Clues on Google maps are narrow corridors of trees on long lines that go on for miles like small rivers but with no water, where old houses will back onto on either side, but not encroach onto the narrow corridor.
Especially at the ends or connecting to existing railways. Such as here where you can easily follow the path of the former line from Battersby to Picton: goo.gl/maps/7Z3AZcCDBESxUztT9 or here where you can see the former line connecting Whitby Town to Whitby West Cliff and the Larpool viaduct: goo.gl/maps/NvUYc1sn242T9T9EA Fascinating for those of us who lived in the area as kids but are now a continent away.
@@katbryce True. Which means you have to use a certain amount of judgement here. And the “What did it connect to?” question probably gives you the answer.
Lines of infill houses in suburban areas are easy to spot on Google Maps, so not lines of trees like you describe, but lines of houses built on the old right of way.
@@zork999 Looking at the parcel layer of the local map often helps as well. Look for properties that break the pattern. The line up with each other but not so much with the rest of the neighborhood.
Here in australia too, although they often seem haphazard and disorganised. like there will be a rail bridge, the walking track wont go over it, itll deviate off so you have to walk on a road for a bit, then re join the rail route after the bridge, quite annoying when theres 15 small bridges and a large one on a track in the space of about 10km
"Rails to Trails" was the result of a specific 20-year+ campaign by environmentalist and bicyclist groups, and has worked out well for everyone involved.
"Rails to Trails" is a name given in the USA, in the US and Canada, bike tracks, and hiking trails (often with the old ballast left in place, it doesn't have the same resell value as the rails) Sadly, you had a case where there was a relatively sucessfful tourist railway operation that was deliberately sabotaged by people who wanted a bike trail with NO train track next to it (somewhere in New York State)
An old boy once told me “Where there's pines there's lines". He explained it referred to the propensity of railway companies, in particular the GWR to plant fast-growing coniferous trees to screen railway buildings. I've spotted a number of hidden railway gems, often from the top deck of a bus, by remembering this old adage.
I agree, I grew up near Derby Rd Ipswich where a long line of mature pines stand guard over the sad remains of the down platform & building. Many former GER stations in E Anglia have similar rows of pines.
Over here on the Isle of Wight there are numerous reminders of the bygone railways. Concrete fence posts in abundance, rail built signals cut off at ground level, bridges and tunnels still accessible in places. My favourite is a single arch bridge in a garden. Now that is what you call a garden feature. I've walked the footpaths extensively over the years and still find more evidence even now. They built a bypass through Newport in the early 70's which required the last remaining sections of the railway to be demolished. The brick arches were knocked down, but some of the brick piers remained and were incorporated into the bypass' embankment. You can still see them today. The tunnel taking the line under Fairlee Road is now a pedestrian path and it still has ceramic insulators on its walls which used to carry signal and telegraph wiring - they've bricked in the recesses though. Many of the lines have been converted to cycle paths which still have remnants on show if you know where to look. There's even a platform in a garden centre complete with concrete pillars for the station name. And people still complain about the last line closure in 1966. A fair bit of railway architecture was saved and given to the Isle of Wight Steam railway of which I'm a volunteer. I was there today fixing issues with a signal track circuit amongst other things. Working on signalling that existed at various locations on the Island. Even buildings were saved. We have three signal boxes all using lever frames from signal boxes long gone. Some of the carriages in service now are known as 'chicken sheds' as when at the end of their service life they were used in gardens to house chickens. Some were used as house extensions, others as beach huts. Many donated back to the railway and restored. I suppose you can call it recycling or up cycling. But the main thing is they are in use, looked after, and will serve for many more years. The sun was out today - two trains in service full of passengers enjoying the glorious weather. Calbourne and Newport in steam looking glorious. No need for me to reminisce as I can live the dream whenever I have free time.
The Isle of Wight railway is almost unique among heritage lines in using genuine Edwardian or Victorian carriages that either ran on the railway or have been restored since, rather than the endemic BR Mk 1's. So you get an extra-historic experience from travelling in them. Plus Newport (LBSC Terrier) is around 150 years old while Calbourne (LSWR O2) is a relative youngster at 130ish.
Near where I grew up was what everyone thought was just a farm track. The one thing that struck me about it was that it was straight as a die for over 1 mile, and rather than serving any agricultural purpose, then forked off along the edge of some public sports fields. It was many years later that I discovered it was the last remaining stretch of trackbed of the Edmonstone Waggonway, which opened in 1818, but which was apparently abandoned when the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway opened in 1831. It has since disappeared beneath a new university building and a housing scheme. But I managed to get some photos before then.
Who doesn’t love an abandoned railway, pointless wall or bridge over nothing??? I’m especially fond of the old Merton Park station house (now a very pretty private home). And as for the artificial bat cave! 🦇
Somewhere on Brick Lane in East London, I found a really old map of the part of Nottingham where I grew up and had to buy it (ostensibly for my dad, but you know...) just to follow the rail routes from the time. It was an utter smorgasbord of pre-Beeching routes.
Firstly, why would an artificial bat require a cave, and secondly, iron age hillforts generally had meandering and awkward approaches to hinder potential attackers.
@@SlartiMarvinbartfast Naturally, he needs to fight artificial crime with his artificial friend, artificial Robin. _Are we done with that joke now? :)_
The Malta railway was closed in 1930, but the remains are still very visible: old station buildings, bridgeheads, bridges, and embankments. Even more helpful is that there are several streets called "Old Railway Track". You know, in case you had any doubt.
In Burgess park in Camberwell, there is a bridge that appears to be there for no apparant reason. It wasn't over a railway line though, but a canal going through a residential and industrial area. The houses were so badly bombed during the blitz that after the war, the area was turned in to a park and the canal filled in. Just thought I'd share that with you.
It wasn't filled in until the early 70s. I can well remember walking down the ramps to the towpath from the Commercial Way bridge and the timber floating to the Whitten timber yard roughly where Peckham Library is now. It wasn't the cleanest of canals!
@@stephenweston1807 I remember that canal which joint up with both the late wood yards at what is now the Peckham pulse & the one in Camberwell Rd/Albany Road.
As ever, very watchable, Mr. Hazzard! Living, as I do, in Northamptonshire and in ex-Great Central and ex-Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction country, abandoned railways are all around me. Oh, don't they afford wonderful walks!
My favourite definately has to be the abandoned line in south Croydon. The footbridge over the old halt is still there and so are the tracks from what I can remember. Used to walk over it when I was a kid and was FASCINATED by it 😂
Some paths around Liverpool waterfront are much wider than standard, which is where the Liverpool Overhead Railway used to run over. Yes, clues can really be that small.
One thing I've noticed walking old lines is fruit trees near where signals once were. I assume they grew from pips & stones thrown out of cabs of engines standing at the peg.
Where railways are converted into cycleways and footpaths they provide great recreational and sustainable transport resources. One of my favourites is the 14 mile long 'Cuckoo Trail' in East Sussex from Polegate near Eastbourne to Heathfield, via Hailsham, Hellingly and Horam. This follows the well graded trackbed of the railway line through beautiful contryside, with stations and bridges and a lot of other bits of railway history. It's well maintained and looked after and there are bicycle hire/repair shops, picnic areas, cafes and pubs en route. It makes for a very enjoyable - and pretty easy cycle ride suitable for all fitness levels. It'd certainly make a nice day out for a RUclips railway channel host to film too.
