Unbuilt (or unbought) lines taking companies into new areas

[The Pelican]

Pre-grouping railways often opened, or bought, railway lines which gave them access to new parts of the country. The Midland Railway in Bristol, London and Carlisle, the GCR (fomerly Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire) at Marylebone, either of the above companies' investment in the Cheshire Lines Comittee, the LNWR in South Wales- there are a lot of examples.

There were a whole series of other lines, to be built or purchased, which never went ahead- for example, Edward Watkin wished to set up a Welsh Raiwlays Union, which might have led to the GCR working in parallel with the Cambrian to operate trains in Wales. (discussed on RM web here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/151611-welsh-railways-union/ ). There was also an LSWR effort to build a line to Bristol, which would have gone through Amesbury near stonehenge.

Interestingly, no-one ever managed to build alternative routes from London to Bristol or from any part of the country to Newcastle, which only had NER routes approaching from the south.

What other unbuilt or unbought railway expansion schemes do you find interesting, especially when they extended the company into a new area?

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The LSWR had desires on Truro, - the Ruthern Bridge branch (off the Bodmin & Wadebridge) was the first step in that aim. However, they had to settle for Padstow - their proposed route to Truro would have been hopelessly uncompetitive compared to the GWR.

 

[The Pelican]

Yes, I'd forgotten that one- it later led to the GWR building the Lappa Valley Newquay Truro line. I certainly wish the LSWR had ended up making it further west, it would have been an incredible journey from Okehampton!

It reminds me of another line the LSWR proposed- an Oxford route from Reading, possibly via Henley.

 

[etr221]

There was a 'London and South Wales Railway' project in the 1890s (think Hull and Barnsley equivalent only longer) which would been interesting. And given that its best chance of being built would have been by being taken over (or brought under the wing of) an established mainline company, one wonders which - the LNWR? GCR? or (most likely?) Midland? (Just think - St Pancras for Cardiff or Bristol).

More realistically, there was a proposal for the SER to have bought up the Portsmouth Direct line. What might that have led to?

There was also an LSWR effort to build a line to Bristol, which would have gone through Amesbury near stonehenge.

The original London and Southampton project included a branch/second mainline to Bristol from the Basingstoke area (AIUI, that's the reason for the LSW main line going the way it does). But that wasn't in the original L&S bill, but postponed to the following parliamentary session, when it was up against Mr Brunel's proposed line to Bristol.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

There was a 'London and South Wales Railway' project in the 1890s (think Hull and Barnsley equivalent only longer) which would been interesting.

In a manner of speaking, I think part of it got built. That was in the form of the GWR's "New North Line" from Old Oak Common to join the former Wycombe railway at High Wycombe. After that it headed northwest to Banbury rather than west to South Wales.

I think part of the proposal for a London & South Wales Railway was coal traffic to London.

 

[DelW]

More realistically, there was a proposal for the SER to have bought up the Portsmouth Direct line. What might that have led to?

You may be aware that there is still a physical vestige of such a scheme, in the form of an embankment which would have turned Shalford Junction into a triangle. That would have enabled through running between Redhill and Havant without a reversal at Guildford.

There's no sign that the necessary bridge over the River Wey was even begun, and it's unlikely any track was ever laid. The embankment now carries a footpath.

 

[Pigeon]

In a manner of speaking, I think part of it got built. That was in the form of the GWR's "New North Line" from Old Oak Common to join the former Wycombe railway at High Wycombe. After that it headed northwest to Banbury rather than west to South Wales.

I think part of the proposal for a London & South Wales Railway was coal traffic to London.

I think the NNML hardly counts, since the point of the London & South Wales proposal was that it wasn't the GWR. The basic idea was to help persuade the GWR to pull their finger out and build the Badminton cutoff already. Which they did do, but I'm not sure to what extent that was actually because of the London & South Wales proposal as distinct from simply being one of the collection of new lines they were planning to build at that time anyway; I suspect mostly the latter, since the London & South Wales proposal was quite daft and I find it hard to imagine that anyone really took it that seriously. It would be funny if the GWR had been a bit slower to get going and the London and South Wales lot got stuck actually having to build the thing: turns out to cost a whole lot more than 6 million quid to build it (who could have guessed?), is a disaster before it even starts, the GWR does their best to make sure it remains a disaster and eventually buys it up for peanuts.

