 1937 book "The Road to Wigan Pier".

 

[DelW]

I've not been there for ages, but is the Weymouth Quay line still connected?
There was talk of removing the level crossing and spur by the station. Has this happened?

The lines on the quayside itself were removed in autumn 2020, as discussed on this thread:

End of the Line for Weymouth Quay branch - March 2020

Disused Weymouth railway line 'wiped out without goodbye' Yeah, I'm really not buying the outrage over this. It was an interesting curiosity, but it's a liability for the town and it's blindingly obvious there's no suitable future use for it.

www.railforums.co.uk

See particularly photos in post 165.

 

[Lucan]

Are the tracks at Gloucester and Bristol Docks standard gauge?

Bristol is, IDK about Gloucester.

 

[urbophile]

There is, but it's not exactly a very long piece of track!

Well if you're talking about such fragments, there is a stretch of track alongside the Maritime Museum at Liverpool's Albert Dock. More than four feet of it certainly.

 

[McRhu]

Was the stump of trackwork at Wigan Pier (adjacent to the Leeds and Liverpool canal) ever part of a longer system, perhaps part of the Winstanley Colliery Railway, or is it replica track? Believe the tippling mechanism adjacent to the canal is almost certainly a later replica, the original having gone in the late 1920s, as George Orwell apparently discovered when researching his 1937 book "The Road to Wigan Pier".

From what I can find out the stub of track is indeed a replica: a relatively modern contrivance built to commemorate the past. It's a heritage line.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Very short section outside Stratford station on which Avonside steam loco 'Robert' is plinthed.