Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway

The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853.
Its natural ally seemed to be the Great Western Railway. With other lines it formed a route between the mineral resources of South Wales and the industries of the north-west of England, and this attracted the interest of the London and North Western Railway, which sought access to South Wales. The GWR and the LNWR jointly leased the S&HR line in 1862, later jointly acquiring ownership of it, in 1871. LNWR mineral traffic developed, and after the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886, the line became an important main line for traffic from the south-west of England to the north-west.
With the decline in local passenger and goods traffic in the 1950s many intermediate stations closed, but the main line continues in important use at the present day.
Origins.
On 3 August 1846, 16 railway bills were passed in Parliament; one of these was for the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway, with authorised capital of £800,000. Another was for the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway, which was to take over the Hereford Railway and modernise it.
The Hereford Railway had been opened in 1829, and with the Llanvihangel Railway and the Grosmont Railway, it formed a route to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal. Those railways were in fact plateways, using L-shaped tram plates and horse traction.
The intention of the S&HR promoters was to form, with other lines, a through route between the manufacturing districts of the north west of England and the mining districts of South Wales and Bristol.
Although the broad gauge allies of the Great Western Railway had expressed an interest, the S&HR was to be a standard gauge line, and the promoters would "on no account permit a breach of gauge between the North and South". There was a clear inclination towards the London and North Western Railway, which at that time was seeking access to the South Wales industrial area. It would be in length.
Construction.
The engineer for the construction of the line was Henry Robertson.
1846 was a peak year for authorising railway schemes: there were 435 railway bills in the session as a whole. A financial slump followed, and it became impossible to get money for railway projects, and the directors were unable to proceed. In 1848 and 1849 efforts were made to reduce the estimated cost of construction so as to be able to make some progress. A single track line, and use of the Leominster Canal bed for the formation of the railway might bring the cost down to £480,000.
In fact the time limit for construction set by Parliament expired and new powers were obtained in 1850. By this time, money had become easier to obtain, and a contract was let to Thomas Brassey for £345,822. The bridges would be made for a double line, but Dinmore Hill Tunnel would be a single line bore. The Shrewsbury station was to be built jointly with other lines: the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway, the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, and the Shropshire Union Railway.
The days of austerity seemed to have passed, and the Shrewsbury station was of an elaborate character in the Tudor Gothic style. The station was ready and in use by the S&BR and the Shropshire Union Railway joint line (from Wellington) on 1 June 1849.
The first part of the S&HR line was opened as a single line from Shrewsbury to Ludlow on 20 April 1852, and it was worked by Thomas Brassey, the contractor for the construction. The remainder was ready and opened throughout to the Barrs Court station at Hereford on 6 December 1853. A mile of single line from what became Barr's Court Junction to Barton station at Hereford, connecting in to the NA&HR line, was not opened until 14 days later due to a lack of proper signals at the junction.
The Barr's Court station was constructed jointly with the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway; for some time the station was in effect two terminal stations, the S&H entering and leaving at the north end only. The HR&GR was a broad gauge line.
Brassey worked the line at his own risk, paying 3.5% on the cost. From 1 July 1853 this was changed to a lease for nine years; during the final four years he was to pay the company 4% and half of surplus profits. The income from Brassey's contract enabled the company to pay 6% dividends on ordinary shares.
Alliances and rivalry.
At Hereford, the Hereford Ross and Gloucester Railway was nearing completion; it was a broad gauge line engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel; there was also the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford line; this had originally established friendly relations with the S&HR, but now that it was nearing completion of its construction, it was delaying finalising any formal agreement for arrangements at Hereford until it was clear that the LNWR would reach Hereford from Worcester.
In 1860 the West Midland Railway was formed; the constituent company was the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway: the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway and the Worcester and Hereford Railway were considered to be absorbed by it, the combined company changing its name to the West Midland Railway. The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was given running powers over the former NA&HR lines, and the West Midland company had running powers over the S&HR lines.
The S&HR was dismayed by the increasing domination of the district of the Great Western Railway, which it feared would use its power to harm the S&HR. The little company opened discussions with the LNWR, which sought access to South Wales. The LNWR at once offered to lease the line on good terms, at 6%, but in a spirit of openness asked that the GWR be invited to join in the arrangement. The GWR reacted violently against the proposal. The S&HR had running powers over the NA&HR, and any lease of the S&HR by the LNWR would give the LNWR those running powers, and therefore access to South Wales, something the GWR hoped to avoid at all costs. The LNWR therefore submitted a Bill to authorise the lease of the S&HR in its name alone, but allowing for the GWR to share in the lease if it changed its view. Although this was a decent offer, the GWR fought strenuously in Parliament against the proposal, but lost thoroughly in Committee. When it was clear that the game was up, the GWR agreed to share in the lease with the LNWR.
From 1 July 1862 the S&HR was leased jointly, half by the LNWR and half by the GWR and West Midland together. Although the West Midland was to amalgamate with the GWR, this had not yet been given effect.
The Hereford Curve.
The S&HR had used Barr's Court station from the outset, and the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway used the separate Barton station, and through running from there on to the S&HR was possible. Barr's Court station was considered to be much superior, and a connection line south of Hereford was conceived, to enable through running from the NA&HR into Barr's Court. This was known as the Hereford Curve, and it opened for goods traffic on 23 July 1866, and to passengers on 1 August 1866. Through passenger trains from Newport to Shrewsbury could now use Barr's Court station without reversal.
Doubling the line.
The line had originally been double track from Shrewsbury to Ludlow, and the remainder single. The latter part of the line was doubled in 1893. The tunnel at Dinmore had been constructed as a single bore, and a second bore was driven to enable the doubling.
North and West Line.
So-called North and West passenger express trains were introduced, running from the north-west of England via Crewe or Chester to Bristol and the south-west of England, using the S&HR line.
Pearson wrote in 1932:
It was not until 1888 that the "North and West" expresses of the London and North Western and Great Western Railways were introduced, coincidentally with the opening of the Severn Tunnel, the Shrewsbury and Hereford line, thus attaining for the first time the dignity of a main line of first-rank importance...
Acquisition by the LNWR and GWR.
The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway had been leased jointly by the LNWR and the GWR jointly. From time to time those companies pressed for actual acquisition of the line, and this was finally agreed to. An Act of 1871 authorised it: the line was the joint property of the LNWR and GWR.
Passenger train service.
The passenger service recorded in Bradshaw in 1895 is not heavy; there were four express trains marked "North and West Express", as well as four semi-fast trains, one of them marked "L&NW train". There were five stopping trains. The North and West Expresses generally divided and combined at Pontypool, with a portion for the South Wales main line and a portion for Bristol. On Sundays there were one night-time "North and West Express", one L&NW train and one stopping train.
Semmens wrote:
By 1960 the summer Saturday service had grown in intensity, in addition to the routine service. There were seven southbound Friday night trains: Manchester to Newquay, Manchester to Paignton, Manchester to Penzance, Manchester to Paignton, Liverpool and Manchester to Penzance, Glasgow to Plymouth, and Liverpool and Manchester to Cardiff. There were thirteen long-distance day trains.
After the Beeching reforms cross-country services to the south-west of England were redirected to all run via Birmingham New Street, where they could pick up a larger amount of traffic, and the usage of the old Shrewsbury & Hereford railway declined.
Branches.
The S&HR had two branch lines.
Tenbury Railway.
A line from Woofferton to Tenbury Wells opened in 1861; it was long. It closed in 1961.
Ludlow and Clee Hill Railway.
A mineral line from Ludlow to Bitterley opened on 24 August 1864; it too was long. From Bitterley a cable-worked incline long ascended Titterstone Clee Hill to a summit at Titterstone Quarry where there was a valuable granite deposit. The Bitterley branch never had a passenger service.
Gradients.
The northern part of the line was not easy for enginemen in the days of steam. The summit was just south of Church Stretton. Leaving Shrewsbury there is a climb of to the summit, with gradients up to 1 in 100. Approaching from the south, the climb is about the same length, with gradients up to 1 in 92 and a punishing final at 1 in 112.


