Removing your branch line

[Andy873]

Hi,

Do you remember your branch line being removed in the 1960s?

My problem is this - I've researched the Great Harwood loop line (Lancs) in great detail and many people have given helpful feedback, but I don't really have anything to compare it with / against.

Short background:

The line was 9 miles long and doubled
It connected at each end to two larger towns
The down line was removed 2 years before the remaining up line

Was your branch line something similar in layout? and if so, was one line left for a while before removal?

I know by 1967 only the up line was still there but how exactly did they remove it? e.g. take away the tracks first then at some point come back for the sleepers / gravel etc? or take it all away at once?

I can see photos of the demolition train with some gravel on a couple of wagons and a three man gang removing the track i.e. one man cutting the rails with a blow torch, the other two seem to be undoing the nuts etc.

Any knowledge you have would help me get a better understanding of the process especially if it was a single track with no signals or other things to take away - what speed could they do this - 1 mile a week? maybe 2?

Thanks,
Andy.

 

[Pinza-C55]

I have a video which shows a trainload of contractors travelling along the Scarborough - Whitby line 3 years after closure so they could put in bids for the demolition. Later we see the contractors cutting up sleepers using a band saw to make fence posts.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Removal of track rather depended on how good or potentially re-usable it was. This could vary between trying to pick up a 60-foot panel with a relaying crane on the adjoining line in the hope of traversing it to some track-carrying wagons a bit further along but it actually disintegrating as rotten sleepers or corroded fastenings snapped and the line actually having some quite decent welded rail that could be 'spooled in' to a long train and/or concrete sleepers carefully picked up. Ballast might be recovered with face shovels but was often needed to support the remaining adjoining line of allow for slueing. Often it might be shallow, very dirty, composed of sub-standard shingle or ash, etc.

 

[32475]

I remember seeing demolition trains on the Woodhead line on the western section between Woodhead tunnel and Hadfield circa 1987(?). Here, complete track panels were craned onto track carrying wagons and very likely for re-Use elsewhere because the rails and sleepers were in fairly good condition. As for the ballast, that stayed in place. After the track was removed the overhead power gantries were cut at the column bases and removed leaving just the stubs and the dc cable carriers by the trackside.
The signal boxes were removed and a few years later the track bed was converted into the Longdendale Trail cycling and walking route.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Nov 2021 ==

If I remember correctly, when the rails were in place, the demolition trains made best use of the rail access which became further and further west towards Hadfield as the track was lifted. For anything left to be removed after that, 4WD vehicle access became necessary and so the few road / track bed access locations such as Torside level crossing became crucial for vehicle access.

 

[Ken H]

Bridges are often demolished too. The overbridge on Brook St in Ilkley went quite quickly.

 

[RT4038]

Bridges are often demolished too. The overbridge on Brook St in Ilkley went quite quickly.

Especially metal ones (scrap value and corrosion risk) and anything under 16' headroom.

 

[Andy873]

Thanks everyone.

Yes I saw the video of the Scarborough - Whitby line, it's very interesting to watch, if not sad.

The period I'm looking at is the mid 1960s, and it seems there was a general pattern to it (at least around Lancashire) which goes like this:

Double tracked branch lines were first singled with the help of a demolition train running on the other track. Stations and some bridges demolished & at a later point the remaining track was removed.

Going from West to East, the down line was lifted (from Blackburn) and two stations removed in 1965 all the way to Padiham station.

They did the same with the up line around September 1967 but left it a little short of Padiham station as to serve Padiham power station.

There are photos of the removal of the final up line heading towards Great Harwood from the Blackburn end, and one shows the demolition train viewed from the back of the train i.e. you can see the wagons but the engine is out of sight behind a curve.

Two wagons seem to have gravel in them covered with tarpaulin.

I can also see some sort of motor vehicle in the distance, it looks like some sort of tractor right next to the train.

With regards to bridges, many were left intact as they went across the railway cuttings, or at least until the cutting had been filled in.

The final removal process just seems to come down to money, firstly there would be a cost in removing the track, secondly you'd look at what you could cherry pick and what could be sold on.

With a basic simple single line I guess the order of the day would to

1. Recover the steel rails.
2. Recover the sleepers and other bits of metal fastenings etc.
3. Recover the gravel if required.

I can only think that as to access for road vehicles it must have been at Great Harwood station (now cleared away) as there was good road access to the station site and the photos were taken only about 1.25 miles away to the West.

Photo 1 below shows the demolition train

Last Days of the North East Lancs Loop line - GH Trackb - SteamingNorth.com ... (Click on a picture to open that album and then on a picture to enlarge it...........Pictures copyright of Author

www.steamingnorth.com

Photo 2 shows the men pulling up the line

Last Days of the North East Lancs Loop line - GH Trackd - SteamingNorth.com ... (Click on a picture to open that album and then on a picture to enlarge it...........Pictures copyright of Author

www.steamingnorth.com

I'm interested at what you might conclude / spot from these two photos.

Thanks,
Andy.

 

[John Webb]

Note the gas cylinders (oxygen and acetylene, presumably) on the rail trolley, no doubt used to carve the rails up into manageable chunks.

 

[4069]

I don't think here was a standard method of doing things. If the line was to be retained as a passenger route, singling would be a slightly more complicated process than simply lifting one line.

 

[D6130]

Here, complete track panels were craned onto track carrying wagons and very likely for re-Use elsewhere because the rails and sleepers were in fairly good condition.

IIRC, a lot of the good quality CWR recovered from the Woodhead line was used to relay Penistone-Huddersfield and parts of the Ilkley branch.

 

[Bertone]

Ex LNWR/LMS - Harrow & Wealdstone to Stanmore Village.
Single line but with passing loop about mid way at Belmont.
Branch initially cut back to Belmont for a few years before full closure and converted into a footpath / nature trail for some of the trackbed.
Stanmore Village station was designed like a small church so that it didn’t spoil the look (at the time of the line opening), of the rather affluent area !

 

[Pinza-C55]

My local line (Sunderland - Penshaw) was the recipient of some short lived British Rail investment when in 1962 they replaced all the NER wooden signals with tubular steel upper quadrants and converted the lattice posts to upper quadrant as well as converting the level crossing at Coxgreen to manual lifting barriers.They also installed track circuits, concrete cable troughs and lineside location cabinets. Just 4 years later 3 of the signalboxes were closed and in 1967 the line was closed completely between Ford Works (Hylton) and Penshaw and the 5 year old signals were cut down with oxy torches. In 1971 the remaining line was singled and designalled so BR got 9 years use out of their big spend.

 

[Andy873]

Just looking back at my old emails and one of them mentions a headline from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph dated 31st December 1965 with the title:

"End of the loop line"

It states quiet clearly that the down line from Great Harwood to Padiham (approximately 4 miles) has been lifted and Great Harwood & Simonstone station main buildings have been demolished.

This now leaves me with yet another puzzle:

Scenario 1 - the 3 miles of the down line from the Blackburn end are lifted later in 1966.

Scenario 2 - BR simply left this 3 miles of down line track until 1967 when they finally removed the up line.

This is strange to me, I always imagined that BR would simply work their way up from the Blackburn end to Padiham.

It just leaves me wondering when the 3 miles of the down line were actually lifted, and just how close to Great Harwood they remained...

Any ideas?