(TRIVIA) Useful lines never built because of geography

[krus_aragon]

A genuine historical example of this can be seen in the agonising over a railway route from London to Dublin. Telford's road route (the modern A5) was quite straightforward and direct, following the mountain passes of Snowdonia and jumping over the Menai Straits by suspension bridge en-route to Holyhead. The arrival of the railways put everything up in the air again.

While the mails were diverted to Liverpool by railway (and steam packet to Dublin) there were several rival options for the long-term solution. Porthdinllaen offered the nearest natural harbour to Dublin (reducing the slow sea crossing), but the route did not particularly suit a railway: you had a choice of ploughing through the mountains or skirting along the coast. Recall that this is in the era of early locomotives that trying to build a railway over Shap was very contoversial: George Stephenson advocated taking a coastal detour via Whitehaven IIRC.

William Maddocks was very much into railways and supported the route surveyed by Vignoles that skirted Snowdonia to the south and went along the Cambrian coast, making use of the embankment he'd built near Porthmadog. This would be easier than the expense of bridging the Conwy river.

Advocates of the existing port of Holyhead were hindered by not only the Conwy but also the Menai Straits: no way could you run a locomotive over a swaying suspension bridge! In light of this another group suggested dodging all this awkward geography and building a new port in the shelter of the Great Orme's Head (modern day Llandudno). Critics pointed out that this option made for a long sea crossing, and didn't offer much of an improvement over Liverpool.

After much debate and legal wrangling, Parliament opted for the proposal supported by George and Robert Stephenson: the Chester and Holyhead Railway. (At this point they hadn't decided how to cross the Conwy and Menai, but such was the reputation of this pair that Parliament had faith in their findin a solution, which was to be the great tubular bridges.)

Even though this is the route that survives to this day, the contrast between the two routes from London to Holyhead shows how the railway had to be far more deferential to the mountains of North Wales than Telford's road was.

 

[matacaster]

A straight line from London to Glasgow is 346 miles, and passes through Derby, Rochdale and Dumfries.
Somehow, the West Coast Main Line manages to add 53 miles of indirectness.
HS2 will be a bit worse.

Yes, you are quite right. I haven't got a map handy, but I seem to remember that neither York or Preston is actually anywhere near to being on a straight route from London to Glasgow or Edinburgh.

 

[Altfish]

I've not read through all the previous posts but has Portsmouth to Ryde been mentioned?

 

[SUB62]

I seem to remember reading somewhere there was an idea to continue the Worth Valley line from Oxenhope under the hill to Halifax.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I seem to remember reading somewhere there was an idea to continue the Worth Valley line from Oxenhope under the hill to Halifax.

Not sure the geography would be the issue there, so much as the line on the other side of the valley which reached Halifax via Ingrow East and Queensbury.

 

[DarloRich]

Another pedant speaking: Westmorland no longer exists. It is in Cumbria.

and thus the entire pedantic episode was unnecessary

 

[Steamysandy]

Yes, you are quite right. I haven't got a map handy, but I seem to remember that neither York or Preston is actually anywhere near to being on a straight route from London to Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Many years ago I did an exercise which appeared to show that a line due north from Carlisle station came out at Cockenzie Power Station!

 

[edwin_m]

Even though this is the route that survives to this day, the contrast between the two routes from London to Holyhead shows how the railway had to be far more deferential to the mountains of North Wales than Telford's road was.

Although for journeys to Holyhead Telford's A5 has pretty much been superseded by the A55 following the railway along the coast.

 

[snowball]

Many years ago I did an exercise which appeared to show that a line due north from Carlisle station came out at Cockenzie Power Station!

I make it Cockenzie town by grid north or Seton Sands, Port Seton by true north.

 

[Pigeon]

I seem to remember reading somewhere there was an idea to continue the Worth Valley line from Oxenhope under the hill to Halifax.

I think it was more like under a different part of the hill to Hebden Bridge. I found a fairly detailed account on the net somewhere of the complicated shenanigans that went on between the initial proposal and the eventual opening. There was a fair bit of indecision about where the southern end of the line was eventually going to be, and one of the things that could have happened was to carry on from Haworth (with Haworth station in a different position) in a tunnel heading south, instead of turning left to Oxenhope. I remember checking it out on the OS map to get an idea of how much tunnelling would have been involved, and it wasn't too bad in comparison with other tunnels that were dug at roughly the same time.

Nothing to do with the Queensbury lines; that happened later, after the Worth Valley route had become definite.

 

[krus_aragon]

Although for journeys to Holyhead Telford's A5 has pretty much been superseded by the A55 following the railway along the coast.

True. While through road traffic to Ireland was part of the reason for dualling the A55 (in addition to the growing coastal population and holiday traffic) it wasn't the driving force, as was the case for Telford's road and the C&HR, which were notable for the extent of their government support at the time.

(The old A55 was Telford's work as well, but as just another turnpike road.)