Smethwick Junction

Smethwick Junction is a junction on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line. With Galton Junction, northbound trains on the West Coast Main Line's Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line can join the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line in a westbound direction.
Until the re-opening of Birmingham Snow Hill for stations to Kidderminster in 1995, all passenger services routed via Smethwick and Galton Junctions to reach Birmingham New Street. With this re-opening, use of the link between the two junctions has sharply decreased. This was compounded with the removal/re-routing of the Worcester to New Street service in 2004, and now only selected freight services and charter trains use the link. It has also been used as a way to divert trains to Cheltenham Spa via Stourbridge Junction and Worcester Shrub Hill. In addition, the first and last Cardiff Central CrossCountry services of the day, which start and terminate at New Street, use this junction for operational reasons.
On 12 November 2011, London Midland operated a service from Birmingham New Street to Kidderminster as part of a farewell to its Class 150 fleet.
References.
http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/smethwick_galton_bridge.php


Darlington

Darlington is a large market town in County Durham, Northern England. In 2011 the town had a population of 92,363; its borough’s population was 105,564.
Darlington is the administrative town of the unitary authority of the Borough of Darlington. The authority is a constituent member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, and therefore the borough is part of the Tees Valley sub-region of North East England.
The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows along south of the town.
In the 19th century, Darlington underwent substantial industrial development, spurred by the establishment there of the world's first permanent steam-locomotive-powered passenger railway: the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Much of the vision (and financing) behind the railway's creation was provided by local Quaker families in the Georgian and Victorian eras.
History.
Early history.
Darlington started as an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The name Darlington derives from the Anglo-Saxon "Dearthington", which seemingly meant 'the settlement of Deornoth's people', but by Norman times the name had changed to Derlinton. During the 17th and 18th centuries the town was usually known by the name of Darnton.
Darlington has a historic market area in the town centre. St Cuthbert's Church, built in 1183, is one of the most important early English churches in the north of England and is Grade I listed. The oldest church in Darlington is St Andrew's Church, built around 1100 in Haughton-le-Skerne.
When the author Daniel Defoe visited the town during the 18th century, he noted that it was eminent for "good bleaching of linen, so that I have known cloth brought from Scotland to be bleached here". However he also disparaged the town, writing that it had "nothing remarkable but dirt." (Roads would have typically been unpaved in the 18th century.)
The so-called “Durham Ox” came from Darlington. (Born in the early 19th century, this steer became renowned for its excellent proportions, which came to inform the standard for Shorthorn cattle.)
Victorian era.
The railway.
During the early 19th century, Darlington remained a small market town.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway ran steam locomotives designed for passengers and goods, built to a standard gauge, on a permanent main line with branches. On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson's engine, “Locomotion No. 1”, travelled between Shildon and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, an event that was seen as ushering in the modern railway age.
Later in the 19th century, the town became an important centre for railway manufacturing. An early railway works was the Hopetown Carriage Works (est. 1853), which supplied carriages and locomotives to the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The engineering firm of William and Alfred Kitching also manufactured locomotives there around this time. The town eventually developed three significant railway works. The largest of these was the main-line Darlington Works, whose main factory, the North Road Shops, opened in 1863 and remained in operation until 1966. A second works, Robert Stephenson & Co. (colloquially: "Stivvies"), moved to Darlington from Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902. It was renamed “Robert Stephensons & Hawthorns” in 1937, was absorbed by English Electric around 1960, and had closed by 1964. The third was Faverdale Wagon Works, which was established in 1923 and closed in 1962. In the 1950s, it was a UK pioneer in applying mass-production techniques to the manufacture of railway-goods wagons.
Expansion and industry.
As the 19th century progressed, Quaker families in the Darlington area, such as the Peases and Backhouses, became prominent employers and philanthropists. Darlington's most famous landmark, the clock tower, was given to the town by the industrialist Joseph Pease in 1864. The clock's face was crafted by T. Cooke & Sons of York, and the tower bells were cast by John Warner & Sons of nearby Norton-on-Tees. These bells were the sister bells to those inside the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, the most famous of which is Big Ben.
The Darlington Mechanics Institute was opened in 1854 by Elizabeth Pease Nichol, who had made the largest donation towards its building costs. The 91-acre South Park was redeveloped into its current form in 1853, with financial support from the Backhouse family.
Alfred Waterhouse, who designed London's Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall, also designed Darlington’s Grade II-listed old Town Hall and Market Hall (in 1860), and its Backhouse's Bank building (in 1864). The latter, which took three years to build, is today now a branch of Barclays bank.
During this same period, the architect George Gordon Hoskins was responsible for much of the town's architecture, designing buildings such as "The King's Head Hotel".
The "Darlington Free Library", a Grade II listed building situated in Crown Street, was built with £10,000 funding from Edward Pease, who lived from 1834 to 1880. It was opened on 23 October 1885 by his daughter, Lady Lymington, after the town council accepted the gift of the purpose-built library and agreed to run it in perpetuity.
In 1870, "The Northern Echo" newspaper was launched. William Thomas Stead, a notable editor of "The Northern Echo", died in the "Titanic" disaster in 1912. Opposite the Northern Echo building in Pristgate is the William Stead public house.
World Wars era.
In 1939, Darlington had the most cinema seats per capita in the United Kingdom.
On the night of 13 January 1945, a Lancaster bomber piloted by Pilot Officer William Stuart McMullen of Canada was on a training exercise when one of its engines caught fire and it crashed on farmland near Lingfield Lane. McMullen heroically stayed at the controls while his crew parachuted to safety and directed the stricken aircraft away from the houses below. He was killed on impact. His heroism was honoured by renaming Lingfield Lane “McMullen Road” and erecting a memorial monument.
Late 20th-century.
Starting in 1993, the rail enthusiast group A1 Steam Locomotive Trust worked on building an all-new steam locomotive, the first to be constructed since the 1960s. It was intended to be the 50th member of the long withdrawn LNER Peppercorn Class A1 engine, called "Tornado" and numbered 60163, from scratch in the 1853 former Stockton and Darlington Railway Carriage Works at Hopetown. Many of the original fleet had been built at Darlington locomotive works in the late 1940s. "Tornado" was completed in January 2008.
To commemorate the town's contribution to the railways, David Mach's 1997 work "Train" is located alongside the A66, close to the original Stockton–Darlington railway. It is a life-size brick sculpture of a steaming locomotive emerging from a tunnel, made from 185,000 Accrington Nori bricks. The work had a budget of £760,000.
21st century.
Darlington was the first town in England to allow same-sex civil ceremonies in 2001. The town hosts an annual Gay Pride Festival which comprises a series of celebrations of local LGBT culture and acceptance held at venues across the town.
The town centre has undergone a full refurbishment entitled "The Pedestrian Heart", which has seen the majority of the town centre pedestrianised. Initially, the project received criticism surrounding changes to public transport, and removal of Victorian features along High Row. There is now growing evidence, however, that the now-completed changes are meeting with local approval. Then in 2014, the town saw the revamp of one of its old cinemas, The Majestic, into a soft play centre and theatre.
In August 2008 the King's Head Hotel in the town centre was devastated by fire, severely damaging the roof and 100 bedrooms. Several shops, including Woolworths, were damaged and had to close for weeks afterwards. No one was killed in the blaze. The hotel was carefully restored to its former glory and re-opened in 2012.
Governance.
On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area with the formation of Darlington Borough Council, which separated it from the non-metropolitan county of Durham for administrative purposes only, as the town is still within County Durham for ceremonial purposes. Currently,
the MP for this seat is Conservative Peter Gibson. Former members of parliament for the town include Jenny Chapman, the former Shadow Prisons Minister and Shadow Minister for Leaving the European Union, Alan Milburn, the former Secretary of State for Health under the Tony Blair Labour Government and Michael Fallon, who was Secretary of State for Defence under the David Cameron coalition government and Theresa May's Conservative government.
Geography.
Darlington is located in the south of County Durham close to the River Tees, which acts as the border between Durham and Yorkshire. Both the River Tees and River Skerne pass through the town, the River Skerne later joining the River Tees which then flows through Teesside and into the North Sea. Neighbouring towns include Newton Aycliffe, Stockton and Bishop Auckland.
Suburbs.
There are several suburbs of Darlington. In the north are Harrowgate Hill, Harrowgate Village, Coatham Mundeville and Beaumont Hill and to the north-east are Whinfield and Haughton Le Skerne. To the east is the suburb of Eastbourne and Red Hall with Firthmoor and Skerne Park to the south. Situated in the west end are Hummersknott, Mowden and Blackwell. Finally, to the north-west are Branksome, Cockerton, Faverdale, The Denes, West Park, High Grange and Pierremont which is associated with the notable Henry Pease (MP).
Economy.
The trend of regional gross value added of Darlington at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by the Office for National Statistics, with figures in £ millions.
Darlington was un-industrial throughout the 20th century, with finance and manufacturing as the main elements of its economy.
Service Sector.
A major employer in the area is the English division of the Student Loans Company, Student Finance England, who are based at Lingfield Point and employ over 1,000 people. Other large service sector companies with offices in the town include Darlington Building Society.
Darlington Borough Council announced the neighbouring site for the DL1 complex, previously a car park for Darlington Town Hall, was also to be redeveloped to house riverside office space for the Department for Education in an effort to safeguard Darlington jobs. This was officially opened on 19 March 2015. The National Safeguarding Authority has a national office in the town.
Telecommunication.