The Wycombe railway more resembles the route of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton's idea for having a London Extension, which was a ridiculous idea they came up with, at a time when they were in no position at all to actually do it, because they weren't getting on with the GWR. It would have gone from Oxford to Wycombe and Denham via Princes Risborough, using a route very like that later taken by the Wycombe Railway, and then headed south from Uxbridge through Hayes to join the LSWR and run into Waterloo. Other variants of the idea involved connecting to the LNWR and running into Euston. It could have been fun if the LSWR variant had gone through and brought the LSWR up to Wolverhampton...

Then there was the Worcester, Dean Forest and Monmouth railway which did actually build something, but no more than a couple of earthworks the main promoter put up in a corner of his estate for something to do at the weekends. It would have connected to the Midland's Tewkesbury branch at Malvern Wells, gone south parallel to the hills and then headed south-west through Newent. Along with a couple of other proposals for lines onwards from Monmouth that might have gone ahead if the WDF&M had, and with the Midland's existing connections and running powers on the West Midland railway, it could have given the Midland a pretty decent connection into the eastern side of the South Wales coalfield and iron-making area, if they'd given it enough support; much better, as well as earlier, than the circuitous and heavily-graded route into the western side that they eventually did get. Even better if the Midland had been a bit more alive and got hold of the Heads of the Valleys route as well.

 

[Rover]

The LD&ECR (Lancashire Derbyshire and East Coast Railway), was to run from Warrington to Sutton on Sea, it started at Chesterfield and got as far as Lincoln. It was said that they planned to build a huge viaduct over Monsal Dale viaduct, not sure how practical that would have been but would certainly have been spectacular.

 

[181]

The Glasgow and North Western Railway, proposed in the 1880s, was expected to be worked by the North British, and would have brought the NB to Inverness. (In reality, of course, they eventually got as far as Fort Augustus, although not very successfully). The G&NW then fell out with the NB, at which point the Glasgow and South Western offered them access to St. Enoch in return for 'certain running powers'. My source (The West Highland Railway by John Thomas) speculates about the potential for there to have been a Scottish Great Western railway stretching from Stranraer to Inverness. Unfortunately for that version of history, the G&NW bill failed to make it through Parliament.

One wonders what would have happened in the 1960s in that scenario. I would guess that maybe two main lines to Inverness would have been considered unnecessary and the Highland route would have been preferred, but that social need and political pressure would have kept at least part of the G&NW as an equivalent of today's West Highland, more competitive with the road (but leaving the mountains around Corrour rather harder of access for hill-walkers!).

Also in the Scottish Highlands, although not taking a company into another's territory, there were various proposals for lines to the far north-west. I suspect that in that scenario we might now have a line to Ullapool but not Kyle.

It reminds me of another line the LSWR proposed- an Oxford route from Reading, possibly via Henley.

Do you know if that was ever planned in any detail? A line through the Chilterns would presumably have been expensive, steeply graded or both.

Other variants of the idea involved connecting to the LNWR and running into Euston.

I think that did happen for a few years, via the curve connecting the Worcester and Bletchley lines to the north of Oxford. Wikipedia indicates that a service ran from 1854 to 1861.

 

[The Pelican]

Do you know if that was ever planned in any detail? A line through the Chilterns would presumably have been expensive, steeply graded or both.

Having looked up the place on RM Web where I read it, it looks like it was a fictional route to go with the Metropolitan Line Oxford Branch (a proposed extension of the Brill Tramway). So I don't think it actually existed as an idea at the time.

 

[izvor]

The Manchester & Milford Railway was a glorious failure, which would have traversed (and tunnelled through) the wildest parts of Wales. There are still earthworks to be seen in unlikely places. One section that did get built, to Llangurig, only ever saw one train!

