Major / trunk roads built upon former railway routes?

[Bertone]

The A465 Heads of the Valleys road was built partly over the former Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway in south Wales.

Just finished after 23 years of construction!

 

[Razorblades]

The last ⅓ mile of the A703 into Peebles uses the line of the old Peebles Railway, from March Street down towards its junction with Innerleithen Road. The road goes through the site of the second station (Peebles East), which is marked with a plaque at ground level and a cutout of a steam engine on the wall above. The ~150 yards on the approach to the Innerleithen Road roundabout more or less follows the line of the curve that linked the North British to the Caledonian station on the other side of the Tweed, rather then the NBR's extension of the line towards Galashiels.

I always keep an eye out for the station "memorial" when I'm passing that way, and for the sole remaining railway building in the car park which now occupies the site of the NBR goods yard to the south.

I visited the car park wherein is sited the goods office in June, for the obligatory photo opportunity. I was there for the much publicised Peebles Thursday market, which amounted to two stalls - one dog food and the other carpets. Even worse than Pwllheli market!

 

[Blade Fisher]

One of the most evocative is surely Bowes on the A66. I have been watching the slow destruction of this station since the mid 1970's - it is down to the ground floor level now. Going west you see the station just past the farmer's steel 'warehouse' to the north of the A66. On your left is the original A66 gong into Bowes. As you past the station the A66 has been slewed onto the former Stainmore line trackbed. The original A66 coming back east had followed the railway to the north of it and then on an embankment crossed it at right angles. A modern replacement exists.

Further west in Kirkby Thore the practice is repeated. The A66 has been slewed across on the trackbed through the former station. Again going west you can see how the original A66 leaves the current version to the left (south) and is now effectively a lay by. It then crossed the railway at right angles before carrying on into the village.

Not sure what's going to happen with the A66 dualling here. At Bowes it is no problem as it is already dualled, but at Kirkby Thore it is still single carriageway. To the south immediately west of the station the former alignment is on an embankment judiciously cut by the adjacent farm which built some buildings on the ground there, whilst to the north a road leads to the village itself and the infamous GypRoc City (aka British Gypsum).