EE are the largest private sector employers in the town, hiring 2,500 people. The company took over its operations from one of its predessors, Orange Mobile. The international telecommunications company BT Group recently announced Darlington as one of the economically important locations in England to have BT fibre-optic cables installed underground as part of the company's BT Infinity superfast broadband rollout project. BT Group cites their decision to include Darlington in the national rollour of multi-provider fibre optic (cable) broadband as necessary due to the towns relatively large amount of IT demanding firms and future plans for developments including space for high-tech firms. Darlington Borough Council, residents and local businesses praised the decision by BT Group and it is hoped the investment will attract enterprise to the town, potentially creating employment for residents and boosting the economy.
Morton Park.
The Morton Park area of Darlington is currently undergoing a partial redevelopment, with areas of unused waste land being redeveloped into modern industrial and office space. Companies based in Morton Park and the surrounding area are Infoserve Ltd and vehicle rental company Northgate Vehicle Hire. Morrisons at Morton Park opened in August 1995.
Other commercial spaces in Darlington include North Road Industrial Estate, which includes a Morrisons supermarket; Cleveland Trading Estate and Faverdale Industrial Estate. The council depot on Central Park is also to be redeveloped into commercial space.
Engineering.
Darlington has long been a centre for engineering, major firm within the engineering industry based in the town. Bridge building is prevalent in the town, bridges built in Darlington are found as far away as the River Nile and the River Amazon. Engineering firms include:
Retail and Leisure.
As a historic market town, a weekly outdoor market on the market square, which one of the biggest in the country. An indoor market is located underneath the town clock on Prebend Row.
They are a number of shops in the area:
In November 2012, a deal was signed between Darlington Borough Council and developer Terrace Hill for a £30 million re-development of the site of the former Feethams bus depot. The development includes a new multiplex cinema run by Vue Cinemas to serve Darlington and the wider South Durham area, as the area currently has no multiplex cinema. The development has an 80 bedroom Premier Inn hotel, and various food and drink venues including Prezzo, Bella Italia and Hungry Horse. The proposal had an expected completion date of late 2014, though this did overrun with completion early 2016.
Culture and arts.
Museums and heritage.
The town's main museum is Head of Steam, sited near North Road railway station - it and Piercebridge Roman Fort near the town are run by the Darlington Museum Service.
Theatre.
The former Civic Theatre, now The Hippodrome, is a popular arts venue in the town, hosting a mix of musicals, dramas, plays and pantomimes. The smaller but well-used Arts Centre, founded in 1982, featured smaller events, film screenings and more experimental material; however this closed in 2012.
Forum Music Centre.
The Forum Music Centre, opened in 2004, hosts regular live music events, from Ska and Punk to Indie and Classic Rock. It also runs a comedy club. As well as live music, the facility houses a state of the art recording studio and several rehearsal rooms. The Carmel Rhythm Club, at Carmel College in the Hummersknott end of town, is another music venue.
Dolphin Centre.
The Dolphin Centre, which provides a wide range of sporting facilities, was opened by Roger Bannister in 1982. It received a £5m refurbishment in 2006 and was later officially opened by Redcar athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Dog Show.
Darlington Dog Show was a championship event from 1969. It was usually held in September on the showground in South Park; but it has now moved to Ripon.
Mosque.
The Jamia Mosque and Islamic Society of Darlington is located in the North Lodge Terrace area of the town, an area with a relatively high proportion of ethnic minority residents (39.2% of the population in that area, compared to a town average of 6.3%). Constituted as a charity under UK law in 1982, the mosque offers worship facilities, as well as Islamic Education, and has its own telecommunications mast for calls to prayer.
Darlington Memorial Hospital is on Hollyhurst Road, in the corridor between Woodland Road and The Denes.
Transport.
Air.
Teesside International Airport is east of Darlington town centre and serves County Durham and Teesside. The airport was known as Durham Tees Valley Airport, 2004 until mid-2019. It has flights to a few domestic locations across the UK and international flights to locations across Europe. Many private or General Aviation Flights use the airport. Weston Aviation are there for that purpose. The airport has a Fire Training Centre that trains many airport firefighters from all over the UK.
The next-nearest large airports are Newcastle () and Leeds Bradford ().
Rail.
Local services run from North Road railway station, the town's original station. Darlington railway station lies on the East Coast Main Line. The East Coast Main Line and has regular services to London Kings Cross, Leeds City, Edinburgh Waverley, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport and Newcastle.
Darlington railway station also serves as the mainline interchange for Middlesbrough station, which itself has few intercity services. Darlington also has access to the Tees Valley Line connecting all the main settlements along the River Tees, and runs from Bishop Auckland to Saltburn via Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough among many other smaller settlements.
Darlington railway station boasts a large Victorian clock tower which, in the relatively low rise town centre, can be seen throughout large areas of the town.
Roads.
Darlington is well connected to the North East's major trunk route, the A1(M), which bypasses the town to the west. It was completed in 1965, replacing the Great North Road route which is now known as the A167. The town is served by three closely-spaced junctions of the A1(M): Junctions 57 A66(M), 58 A68, and 59 A167. Junction 59 is the access exit for Darlington Motorway Services (Newton Park), with an onsite filling station, hotel and restaurant. Darlington is also close to other major trunk routes, including the A66 trans-Pennine route connecting Darlington to Stockton and the A19.
The £5.9 million five-mile (8 km) A66 Darlington Eastern Bypass opened on 25 November 1985. The Darlington Eastern Transport Corridor, linking the Central Park regeneration zone (Haughton Road) and Darlington town centre to a new roundabout on the A66, was opened in the summer of 2008.
Bus.
Bus transport in the town is provided by Arriva North East. Darlington lost out on considerable public receipts when the municipal bus operator "Darlington Transport Company" was placed into administration during an attempted privatisation, due to continuing financial difficulties and the Darlington Bus War.
Stagecoach used to operate in the town (since the Bus War) until 2007, when they sold their operations to Arriva. Arriva therefore became the main bus operator. Arriva services connect Darlington to neighbouring towns such as Durham, Bishop Auckland, Richmond, Stockton, and Middlesbrough.
There is also two smaller independent operators that run services in the town, which are called Dales & District and Scarlet Band.
Pavement.
Darlington was chosen by the Department for Transport as one of three national Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns (together with Peterborough and Worcester) in 2004 and delivering a three-year research and marketing programme to promote sustainable travel choices under the brand name 'Local Motion'. It was also chosen as one of six cycling demonstration towns in October 2005, receiving £3 million worth of funding from the government and local council money.
2007 Town Centre Pedestrian Heart Project worth 10 million pounds, saw most of Darlington Town Centre modernised with an emphasis on vehicles less common in the centre and roads pedestrianised completely.
The money has also been spent over the course of three years on other improvements to cycling facilities and routes, and linking the town to the national cycle route network. Darlington is the only place to win both sustainable travel and cycling demonstration town status.
Education.
The town has the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College (former grammar school). There are many other schools including: Carmel College, a Catholic Academy, Wyvern Academy, Haughton Academy, Hummersknott Academy, Hurworth School, Longfield Academy, Polam Hall School and St Aidan's Church of England Academy. Darlington College is the newly built FE College. Teesside University opened a Darlington campus in 2011 offering higher education in the town to students and businesses.
Media.
Darlington is home to the regional daily newspaper "The Northern Echo" and its sister weekly newspaper "Darlington & Stockton Times".
The regional radio station 'Darlo Radio' broadcasts from the town.
In November 2009 the town appointed an official 'Twitterer in residence', the first of its kind in the UK. Mike McTimoney (known on Twitter as TheDarloBard) is a local regular Twitter user who has been officially charged with tweeting for and about Darlington, and to help promote The Darlington Experiment 2.0, the town's social media campaign.
In 1998 the County Durham town of Darlington hit the national headlines after local man David James Harker murdered and beheaded his girlfriend Julie Paterson before eating parts of her body in the Harewood Grove area, close to the large Sainsbury's supermarket; followed by the dumping of her torso which was later discovered in bushes by residents and reported to Durham Police. Harker was later diagnosed by experts as having Antisocial Personality Disorder, and is remembered as the Darlington Cannibal Killer. He was jailed for life in February 1999.
Sport.
The town is home to the football team Darlington F.C., formerly Darlington 1883 FC and phoenix club to a previous Darlington FC, known as The Quakers because of the contributions made to the town by men such as Edward and Joseph Pease, members of the Religious Society of Friends. The town's football club played at the 25,000 capacity Darlington Arena when it opened on Neasham Road in 2003, after 120 years at Feethams. In 2010 they were relegated from the Football League, 21 years after they suffered a similar fate when they were then promoted back from the Football Conference at the first attempt. In the 2010–11 season Darlington won the FA Trophy but were relegated four divisions to the Northern Football League Division One for the 2012–13 season. Darlington played home games at Heritage Park in Bishop Auckland from the start of the 2012–13 season until moving back to Darlington in late 2016 to commence a new long term groundshare arrangement with Darlington RFC at Blackwell Meadows. Darlington's first home game at Blackwell Meadows (a 3–2 home win against Halifax Town) took place on 26 December 2016.
Darlington is also home to Darlington Railway Athletic F.C., which plays in the Wearside League Division One and play at Brinkburn Road.
Darlington's leading athletics club, the Darlington Harriers, was formed in 1891 and has had a number of successful athletes wearing the club colours as well as GB vests. The club celebrated its 125th year in 2016, with anniversary games held at Eastbourne Sports Complex.
Darlington has two Rugby Union clubs Darlington Mowden RFC and Darlington RFC. Mowden Park currently play in League 1, the third tier of English rugby. They own and play at the Darlington Arena. The Darlington Arena also played a role in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, hosting the New Zealand national team known as the "All Blacks".Darlington RFC play at Blackwell Meadows in the seventh tier, North 1 East.
Cricket clubs are Darlington Cricket Club and Darlington Railway Athletic Cricket Club.
The Darlington 10K road run is held every August, and attracts several thousand competitors.
Twin towns.
Darlington is twinned with:


Kilsby Tunnel

The Kilsby Tunnel is on the West Coast Main Line in England. The railway tunnel is near the village of Kilsby in Northamptonshire roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Rugby and is long. On opening, it was the longest railway tunnel in the world. As of 2018, it is the 18th longest tunnel on the British railway system.
The Kilsby Tunnel was designed and engineered by Robert Stephenson for the London & Birmingham Railway (L&BR). It was constructed by contractors Joseph Nowell & Sons and later by the L&BR. It took much longer to construct and exceeded its estimated cost, attributed to a roof collapse and consequential flooding.
The tunnel had atypically large ventilation shafts, because of a lack of experience as to how much ventilation would be needed for steam locomotives to pass through. On opening in 1838, the tunnel was single track and in 1879, double-track was laid. In March 1987, Kilsby Tunnel portals and its two ventilation shafts were given listed status.
History.
Construction.
In the 1830s, Robert Stephenson developed the London & Birmingham Railway (L&BR) (later known as the West Coast Main Line). After opposition from several landowners and proprietors in Northampton in July 1832, the House of Lords rejected the original bill to authorise construction of the line. Stephenson surveyed an alternative route to the west of the town that included Kilsby Tunnel. The 2,423 yard tunnel would be the world's longest railway tunnel. In May 1835, Joseph Nowell & Sons was awarded the tunnel contract, which was valued at £98,988.
Construction proved to be less than straightforward. Within months of work commencing, the second of the working shafts was flooded because of large amounts of quicksand not revealed by trial borings into the hill. Similar problems had been encountered during the construction of Blisworth Tunnel on the Grand Union Canal a few decades earlier. Problems posed by the quicksand at tunnel level were so severe that abandoning the shaft and restarting work elsewhere was considered. Stress from the project was said to have caused Joseph Nowell's ill-health and death.
At the recommendation of George Stephenson, several steam-powered pumps were installed to extract water from the quicksand inside the tunnel. The pumps removed up to 2,000 gallons of water from a depth of 120 feet every minute of operation and took up to eight months. Seven more shafts were sunk to install timber cylinders to hold back the sand. During this time, multiple attempts were made to construct the tunnel's brick lining using a raft to float men and materials into position. As a protective measure, the lining's thickness was increased from 18 inches to in excess of two feet and straw was used to deflect and control the ingress of water to prevent wet concrete from being washed away from newly laid bricks.
An unusual feature of the tunnel is the size of its ventilation shafts, which were adapted from ten of the working shafts used during its construction. In May 1836, work started on the first of two shafts, which were 132 feet deep and 20 yards in diameter. The shafts were sunk using sequentially dug trenches around the circumference and took over a year to reach the bottom of each shaft. Its three-foot-thick walls required over one million bricks and weighed an estimated 4,034 tonnes. For aesthetic reasons both shafts are castellated.
Author Graeme Bickerdike has speculated that, while their size is excessive in regards to providing airflow, considerable importance was placed on overcoming public perceptions and worries over personal health due to insufficient ventilation, especially in regards to the use of steam locomotives inside lengthy tunnels. Several newspapers had negatively commented on the issues, and it is likely that Stephenson would have wanted to silence critics and assuage these sentiments by visibly demonstrating how much ventilation was being provided.
Completion and subsequent activities.
On 21 June 1838, resident engineer Charles Lean laid the final brick of the tunnel, marking its completion. It took three years, and cost £320,000 to build — three times the original estimate (£23,758,000 in 2005 pounds). The high accident rate in the course of its construction included the deaths of 26 of the 1,250 workers. The length of time it took to build delayed the opening of the L&BR. On 20 August 1838, the directors of the L&BR conducted the first ever rail journey between Birmingham Curzon Street railway station and Euston railway station, London. On the way, the train briefly stopped at the tunnel so that they could marvel at the structure and meet some of the workmen. Regular services using the tunnel commenced soon after.
Kilsby Tunnel had been designed for double tracks, but opened with a single track. During early operations, train movements were controlled by two policeman, one at either end of the tunnel, who signalled the presence of a train to each other, and only one train was allowed to enter the tunnel at a time. In June 1852, a fatal collision occurred between a ballast train and a coal train as a result of signals that were either not issued or were not received. In 1879, the single track was doubled.
In March 1987, both the north and south portals of Kilsby Tunnel were Grade II* listed; furthermore, the two largest ventilation shafts were also listed, the north shaft being Grade II* listed while the south shaft was Grade II listed. During the tunnel's service life, there have been no major problems or difficulties with the structure. During a survey conducted during the 2010s, it was found to be in a largely good condition.
During the 2010s, Kilsby Tunnel was restored by Network Rail. Maintenance focused on inspecting the ventilation shafts and repairs to the brickwork of one shaft was carried out, sections of the tunnel's lining were replaced. While unusual means of access were used because of the listed status of the shafts, the repairs were described as routine.
At the beginning of 2020, an estimated 400 trains were using the tunnel daily. Due to the drastic reduction in rail traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Network Rail took the rare opportunity to close the tunnel for two weeks in May 2020 in order to carry out major works, including replacing much of the tunnel's drainage system, which had become clogged by heavily limed water seeping through, causing flooding problems, and also replacing much of the track and ballast. This was the longest total closure of the tunnel since it was opened, with all trains diverted temporarily via . In normal times the work would have required many short blockades, and taken months to complete. It allowed a temporary speed restriction through the tunnel of 70 mph to be lifted, enabling trains to operate at the normal line speed of 110 mph.


Kinver Light Railway

The Kinver Light Railway operated a passenger and freight tramway service between Amblecote and Kinver, in South Staffordshire, between 1901 and 1930.
History.
The Kinver Light Railway was a subsidiary of British Electric Traction. They acquired the Dudley and Stourbridge Steam Tramways Company in April 1898 and applied to the Light Railway Commissioners (in preference to the Tramways Act 1870) for permission to build a tramway from Amblecote to Kinver.
The tramway was a single track with passing places. The route ran from outside the Fish Inn at Amblecote where it had a connection with the Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company tracks. After passing Wollaston and Stourton, it arrived in Kinver. From Amblecote to Wollaston Ridge it ran on the streets using conventional grooved rail. From there the line used Vignoles rail (non-grooved bullhead rail). The use of Vignoles rail in conjunction with the tramway’s tight curves led to the Board of Trade Inspector imposing a 10 mph speed limit and recommending the use of single-deck tram cars only, while the lack of signalling at passing loops prevented operation at night.
Passenger service started on 4 April 1901. The company was taken over by the Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company in 1902 for the sum of £60,000 (). Although parcels had been carried on passenger services from the outset, goods trailer vehicles were attached behind service cars for freight from September 1903. The company made significant money from this operation. Substantial quantities of milk were carried, such that occasionally passenger vehicles were commandeered for freight use.
The Sheffield Photo Company produced a film in 1904 entitled "A Ride on the Kinver Light Railway". It was directed by Frank Mottershaw, a pioneer film maker.
The services finished on 8 February 1930, a victim of competition from motorbus traffic, and the final closure took place on 1 March 1930.