 

[Rescars]

The SR's Sutton-Wimbledon loop (complete with the "Wall of Death") successfully stymied the ambitions of London Transport to extend the Northern line south from Morden to Sutton, then part of Surrey.

 

[Ianigsy]

The Worth Valley branch was projected to go through to Hebden Bridge, which would have brought the Midland onto the Calder Valley.

 

[Snow1964]

The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway was aimed at getting freight to Southampton docks, and had aspirations for through trains north via Oxford and what is now the recently rebuilt East-West Railway.

But they ran out of money, and even though some earthworks were done for their Southampton station, never got south of Winchester Chesil (or Cheesehill on old maps) where it joined LSWR route via Shawford. Short sections ran along other lines as direct flyover routes never got built either.

Interestingly some single track sections of DN&S were doubled as late as 1943 (mainly by US military engineers) for war traffic ahead of D-Day.

 

[Pigeon]

I think that did happen for a few years, via the curve connecting the Worcester and Bletchley lines to the north of Oxford. Wikipedia indicates that a service ran from 1854 to 1861.

Yes, but there were also thoughts of something more direct connecting with the LNWR at Tring.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

There was a corridor of fairly open countryside in Middlesex between the GWR main line to Slough and Reading and the LNWR to Watford. This tempted railway promoters looking for a route into central London. It was occupied by the Metropolitan and later the GWR's New North main line. Another transport project was the Western Avenue, now the A40. Apart from Heathrow and Northolt airports, much of the rest became 1930s suburbia.

 

[Rescars]

The aspirations of the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway to enable North Staffordshire trains to reach Porthmadog were quite exciting and would no doubt have proved unpopular with the powers that be at both Paddington and Euston. Just a shame it turned out to be so unsuccessful - even Col Stephens couldn't do much with its remains in its later guise as the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire.

 

[The Pelican]

The Manchester & Milford Railway was a glorious failure, which would have traversed (and tunnelled through) the wildest parts of Wales. There are still earthworks to be seen in unlikely places. One section that did get built, to Llangurig, only ever saw one train!

I've always liked the history of lines to Welsh west coast ports- also interesting are the early victorian Cambrian proposal for a line to Porthdinllaen, near Nefyn, and the Edwardian "North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways" proposal for a 600mm gauge line along a similar route- I have always hoped one of the local narrow gauge railways would build a new Pwllehli to Nefyn line! Similarly, the GWR building the new section towards Fishguard in Edwardian times.

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There was a 'London and South Wales Railway' project in the 1890s (think Hull and Barnsley equivalent only longer) which would been interesting. And given that its best chance of being built would have been by being taken over (or brought under the wing of) an established mainline company, one wonders which - the LNWR? GCR? or (most likely?) Midland? (Just think - St Pancras for Cardiff or Bristol).

More realistically, there was a proposal for the SER to have bought up the Portsmouth Direct line. What might that have led to?


The original London and Southampton project included a branch/second mainline to Bristol from the Basingstoke area (AIUI, that's the reason for the LSW main line going the way it does). But that wasn't in the original L&S bill, but postponed to the following parliamentary session, when it was up against Mr Brunel's proposed line to Bristol.

I think the London and South Wales railway would have been an incredible thing- I think there were early proposals to electrify it as well, which because of the small clearences on existing routes, might have been easier to do while constructing it. I like to imagine it coming into it's own terminus, a sort of British version of New York's Grand Central (or early Birmingham New Street) built under an Edwardian office block. I think the Midland would have made less sense as it already had a network around Bristol, and the GCR was too reliant on good relations with the GWR to get the GWR/GCR joint railway built- perhaps, for South Wales valleys railway fans, it's most fun to imagine it as the Barry Railway's London Extension... (Other non-GWR south wales valleys railway companies are available- I particularly like the idea of it being operated by a small and poorly capitalised company like the Brecon and Merthyr or the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Merthyr Railway).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Nov 2025 ==

The SR's Sutton-Wimbledon loop (complete with the "Wall of Death") successfully stymied the ambitions of London Transport to extend the Northern line south from Morden to Sutton, then part of Surrey.