I was out on a walk in Newton, MA on a recent visit to Boston (USA) and walking along I passed what clearly was an embankment from a former railway line! I was quite chuffed with myself for noticing and it's thanks to videos from you and Geoff Marshall that I have this new found interest in abandoned railways ad their remaining infrastructure. For anyone local to the area, I highly recommend Hemlock Gorge in Upper Newton Falls and the nearby Greenway, easily accessible from Boston on the T (Green Line D to Eliot, 10 min walk). The gorge always has two car parks.
Further out in the sticks, it's quite common for villages to retain their old 'Station Road' or 'Railway Street', despite there being no railway anymore.
Dronten (The Netherlands)'s "Spoordreef" (Railway chase) predates the railway by a few decades, as does the stretch of land in the shape of the railway. This is all new land, and the railway was planned (and land left free) when it was created from the formersea floor in the 1970's, but it took until the 2000's for a railway line to be built.
Google Maps satellite view is a great tool for tracing old lines. Long, incongruous lines of trees that seem out of place are a giveaway, especially if there’s a gap, which screams “tunnel”.
"You are the embankment to my railway." I wonder what Freud would have made of that. Once again, thank you for a wonderful and entertaining presentation.
While not exactly things you'd notice on a walk, there are indicators of a railway that are much more visible from the air, such as when using a map viewer like Google Earth. Sometimes its something as basic as a treeline or line of fences that doesn't follow the pattern of the divisions of the country land around it, especially noticable if it's making turns or going diagonally across the fields. In more urbanized areas, you will see buildings/lots whos outlines appear to be curved for no reason in particular, and a bunch of them in a series means you're certainly looking at an old industrial area where delivery spurs split off from the mainline.
there used to be a small narrow gauge line near where my family comes from in France. all that remains nowadays are one tunnel, a few small stations converted into houses, and, in some places, oddly smoothly curving roads, sometimes named the equivalent of "train station street". apart from those, i had to find a map of the old line to actually trace its path.
Where I live in Central California, they did exactly what you described with an abandoned railway-they pulled up the tracks and made it a walking/bike path with a small park in the wider section.
Do be somewhat warey if you decide to explore them, especially if track is in place. Just because the rails may be rusted over doesn't mean its not used or guarded. I mean if there are trees growing out of it, then your probably fine. Even if tracks are lifted there can be voids from track drains, UTXs or other utilites. Be wary of such thing. Just use common sense and happy hunting
There's a lot for a railway archaeologist to do in Edinburgh - all the running/cycling paths are set up along the old network of narrow gauge rails, with bits of viaducts, platforms, tunnels and a few station buildings still clearly visible.
Blackburn in Lancashire (where I live) used to have a tram system it was in operation from about 1881 to 1949. The main stop in town was called the Boulevard and after the trams stopped running it was turned into the bus station. A few years ago a new bus station was built and the Boulevard site was redeveloped. It came as a surprise to absolutely no one in the town when the developers, after digging down and removing the modern road surfaces, found below the old cobbled streets with the tram tracks still embedded in them!!
Another thing to look out for is recent development alongside an old railway with a triangular ground plan. It'll be the site of a goods yard or sidings.
Another thing to watch for is narrow, curved, or oddly-shaped lots. City surveyers normally like to draw square lots, but railroads like their curves as broad as possible. There are a handful of narrow, out-of-square lots in my town that helped me trace an abandoned alignment.
There are a number of pubs called "The Railway", "The Station Hotel", "The Railway Tavern" or similar which are nowhere near a railway line. Usually these signify that when the place opened there was a railway line, and probably a station, nearby. I'd recommend looking for and researching these ... much more fun than looking for allotments or out-of-place architecture. Who knows, after a few pints you may be able to hear the ghostly sounds of Victorian steam-trains passing nearby. :)
I live on the old railway which led to the Yorkshire Main Colliery in Edlington, Doncaster. Less than half a mile away is the site of Warmsworth Halt station, built on the Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Railway. Coincidentally, the station was opened on 1st May 1916 (106 years ago today), but was used for goods traffic. The only passengers were enthusiasts travelling on ‘specials’, though a long standing local resident once told me that the station was also used for colliery clubs’ annual family day trips to the coast.
Some favourite ‘spots’ in there from my childhood! The Ally Pally line north of Finsbury Park was my first experience of walking an abandoned railway in London, so it is always good to see that and the Palace Gates line as they were both ‘round the corner’ when my dad lived in Hornsby and then latterly Finsbury Park 😎 It is nice to see so many converted for municipal use and providing vital havens for wildlife, although of course back when a kid (and when fencing off of abandoned sires was, shall we say, a little less thorough) these places were more like the railway equivalent of the Mary Celeste, with so much infrastructure left behind and sometimes whole sections of line left in situ for years as they were “mothballed” before removal much later 🤓 I actually like nothing more than to waste a day off (when I should be doing something far more practical) following the outline on Google maps of long-gone lines, such as the two above lines. It helps you map out where the line went and gives you an idea of how to access the line and where to start your trek! 😜 And yes, I do this for all manner of lines. In the end you do get a nose for it and you are able to find the footprint even of lines that you know have been lifted decades and decades ago. Ah well, it keeps me quiet and out of trouble 🙄 Cheers Jago 👍🍻🍀
As a kiddie, us kids used to walk the line from old Gravesend West across the bridge to Southfleet and was lucky that one of the old dears who lived in Southfleet used to give us drinks and cakes and we would watch the old coal tipplers still at work and occasionally if me father was at Farningham Road signal box I used to send a "hi" back via driver of said coal trains. I also remember with a mate who lived in Norwood us wandering over to the old closed line that is now part of the tramlink, finding bits to nick and take home (I never could cos me dad used to go spare if I brought home railway mementoes :( ) Also have fond memories of the steam engines at Imperial Paper Mills, fireless loco's that survived into the 70's and the old Bowaters railway where us kids begged and pleaded the workers there if we could ride a bucket on the ropeway, moody buggers always said no and of course the old Sheppey branches now long gone although Ford's branch is merely abandoned, in the summer holidays I used to go in to work on occasion with me 33 driving uncle Ray and we would in between the "Quest for Tea" missions work in and around Hoo, Sheerness, Queensborough, occasionally up to Hither Green or on special days a run to Olympia/Willesden with a Ford train but that all ended when utilising the "guards loo" aka the open loco door I went for a widdle just as we were passing a farmer leaning on the fence enjoying the sun and ended up with a golden shower and learned some new swear words that day but I was not allowed to go into work with me uncle from that day on as farmer rang up BR and made a bit of a stink... From a very early age I discovered much of British Rail existed around the "Quest for Tea", when uncle was waiting for signalman to come down to the exit of Ford and occasionally it was me father who wandered along nothing happened until the tea was brewed, poured and drunk, no railman went anywhere without his bag containing his tools of the trade which included a tea caddy, mug, tin of Marvel instant milk and a spoon so plated with tannine it was black.
Theirs a few reminents of old railway architecture locally. In Sunderlands Mobray Park, theirs a funny one. You have an old railway cutting across the park with a bridge over the middle bit, the old rails were there when I was a kid, but now are converted to a woodland walkway from the bridge going eastwards. To the west of the bridge is blocked off as another railway cutting exists, which is lower then the first cutting and cuts diagonally under the park, but where the woodland cutting is had a bridge over the deep cutting which was only about 5 foot deeper then the original cutting. On Chester road are two walls where an old coal line cut over and the original Sunderland to Durham railway was converted to a footpath in the 80s but then reclaimed for the Metro line. And theirs a bricked up tunnel on the riverside, but due to building works it's being completely covered.