Coleford railway station (Severn and Wye Railway)

Coleford (Severn and Wye) railway station is one of two former stations that served the town of Coleford, Gloucestershire, England. The station was the northern terminus of the former Severn and Wye Railway. The station opened in 1879 and was closed in 1924 to passengers due to lack of passenger use. The line remained in use for goods traffic until the line was closed from Whitecliff Quarry to Coleford in 1967.
Traces of the station have vanished under a car park but the trackbed is now a cycle track from Coleford to Parkend. The former Great Western Railway station has also vanished under a car park but the former goods shed now hosts a railway museum dedicated to the former railway lines around Coleford and the wider Forest of Dean.


Wembley (Chiltern) Light Maintenance Depot

Wembley Light Maintenance Depot is a Traction Maintenance Depot located in Wembley, London, England. The depot is situated on the Chiltern Main Line and is east of Wembley Stadium station.
Allocation.
As of 2017, the depot's allocation consists of
Class 68 locomotives, driving van trailers, Class 165 Networkers, and Class 168 Clubman.


Marylebone Up Tunnel Sidings

Marylebone Up Tunnel Sidings is a stabling point located in Marylebone, London, England. The depot is situated on the Chiltern Main Line and is on the east side of the line to the north of London Marylebone station.
The depot code is ME.
Allocation.
As of 2018, stabling is provided for Chiltern Railway Turbos.


White Ball Tunnel


Bolton Corporation Tramways

Bolton Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Bolton between 1899 and 1947.
History.
The Corporation took over the Bolton Horse Tramways and the tramway assets of Edmund Holden and Company in June 1899, and undertook a programme of modernisation and electrification.
The first electric services ran on routes to Great Lever, Toothill Bridge and Tonge Moor 9 December 1899. On 2 January 1900 electric services started on routes to Halliwell, Dunscar, Moses Gate, Daubhill, Deane, Lostock and Doffcocker. The depot was located on Shifnall Street at .
Extensions took place as follows:
Closure.
The final tram service operated on 29 March 1947. Car 66 survives and is preserved on the Blackpool Tramway.


Morecambe Tramways

Morecambe Tramways served the town of Morecambe in Lancashire from 3 June 1887 until 24 October 1924.
History.
The first section to open (1869) was from the Central Pier to the Battery Hotel. In 1888 the line was extended from the hotel to Strawberry Gardens in Heysham, and in 1895 an extension was built from the pier to East View. These lines were built and owned by The Morecambe Tramways Company Limited. Finally in 1897 an extension was built to Bare by Morecambe Corporation and leased to the Tramways company. In 1909 Morecambe Corporation purchased the section between Battery and Bare, leaving the Tramway Company to operate the 1.25 mile Battery to Strawberry Gardens section. This section was relaid and operated using petrol mechanical trams from 1912 to 24 October 1924.
Infrastructure.
The network was linear, of length 3.59 miles, with a depot on the Heysham Road at between Stanley Road and Cumberland View Road.
Tramcars.
The fleet, in a livery of maroon, teak and white, and later green, consisted of:


Avonmouth Light Railway

The Avonmouth Light Railway (ALR) was a nominally independent railway company operating a short standard-gauge branch line from a point on what is now the Severn Beach Line near Avonmouth Docks station in Bristol to a Bristol Corporation electricity installation east of the main entrance to Avonmouth Docks. Its promoters had aspirations which were never fulfilled.
History.
The ALR was a project of the Kingsweston estate owned by the squire of Kingsweston, Dr Philip Napier Miles, and its headquarters were in the Kingsweston estate office in High Street, Shirehampton. This estate had owned much of the land in the area; Dr Miles’ father, Philip William Skynner Miles MP, had been responsible for promoting Avonmouth Docks, opened in 1877 on a large tract of his marshland.
Acts of Parliament.
The plan for the line was deposited in November 1902, and an order for its construction was obtained in 1903 under the Light Railways Act of 1896; but with the task threatening not to be completed before the period specified in the Act expired, renewal was sought several times and obtained from 1909 to 1912, finally through the Avonmouth Light Railway (Revival and Extension of Time) Order of 1912, again under the Light Railways Act of 1896. The line was nevertheless not completed to the full original specification.
Relation to other railway systems.
The ALR was planned to meet up with other industrial railways developing to serve enterprises further north in the Avonmouth area, but the intended contact never took place. The book of reference of the line specifies that it was to run from Shirehampton (of which Avonmouth was a part at the time) to Henbury, but it never crossed the parish boundary into Henbury.
Construction.
The ALR’s consulting engineers were Kirkland and Capper of Westminster.
Operation.
The line eventually opened in 1908, probably on 1 April, and was closed on an unknown date but probably about 1931.
The line was operated from the start by the Great Western and Midland Joint Railway Committee and transferred in 1927 to the ownership of the Joint Committee’s successor companies, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the (post-Grouping) Great Western Railway.<ref name="58/481"></ref>
The ALR never carried paying passengers, and must have been intended solely to transport coal from the Joint Committee’s sidings to the electricity installation, if this was indeed a generating station.
Little is known about the locomotives and rolling stock, operational history or personnel of the line. There are occasional mentions of it in oral history memoirs, but nothing that illuminates its business with precision. It appears that the Great Western Railway kept an engine in a shed by Portview Road to share the duties of servicing a coal yard and taking trucks along the ALR. It was distinguished by the fact that 100% of its staff were called up in the First World War – that is, both of them.
Route.
The line started from a Bristol-facing junction with sidings on the Clifton Extension Railway (which ran from Narroways Hill Junction and Kingswood Junction in north Bristol to the port of Avonmouth). This junction was located east of Avonmouth Docks joint station. The stub of the line at its southern end appears as a siding on an Ordnance Survey map of 1949. It crossed several streets on the level in the expanding suburb before setting out across the fields of Avonmouth farm in the direction of a facility variously described as a Bristol Corporation electricity sub-station and as a generating station, and terminating on the western side of this facility in what is now a widened St Andrew’s Road. It was about long. There is some doubt about whether it was ever extended further. Almost no trace of the line remains in 2015. Gaps between buildings in Portview Road, Davis Street and Avonmouth Road could be discerned by the knowledgeable and interpreted as the course of the line, but building has taken place in some gaps, and the only ones remaining are on both sides of Davis Street (west of numbers 28 and 31) and opposite the Miles Arms hotel in Avonmouth Road. The fields north of the village across which it went have all been built over with warehousing and other commercial development as Avonmouth has expanded, but the disturbed ground marking its course can clearly be followed in post-WW2 aerial photography, cutting across fields still showing the ridge-and-furrow pattern of pre-modern arable farming. The electricity station or sub-station which was its destination is still in existence but derelict.


North Ings Farm Museum

The North Ings Farm Museum is a working farm museum containing a narrow gauge railway, running on a circuit of . It is located at Dorrington, between Lincoln and Sleaford, in Lincolnshire. The museum includes agricultural machinery and tractors, commercial vehicles, portable steam pumps and a fairground organ.


