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    Tracing Lost Railways
    Tracing Lost Railways
    Tracing Lost Railways
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    Tracing Lost Railways

    By Trevor Yorke

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    About this ebook

    The drastic railway closures of the 1960s led to the slow decay and re-purposing of hundreds of miles of railway infrastructure. Though these buildings and apparatus are now ghosts of their former selves, countless clues to our railway heritage still remain in the form of embankments, cuttings, tunnels, converted or tumbledown wayside buildings, and old railway furniture such as signal posts. Many disused routes are preserved in the form of cycle tracks and footpaths. This colourfully illustrated book helps you to decipher the fascinating features that remain today and to understand their original functions, demonstrating how old routes can be traced on maps, outlining their permanent stamp on the landscape, and teaching you how to form a mental picture of a line in its heyday.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 19, 2020
    ISBN9781784423728
    Tracing Lost Railways
    Author

    Trevor Yorke

    Trevor Yorke is a professional author and artist who has studied and written about various aspects of England's architectural and industrial heritage. He has produced many illustrated books that introduce the reader to these topics and writes articles and reviews for various magazines. He lives in the UK.

    Read more from Trevor Yorke

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      Book preview

      Tracing Lost Railways - Trevor Yorke

      Title Page../img/SLI866_031.jpg

      CONTENTS

      A BRIEF HISTORY

      KEEPING A LEVEL TRACK

      SERVING THE COMMUNITY

      THE GOODS YARD

      OPERATING A RAILWAY

      TRACK AND TRACKSIDE FURNITURE

      PLACES TO VISIT

      ../img/SLI866_001.jpg

      It is hard to believe that express trains from London to Manchester were speeding through Great Longstone Station, Derbyshire, a little over fifty years ago. Today it makes for a tranquil scene enjoyed by walkers and cyclists on the popular Monsal Trail.

      A BRIEF HISTORY

      RAILWAYS WERE THE wonder of the Victorian age. They transformed long distance travel, aided the growth of industry, encouraged the development of urban areas, and sparked commuting and tourism for the masses. In order for the railways to work efficiently engineers had to design new types of bridges and viaducts, build stations to allow passengers to access trains, and develop signalling and telegraph systems to make sure they arrived safely. Their work was such a success that the rail network grew from a few hundred miles during the 1830s to a peak of around 23,000 miles shortly before the First World War, with the public served by over 10,000 stations. Despite the loss of much of this Victorian network during the second half of the twentieth century, the opening up of many disused lines as footpaths, cycle trails or nature reserves has allowed the public to explore and discover relics of these once mighty railways. Imposing structures, ruined buildings and mysterious posts or platforms can still be found amongst the trees and undergrowth, as this book sets out to describe and explain.

      Before tracing lost railways on the ground it is worth looking at documentation, which you can discover from the comfort of your home. Old maps are a rich source of information. Railway companies and private publishers issued many forms of contemporary maps and plans, some of which can be found online, showing the routes of old lines, the location of stations and sometimes even the layout of track and buildings. Ordnance Survey 1 inch to the mile maps and Bartholomew ½ inch to the mile maps published from the 1920s to the 1970s are an even better way of locating lost railways and stations, as they show their relationships to roads, towns and villages. These can still be found in secondhand bookshops on the high street or online, as well as on web-based auction sites. There are also websites holding useful information on the history of a particular railway or site (www.disused-stations.org.uk is a good example).

      ../img/SLI866_002.jpg

      Lost railways have been reclaimed by nature and form vital green corridors for wildlife, with trees and flowers enhancing the experience for today’s travellers on foot and bike, as here at Midford, near Bath, along the old Somerset and Dorset Railway.

      It is possible to trace the line of old railways by using online satellite imagery. Look for thin lines of greenery gracefully sweeping in wide curves and straight lines across the landscape. These will usually be in the form of a line of trees and scrub unless the railway is now used as a farm track or public path in which case expect to find a double line of hedgerows or fencing coursing across the landscape. Be suspicious if there are very sharp turns, right angles or a T-shaped junction along its route, as these are more likely to be an old canal, drainage channel or road. Where the area of greenery widens or the boundaries spread out it can signify this is an embankment or a cutting. If the line appears to suddenly vanish it could be the site of an old tunnel, especially if there are wide areas of greenery leading up to it. Alternatively it could be a stretch that has been ploughed away although the route of the old railway may still show up as a light or dark line across

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