I live close to the old railway that ran from Brokenhurst in Hampshire, via Wimborne in Dorset down to Poole. It was known as the Castleman Corkscrew because of its twisty nature. A lot has been built on, some of it is roads, some cycle Track, but you can still see signs of it. Burley Station is a tea room, and Ashley Heath Halt still has part of its Platform there behind the Shop I used to work in. A lot of the old road bridges over the track obviously still exist too.
I love an abandoned railway line to explore - here in Surrey, we have remarkably little in the way of abandoned railways with just the Surrey stretch of the Guildford - Christ’s Hospital line as main line. But, you can find other quirky remnants such as remains of the old line to the sand quarries (now Watercolour) in redhill including a crossing gate and done track! Or the Merstham extension of the Surrey iron railway which has some of the world’s oldest remaining railway architecture!
The Guildford-CH line has the quirky bridge over the Arun near Rudgwick which looks normal from the track bed but if you nip down by the stream it is twin-decked. The Govt Inspecting Officer refused permission to open it as Rudgwick station was on too steep a gradient, and they had to raise the entire line as far as the bottom of the dip over the river.
Addiscombe was my father's D grade cover when he worked Relief Elmer's End and passed out all the line up and down, we had to move back to south London from Gravesend, when he got E grade at Wimbledon A he maintained a lot of his D grade workings and BR paid him a lot of overtime to go cover say Effingham Jnc as it was easier to get a relief in to Wimbledon A than it was for a fair few D rated signalboxes. Chislehurst was another box he kept going and he kept Shortlands and Beckenham Jnc passed out until their demise simply as for him it was a short drive from our house in Bromley and of course he was paid full whack time and a half/double bubble for a grade job two levels below him. I do remember a very funny BR quirk regarding the Bricklayer's Arms branch, despite it being abandoned pretty much, the signals from its deviation on the fast spur past New Cross and down the ramp were on the maintenance lists for the S&T, the next up and down signals past the ramp on ground level were meticulously maintained despite the rails long nicked and the signals vandalised and stolen for scrap... off would go the S&T and refit new signals until someone actually looked at the crazy situation and took them out of service finally. A shame as today the Bricklayer's arm branch would be very useful for bridging the SE and Central divisions with an alternate route. Oh Horniman's Museum has a railway walk along the old line from Crystal Palace to Nunhead, it pays too to wander over the other side of Sydenham Hill to Crystal Palace parade where the old tunnel mouth is still there and the beautiful and ornate booking hall is going to reopen. You can see some of that line too still at St Johns where it used to once cross down to Blackheath, the Lewisham-Nunhead spur is all that remains of the line save the bit at Horniman's and Crystal Palace parade.
In my town, West Bridgford, a suburb of Nottingham, two stretches of the track are preserved as paths, but the bits in between them either have long skinny buildings, or have the houses built at a different angle to everything else around them. You can visibly see what the parcels of land they sold off were. It’s a shame we no longer have that track honestly, although we’d now need a new bridge to connect it back up to Nottingham anyway (Lady Bay bridge has become an invaluable road crossing over the Trent. In an ideal world we’d be on the tramline, but as we’re not officially part of Nottingham city proper, that’s never happened. I had hoped having a Premier league football team would spark some interest in it again (despite being called the City Ground, it’s not in the city), but it sounds like the plan is probably just to move the team instead unfortunately.
A favourite subject! ⭐️ I even did a project at university about converting old railway rights of way into bike paths. Alburgh, Vermont used to be a railway junction, so the Alburgh peninsula has 2 abandoned railways which were favourite places to go for a hike. As “almostfm” said for California, here in Quebec many old rail lines have been converted into cross-country bike paths. One can go from Montreal 80km all the way north to Sainte-Agathe and 100km east to Sherbrooke on them.
Another good sign, here in the States, are power lines following a curve for no apparent reason. They're often the remnant of a railway, which are frequently used for utility corridors even after the tracks are lifted. This is especially the case for interurban railroads, electric-powered lines that popped up with the development of multiple-unit technology at the start of the 20th century and faded quickly with the government investment in roads. Electric railroads were often the source of electricity in rural areas, and they left the wires behind.
And where streetcar/tram lines used to run on private right-of-way in the US, you'll often see an unusually wide alley, or somewhat newer buildings on narrow or wide-but-shallow lots. Or other telltale traces on property maps. As for rural lines, sometimes you see a rail trail, sometimes you see the abandoned embankment with trees, or abandoned bridges that were never fully demolished. And sometimes neighboring farmers bought the land and all you'll see is a slight discoloration of the crops on that line in aerial photos -- which might connect to more obvious traces at either end.
Walked 18km between Bristol & Bath on an once abandoned railway, now repurposed as a foot/cycle path yesterday. No traffic, lovely scenery, a glorious day out.
Ha! That's a great idea, if I had the money and location I would hire someone to paint an extremely realistic tunnel where the bridge arch has been filled in.
Who doesn't love an abandoned railway. I have one nearby in my home town and many of the mentioned signs apply. One road replacing it is named "Alte Bahn" (Old Railway) and I'll add that remaining ballast is also a good hint.
Delivered into Portbury docks on Wednesday. Total ba**ard to get away from there without a vehicle, and no Public Transport within miles! Walked around 2 miles to Pill before I could get on a bus route. On the plus side, my walk took me along what would have been one of the old rail routes into the dock area, much of it with track still extant. Goes beneath the M5 with the footpath running adjacent to it.
Frustratingly, that Bristol-Portishead line has been on the list for possible reinstatement for years but has never quite got there. It goes through the Avon Gorge and under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Much easier than the twisty A367 but unfortunately Bristol Temple Meads is badly placed for the city centre.
Around the city of Sydney, in New South Wales, and south from here in Queensland, some abandoned tunnels are secured and used by mushroom growers for raising their crops. Something to do with darkness and the right climatic environment that exists in old railway tunnels. My dad used to grow mushrooms under our house for the same reasons, when I was quite a youngster. Hobbyist mushroom growers got very caught up with their passion, and I imagine the professional growers even more so. I used to take mushrooms to school for the teacher, while other kids took an apple. Can you guess which sniveling brats got the best reaction from the teacher? Oh, I hate myself sometimes!
It's the same here in the cotswolds with many bridges over nothing and bridges filled in. 17 now and for many years I had no idea there used to be a railway here and how there's an accessible tunnel within the woods. I do always get carried away on Google maps where I follow the long tree passages and follow them all around where they will eventually meet the mainline. Its incredible how much track there used to be all over the country. I love spotting them and can easily find them now.
I have a 1994 edition of an OS book of my home county (Oxfordshire, or the 'Shire, as some of us call it), which shows all the routes of dismantled railways. I also remember doing some temping work for a firm outside Stratford-on-Avon years ago, which had an old map on the wall in one of their offices which showed all the old railway routes in the greater London/Home counties area.
For confirmation that I have stumbled across/over/under an abandoned railway, I use the NLS (National Library of Scotland) side-by-side online tool maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=52.40194&lon=-0.71453&layers=168&right=6 that allows me to compare an old map circa 1900 with 2022. For the left map I select 1. Category: Great Britain 2. Map Series: OS 25 Inch, 1892-1914 and for the right map 1. Category Bing / ESRI / OSM / LiDAR 2. Map Series: Bing hybrid or Bing Road. There is an astounding level of detail (individual houses) on the old 25 inch map which captures all of the original expanded rail network save for the 1930’s “Metroland” development. But be warned, the side-by-side tool is addictive. I have spent many hours that I didn’t really have staring at the screen.