Yes, both the Northern and District lines considered Sutton extensions, which could have left the line operating like the Uxbridge branch, with District Line and Northern line trains sharing track south of Morden South.

 

[edwin_m]

There was (and may still be) an interpretation board at the site of Measurements Halt on the Delph branch, that pointed out how the nearby overbridge was big enough for double track. It claimed this was because of somebody's idea to make the branch into part of a longer-distance route, but I couldn't work out exactly what was planned.

 

[thedbdiboy]

The LD&ECR (Lancashire Derbyshire and East Coast Railway), was to run from Warrington to Sutton on Sea, it started at Chesterfield and got as far as Lincoln. It was said that they planned to build a huge viaduct over Monsal Dale viaduct, not sure how practical that would have been but would certainly have been spectacular.

I find these abandoned, part completed and marginal railway endeavours fascinating. It's probably fairer to say that the LD&ECR started at Lincoln and got as far as Chesterfield since when looked at on a map it literally ran out there. It's final mile or so included the incredible Horns Bridge viaduct to get it over both the Midland and the Great Central railways. Bolsover tunnel suffered with terrible subsidence and was the reason for the demise of the first part to close. The unbuilt part of the route would have required some immense and expensive engineering through the Peak District.
There's plenty about these routes on t'internet, although any photos and recollections tend to be accompanied by crying emojis and comments such as 'should never have closed'. We've lost plenty of strategically useful routes that in an ideal world would not have closed, but these marginal routes and Victorian speculative follies are interesting precisely because they were barely (if ever) viable when conceived and, where built, generally struggled along until an early closure.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The Midland Rly's West Riding 'cut-off' line to shorten the route to Scotland was an interesting one. The southern section to near Dewsbury was actually built - the northern section up the Spen Valley and a x- city line in Bradford was curtailed by WW1. It marched right across L&Y, LNWR and GN territory and would have put Bradford on the 'main-line'. Maybe if NPR really is a thing the northern section might be revived?

 

[Rescars]

I find these abandoned, part completed and marginal railway endeavours fascinating.
There's plenty about these routes on t'internet, although any photos and recollections tend to be accompanied by crying emojis and comments such as 'should never have closed'. We've lost plenty of strategically useful routes that in an ideal world would not have closed, but these marginal routes and Victorian speculative follies are interesting precisely because they were barely (if ever) viable when conceived and, where built, generally struggled along until an early closure.

AIUI, a significant number of potential though probably barely viable lines were lost in thd banking crisis following the collapse of Overend and Gurney in 1866. Has anyone access to a comprehensive list of these I wonder?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2025 ==

A significant number of these lines were promoted locally, but in the hope that an established company would take over operations. Sometimes the money ran out before the scheme could be completed. An example is the Ayrshire and Galloway, intended to be a link between Ayr and Castle Douglas operated by the Caledonian, but ending up as the Dalmellington branch acquired and operated by the Glasgow and South Western. What level of traffic was anticipated from this remote route is anyone's guess, apart from the substantial coal and iron business to be had at Dalmellington.

 

[izvor]

The best-known example in the south-east is probably the Ouse Valley line, mentioned by @Gloster in this thread. Construction started from the west and some of the formation almost reached Uckfield. There was a rather nice occupation underbridge just west of Uckfield, which I think was demolished when the A22 Uckfield bypass was built.

 

[daodao]

The Meon Valley and Basingstoke-Alton lines never fulfilled their promoters' dreams and probably should never have been built (and in the latter case rebuilt post WW1).

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Another interesting idea is what would have happened if the Grand Junction and London & Birmingham never merged and the former having to rely on the GWR for its passage to London? Would this had led to a GWR/GJ merger?

Perhaps the GJ would merge with the Oxford and Wolverhampton and build a combined line into London through the Chilterns. This adds all sorts of interesting potential routings, if the L&B decides to merge in with the other companies that became the midland railway.