Manchester Corporation Tramways

Between 1901 and 1949 Manchester Corporation Tramways (known as Manchester Corporation Transport Department from 1929 onwards) was the municipal operator of electric tram services in Manchester, England. At its peak in 1928, the organisation carried 328 million passengers on 953 trams, via 46 routes, along of track.
It was the United Kingdom's second-largest tram network after the services of 16 operators across the capital were combined in 1933 by the London Passenger Transport Board. Other large systems were in Glasgow (which had 100 miles of double track at its peak and Birmingham (80 miles).
The central and south-central Manchester area had one of the densest concentrations of tram services of any urban area in the UK. MCT services ran up to the edge of routes provided by other operators in (what is now) Greater Manchester, and in some instances had running rights over their lines and vice versa. There were extensive neighbouring systems in Salford, Oldham, Ashton, Hyde, Middleton, Rochdale, and elsewhere.
Services were withdrawn earlier than most other British cities to be replaced by trolleybus and motor buses. Trams did not return to the city until the modern light-rail system Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992.
History.
Though horse-drawn omnibuses were first introduced in Manchester as early as 1824 (arguably the world's first bus service it was run by John Greenwood and ran between Market Street and Piccadilly and Pendleton toll gate in Salford). In the subsequent years, other companies joined the rush to provide services culminating by 1850 in 64 omnibuses serving the centre of Manchester from outlying areas. Passenger carrying trams had first began urban operation in Birkenhead in 1860. By 1865 Greenwood merged with the other operators to become the Manchester Carriage Company. The earliest proposals for the construction of rails on the streets of Manchester were made by Henry Osborn O'Hagan in 1872. Though these were resisted (partly because raised tram tracks had been the source of many accidents elsewhere), by 1875, road congestion was so great that the 'tramway' could not be delayed much longer. Working with the Corporation of Salford, Manchester successfully gained orders under the Tramways Act 1870, which permitted them to build and lease, but expressly "not to operate", tramways. The first tracks, therefore, were built to allow the already existing lines from neighbouring Salford to run into the city along Deansgate.
As extensions and new lines were agreed, the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company was formed in 1877 to operate horse-drawn trams on the lines constructed by both local authorities. The company had a total fleet of more than 90 horse-drawn vehicles, and, in 1877, it was they who gained the concession to operate the tramway, using the name 'Manchester & Salford Tramways'. By 1901 this company used 5,000 horses to pull 515 tramcars over 140 route miles. Their first service, therefore, began on 17 May 1877, between Deansgate and Grove Inn on the Bury New Road. Just three years later a new organisation was formed called the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company that continued with the expansion. By the 1890s it had turned itself into the most important transit operator in Lancashire. At their height, the company had 5,300 horses, pulling 515 tram cars on almost 90 miles of route using 515 cars. By 1896 outlying areas served included; Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Droylsden, Failsworth, Gorton & Denton, Heaton Norris, Kersal, Levenshulme, Lower Broughton, Moss Side, Peel Green, Stalybridge, Stockport, Stretford, Swinton, Waterhead and Withington. There were also other horse-drawn tram services operating independently in some of the other settlements surrounding Manchester – notably Bolton and Stockport.
Another company which had been set up by Henry O'Hagan proposed a tram network for all the urban areas east of Manchester, from Bacup in the north via Rochdale, Oldham and Ashton to Hyde. The first Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Steam Tramways Company line opened in 1883, though by 1887 the company was declared bankrupt. A new company with almost the same name was begun in 1888 (simply by deleting the word "Manchester" from its name) and successfully ran steam tramways until the municipalities began building and operating routes at the turn of the 20th century. The Wigan and District Tramways Company ran tram services between 1880 and 1902. On the other side of Manchester, the Trafford family sold their land following the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894, creating the "Trafford Park Estates Company", which built a gas-powered tramway to serve the new factories in 1897. It was replaced by an electric-powered tram line within the industrial estate from July 1903. The idea of local authorities running tram systems was developed locally in both Bolton and Wigan when in 1899 the corporations bought the routes of the E. Holden & Company. This enabled investment and conversion of the Bolton lines to electric traction during December of that year (followed in 1901 by Wigan). In 1900 the South Lancashire Tramways Company was formed (later renamed Lancashire United Tramways and again Lancashire United Transport in 1905), which ran an extensive inter-urban system from Atherton.
Birth of Manchester Corporation Tramways.
The Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company leases were due to expire between 1898 and 1901, so the Corporation of Manchester agreed in 1895 to take over and modernise the existing tramways themselves. They sent inspectors to view the systems operated elsewhere in order to assess the best means of traction power and delivery for Manchester. The systems examined were: underground conduit, storage batteries, cable-hauled (used in Edinburgh), steam-powered (used by Leeds trams), oil, gas (used in Lytham St Annes), and a delegation was even sent to Paris to examine their compressed air system. The decision was then taken to use electrical power carried overhead but the track itself needed a complete overhaul from the horse-drawn days and at some junctions the track needed was to be so complex it even had to be ordered from the United States. It was thought that the initial requirement would be for as many as 600 electric cars but although this estimate was revised down to 400 it was still such a large number that it was beyond the manufacturing capacity of the period. Instead of having the entire network and fleet ready for the proposed opening in 1901, the Corporation gradually replaced the old Manchester & Salford Tramway routes as vehicles became available. Notwithstanding, over one hundred cars were delivered before the system opened from 1899 onwards.
The location for a new electrically equipped depot needed to be accessible to the first route so land on Queen's Road, Cheetham (part of a later extension to that depot is now home to the Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport) was purchased and on 12 June 1900, the foundation stone was laid. Following the installation of power lines between Albert Square and Cheetham Hill, this first part of the new operation was inaugurated on 6 June 1901 with public services starting the next day. It took £1,500,000 and until 1903 to rebuild and re-equip the rest of the then 140-mile network, and to receive delivery of the full set of new tram cars (mainly double-deck but with some single decks (known as California cars)—mainly used on the L-shaped route 53—were also ordered), but on 13 April that year, horses pulled their last trams within Manchester. Horse-drawn trams in London by comparison continued until 1915. By the end of 1901, further sections had been opened between Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road; Deansgate and Hightown; High Street and Blackley; High Street and Moston Lane; and High Street and Queens Park. Only 252 cars could be housed at the Queen's Road depot so a further depot was constructed at Devonshire Street / Hyde Road in Ardwick—and it was opened at the end of 1902.
Expansion and peak.
1901–1910.
