Great Western Coffee Shop

From earthworks to completed stations and even perhaps the odd line or two, there are abandoned railway dreams across the British Isles.   I even came across one on which a solitary train ran - from WikiPedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Railway)


That case aside, the abandoned earthworks of never-completed lines lie around - from Northern Heights to early attempts at the Channel Tunnel, from Fenny Compton to Rugby and from Dombarton to Maldon (https://nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:dombarton_maldon).

So whilst I give a hearty cheer to projects underway (and that includes projects that have survived almost a week from Rishi Sunak's announcement of them), I reserve two cheers for when the first revenue earning train passes over the line, and three cheers for when the business case has been proven and the service is permanent.  I am just about allowing myself a third cheer in December here in Melksham, but cheerleaders are still needed, 10 years after getting back a useable service, to help guarantee that it still there in December 2033.

You'll know of Lullingstone station in Kent, Graham.  Built in 1939 to serve development that never came, because of the War and then the creation of the Green Belt. Never opened and largely demolished in 1955.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullingstone_railway_station

Only one train... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llangurig_branch

Dombarton to Maldon is New South Wales rather than UK... a 1980s venture, it's quite easy to find on Google Earth as its quoted as 70% complete, at the northern end of the line piers and the deck of a viaduct run confidently towards a river gully - and there's even the odd hoarding to be found announcing its purpose as a imminent freight corridor.

Closer to home, that line from Drybrook to Mitcheldean Road... that never carried a train service did it? Despite being completed and track laid....

Mark

The Northern Height is quite well known (at least amongst maverick circles such as ours - but how many of us have come across the Southern Heights (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Heights_Light_Railway) and reading up on that lead me to plotlands (https://www.spatialagency.net/database/the.plotlanders) and the need (at least perceived at least by thems who likes to tell other what they can and cannot do) to have the planning permission system.  I must get a life - I spend far too long drifting around obscure pages and sites.


Ah - childhood memories.  Country walks from Eynsford station, across the bridge by the ford, diagonally across the field up the hill to where the public footpath crossed the railway at the end of Lullingstone Viaduct and onwards past Lullingstone Park to Parkgate. The remnants of the station, I recall, were in the cutting just before the railway entered the tunnel on its way to Swanley, passing under the Crockenhill Road.   All of which will mean nothing to the readers who don't know the place, but I can close my eyes and picture it.   Thanks for bringing back those happy memories, Richard - I wonder what it's like now.

When the GWR built their Clifton Maybank extension to Yeovil Junction access was via a north to west chord. At the same time they laid the earthwork for a south to west chord but this was never used. The slight embankment can still be seen on Google maps( satellite) and in the National Library of Scotland OS maps

It's visible as you pass on the train too.  Following the Mark Harper approach, as an example of how things could be improved for the future I suggest (re)laying the whole triangle and having Westbury - Weymouth services call (with reversal) at Yeovil Junction.

*Notices that, flooding conditions aside, and also that the line would draw a bead on Clifton House, the river valley curve beneath Yeovil Junction did most of the excavation for a hypothetical curve enabling Yeovil Junction low level platforms*

Curious little (ex) passage beneath the entire Yeovil Station site.

The various earthworks and particularly the scarp on the outside of that river bend show up well on lidar

Mark

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.3&lat=50.92709&lon=-2.60874&layers=253&b=18

It had crossed my mind as well. You would run into the current heritage railway platforms which are used by the heritage railway and, I think, Network Rail. How the Yeovil Railway Centre would be able to continue to run its services is another aspect.
It would need significant alterations to pway and signalling. Would Pen Mill control it or Basingstoke ROC?

I see no reason why it could not run into the Network Rail down platform. 

If the alignment on the triangle was intended as double track the railway centre line could perhaps be diverted to run parallel on the southern chord?

The photo shows the current layout at Yeovil Junction. The down sidings are used for stabling stck overnight. There is no signalled route to the sidings from SE4753 on the current line from Pen Mill.
The envisaged idea would be to connect via the siding used by the Yeovil Railway Centre, the old Clifton Maybank line, in the down direction. This would access the current heritage platform. Reversing would be out along the west to south chord. The question arises about how this would be signalled. Could a train be held in this new alignment while another is signalled on the main GWR line?

Most of these "never even opened" lines would be a laughing stock if we suggested them today, but the Clifton Maybank curve(s) / changes at Yeovil would be a very serious idea - not opening next year, perhaps, but as a sensible sort out of a Yeovil for the future.  Passenger interchanges between the two lines that cross there, Exeter to Weymouth services and even a flying junction to let trains off the GWR main line via Castle Cary join a redoubled "Mule" with robust operation.    Listening to Keir Starmer yesterday, perhaps some of his new homes would be built in communities around already-existing stations - future communities at Beer Hackett and Chetnole with transport infrastructure and services in place. 

There would need to be some thought about how the timetables would work with this. 

You'd probably want to get everything to cross at Yeovil Junction so as to maximise the connections. At Yeovil you'd mostly be concerned about connections between the Salisbury -  Exeter service to/from the Weymouth direction. Exeter - Westbury and Salisbury - Westbury connections would only matter for the intermediate stations.

Crossing at Yeovil Junction looks possible - the running time to Weymouth and back would work with a two-hour frequency.

But it would mean that you'd want to have two platforms or one long one (in Penryn style).

That's a bit like how Ely used to work with a two-hourly cycle before the electrification of the King's Lynn line - all four trains (from London, King's Lynn, Birmingham and Norwich) would meet every two hours. 

This type of scheme at Yeovil Junction has been proposed since Noah was a young man. The question today is what is the real demand for such an interchange facility. There are (good?) alternative options to Exeter and beyond from Castle Cary. Weymouth to Exeter demand cannot be especially large and an interchange would really only enhance services - Weymouth to Crewkerne, Axminster and Honiton. Axminster already has a reasonable bus connection. Some eastbound journeys towards Salisbury might also be improved.

There are various proposals for a Weymouth to Waterloo service via Yeovil and Salisbury. These are especially promoted by local MPs who claim a faster journey would result compared to that via Southampton. I have not looked at the timings but without some express services (YVJ to SAL/WAT) and an increase in capacity over all the single line sections, it looks like fairy dust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Young

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/noahyoung.jpg)

Speaking of Yeovil: newspaper article on a timetable boost from December as SWR reinstates services lost during the earlier part of the pandemic.

Mark

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/rail-boost-more-trains-run-8819912 (https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/rail-boost-more-trains-run-8819912)

In 1985 there was a suggestion of providing a halt on the Weymouth line approximately opposite Junction signal box. However, the problem of getting passengers between stations was too problematic to solve.

Graham's Torrington milk tanker 'On this day' post has reminded me of the enormous hump in the M5 as it passes Tiverton Junction - built to take the motorway over railway up the valley to Hemyock - but with the earthworks for the bridge built the railway inconsiderately closed, leaving its mark on the M5 for all time.

Mark