Yet another very interesting and informative video Jago it’s sometimes good to go for a walk and find a lost railway I have a few close to me in Norwich one is a long distance walk from Norwich To Aylsham the other is from the old Norwich Victoria Railway Station to Lakenheath which is a public footpath/Cycle Path Until your next Vlog/Video keep up the good work my friend take care and stay safe
The former east end of the Santa Monica Air Line of Pacific Electric is a very long and narrow salvage yard running south of downtown Los Angeles to where it was restored as the Expo LRT line. The west end is mostly Pacific Coast Highway and the tunnel that connects I-10 to PCH toward Malibu.
Neatly summing up what I do in my spare time. Currently following the length of the Castleman Corkscrew in Dorset (and not the cycle Trail which deviates too much."
I love abandoned railways and stations...I remember when I was in Glasgow I found the Botanic Gardens platforms and felt like a detective even though they're pretty well known.
Another example are occasional art installations such as a sculpture of an engine poking out from underneath an old bridge, and elsewhere the old clock tower of a station still survives
They are easy and fun to find on satellite maps - look for "linear discontinuities". A sort of a subtle continuous line is formed by the edges of estates, parking lots, new developments, etc and it smoothly cuts across the urban landscape
Wooden post and wire fences still widely persist in the countryside decades after the route has gone. Sometimes "new" roads readily give the game away, too.
Weymouth in Dorset used to have a track that went to Weymouth Harbour. And not forgetting Folkestone Harbour that used to have its own railway station and railway line which is now used as a public pedestrian and a attraction in Folkestone, Kent.
There's an abandoned railway between Crawley and east grinstead that's now lovely path through the woods called worth way that I cycle along quite regularly. Very much worth a visit
Here in the US we tend to keep tracks in place after lines are abandoned, so abandoned lines are a bit easier to spot. Other things to look out for are buildings along the line that are angled or curved on one side, or sudden rises or dips in the road where crossings used to be. And also your occasional “Railroad Ave” or “Depot St”
Very good episode, Jago. Unfortunately, I live in the States where there are fewer abandoned railways (railroads) and you're much less likely to stumble upon one whilst out for a walk.
A few years ago I was walking along a very pleasant path near Shrewsbury. Being flat and pretty straight, and clearly "man made" it immediately screamed "abandoned railway" to me. Except it wasn't as it was a former canal instead , which made a change!
A very good example of an abandoned railway is the line through Colnbrook. There’s still an old railway crossing sign, although part of the former trackbed is now part of a housing estate. From looking at Google maps, you can see a lot of the line is just overgrown.
Watching this video made me think is it time again for a ‘Jago Hazzard on Tour’ to visit the old Weymouth line that ran through the streets and see what remains?
The great view from my lorry cab means I get the opportunity to spot abandoned lines in the countryside. Raised earthworks shrouded by trees are a clue
There are another class of abandonment- where the line was never completed. The best example I know is a viaduct in Birmingham. Going South out of Moor Street you see the remains of a viaduct. It never actually had a railway on it!
Outside of London, it's easy to spot disused railway lines from aerial maps because there is often hedgerows where the lines used to run between farmer's fields or across common land. Easier when there are existing stations at both ends to see where the line used to run. Tracks are often repurposed as fence posts and bridges in rural areas because of the cost of transporting them to be scrapped is often higher than repurposing them.
In many places abandoned railways have Power Line Right of Ways that took over the RR Right of Ways. In Forest and not used by anyone, the trees often still won't grow or are different because of ballast and pollution left behind even 100 years ago. In Swamps and related often still have Power Lines on old track paths too. Even when roads are unconnected and have different names and rout numbers can trace them to old track maps or on sat maps following these and maybe a ruler when development hinds sections.
I used to live in the Welsh village of Coelbren, between Neath and Brecon - not that you're necessarily any the wiser. What fascinated my young mind was the line running from Onllwyn washery to Penwyllt quarry, which saw many a class 37 pulling coal wagons, and a farther off track which was home to what I think was a class 07 shunter which looked like one of those olde-tymey flash cubes with its cabin amidships.. Closer by was the broad expanse of what was at one time a massive siding with a station on the old Neath to Brecon line, which failed far before butcher Beeching could cull it. I've often wanted to walk the line, but I left Coelbren when I was 13, at which point anyway I was beginning to form other preoccupations. But also of interest was the colliery line which ran through the Ystradgynlais colliery. My mother's family lived in Ystradgynlais, so it was more conducive for me to spend time there and it's one of those eerie places which the line evokes in you a sort of longing to know the history of the place. Much like Pembroke Dock station, with its many sidings now unused, almost-but-not-quite hidden from the casual observer, but you can see how the lines once continued through the town behind a line of shops towards what was, in its heyday, the Royal Dockyard.
Only today I was looking at a 1900 map of my local area. A few buildings still here, but also a!few surprises that now make sense. There's a short curved road next to a rail track that has no buildings on one side, and what I always thought was a electric substation on the other.. turns out this building was originally a train station, relocated after the North Circular Road was built! I will now take a short stroll to reinvestigate..
Развлечения
Or look out for someone filming an otherwise normal-looking path and looking very excited about it for inexplicable reasons ;)
Mighta been the site of something gruesome in the past!
But it's endemic these days. Jago, Geoff Marshall…
@@johnlister Are they Pcycle-Paths ?
@@highpath4776 🤣
If you see Paul and Rebecca Whitewick, chances are you're either on an abandoned railway, canal, or Roman road.
"Something boring like an Iron age fort." How droll Mr.Jago.
I hope Phil Harding (of Time Team fame) didn't watch this video.
I think it may have been a slight dig at Mr. & Mrs. Whitewick
@@henrybest4057 oh yes they do Roman roads, canals and railways in their videos.
Talking about Time Team, old railway lines do leave crop marks
Clues on Google maps are narrow corridors of trees on long lines that go on for miles like small rivers but with no water, where old houses will back onto on either side, but not encroach onto the narrow corridor.
Especially at the ends or connecting to existing railways. Such as here where you can easily follow the path of the former line from Battersby to Picton:
goo.gl/maps/7Z3AZcCDBESxUztT9
or here where you can see the former line connecting Whitby Town to Whitby West Cliff and the Larpool viaduct:
goo.gl/maps/NvUYc1sn242T9T9EA
Fascinating for those of us who lived in the area as kids but are now a continent away.
@@katbryce True. Which means you have to use a certain amount of judgement here. And the “What did it connect to?” question probably gives you the answer.
Lines of infill houses in suburban areas are easy to spot on Google Maps, so not lines of trees like you describe, but lines of houses built on the old right of way.
@@zork999 Well both
@@zork999 Looking at the parcel layer of the local map often helps as well. Look for properties that break the pattern. The line up with each other but not so much with the rest of the neighborhood.
"...Artificial bat caves." For an artificial Batman, I presume? 🤔🤔🤔
Good thinking.
“Holy synthesis, Batman!”
Lol
Bugger, you beat me to it.🤪
An artificial batman. We're talking about George Clooney here yes?
"Conversion to a cycle track" is extremely common in North America, where they are generally known as 'rail trails'.
One name for such a program, at least in Michigan, is Tracks to Trails
Here in australia too, although they often seem haphazard and disorganised. like there will be a rail bridge, the walking track wont go over it, itll deviate off so you have to walk on a road for a bit, then re join the rail route after the bridge, quite annoying when theres 15 small bridges and a large one on a track in the space of about 10km
In Germany, that happened occasionally too.