From 1902 onwards both Salford and Manchester tram systems, uniquely in Britain, employed uniformed "trolley boys" – over a thousand at their peak (Jan 1930) – whose job it was to assist guards on double-truck trams by giving the driver a bell signal at the stops and helping passengers on and off. Because by the early 1900s multiple organisations were owning various sections of tramways in Manchester and surrounding areas, Manchester took the lead in rebuilding and electrifying their routes so that they could be leased back for operational services. The largest boroughs (Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, and Salford) continued to operate their own lines and began their own modernisation. At Bury, Oldham, and Rochdale, the steam services were also brought under the control of the local municipalities. In 1904 the Glossop Urban District Supply Company was set up to provide electric trams to Dukinfield, Glossop, Hyde, Mossley, and Stalybridge. The short 2.5 mile run in Trafford Park came under the joint control of the Corporations of Manchester and Salford.
The tracks arrived in Piccadilly, home of the Corporation Tramway offices, on 1 June 1902. By the end of the following year services from Piccadilly reached: Alexandra Park, Audenshaw, Denton, Hollinwood, Moss Side, Old Trafford, Openshaw, Newton Heath, St. Peter's Square and Stretford. By 1903 Manchester Corporation had just over 300 cars. The trams were also used to carry parcels from 1905. As late as winter 1905, horse-drawn buses still ran between Palatine Road and Cheadle and on down to Northenden, as well as on the route between Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Hulme. Manchester Corporation Tramways proposed an experimental motor bus to replace them from 1906, effectively and portentously becoming both a tram and bus operator. By 1910, the 582 cars in service running over 100 route miles were generating a profit of £150,000. Yet another depot was needed and Princess Road in Moss Side was opened on 9 June 1909 which would house nearly 300 tram cars.
1911–1920.
In the run-up to the start of the First World War, there was an enormous expansion and consolidation of tram services to the extent that by 1915 trams were the most popular form of transit; the Manchester system was carrying 200 million passenger journeys a year on 662 vehicles (there were only a handful of buses at this time). It was then possible to traverse by tram the entire urban area now known as Greater Manchester, and far into the surrounding towns of Lancashire and Cheshire, many of which had their independent services. The extent of this inter-urban tram running compares with that found in parts of Belgium. Many of these services were also amalgamating or joint running. Stockport trams ran directly into Manchester with routes to Cheadle, Hazel Grove and Hyde. By 1913 there were so many services running in and out of Manchester city centre that the route names had to be replaced with route numbers – up to 46 MCT numbered routes are known though there were also some sub-sets of these routes. Despite the arrest of development and damage of the war years between 1914–1918 transport expansion was quick to be re-established. Women had been employed during the war as tram guards but there were shortages of materials and maintenance staff that led to the deterioration of both the track and the vehicle fleet. In 1918 the city's Medical Officer of Health closed the tram network to help stop the spread of Spanish flu.
1921–1930.
In 1921 the Manchester Corporation formed a new body with Ashton Corporation and Stalybridge Joint Board which took over the Oldham, Ashton, and Hyde Tramway allowing Manchester trams to run on the Ashton via Guide Bridge section. Due to price rises after the war, operational costs rose from £681,000 in 1919 to £1,520,000 by 1922. This led to calls from some quarters for tram expansion to be halted. Middleton Electric Traction Company was jointly taken over by Middleton, Chadderton and Rochdale authorities in 1923. Middleton then granted Manchester a lease to operate on their former tracks in exchange for allowing them to run Corporation trams right into Rochdale. Buses became one of the fastest-growing areas (Manchester Corporation went from 16 vehicles in 1923 to 51 in 1926). However new tram lines were still being commissioned especially on the south side of the city (serving Anson Rd, Birchfields Rd, Kingsway, Platt Lane, Princess Road, Seymour Grove) and also in the north (at Heywood, Middleton and on Victoria Avenue). A final addition to the tram system came in 1928 when it was connected with the Bury Corporation system from the Middleton line to Hopwood in Heywood. This expansion signalled the maximum extent the MCT system reached in 1929–30 with 123 route miles (292 track miles) and 953 electric cars, making it the third-largest system in the country. Only the tram networks serving (what became Greater) London (around 400 route miles) and Glasgow (about 170 route miles) were bigger.
Decline and replacement.
In spring 1929 a decision was needed to replace the track on the circular 53 route. Because the tracks passed beneath a number of low bridges, running double-deck trams had been impossible. In order to increase capacity, it would have been necessary to increase the bridge height and that was seen as prohibitively expensive so the decision was taken by the new general manager Mr. Stuart Pilcher, to replace the trams with motorbuses between Stretford Road and Cheetham Hill. The effect was to increase passenger numbers by 11 percent and the route became profitable to operate; thus commencing the start of tramway abandonment. In recognition of the growing importance of bus services, Pilcher managed to get the company name changed to "Manchester Corporation Transport" this year.
Elsewhere profits were being made on Express bus services, 27 in all, many running on the same routes as trams. In the early 1930s, tramcar revenue was lower than operating costs on some services and yet more replacement work was due and more buses were introduced. The City Council decided to abandon plans to extend the tramway to the new and rapidly expanding large council housing estate of Wythenshawe and to withdraw the trolley boys. No more new trams were ordered. Pilcher organised the UK's first major conversion of an intensively used tram route to buses in the United Kingdom when on 6 April 1930 the service from Cheetham Hill to Stretford Road was abandoned to the motorbus. Manchester's bus fleet then numbered over 100, and with lower overheads and profits increasing after conversion, Pilcher was seen as the man who persuaded some cynics that trams were outdated for British cities and that buses were the future. Thirty years after their initial opening, the old tram routes were showing the need for capital expenditure on new infrastructure – Pilcher used this as one of the main reasons to push ahead with conversion to buses.
Major investment was needed for bridge widening on the long route to Altrincham, therefore in June 1931, the trams were replaced by buses. It was followed a month later by the line to Sale Moor and in 1932 the long run-up to Middleton got the chop. 12 November 1932 saw the Rochdale to Manchester trams being pulled out of service by Rochdale Corporation. In 1936 the council decided to replace the old trams on Ashton Old Road with new trolleybuses. A depot for the Manchester trolleybus system was opened on Rochdale Road in 1936. By March 1938, 75 miles of single track tramway had been abandoned and 21 tram routes converted to motor or trolleybus. In 1939, 351 new motor buses and 77 trolleybuses were ordered (although 236 of the motor buses arrived before the start of the Second World War).
The final decision to completely abandon the tram system in favour of trolleybuses and motor buses was taken on 7 July 1937 but the onset of war delayed some of this. However, during the war 4917 tons of steel were turned over to the war effort by removing abandoned tram tracks. In 1945 the final SHMD Joint Board tramcar ran, the last tram in Oldham followed in 1946, and those in Bolton and Salford ended in 1947. By 1949 just a few miles of track were left in Manchester and the last tram ran on 10 January of that year. The last of the old tram cars were stored at Hyde Road depot until on 16 March they were set ablaze in a huge bonfire, permanently signifying an end to what was once the third-largest tramway system in the country. A few trams were sold to other operators: the last of these in public service were in Aberdeen, in 1956.
The trams continued in Bury for a further month and the last tram ran in Stockport during 1951. The trolley bus routes remained until they were also abandoned by December 1966.
Museums.
A short line in Heaton Park has been restored to occasional service, and currently has an operating fleet of 3 electric trams and one horse tram. One of these, tramcar, No 765, was used as a chicken coop for many years before being restored in the 1960s by a group of enthusiasts working under the guidance of retired tramways employees at MCTD's Birchfields depot. Once work had been completed it was stored at the museum at Crich in Derbyshire, before permanently moving to Heaton Park in 1979.