 

[Taunton]

I suppose the extension of the Northern Line out beyond Edgware to Elstree and Bushey is one such. It would have been a long and tedious journey stopping at all stations from Bank. Like a number of late 1930s extensions under way around London works were well under way when abandoned, and never finished.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I suppose the extension of the Northern Line out beyond Edgware to Elstree and Bushey is one such. It would have been a long and tedious journey stopping at all stations from Bank. Like a number of late 1930s extensions under way around London works were well under way when abandoned, and never finished.

I suppose these services would have taken the cut off to Moorgate.

 

[Rescars]

A good source of lines, both actual and potential, can be found in Bradshaws. Not the timetables, but the Railway Manual, Shareholders Guide and Directory. The 1868 edition contains details of 464 separate companies. Plenty of food for competition and acquisition listed here, some of which actually came about!

 

[edwin_m]

I suppose the extension of the Northern Line out beyond Edgware to Elstree and Bushey is one such. It would have been a long and tedious journey stopping at all stations from Bank. Like a number of late 1930s extensions under way around London works were well under way when abandoned, and never finished.

This was originally proposed as the Watford and Edgware Railway, backed by the Great Northern and striking into LNWR territory. It would have terminated not far from the site of the unbuilt Metropolitan Railway terminus on Watford High Street.

Watford and Edgware Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The W&ER had several proposed routes and stations but was generally intended to branch from the now closed Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (EH&LR) just before Edgware station and take a northerly route, with intermediate stations suggested at various times for Stanmore (London Road), Elstree (for Brockley Hill), Caldecott Hill (for Bushey Heath), Old Bushey, and Heathbourne Road. The line was planned to terminate at a station on the eastern side of Watford High Street,[1] close to the site of Watford Central which was later planned by the Metropolitan Railway. ...

I suppose these services would have taken the cut off to Moorgate.

Yes, the services via what is now the Northern Line route would have continued to terminate at Edgware, and Bushey Heath would have been served from Moorgate via Finsbury Park.

 

[181]

There was a 'London and South Wales Railway' project in the 1890s (think Hull and Barnsley equivalent only longer) which would been interesting. And given that its best chance of being built would have been by being taken over (or brought under the wing of) an established mainline company, one wonders which - the LNWR? GCR? or (most likely?) Midland? (Just think - St Pancras for Cardiff or Bristol).

I think the NNML hardly counts, since the point of the London & South Wales proposal was that it wasn't the GWR. The basic idea was to help persuade the GWR to pull their finger out and build the Badminton cutoff already. Which they did do, but I'm not sure to what extent that was actually because of the London & South Wales proposal as distinct from simply being one of the collection of new lines they were planning to build at that time anyway; I suspect mostly the latter, since the London & South Wales proposal was quite daft and I find it hard to imagine that anyone really took it that seriously. It would be funny if the GWR had been a bit slower to get going and the London and South Wales lot got stuck actually having to build the thing: turns out to cost a whole lot more than 6 million quid to build it (who could have guessed?), is a disaster before it even starts, the GWR does their best to make sure it remains a disaster and eventually buys it up for peanuts.

I think the London and South Wales railway would have been an incredible thing- I think there were early proposals to electrify it as well, which because of the small clearences on existing routes, might have been easier to do while constructing it. I like to imagine it coming into it's own terminus, a sort of British version of New York's Grand Central (or early Birmingham New Street) built under an Edwardian office block. I think the Midland would have made less sense as it already had a network around Bristol, and the GCR was too reliant on good relations with the GWR to get the GWR/GCR joint railway built- perhaps, for South Wales valleys railway fans, it's most fun to imagine it as the Barry Railway's London Extension... (Other non-GWR south wales valleys railway companies are available- I particularly like the idea of it being operated by a small and poorly capitalised company like the Brecon and Merthyr or the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Merthyr Railway).

I seem to remember reading that the more prosperous of the South Wales railways were very profitable; if that's correct, it might have increased the likelihood of one of them, or more than one acting together, getting involved.

Did the London & South Wales idea ever get as far as having a planned route? Presumably they would have wanted to keep down both the costs and the adverse gradients for loaded coal trains, but any reasonably direct route would have had to cross the Severn estuary, the Cotswolds and the Chilterns. Maybe electric traction would have helped.