"Rails to Trails" was the result of a specific 20-year+ campaign by environmentalist and bicyclist groups, and has worked out well for everyone involved.
"Rails to Trails" is a name given in the USA, in the US and Canada, bike tracks, and hiking trails (often with the old ballast left in place, it doesn't have the same resell value as the rails) Sadly, you had a case where there was a relatively sucessfful tourist railway operation that was deliberately sabotaged by people who wanted a bike trail with NO train track next to it (somewhere in New York State)
An old boy once told me “Where there's pines there's lines". He explained it referred to the propensity of railway companies, in particular the GWR to plant fast-growing coniferous trees to screen railway buildings. I've spotted a number of hidden railway gems, often from the top deck of a bus, by remembering this old adage.
I agree, I grew up near Derby Rd Ipswich where a long line of mature pines stand guard over the sad remains of the down platform & building. Many former GER stations in E Anglia have similar rows of pines.
Over here on the Isle of Wight there are numerous reminders of the bygone railways. Concrete fence posts in abundance, rail built signals cut off at ground level, bridges and tunnels still accessible in places. My favourite is a single arch bridge in a garden. Now that is what you call a garden feature. I've walked the footpaths extensively over the years and still find more evidence even now.
They built a bypass through Newport in the early 70's which required the last remaining sections of the railway to be demolished. The brick arches were knocked down, but some of the brick piers remained and were incorporated into the bypass' embankment. You can still see them today. The tunnel taking the line under Fairlee Road is now a pedestrian path and it still has ceramic insulators on its walls which used to carry signal and telegraph wiring - they've bricked in the recesses though.
Many of the lines have been converted to cycle paths which still have remnants on show if you know where to look.
There's even a platform in a garden centre complete with concrete pillars for the station name.
And people still complain about the last line closure in 1966.
A fair bit of railway architecture was saved and given to the Isle of Wight Steam railway of which I'm a volunteer. I was there today fixing issues with a signal track circuit amongst other things. Working on signalling that existed at various locations on the Island. Even buildings were saved. We have three signal boxes all using lever frames from signal boxes long gone.
Some of the carriages in service now are known as 'chicken sheds' as when at the end of their service life they were used in gardens to house chickens. Some were used as house extensions, others as beach huts. Many donated back to the railway and restored. I suppose you can call it recycling or up cycling. But the main thing is they are in use, looked after, and will serve for many more years.
The sun was out today - two trains in service full of passengers enjoying the glorious weather. Calbourne and Newport in steam looking glorious.
No need for me to reminisce as I can live the dream whenever I have free time.
Track Circuit faults are always fun
The Isle of Wight railway is almost unique among heritage lines in using genuine Edwardian or Victorian carriages that either ran on the railway or have been restored since, rather than the endemic BR Mk 1's. So you get an extra-historic experience from travelling in them. Plus Newport (LBSC Terrier) is around 150 years old while Calbourne (LSWR O2) is a relative youngster at 130ish.
Near where I grew up was what everyone thought was just a farm track. The one thing that struck me about it was that it was straight as a die for over 1 mile, and rather than serving any agricultural purpose, then forked off along the edge of some public sports fields. It was many years later that I discovered it was the last remaining stretch of trackbed of the Edmonstone Waggonway, which opened in 1818, but which was apparently abandoned when the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway opened in 1831.
It has since disappeared beneath a new university building and a housing scheme. But I managed to get some photos before then.
Who doesn’t love an abandoned railway, pointless wall or bridge over nothing??? I’m especially fond of the old Merton Park station house (now a very pretty private home). And as for the artificial bat cave! 🦇
You forgot "buy an OS map and look for Disused Railway".
I’m a masochist.
@@JagoHazzard Does not informing US about OS maps make you a sado-masochist if you already knew about them?
Or you even easier use OpenRailMaps which uses OSmaps data but shows all rails.
Somewhere on Brick Lane in East London, I found a really old map of the part of Nottingham where I grew up and had to buy it (ostensibly for my dad, but you know...) just to follow the rail routes from the time. It was an utter smorgasbord of pre-Beeching routes.
Firstly, why would an artificial bat require a cave, and secondly, iron age hillforts generally had meandering and awkward approaches to hinder potential attackers.
The artificial bats are of course waiting for the artificial Batman to arrive.
@@SlartiMarvinbartfast Naturally, he needs to fight artificial crime with his artificial friend, artificial Robin.
_Are we done with that joke now? :)_
@@Voltaic_Fire - Would that joke be from an artificial Joker? What?
I'm just interested.
@@brianartillery _(Painful groaning.)_
@@brianartillery Are these Bats, Jokers and Robins some of Jago's Hearty Facts ?
The Malta railway was closed in 1930, but the remains are still very visible: old station buildings, bridgeheads, bridges, and embankments.
Even more helpful is that there are several streets called "Old Railway Track". You know, in case you had any doubt.
An obvious one is "Station Road" with no station.
one of those in Osset, an old mining village in west Yorkshire
In Burgess park in Camberwell, there is a bridge that appears to be there for no apparant reason. It wasn't over a railway line though, but a canal going through a residential and industrial area. The houses were so badly bombed during the blitz that after the war, the area was turned in to a park and the canal filled in. Just thought I'd share that with you.
It wasn't filled in until the early 70s. I can well remember walking down the ramps to the towpath from the Commercial Way bridge and the timber floating to the Whitten timber yard roughly where Peckham Library is now. It wasn't the cleanest of canals!
@@stephenweston1807 I remember that canal which joint up with both the late wood yards at what is now the Peckham pulse & the one in Camberwell Rd/Albany Road.
As ever, very watchable, Mr. Hazzard! Living, as I do, in Northamptonshire and in ex-Great Central and ex-Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction country, abandoned railways are all around me. Oh, don't they afford wonderful walks!
My favourite definately has to be the abandoned line in south Croydon. The footbridge over the old halt is still there and so are the tracks from what I can remember. Used to walk over it when I was a kid and was FASCINATED by it 😂
Some paths around Liverpool waterfront are much wider than standard, which is where the Liverpool Overhead Railway used to run over.
Yes, clues can really be that small.
The roads near the Pier Head are also wider - another clue, ironically!
Also power/telephone lines were often built along railroads. So even after the railroad disappears, the lines remain.
One thing I've noticed walking old lines is fruit trees near where signals once were. I assume they grew from pips & stones thrown out of cabs of engines standing at the peg.
Where railways are converted into cycleways and footpaths they provide great recreational and sustainable transport resources. One of my favourites is the 14 mile long 'Cuckoo Trail' in East Sussex from Polegate near Eastbourne to Heathfield, via Hailsham, Hellingly and Horam. This follows the well graded trackbed of the railway line through beautiful contryside, with stations and bridges and a lot of other bits of railway history. It's well maintained and looked after and there are bicycle hire/repair shops, picnic areas, cafes and pubs en route. It makes for a very enjoyable - and pretty easy cycle ride suitable for all fitness levels. It'd certainly make a nice day out for a RUclips railway channel host to film too.
Very good points, signalling the presence of abandoned lines stationed around the country.
I was out on a walk in Newton, MA on a recent visit to Boston (USA) and walking along I passed what clearly was an embankment from a former railway line! I was quite chuffed with myself for noticing and it's thanks to videos from you and Geoff Marshall that I have this new found interest in abandoned railways ad their remaining infrastructure.
