Electric Islands

[tbtc]

There's mention of "diesel islands" on a few threads (e.g. the Thames Valley branches, if they aren't wired when the GWML is)...

...but have there ever been any "electric islands"?

At the moment I think a dual voltage EMU could get from Helensburgh to the Chanel Tunnel, or from Norwich to Weymouth (?), I can't think of any* electrified lines that are not linked to other ones?

Some are fairly awkward, e.g. to get an EMU over the Pennines from Manchester to Bradford you'd have to go down to the North London Line or up to the Carstairs - Edinburgh line.

The reason I was thinking this was a comment about the Valley Lines being wired but the GWML not being wired to Cardiff, meaning that the Valley Lines would not be linked to other electrified track.

Even if all electrified tracks are linked together nowadays, presumably there were a few "islands" in the past, before gaps were filled in (was there an electrified route off the Bury - Manchester Victoria heavy rail line?).

(* - ignoring "Test Tracks" and "Light Rail"!)

 

[Nym]

Off the top of me head, You could argue (Operationally) Merseyrail Wirral Lines, technically the line between Nav. Road and Alty, some of the Tyneside Metro perhaps?

 

[4SRKT]

Manchester Victoria > Bury

Woodhead lines (lasting right up until conversion of Glossop/Hadfield to 25 kV around 1984)

Glasgow suburban electrics before 1974.

Newcastle 3rd rail stuff before dieselisation.

 

[Buttsy]

Manchester Victoria > Bury

This also had at the Bury end the Holcombe Brook line electrified overhead (6.6kV ac I think)

 

[Tomnick]

Off the top of me head, You could argue (Operationally) Merseyrail Wirral Lines, technically the line between Nav. Road and Alty, some of the Tyneside Metro perhaps?

A hypothetical dual-voltage unit on the Wirral lines could escape via the connecting line up onto the Northern lines, then via Hunts Cross. I think I'd agree that I can't think of anywhere on the current network that'd fit the description (assuming we're disregarding the Metro!) - even on LUL, isn't the only line without some sort of indirect connection to the national network the W&C line?

 

[trc666]

That's right, the Waterloo & City line does not have any connections to other lines. It has been completely self contained since Waterloo International was built, and even before then individual carriages were transferred to and from the railway by means of a lift.

Island Line is also completely self contained.

 

[4SRKT]

This also had at the Bury end the Holcombe Brook line electrified overhead (6.6kV ac I think)

It did indeed, and this has reminded me of the Lancaster Green Ayre > Morecambe DC electrics.

 

[tbtc]

Island Line is also completely self contained

:: slaps self for forgetting::

Good point about the Waterloo & City too - interesting to think that you could get from any LUL station to any other (albeit the long way round, in some cases!)

 

[4SRKT]

Before the NLL was electrified I suppose St Pancras > Bedford and Kings Cross > Royston were electric islands.

 

[Tomnick]

Indeed - perhaps unexpectedly, the southern end Midland still is a 25kV island (it's only linked to the rest of the electrified railway by the Snow Hill lines).

 

[4SRKT]

Indeed - perhaps unexpectedly, the southern end Midland still is a 25kV island (it's only linked to the rest of the electrified railway by the Snow Hill lines).

Is there no 25 kV electrified spur from the NLL onto the MML then?

EDIT: Could you get from Kentish Town into the Eurostar part of St Pancras under the wires? From there you could access most of Europe's electrified railways!

 

[Tomnick]

The only links from the Midland are to the NLL via Acton Canal Wharf (quite a lengthy unelectrified link), and to the unelectrified T&H line at Junction Road Jn. I'm not sure that the 'Maintenance Siding' (the link between the Midland and the international platforms) is electrified either - I don't think it is (but I had forgotten about that!).

 

[LE Greys]

Before the NLL was electrified I suppose St Pancras > Bedford and Kings Cross > Royston were electric islands.

Wasn't it the other way round (at least judging by the 1960s equipment on the NLL).

Pity we can't count the Glasgow Subway or Volk's Electric.

 

[DXMachina]

Glasgow suburbans before North WCML electrification in the 70s

Edit - thumper beat me by miles. Dont know how i didnt see that.

