Grounded bodies around the UK

[90sWereBetter]

No, don't worry, this isn't a thread about corpses.

I've noticed, on my numerous journeys along the Wherry Lines, that there appears to be a grounded wagon body just south of the Reedham swing bridge.

Here is its location

It certainly seems to have been in its current location for quite some time, and there are various things strewn inside it. This got me thinking; are there any other noticeable grounded wagons/carriages dotted around the UK rail network, in unexpected places?

 

[Peter Sarf]

No, don't worry, this isn't a thread about corpses.

I've noticed, on my numerous journeys along the Wherry Lines, that there appears to be a grounded wagon body just south of the Reedham swing bridge.

Here is its location

It certainly seems to have been in its current location for quite some time, and there are various things strewn inside it. This got me thinking; are there any other noticeable grounded wagons/carriages dotted around the UK rail network, in unexpected places?

There were (circa 2008) a few very old wagons in amongst the trees along the Catford loop. On the SW side as the line goes through a (Beckenham/Ravensbourne) park. They looked like they had been there for decades - very overgrown.

Around the same time a friend went looking for some more obvious wagons on the Sutton Park line.

I cannot help thinking they get left behind after the end of a possession and it was easier to just shove them out of the way ! ?. What price scrap metal !.

 

[themiller]

A lot of van bodies can be found on many farms being used as sheds/stores/stables/whatever especially around the north-west and Lake District.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

I've seen an old red and black Virgin mk 3 at Doncaster.
Until about 2 years ago some liquid gas tanker wagons were left at Barnetby from ages ago.
RB4 the railbus prototype was left to rot for decades. But is now being restored.
Lots of old abandoned carriages can be seen near Derby.
An old coach(mk 1?) is near Waltham windmill in use as a cafe. No line ran to Waltham despite a station being named after it.
I've heard of trains being left on closed lines on the London Underground.
I also think the disused cliff tramways all have the cars left:
Whitby, Scarborough, Clifton near Bristol.

But the best I can think of is the experimental Hovertrain in Peterborough which is on its special track.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Would this one count? Class 403 Brighton Belle Driving Car. Located at the tiny village of Rowarth, approximately 3/4 miles from Marple station on the Hope Valley Line, (Not grounded though, still complete with bogies)

 

[ExRes]

There were (circa 2008) a few very old wagons in amongst the trees along the Catford loop. On the SW side as the line goes through a (Beckenham/Ravensbourne) park. They looked like they had been there for decades - very overgrown.

I remember seeing them when we first started road learning the Willesden-Dover TPO in the mid to late 90s, the one thing that struck me was that they were vacuum only so goodness knows how long they'd been there

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I launched a thread quite some time ago with regard to abandoned wagons that ran to 100 posts and I wonder if this could be resurrected. The oldest one was an oil tanker of 1920's vintage.

 

[yorksrob]

Don't forget Dungeness, lot's of lovely pre-grouping carriages that have been inhabited for some time.

 

[theblackwatch]

I've seen an old red and black Virgin mk 3 at Doncaster.
Until about 2 years ago some liquid gas tanker wagons were left at Barnetby from ages ago.
RB4 the railbus prototype was left to rot for decades. But is now being restored.
Lots of old abandoned carriages can be seen near Derby.
An old coach(mk 1?) is near Waltham windmill in use as a cafe. No line ran to Waltham despite a station being named after it.
I've heard of trains being left on closed lines on the London Underground.
I also think the disused cliff tramways all have the cars left:
Whitby, Scarborough, Clifton near Bristol.

But the best I can think of is the experimental Hovertrain in Peterborough which is on its special track.

Things like the Virgin Mk.3 in Wabtec or the wagons at Barnetby weren't grounded though - they are/were still on bogies.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I've seen an old red and black Virgin mk 3 at Doncaster.
Until about 2 years ago some liquid gas tanker wagons were left at Barnetby from ages ago.
RB4 the railbus prototype was left to rot for decades. But is now being restored.
Lots of old abandoned carriages can be seen near Derby.

Yes but none of those, at least to my knowledge were or indeed are grounded.

 

[theageofthetra]

Plenty on Hayling Island of pre-grouping vintage.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Plenty of old van bodyshells used to be seen when driving along country roads- used as storage sheds and the like on farms. Can't remember when I last saw one though.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Plenty of old van bodyshells used to be seen when driving along country roads- used as storage sheds and the like on farms. Can't remember when I last saw one though.

Many of these saw a new life on farms as storage areas which the railway companies seemed happy to sell off at a reasonable price to the farming community.

 

[Tracked]

Many of these saw a new life on farms as storage areas which the railway companies seemed happy to sell off at a reasonable price to the farming community.

There is/was one or two near Thorpe in Balne, more or less on the site of an old railway line (Doncaster-Keadby section of the SY Railway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Yorkshire_Railway)

 

[GatwickDepress]

There's a grounded 12t ventilated wagon body at Bletchley carriage sidings.