For anyone local to the area, I highly recommend Hemlock Gorge in Upper Newton Falls and the nearby Greenway, easily accessible from Boston on the T (Green Line D to Eliot, 10 min walk). The gorge always has two car parks.
Further out in the sticks, it's quite common for villages to retain their old 'Station Road' or 'Railway Street', despite there being no railway anymore.
Chobham in Surrey has a Station Road but never had a station or a railway.
Dronten (The Netherlands)'s "Spoordreef" (Railway chase) predates the railway by a few decades, as does the stretch of land in the shape of the railway. This is all new land, and the railway was planned (and land left free) when it was created from the formersea floor in the 1970's, but it took until the 2000's for a railway line to be built.
Also look out for broad curves on a footpath. This is usually an indicator as railways didn't like sharp curves.
Google Maps satellite view is a great tool for tracing old lines. Long, incongruous lines of trees that seem out of place are a giveaway, especially if there’s a gap, which screams “tunnel”.
"You are the embankment to my railway." I wonder what Freud would have made of that. Once again, thank you for a wonderful and entertaining presentation.
While not exactly things you'd notice on a walk, there are indicators of a railway that are much more visible from the air, such as when using a map viewer like Google Earth. Sometimes its something as basic as a treeline or line of fences that doesn't follow the pattern of the divisions of the country land around it, especially noticable if it's making turns or going diagonally across the fields. In more urbanized areas, you will see buildings/lots whos outlines appear to be curved for no reason in particular, and a bunch of them in a series means you're certainly looking at an old industrial area where delivery spurs split off from the mainline.
there used to be a small narrow gauge line near where my family comes from in France. all that remains nowadays are one tunnel, a few small stations converted into houses, and, in some places, oddly smoothly curving roads, sometimes named the equivalent of "train station street". apart from those, i had to find a map of the old line to actually trace its path.
Where I live in Central California, they did exactly what you described with an abandoned railway-they pulled up the tracks and made it a walking/bike path with a small park in the wider section.
I wonder how long the train spotters stayed after the lines were abandoned?
Do be somewhat warey if you decide to explore them, especially if track is in place. Just because the rails may be rusted over doesn't mean its not used or guarded. I mean if there are trees growing out of it, then your probably fine.
Even if tracks are lifted there can be voids from track drains, UTXs or other utilites. Be wary of such thing.
Just use common sense and happy hunting
There's a lot for a railway archaeologist to do in Edinburgh - all the running/cycling paths are set up along the old network of narrow gauge rails, with bits of viaducts, platforms, tunnels and a few station buildings still clearly visible.
Where was the narrow gauge in Edinburgh?
Theres a big movement down here in Sussex to stop the infilling of bridges
Blackburn in Lancashire (where I live) used to have a tram system it was in operation from about 1881 to 1949. The main stop in town was called the Boulevard and after the trams stopped running it was turned into the bus station.
A few years ago a new bus station was built and the Boulevard site was redeveloped. It came as a surprise to absolutely no one in the town when the developers, after digging down and removing the modern road surfaces, found below the old cobbled streets with the tram tracks still embedded in them!!
Another thing to look out for is recent development alongside an old railway with a triangular ground plan. It'll be the site of a goods yard or sidings.
Another thing to watch for is narrow, curved, or oddly-shaped lots. City surveyers normally like to draw square lots, but railroads like their curves as broad as possible. There are a handful of narrow, out-of-square lots in my town that helped me trace an abandoned alignment.
And any housing estate or road called 'The Beechings' or similar....
Like in East Grinstead
There are a number of pubs called "The Railway", "The Station Hotel", "The Railway Tavern" or similar which are nowhere near a railway line. Usually these signify that when the place opened there was a railway line, and probably a station, nearby.
I'd recommend looking for and researching these ... much more fun than looking for allotments or out-of-place architecture. Who knows, after a few pints you may be able to hear the ghostly sounds of Victorian steam-trains passing nearby. :)
“Station Road” is quite common in villages and towns, too.
I live on the old railway which led to the Yorkshire Main Colliery in Edlington, Doncaster.
Less than half a mile away is the site of Warmsworth Halt station, built on the Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Railway.
Coincidentally, the station was opened on 1st May 1916 (106 years ago today), but was used for goods traffic. The only passengers were enthusiasts travelling on ‘specials’, though a long standing local resident once told me that the station was also used for colliery clubs’ annual family day trips to the coast.
Some favourite ‘spots’ in there from my childhood! The Ally Pally line north of Finsbury Park was my first experience of walking an abandoned railway in London, so it is always good to see that and the Palace Gates line as they were both ‘round the corner’ when my dad lived in Hornsby and then latterly Finsbury Park 😎 It is nice to see so many converted for municipal use and providing vital havens for wildlife, although of course back when a kid (and when fencing off of abandoned sires was, shall we say, a little less thorough) these places were more like the railway equivalent of the Mary Celeste, with so much infrastructure left behind and sometimes whole sections of line left in situ for years as they were “mothballed” before removal much later 🤓
I actually like nothing more than to waste a day off (when I should be doing something far more practical) following the outline on Google maps of long-gone lines, such as the two above lines. It helps you map out where the line went and gives you an idea of how to access the line and where to start your trek! 😜
And yes, I do this for all manner of lines. In the end you do get a nose for it and you are able to find the footprint even of lines that you know have been lifted decades and decades ago.
Ah well, it keeps me quiet and out of trouble 🙄 Cheers Jago 👍🍻🍀
As a kiddie, us kids used to walk the line from old Gravesend West across the bridge to Southfleet and was lucky that one of the old dears who lived in Southfleet used to give us drinks and cakes and we would watch the old coal tipplers still at work and occasionally if me father was at Farningham Road signal box I used to send a "hi" back via driver of said coal trains. I also remember with a mate who lived in Norwood us wandering over to the old closed line that is now part of the tramlink, finding bits to nick and take home (I never could cos me dad used to go spare if I brought home railway mementoes :( )
Also have fond memories of the steam engines at Imperial Paper Mills, fireless loco's that survived into the 70's and the old Bowaters railway where us kids begged and pleaded the workers there if we could ride a bucket on the ropeway, moody buggers always said no and of course the old Sheppey branches now long gone although Ford's branch is merely abandoned, in the summer holidays I used to go in to work on occasion with me 33 driving uncle Ray and we would in between the "Quest for Tea" missions work in and around Hoo, Sheerness, Queensborough, occasionally up to Hither Green or on special days a run to Olympia/Willesden with a Ford train but that all ended when utilising the "guards loo" aka the open loco door I went for a widdle just as we were passing a farmer leaning on the fence enjoying the sun and ended up with a golden shower and learned some new swear words that day but I was not allowed to go into work with me uncle from that day on as farmer rang up BR and made a bit of a stink... From a very early age I discovered much of British Rail existed around the "Quest for Tea", when uncle was waiting for signalman to come down to the exit of Ford and occasionally it was me father who wandered along nothing happened until the tea was brewed, poured and drunk, no railman went anywhere without his bag containing his tools of the trade which included a tea caddy, mug, tin of Marvel instant milk and a spoon so plated with tannine it was black.
Theirs a few reminents of old railway architecture locally. In Sunderlands Mobray Park, theirs a funny one. You have an old railway cutting across the park with a bridge over the middle bit, the old rails were there when I was a kid, but now are converted to a woodland walkway from the bridge going eastwards. To the west of the bridge is blocked off as another railway cutting exists, which is lower then the first cutting and cuts diagonally under the park, but where the woodland cutting is had a bridge over the deep cutting which was only about 5 foot deeper then the original cutting.
