double track at other heritage railways

A section of trackbed near Hardingham (MNR) has been restored, sheeted and ballasted for a reasonable distance by a contractor using it as training. The Thuxton loop has of course made the Thuxton area double again, also a siding at Wymonhdam has added the double effect.

 

Just to confirm position re: NYMR second track, it was the cost that precluded this being purchased at the time the line was saved. I have checked today with one of the three surviving founder members - who also confirmed that the best track was kept from the two! (Another founder was the local PWay supervisor!)

Steven

 

The Mid Hants was double track for a while between Alton and Butts junction. This one mile section was "singled" some time after the line to Basingstoke was closed in 1932. I say "singled" because the tracks were used as two independent single lines from Alton, one for the Mid Hants and one for the Meon Valley.

In the early eighties there was talk of re-doubling this section but nothing ever came of it.

Today the formation is used as the Alton loop (the Mid Hants side of Alton station has a run round loop only that isn't used for arriving passenger trains) and a long storage siding. I would love to see the Alton loop extended to Butts junction operating as a double track section with the reinstatement of Butts junction signal box (the brick base of which is still in place). The stock stored in the siding could be relocated to a new long siding down the old Meon Valley formation.

Now to reality! The extra staff required to operate this section would be prohibitive, as we simply just don't have them. The undoing of the incredibly hard and dedicated work carried out by the S & T team to commission the new automated signalling at Alton would be, well, wrong! Apart from us playing trains the double track would serve no other purpose (the Alton loop being perfectly adequate for intensive timetables such as galas) and therefore would not be revenue generating. The cost would be astronomical compared to any gains and so, regretfully, I don't think this will happen but nothing is impossible in preservation today so, who knows?

 

Was not Peak Rails line mainline double track with named trains and also the route of the Blue Pullman.

Pete

 

Yes, the Midland line through the Peaks was a main line and was double track. As for double track, I can't see it at Peak Rail due to the present state of its development and rate of progress; their main aim in the long term should be to extend lengthways. In Derbyshire, double track at the Midland Railway Centre might be a possibility in the longer term, given their shortish running line and constraints on extension?

 

The GCR raised enough money to purchase the track, but couldn't purchase the line nor stations. They didn't even raise enough money to purchase all the track still extant. So British Rail took up the track in various stages, when MLPG (later MLST) took over the site in 1969, there was still double track as far as Abbey Lane Sidings, which was gradually taken up, first the Down Main was taken out from Abbey Lane to Rothley, then from Rothley to Quorn, then the Up line from Abbey Lane to Rothley was taken out. Finally, BR gave MLPG the choice of either double track from Loughborough to Quorn, or the up line from Loughborough to Rothley. As such, the Down Line from Quorn to Loughborough was taken up in the mid 1970s.

There are some photographs floating around of Littleton No.5 passing 45231 on the double track between Loughborough and Quorn taken in the early 1970s.

 

Hardly 'on a plate'; it's true that David donated over £1M towards the project over a period of time, but the GCR also had to raise a lot of money itself (share issue, donations) and it also sucked money out of the rest of the railway, to the extent that for more than one summer season we just about ran out of servicable steam engines, and also had to sell half a dozen coaches (which, now, we could really do with). It's taken until the last year or two to really recover from the financial brink, in fact the management would probably say that we still need to be careful. Plus, most of the track was installed by a paid staff of no more than four people, using second-hand materials, and the signalling was designed, installed and commissioned entirely by volunteers, with nearly all of the components recovered and restored from scrap. Had it been a commercial exercise you'd have been talking about multi-millions, and I'm not sure that many heritage railways are as fortunate as the GCR in terms of having volunteers with the necessary skills and licenses to do this sort of work 'in house'.

Phil

 

I don't know how widely this is known, but parts of the current Severn Valley Railway were designed and built for double track. If you look at Oldbury Viaduct, Knowlesands tunnel and cutting, they were laid out for double track, as there was a plan to have a branch to Wolverhampton, back in the 1800s, which never got off the ground. Victoria Bridge is also built to take double track, just as its brother at Ironbridge is. If you examine the piers next time you cross it, you can see the ledges cut into them, which were there to support the ends of the walkway, which now runs inside the handrails, because there is only one track across it. North of Bewdley, there is a section which was "double," although it was two parallel single tracks, one the current, Shrewsbury line, the other, the Tenbury and Woofferton line, which used to diverge at the "Tenbury Wall," over Dowles viaduct, up through the Wyre Forest, to Cleobury Mortimer, Tenbury Wells and Woofferton Junction.

I have to admit, I would like to see that re-instated, together with the Stourport section that we still own, to be used for photography charters and on galas and the like, either with a DMU, or, a 14XX and Autocoaches. Then, we could stage simultaneous departures and arrivals and have "races." As always, lack of dosh, plus other competing demands get in the way. I don't think many people realise just how expensive it is to re-lay track and signalling

 

I believe this section of 'double track' was still in place for filming the Sherlock Holmes film 'Seven-Per-Cent Solution', which saw a chase sequence and parallel running on a supposed Central European railway. This would have been in the mid 1970s.

 

Technically, the section between Bewdley North and Bewdley South Boxes on the Severn Valley is signalled as a double track block section (with a bidirectional loop on one side). I am not sure if there any other similar examples on heritage lines where "passing" stations have a box at both ends.

David

 

yup our track before it was removed in the 1970s was double tracked, but it would be both prohibitively expensive and bring little return to double track it again, like the man says finishing off the current projects then extensions to matlock town (awaiting) and rowsley village are worth more to the volunteers and the railway.

the loop at darley dale has the appearance of double track,along with the fact the loop is worked by absolute block from both crossing boxes.

technically when we finish matlock,the line into there will be double track for around 1/4 mile as one side of their runround loop will be operated over by us and the other by NR as a siding line,come whatever..

dom s&t peak rail

 

Here are the pictures

Wymondham Siding

Thuxton Double again

Sheeted and ballasted near Hardingham

 

Any plans to use that doubkle track at Hardingham after the contractor?,will it be relifted again etc, any news above and beyond the regular updates on your website of how the passing loops progressing pls!!

 

I don't think the intention is to use it as double track - in the Mid Norfolk's magazine, 'Blastpipe', the P-way engineer noted that the track at this location contained some of the oldest components on the line and the rails are worn. This exercise will enable the replacement of the track before the existing line is removed at sometime in the future.

 

The Nene Valley Railway was double track but IIRC singled after passenger services were withdrawn in 1964.

 

The section where this was mainly filmed was south of Bewdley (rather than north) using the converging Kidderminster & Stourport lines. A length of the Stourport line was relaid temporarily for the purpose. This was made easier because the SVR own the trackbed of the Stourport line as far as the tunnel on it.

 

See my Gallery http://rides.webshots.com/album/577098286IPlLsO?vhost=rides or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE8VEszJzDU
plus http://www.thuxtonloop.org.uk

 

The Strathspey has a box at each of Boat of Garten (North and South boxes) which would have been worked as an Absolute Block section and had the back-platform where trains from Elgin/Craigellachie would have terminated before working back north.

Two single lines existed to the north of Boat, the Highland and GNSR lines running in parallel for about 2.5 miles before going separate ways.

 

The next line being built double track is to accomodate the Pines Express (not yet) and of course is Midsomer Norton to Chilcompton