 

[lancastrian]

Just a thought, what about the Swansea & Mumbles Railway was electrified in 1928 at 650V DC. Admititedly it could be refered to as a Tramway at that time. Also there was the Burton & Ashby Light Railway which was electic from its opening in 1906 to 1927 when it closed.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . . . some of the Tyneside Metro perhaps?

All of the T&W Metro RS are scheduled for extensive refurbishment at Wabtec in South Yorkshire.

They are transported by road vehicles.

 

[Buttsy]

There were a number of short electrifications for hospitals and the like in the 1920s such as the Leekbrook hospital branch and I think there was also one of the Longridge branch near Preston. Admittedly, these were tramway style and for freight use in the main.

 

[dickdarlington]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the Isle Of Wight. Surely the very essence of an Electric Island.

 

[4SRKT]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the Isle Of Wight. Surely the very essence of an Electric Island.

Several posts back

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I remember some very old electric "Crocodile-type" locomotives being in an old photograph somewhere up in the North-East....any idea where this was?

 

[4SRKT]

I remember some very old electric "Crocodile-type" locomotives being in an old photograph somewhere up in the North-East....any idea where this was?

I believe a section of the ECML was experimentally electrified by the North Eastern Railway. The intention was the whole line between York and Newcastle would by juiced up.

 

[QJ]

I remember some very old electric "Crocodile-type" locomotives being in an old photograph somewhere up in the North-East....any idea where this was?

you may be referring to the North Tyneside electrification which included the freight line from Manors to Newcastle Quayside Yard because of the gradients in the tunnel. One of the locos so employed hauling the freight is on display at the NRM annexe in Shildon (BR number 26500).

On the other hand you may be referring to the electrified system of lines at Westoe Colliery near South Shields. I spent a pleasant few hours there once riding the electrics down to the staithes.

 

[Oracle]

Have we mentioned the Paddington-Airport Junction line?

 

[Eagle]

Have we mentioned the Paddington-Airport Junction line?

Isn't it connected electrically to the WLL (and possibly the NLL)?

 

[Pumbaa]

Isn't it connected electrically to the WLL (and possibly the NLL)?

Dont think so. To run between the two is a DMU jobby. No juice between Mitre Bridge and Acton whatever it is junctions.

 

[sprinterguy]

I believe a section of the ECML was experimentally electrified by the North Eastern Railway. The intention was the whole line between York and Newcastle would by juiced up.

The North Eastern Railway electrified Newport (Tees-side) to Shildon for freight traffic, mainly coal and minerals, in 1913 and built a fleet of ten Bo-bo electric locos at Darlington (sub-contracted to Siemens) to work this traffic. http://www.lner.info/locos/Electric/ef1eb1.shtml

Raven also built one absolute beast of a 2-Co-2 express passenger electric loco in 1920 for use on the proposed Darlington to York electrified ECML that was also intended to eventually stretch as far as Newcastle, but the scheme never got off the ground and so the loco saw limited trial running on the Newport-Shildon line. http://www.lner.info/locos/Electric/ee1.shtml

In addition to this, as QJ says there were also the two 1905 built NER Bo-bo electrics that worked the Quayside branch from Manors in Newcastle, which definitely had a "crocodile" type of outline, and the various Siemens and later built AEG electric locos that were used on the Harton electric railway from Westoe Colliery to Harton Staiths in South Shields.

 

[tbtc]

Have we mentioned the Paddington-Airport Junction line?

Isn't it connected electrically to the WLL (and possibly the NLL)?

Dont think so. To run between the two is a DMU jobby. No juice between Mitre Bridge and Acton whatever it is junctions.

I'm genuinely surprised, but yeah, having double checked, that is the case

 

[Eagle]

Dont think so. To run between the two is a DMU jobby. No juice between Mitre Bridge and Acton whatever it is junctions.

In that case it is an island until the wires get extended to whichever of Reading or Liverpool Street they get to first (I forget timescales).

Unless it's possible to access the Central or District lines from the mainline east of Ealing Broadway? Cheating I know...

 

[Oracle]

I actually knew it seems that the line from Acton Yard to Mitre Bridge Junction was unelectrified which has always seemed odd to me...

There was indeed a connection east of Ealing Broadway between the Central Line and the GWR slow lines by way of a parallel long siding which I recall in the 1960s. This was then removed and no evidence is present now.

 

[Ploughman]

Not forgetting the Liverpool Overhead Railway.