On Chester road are two walls where an old coal line cut over and the original Sunderland to Durham railway was converted to a footpath in the 80s but then reclaimed for the Metro line.
And theirs a bricked up tunnel on the riverside, but due to building works it's being completely covered.
I live close to the old railway that ran from Brokenhurst in Hampshire, via Wimborne in Dorset down to Poole. It was known as the Castleman Corkscrew because of its twisty nature. A lot has been built on, some of it is roads, some cycle Track, but you can still see signs of it. Burley Station is a tea room, and Ashley Heath Halt still has part of its Platform there behind the Shop I used to work in. A lot of the old road bridges over the track obviously still exist too.
I love an abandoned railway line to explore - here in Surrey, we have remarkably little in the way of abandoned railways with just the Surrey stretch of the Guildford - Christ’s Hospital line as main line. But, you can find other quirky remnants such as remains of the old line to the sand quarries (now Watercolour) in redhill including a crossing gate and done track! Or the Merstham extension of the Surrey iron railway which has some of the world’s oldest remaining railway architecture!
Yay! Rare to see my village (CH) get a mention. Thank you.
@@AtheistOrphan - it’s my old school and I lived there for years as my parents worked and taught there from 1992-2017
The Guildford-CH line has the quirky bridge over the Arun near Rudgwick which looks normal from the track bed but if you nip down by the stream it is twin-decked. The Govt Inspecting Officer refused permission to open it as Rudgwick station was on too steep a gradient, and they had to raise the entire line as far as the bottom of the dip over the river.
Addiscombe was my father's D grade cover when he worked Relief Elmer's End and passed out all the line up and down, we had to move back to south London from Gravesend, when he got E grade at Wimbledon A he maintained a lot of his D grade workings and BR paid him a lot of overtime to go cover say Effingham Jnc as it was easier to get a relief in to Wimbledon A than it was for a fair few D rated signalboxes. Chislehurst was another box he kept going and he kept Shortlands and Beckenham Jnc passed out until their demise simply as for him it was a short drive from our house in Bromley and of course he was paid full whack time and a half/double bubble for a grade job two levels below him.
I do remember a very funny BR quirk regarding the Bricklayer's Arms branch, despite it being abandoned pretty much, the signals from its deviation on the fast spur past New Cross and down the ramp were on the maintenance lists for the S&T, the next up and down signals past the ramp on ground level were meticulously maintained despite the rails long nicked and the signals vandalised and stolen for scrap... off would go the S&T and refit new signals until someone actually looked at the crazy situation and took them out of service finally. A shame as today the Bricklayer's arm branch would be very useful for bridging the SE and Central divisions with an alternate route. Oh Horniman's Museum has a railway walk along the old line from Crystal Palace to Nunhead, it pays too to wander over the other side of Sydenham Hill to Crystal Palace parade where the old tunnel mouth is still there and the beautiful and ornate booking hall is going to reopen. You can see some of that line too still at St Johns where it used to once cross down to Blackheath, the Lewisham-Nunhead spur is all that remains of the line save the bit at Horniman's and Crystal Palace parade.
In my town, West Bridgford, a suburb of Nottingham, two stretches of the track are preserved as paths, but the bits in between them either have long skinny buildings, or have the houses built at a different angle to everything else around them. You can visibly see what the parcels of land they sold off were.
It’s a shame we no longer have that track honestly, although we’d now need a new bridge to connect it back up to Nottingham anyway (Lady Bay bridge has become an invaluable road crossing over the Trent. In an ideal world we’d be on the tramline, but as we’re not officially part of Nottingham city proper, that’s never happened. I had hoped having a Premier league football team would spark some interest in it again (despite being called the City Ground, it’s not in the city), but it sounds like the plan is probably just to move the team instead unfortunately.
A favourite subject! ⭐️ I even did a project at university about converting old railway rights of way into bike paths.
Alburgh, Vermont used to be a railway junction, so the Alburgh peninsula has 2 abandoned railways which were favourite places to go for a hike.
As “almostfm” said for California, here in Quebec many old rail lines have been converted into cross-country bike paths.
One can go from Montreal 80km all the way north to Sainte-Agathe and 100km east to Sherbrooke on them.
Jogged along one this morning between Newcastle Airport and Ponteland.
Another good sign, here in the States, are power lines following a curve for no apparent reason. They're often the remnant of a railway, which are frequently used for utility corridors even after the tracks are lifted. This is especially the case for interurban railroads, electric-powered lines that popped up with the development of multiple-unit technology at the start of the 20th century and faded quickly with the government investment in roads. Electric railroads were often the source of electricity in rural areas, and they left the wires behind.
And where streetcar/tram lines used to run on private right-of-way in the US, you'll often see an unusually wide alley, or somewhat newer buildings on narrow or wide-but-shallow lots. Or other telltale traces on property maps.
As for rural lines, sometimes you see a rail trail, sometimes you see the abandoned embankment with trees, or abandoned bridges that were never fully demolished. And sometimes neighboring farmers bought the land and all you'll see is a slight discoloration of the crops on that line in aerial photos -- which might connect to more obvious traces at either end.
Walked 18km between Bristol & Bath on an once abandoned railway, now repurposed as a foot/cycle path yesterday. No traffic, lovely scenery, a glorious day out.
4:45 That bricked-in bridge is just *begging* for a Banksy of Wile E. Coyote
Ha! That's a great idea, if I had the money and location I would hire someone to paint an extremely realistic tunnel where the bridge arch has been filled in.
Informative, educational, and entertaining as ever! And a bunch of Croydon places, which I always appreciate - someone has to.
In Hamburg Langenhorn, there is an abandoned rail next to the Underground.
Bridges have been removed, but pieces of the track are still there.
Who doesn't love an abandoned railway. I have one nearby in my home town and many of the mentioned signs apply. One road replacing it is named "Alte Bahn" (Old Railway) and I'll add that remaining ballast is also a good hint.
Delivered into Portbury docks on Wednesday. Total ba**ard to get away from there without a vehicle, and no Public Transport within miles! Walked around 2 miles to Pill before I could get on a bus route. On the plus side, my walk took me along what would have been one of the old rail routes into the dock area, much of it with track still extant. Goes beneath the M5 with the footpath running adjacent to it.
Frustratingly, that Bristol-Portishead line has been on the list for possible reinstatement for years but has never quite got there. It goes through the Avon Gorge and under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Much easier than the twisty A367 but unfortunately Bristol Temple Meads is badly placed for the city centre.
Love your stuff Jago Hazzard. The tube and abandoned lines, love it. Thanks for uploading.
Always a pleasure.
Thank you.
Around the city of Sydney, in New South Wales, and south from here in Queensland, some abandoned tunnels are secured
and used by mushroom growers for raising their crops. Something to do with darkness and the right climatic environment
that exists in old railway tunnels. My dad used to grow mushrooms under our house for the same reasons, when I was
quite a youngster. Hobbyist mushroom growers got very caught up with their passion, and I imagine the professional
growers even more so. I used to take mushrooms to school for the teacher, while other kids took an apple. Can you guess
which sniveling brats got the best reaction from the teacher? Oh, I hate myself sometimes!
You can tell if your vegetable patch on your allotment isn't on an old abandoned railway line, if a train suddenly drives through it.
I call looking for old railways “railway archeology “ and an extremely interesting aspect of our hobby/interest
‘common to turn it into a common’ and ‘to track the tracks’ - a pun-derful video!!