 

[Passenger John]

Seen just a couple of hundred yards from Wool station this September, appears to be being incorporated into a bungalow.

 

[rdeez]

Seen just a couple of hundred yards from Wool station this September, appears to be being incorporated into a bungalow.

I'm sure I've seen that on a daytime tv show about custom housebuilding! If I remember right it was built by a guy for his two kids and him. Carriage as bedrooms with an extension on the other side for living space / kitchen.

 

[theblackwatch]

Many of these saw a new life on farms as storage areas which the railway companies seemed happy to sell off at a reasonable price to the farming community.

Going back to the mid/late 90s, Rail Express had a rather obscure feature on Fish Vans which were located on farms, or something like that. Some were (and probaby still are) in use as pig stys!

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

I'm sure I've seen that on a daytime tv show about custom housebuilding! If I remember right it was built by a guy for his two kids and him. Carriage as bedrooms with an extension on the other side for living space / kitchen.

I remember something similar too. It must of been one of those boring BBC repeats as my parents always set the channel to BBC1 as default.

 

[IanD]

There's 6 old vans by the M1 southbound just before junction 34.

Here on Google maps

There used to be more but in the 26 years I've been travelling regularly between Bradford and Milton Keynes/Northampton, I've seen them deteriorate and some have crumbled completely.

 

[causton]

Would this count?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/abandonment/2453320152/

Not moved since 1999, apparently full of rats and have been used by homeless people as a toilet and living area, so you can imagine what it might be like inside, heard once that drivers were told not to go near it!

Edit:

Not that I'd really want to go in there, as a trainee, we've all been told that "If you're thinking of going in there – don't." It is probably health hazard – at some point, the trains were used "recreationally", with parts of the trains being used for the consumption of undesirable substances, along with other parts of the train being used as a lavatory and other parts for sleeping in. I'm not sure how long ago this was, but from what I've seen, the interiors are well beyond repair – portions of the floor are missing, various integral parts like seats and such like have been ripped out and I honestly dread to think what else is in there.

http://districtdavesforum.co.uk/post/304010/thread

 

[Strathclyder]

Not sure if these would count, but there are 2 Mk1s and a Mk3 in use as accommodation for a bike hire centre near the village of Hawsker, North Yorkshire:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Ha...0,4.41&source=gplus-ogsb&output=classic&dg=oo

There are two ex-Virgin Mk3 Buffets (nos. 10256 & 10260) at Scotrail's Yoker Carriage Sidings in the West of Glasgow. They are/were used for training purposes. They carry Virgin livery on one side & Scotrail livery on the other:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Yo...,-1.88&source=gplus-ogsb&output=classic&dg=oo

 

[arabianights]

Would this one count? Class 403 Brighton Belle Driving Car. Located at the tiny village of Rowarth, approximately 3/4 miles from Marple station on the Hope Valley Line, (Not grounded though, still complete with bogies)

I'm probably being dim, but where is it in your pic?

 

[Strathclyder]

I'm probably being dim, but where is it in your pic?

It's near the center of the pic, just above the Little Mill Inn building.
Here it is on Google Maps:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Ro...m&z=19&source=gplus-ogsb&output=classic&dg=oo

 

[IanD]

Doesn't 'grounded' mean they've had their wheels/bogies removed rather than just being parked up in a siding somewhere.

 

[eastwestdivide]

10 pages of them, with pics over on RMWeb at
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/1486-grounded-vans/

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Doesn't 'grounded' mean they've had their wheels/bogies removed rather than just being parked up in a siding somewhere.

I thought it meant it is grounded like an airplane or kid and can't freely move. Wheels surely don't matter??

 

[30907]

Going back a bit, one of the original C19th Midland Railway Pullman cars was grounded outside Skipton well into the 1970's. Google search indicates this and other survivors are now at the MR Trust Butterley, so I've learnt something.

 

[Taunton]

Many a Somerset farmer used to buy the bodies off old 4-wheeled vans, they had to go down to the old Taunton yard and collect them themselves. I seem to recall they were something like £5 or £10 back in the 1970s. Then there was a Planning control that came in and stopped new ones, something like 'a building must have been constructed as a building'.

There's been an abandoned Underground train in the sidings next to South Harrow Underground station for what seems like 10 years, maybe more, completely covered in graffiti.

 

[StoneRoad]

At one time it seemed like almost every farm in the north-east of Scotland had a grounded carriage or van body. One of the ones from the Peterhead Quarry Railway is currently under restoration.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/312383/album/620941

The Knotty Coach Trust have just doubled the number of known NSR bodies with retrieval of three derelict examples from Rudyard Lake, which had slipped off the radar.

There are still quite a few wooden bodies (coaches and vans) out there. They need rescuing before they completely disappear.