Northampton Water tower..

Hi guys,
I saw this the other day on the train from Northampton. How is is still there, anyone know more about it ?
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Its still there because it would be an utter PITA to get it out. To my knowledge its been donated to at least 2 heritage railways over the years, certainly it was going to go to the Welsh Highland for a while, but the fact that to get it taken down would require either an ENORMOUS crane, rather a lot of vegetation clearance, and both a railway and main road closure or dewiring that stretch of the WCML so it could be dropped down to trackside and taken out on road railers. Suffice to say it was deemed to be too much work, and far too expensive, and Braithwaite sectional tanks were available cheaply second hand, so the decision was made to give it back to NR.

 

But why did it survive that long? Surely it should have been demolished when the wires went up in the first place? BR didn't hesitate with other steam age infrastructure.

 

There's another one on the upminster line, handed from the LMS to BR to London Underground, guess similar reasons its still there.

 

The wires went up around Northampton in 1965, and were livened up in June of that year, steam was based in Northampton until September 65, and would have worked there on and off for the next 2 or so years. By that time the same infrastructure problems that exist today were there, although possibly moreso, since the Market Harborough lines were still open at that point (up until 1981)