70014IronDuke
Established Member
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- 13 Jun 2015
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Your starter for 10 - How about Sheffield?
I was going to put this in the current thread "Railway locations that are now only a shadow of themselves" - but realised after writing that Sheffield and what follows is not on topic for that thread ( and we had one on precisely the same subject about a year ago, if I remember).
Reading post #1326 by @Killingworth on this thread
helped make me realise what a tragedy Sheffield is from a rail point of view.
No Victoria at all these days, of course, so gone is the brave-new-world 1,500V DC electric system installed post WW2
And, unlike (say) Morecambe or Skegness, Sheffield Midland station is still there, probably with as many platforms as it had in the 60s. But its ability to serve what must be something like the UK's 10th - 15th (?) largest conurbation has been strangled by track rationalisation and subsequent sell offs of bits of land that means it has a mere two-track approach from the south instead of four.
This is the text of @Killingworth 's latest post.
It illustrates how long anything takes from first thoughts to delivery for service.
The old 4 platform station was reduced to one in 1985 as part of the bigger plan to speed services between Sheffield and Bradway Tunnel including removal of the stations at Heeley; Millhouses and Beauchief and slewing of two tracks to make better use of the then cleared trackbed that had carried 4 tracks. That must have been in planning from the early 1970s based on falling passenger and freight volumes.
By 1990 singling tbrough Dore and Totley station waa realised to have been a mistake and soon after 1995 the first plans to redouble were observed on the wall at Railtrack's Manchester offices. They were discussed with Sheffield councillors in 2000 and by late 2001 appeared in their published plans for delivery in 2003-4. 20 years later they will be.
Stockton and Darlington Railway opened 1825, Liverpool and Manchester 1830 and by 1850 you could travel from London to Edinburgh by train!
I digress but this saga gets worse. The Hope Valley scheme is now bigger than just redoubling at Dore. It grew by 2013 into a plan to provide 2 extra hourly fast paths between Sheffield and Manchester.
By 2015 it was realised that couldn't happen due to congestion into both Manchester and Sheffield and the scope was reduced to only one extra fast path. Delivery is imminent and it has dawned that even one extra hourly path is problematic. Why? Partly removal of those two tracks from Dore into Sheffield. Can they be restored? No. Parts of the old track bed have been sold off and built on, bridges have been removed and various items of lineside eqipment would need resiting.
Any worse examples out there (apart, of course, from totally closed stations/lines)?
I was going to put this in the current thread "Railway locations that are now only a shadow of themselves" - but realised after writing that Sheffield and what follows is not on topic for that thread ( and we had one on precisely the same subject about a year ago, if I remember).
Reading post #1326 by @Killingworth on this thread
Hope Valley Capacity Scheme updates
Until 1985 Dore & Totley had 4, but only 2 operational since the 1960s. Here's how it was in the 1920s. Gosh, that's an evocative photograph. It shows what we've lost through rationalisation.
www.railforums.co.uk
helped make me realise what a tragedy Sheffield is from a rail point of view.
No Victoria at all these days, of course, so gone is the brave-new-world 1,500V DC electric system installed post WW2
And, unlike (say) Morecambe or Skegness, Sheffield Midland station is still there, probably with as many platforms as it had in the 60s. But its ability to serve what must be something like the UK's 10th - 15th (?) largest conurbation has been strangled by track rationalisation and subsequent sell offs of bits of land that means it has a mere two-track approach from the south instead of four.
This is the text of @Killingworth 's latest post.
It illustrates how long anything takes from first thoughts to delivery for service.
The old 4 platform station was reduced to one in 1985 as part of the bigger plan to speed services between Sheffield and Bradway Tunnel including removal of the stations at Heeley; Millhouses and Beauchief and slewing of two tracks to make better use of the then cleared trackbed that had carried 4 tracks. That must have been in planning from the early 1970s based on falling passenger and freight volumes.
By 1990 singling tbrough Dore and Totley station waa realised to have been a mistake and soon after 1995 the first plans to redouble were observed on the wall at Railtrack's Manchester offices. They were discussed with Sheffield councillors in 2000 and by late 2001 appeared in their published plans for delivery in 2003-4. 20 years later they will be.
Stockton and Darlington Railway opened 1825, Liverpool and Manchester 1830 and by 1850 you could travel from London to Edinburgh by train!
I digress but this saga gets worse. The Hope Valley scheme is now bigger than just redoubling at Dore. It grew by 2013 into a plan to provide 2 extra hourly fast paths between Sheffield and Manchester.
By 2015 it was realised that couldn't happen due to congestion into both Manchester and Sheffield and the scope was reduced to only one extra fast path. Delivery is imminent and it has dawned that even one extra hourly path is problematic. Why? Partly removal of those two tracks from Dore into Sheffield. Can they be restored? No. Parts of the old track bed have been sold off and built on, bridges have been removed and various items of lineside eqipment would need resiting.
Any worse examples out there (apart, of course, from totally closed stations/lines)?
.
All clear now!