It's the same here in the cotswolds with many bridges over nothing and bridges filled in. 17 now and for many years I had no idea there used to be a railway here and how there's an accessible tunnel within the woods.
I do always get carried away on Google maps where I follow the long tree passages and follow them all around where they will eventually meet the mainline. Its incredible how much track there used to be all over the country. I love spotting them and can easily find them now.
Fascinating, and tutorial ! Thank you, Jago !
I have a 1994 edition of an OS book of my home county (Oxfordshire, or the 'Shire, as some of us call it), which shows all the routes of dismantled railways. I also remember doing some temping work for a firm outside Stratford-on-Avon years ago, which had an old map on the wall in one of their offices which showed all the old railway routes in the greater London/Home counties area.
Love this video. Thanks as always for a great one
Thank you Jago for making this happen !
For confirmation that I have stumbled across/over/under an abandoned railway, I use the NLS (National Library of Scotland) side-by-side online tool maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=52.40194&lon=-0.71453&layers=168&right=6 that allows me to compare an old map circa 1900 with 2022.
For the left map I select 1. Category: Great Britain 2. Map Series: OS 25 Inch, 1892-1914 and for the right map 1. Category Bing / ESRI / OSM / LiDAR 2. Map Series: Bing hybrid or Bing Road.
There is an astounding level of detail (individual houses) on the old 25 inch map which captures all of the original expanded rail network save for the 1930’s “Metroland” development.
But be warned, the side-by-side tool is addictive. I have spent many hours that I didn’t really have staring at the screen.
Yet another very interesting and informative video Jago it’s sometimes good to go for a walk and find a lost railway I have a few close to me in Norwich one is a long distance walk from Norwich To Aylsham the other is from the old Norwich Victoria Railway Station to Lakenheath which is a public footpath/Cycle Path Until your next Vlog/Video keep up the good work my friend take care and stay safe
Thanks Jago .👍Keep safe.
The former east end of the Santa Monica Air Line of Pacific Electric is a very long and narrow salvage yard running south of downtown Los Angeles to where it was restored as the Expo LRT line.
The west end is mostly Pacific Coast Highway and the tunnel that connects I-10 to PCH toward Malibu.
Love this video, it's so informative. :) I need to do some more exploration of the abandoned railways around Leicestershire.
Always enjoy your videos
The brick wall remnants are attractive. They do give a place its character and alludes to its past.
Cycled the Strawberry line in Somerset yesterday, lovely converted railway line.
Neatly summing up what I do in my spare time. Currently following the length of the Castleman Corkscrew in Dorset (and not the cycle Trail which deviates too much."
I love abandoned railways and stations...I remember when I was in Glasgow I found the Botanic Gardens platforms and felt like a detective even though they're pretty well known.
Another example are occasional art installations such as a sculpture of an engine poking out from underneath an old bridge, and elsewhere the old clock tower of a station still survives
Brilliant footage. Love this stuff... I figured you had a ton of relic architecture snippets.
Fantastic video sir.
They are easy and fun to find on satellite maps - look for "linear discontinuities". A sort of a subtle continuous line is formed by the edges of estates, parking lots, new developments, etc and it smoothly cuts across the urban landscape
Wooden post and wire fences still widely persist in the countryside decades after the route has gone. Sometimes "new" roads readily give the game away, too.
Weymouth in Dorset used to have a track that went to Weymouth Harbour. And not forgetting Folkestone Harbour that used to have its own railway station and railway line which is now used as a public pedestrian and a attraction in Folkestone, Kent.
There's an abandoned railway between Crawley and east grinstead that's now lovely path through the woods called worth way that I cycle along quite regularly. Very much worth a visit
Nice shot of the old Tooting Junction footbridge at the beginning.
Here in the US we tend to keep tracks in place after lines are abandoned, so abandoned lines are a bit easier to spot. Other things to look out for are buildings along the line that are angled or curved on one side, or sudden rises or dips in the road where crossings used to be. And also your occasional “Railroad Ave” or “Depot St”
Very good episode, Jago. Unfortunately, I live in the States where there are fewer abandoned railways (railroads) and you're much less likely to stumble upon one whilst out for a walk.
A few years ago I was walking along a very pleasant path near Shrewsbury. Being flat and pretty straight, and clearly "man made" it immediately screamed "abandoned railway" to me. Except it wasn't as it was a former canal instead , which made a change!
A very good example of an abandoned railway is the line through Colnbrook. There’s still an old railway crossing sign, although part of the former trackbed is now part of a housing estate. From looking at Google maps, you can see a lot of the line is just overgrown.
Good one Jago 👍
Where I’m from in the Midlands, many of the old colliery lines have been converted to cycle trails. It seems to be the most popular option over here.
Watching this video made me think is it time again for a ‘Jago Hazzard on Tour’ to visit the old Weymouth line that ran through the streets and see what remains?
I have a lifted railway turned path near me. Plenty of interesting old Railway features to be seen!
The great view from my lorry cab means I get the opportunity to spot abandoned lines in the countryside. Raised earthworks shrouded by trees are a clue
There are another class of abandonment- where the line was never completed. The best example I know is a viaduct in Birmingham. Going South out of Moor Street you see the remains of a viaduct. It never actually had a railway on it!
Outside of London, it's easy to spot disused railway lines from aerial maps because there is often hedgerows where the lines used to run between farmer's fields or across common land. Easier when there are existing stations at both ends to see where the line used to run. Tracks are often repurposed as fence posts and bridges in rural areas because of the cost of transporting them to be scrapped is often higher than repurposing them.
Fun video , in my city there is an abandoned subway and you can see the entrances to tunnels in a few different places!
In many places abandoned railways have Power Line Right of Ways that took over the RR Right of Ways. In Forest and not used by anyone, the trees often still won't grow or are different because of ballast and pollution left behind even 100 years ago. In Swamps and related often still have Power Lines on old track paths too. Even when roads are unconnected and have different names and rout numbers can trace them to old track maps or on sat maps following these and maybe a ruler when development hinds sections.
I used to live in the Welsh village of Coelbren, between Neath and Brecon - not that you're necessarily any the wiser. What fascinated my young mind was the line running from Onllwyn washery to Penwyllt quarry, which saw many a class 37 pulling coal wagons, and a farther off track which was home to what I think was a class 07 shunter which looked like one of those olde-tymey flash cubes with its cabin amidships.. Closer by was the broad expanse of what was at one time a massive siding with a station on the old Neath to Brecon line, which failed far before butcher Beeching could cull it. I've often wanted to walk the line, but I left Coelbren when I was 13, at which point anyway I was beginning to form other preoccupations. But also of interest was the colliery line which ran through the Ystradgynlais colliery. My mother's family lived in Ystradgynlais, so it was more conducive for me to spend time there and it's one of those eerie places which the line evokes in you a sort of longing to know the history of the place. Much like Pembroke Dock station, with its many sidings now unused, almost-but-not-quite hidden from the casual observer, but you can see how the lines once continued through the town behind a line of shops towards what was, in its heyday, the Royal Dockyard.
Puntastic, dear Mr Hazard ;)
Only today I was looking at a 1900 map of my local area. A few buildings still here, but also a!few surprises that now make sense.
There's a short curved road next to a rail track that has no buildings on one side, and what I always thought was a electric substation on the other.. turns out this building was originally a train station, relocated after the North Circular Road was built!
I will now take a short stroll to reinvestigate..
By the way for reference, this was the old Stonebridge Park station, then one stop off Willesden Junction on the Midland Line to Marylebone.