Nickey line

The Nickey line (also known as the Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead branch railway) is a disused railway that once linked the towns of Hemel Hempstead and, initially, Luton but later Harpenden via Redbourn, in Hertfordshire, England. The course of most of the railway has been redeveloped as a cycle and walking path, and is part of the Oxford to Welwyn Garden City route of the National Cycle Network. It is approximately nine miles (14 km) long.
Origin of the name.
The origin of the nickname the "Nickey line" is shrouded in obscurity. Suggestions include being named for the parish of St. Nicholas in Harpenden, through which it runs; to Hemel's connection with Nicholas Breakspear; the knickerbockers worn by the navvies who constructed the line; or "down the nick", a slang term of engine drivers which meant "to run out of steam" and may have been applicable on the line's difficult inclines.
The local paper notes that the engines themselves were referred to as "Puffing Annies" by locals, as the climb from the town centre up through Highfield was steep and the engines created much steam and smoke ascending this grade. Older generations in Hemel still refer to the line as the "Puffing Annie", rather than the Nickey line.
The spelling of the line's name is recorded as appearing as "Nickey" on signs and tickets for special trains and in the local press; when the line was converted to a cycle path, the signs which were erected omitted the "e" in the legend ""Nicky" Line Footpath and Cycleway". The line is commemorated in the modern Marlowes pedestrianisation scheme by a children's playground train and a sign labelled "Nicky Line Halt", though no such named station ever existed.
Another possible origin for the nickname for the "Nickey line" is that the navvies who constructed the line gave it the nickname as the steep climb on the "Nickey line" from the old A6 road (now the A1081) in Harpenden up to the Roundwood Halt is a 1 in 37 gradient and that is the same gradient as the 3.2 km railway incline called the "Lickey Incline" which is located south of Birmingham. The “Nickey line” being a smaller version of its bigger brother.
History.
Early proposals.
In 1837 the London and Birmingham Railway opened the first stretch of the main line from to Birmingham Curzon Street railway station as far as Hemel Hempstead (today's West Coast Main Line), with the line fully opened as far as Birmingham in 1838. The L&BR's construction had been delayed for several years by vigorous lobbying by a number of powerful and well-connected local landowners, including the eminent surgeon Sir Astley Cooper of Gadebridge House, who were all keen to protect their estates from invasion by the "iron horse". Their campaign was successful and the main line was routed along the River Bulbourne instead of the River Gade, skirting around the edge of Hemel Hempstead. As a result, the railway station serving Hemel Hempstead was built one mile outside the town centre at Boxmoor; "Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead" railway station (today's Hemel Hempstead railway station) opened in 1837.
The first proposal for a more convenient rail link for the townspeople of Hemel Hempstead was presented in 1862 by John Grover. His proposal was for a short spur from the main line at Boxmoor, following the route of the River Gade to the lower end of the (old) town at Bury Mill End. At the same meeting, another (more ambitious) proposal was put forward by a Mr Stocken and a Mr Stallon, extending the line to Redbourn to link to the Great Northern Railway at Harpenden. However, Grover's design found a sponsor and following an Act of Parliament in 1863 the "Hemel Hempsted and London & North Western Railway Company" (HH&L&NWR) was formed to construct and operate the line. However, no construction work was undertaken due to difficulties with local landowners and problems agreeing the connection to the main line at Boxmoor, and after a number of years of stagnation the earlier proposals were re-examined.
By 1865, the Midland Railway was developing its route out of , opening up new interchange possibilities to the north of Hemel Hempstead. A new railway scheme was put forward by engineers G.W. Hemans and A. Ormsby which followed the original HH&L&NWR plan as far as Hemel but involved tunnelling under Highfield to connect to the MR at Harpenden, with an option to extend (via another tunnel) to on the GNR's Hertford, Luton & Dunstable branch. The tunnelling proposals proved to be prohibitively expensive, and further opposition from landowners resulted in the scheme being rejected by Parliament in 1865. With the assistance of Grover, the plans were revised and resubmitted for Parliamentary approval which was obtained in 1866. The railway company had meanwhile already commenced construction work in anticipation of approval. The new line was to follow the route authorised in 1863 through Hemel Hempstead and Redbourn, before curving north around Harpenden, crossing the turnpike road (A1081) and passing under the Midland line to connect with the GNR at Harpenden East, with provision for a spur to connect to the MR line north of Harpenden Central.
Construction & opening.
Construction proceeded extremely slowly, the lower spur from Boxmoor to Hemel Hempstead only being completed by 1871, though the connection to Boxmoor was via an awkward turntable arrangement. Eventually, the HH&L&NWR company ran into financial difficulties and it was the Midland Railway that came to the rescue, financing completion of the line and agreeing to operate it once it was built. At this time the transporting of goods and coal was the primary driving factor in the development of railways rather than commuter rail. The thriving hat making industry in Luton created demand for a transport link with the straw plait trade that existed in Hemel and, as a result, the initial connection with the MR at Harpenden headed north towards Luton rather than south towards London. Passengers travelling on this route changed trains at to reach London. The connection to the GNR's line at Harpenden East was never achieved.
The line was finally opened on 16 July 1877 to great fanfare with celebrations led by Berkhamsted Rifle Corps Band. A special train was laid on from Hemel to Luton and champagne receptions were held in Luton and Hemel town halls. Church bells were rung and a banner hung across Alexandra Road in Hemel proclaimed "Success to the Hemel Hemptead and Midland Railway Company".
When it opened, the new line did not extend as far as Boxmoor, but terminated in Hemel Hempstead. Relations between the Hemel Hempstead Company and the LNWR (which had absorbed the London and Birmingham Railway in 1846) were difficult. The LNWR regarded the Hemel Hemptead and Midland Railway route to St Pancras as a threat to their service into Euston. Because of this intense rivalry, the two companies could not reach an agreement to connect the Nickey line to the LNWR main line. Instead, the southern terminus for the Hemel line was originally "Hemel Hempsted" (known locally as the Midland Station), and this served as the main passenger facility within the town. This railway station stood at the junction of Midland Road and Adeyfield Road, opposite the Midland Hotel; today the site is occupied by a modern housing development, although the hotel still exists.
The section of line south of this remained disused until 1880, when the Midland Railway opened the line to provide coal trains to the Duckhall gasworks near to Boxmoor. A connection was constructed as far as the LNWR sidings at Boxmoor; the Nickey line ran along a cutting, rising up to the main line level and under the northernmost arch of the Roughdown Road bridge. Midland Railway trespass notice was affixed to this bridge, indicating the limit of extent of the company's property. For a few years, the Nickey Line was connected to the Boxmoor goods yard via a turntable, but the LNWR removed it in 1897, severing the connection with the main line.
Rivalry between the LNWR and the Midland Railway grew intense in the 1880s. On one occasion, when a Midland Railway locomotive entered the LNWR siding at Boxmoor, the track was lifted by angry LNWR workers to prevent it from completing it journey. The LNWR began to operate a regular horse bus service to transport passengers from the town centre to the main line station at Boxmoor, where they could take trains to . These passengers were able to reach London St Pancras more quickly via the Hemel Hempstead Company's line. Competition increased further when the Hemel Hempstead Motor Car Company started to run a motor bus service to Boxmoor, and this was later taken on by the LNWR in place of its equestrian service. In 1906 the Midland Railway extended passenger services along the Nickey line as far as Heath Park Halt, a high-level railway station which was located on a viaduct extending across Marlowes, close to the present-day site of the former Kodak headquarters building. Additional halts were built on the line at Beaumont's Halt and Godwin's Halt.
Eventually the straw plait trade declined and the need for goods trains gave way to passenger demand; local businessmen wanted a fast route into London without having to go via Luton, and in order to help the line pay its way the junction at Harpenden was realigned in 1888 so that it headed south instead of north, and passengers now changed trains at Harpenden Junction.
Grouping.
After the First World War, Britain's railway companies were failing commercially and making losses, and in 1923 the railways were merged into the "Big Four" in the Grouping of the British railway companies. Former competitors Midland and LNWR were absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); the Nickey line and the neighbouring main lines at Boxmoor and Harpenden all became part of the same organisation. A new railway station was opened at Roundwood Halt in 1927.
Ro-Railer trials.
The LMS also inherited the bus service which the LNWR had been running from into Hemel town centre; rather than transfer passenger traffic to the Nickey line, the LMS instead decided to extend the bus service to run from Boxmoor to Harpenden, duplicating the railway route which it then reduced to two trains per day.
In 1930, the LMS experimented with new transport technology in an attempt to reduce costs and to rationalise its bus and rail operation through Hemel Hempstead. The Nickey line was used to trial a hybrid road–rail vehicle system called the "Ro-Railer", a bus that could travel on both roads and railways. The experiment was short-lived and did not catch on.
Decline and closure.
Passenger demand was never high and further declined during the inter-war years. The rivalry between the Midland and LNWR Railway companies had ensured that the line ultimately failed to serve the people of Hemel Hempstead in the most useful way possible, and the bus service continued under the LMS had shifted passenger demand away from the railway and onto the road. By the end of 1946 the only regular rail passengers on the Harpenden service were six schoolchildren. The LMS also moved its main goods operation from Hemel Hempstead to Boxmoor, and it was only the demand for coal supplies to the Duckhall gasworks that kept the Nickey line operational. During the harsh winter of 1946–47 a national coal shortage hit the British economy and passenger trains were "temporarily" suspended. As it turned out, the service was never to be re-instated and the last passenger service on the Nickey line ran on 16 June 1947.
In 1948 the nationalisation of the railways was enacted; the LMS and other railway companies were absorbed into the new state-owned corporation British Railways. Goods traffic continued to decline on the Nickey line and in 1959 the stretch of track between Hemel Hempsted railway station and the Duckhall gasworks was taken over by the Hemel Hempstead New Town Development Corporation. Hemel had been designated for redevelopment as a New Town in post-Second World War regeneration and plans were in place to demolish the viaduct crossing the lower end of Marlowes, severing the Nickey line link with the Midland Main Line. In order to maintain the supply of coal to the gasworks, new track was laid at Boxmoor joining the Nickey line to the West Coast Main Line via a siding. The connection of the Nickey line to the former LNWR line, which had so long been a bone of contention among competing railway companies, was finally achieved. It was not to last long; this service ran for all of six months in 1959 before the gasworks shut down and the link was closed. A year later on 2 July 1960, the Marlowes railway viaduct was demolished and the removal of the Nickey Line had begun. Many people turned out to witness the demolition of this local landmark, and the event was well recorded in photographs.
The closure of the remaining parts of the line continued in stages; Hemel Hempsted railway station closed in 1963, followed by Godwin's Halt in 1964, cuttings were filled in and commercial buildings and housing estates were built on the former railway land. The line between Cupid Green (north of Godwin's Halt) and Harpenden survived for some more years however, having been leased by British Rail in 1968 to the Hemelite concrete company who continued to use the line privately to transport raw materials for manufacturing building blocks via Harpenden to their works at Claydale. Hemelite's goods operations continued on this line until British Rail decided that the branch line should close. The junction with the Midland Main Line at Harpenden Junction was severed on 1 July 1979. The last journey on the line was made by a Hemelite Drewry locomotive, which was taken off the tracks at Redbourn and transported by lorry to work on the Yorkshire Dales Railway. Track lifting was undertaken in 1982 with the following year the trackbed being converted into a public footpath.
It is notable that prior to Hemel Hempstead being chosen as the site for a new town, Redbourn was also considered. Had this occurred then the Nickey line would have been significantly upgraded to provide a link between the West Coast Main Line at Hemel Hempstead and a new railway station at Redbourn.
Cycle and walking path.
The course of most of the railway has been redeveloped as a cycle and walking path by St Albans District Council and Dacorum Borough Council. It was opened in 1985, as the 'Nicky Line', though later corrected to the 'Nickey Line'. It is part of Route 57 of the National Cycle Network (the Oxford to Welwyn Garden City route) and is approximately eight miles (14 km) long.
The route.
Since much redevelopment of the town took place subsequent to its closure, the course of the lower part of the line is nowadays hard to follow. The course of the connection from Boxmoor is discernible in places; the gasholders at Duckhall are still present and the boundaries delineate the curve of the original trackbed. The abutment of the bridge that crossed the A41 is still present on the northern side, followed by a few hundred yards of heavily wooded embankment which still have one or two remaining sleepers. Remains of the brick-built bridges crossing the Bulbourne and Grand Union Canal are indistinct but discernible, but the remainder of the embankment to Heath Park has been levelled and landscaped as a public park and cricket pitches. From Heath Park the line went roughly to the site of the present day "Magic Roundabout", where it crossed the lower end of Marlowes over a viaduct. From there it followed a course roughly where the modern day Maynard Road runs (an unsurfaced car park locates a 200 m section of the former railway), through the site of Hemel Hempstead Hospital (the hospital existed when the railway was active, but was far smaller – the line passed to its east), through the housing developments of Concorde Drive (the former Hemel Hempstead (Midland) Station), to cross under Midland Road next to the Midland Hotel. From this point the course of the line is easier to follow as much of it still exists as footpaths. The Midland Road bridge is still extant, though now largely buried. The line can be easily traced across Keen's Fields, to cross Queensway on a high-level brick arch bridge which is still complete. From there the line tracks through Highfield and the course follows a well-maintained path all the way up to Cupid Green. This part of the line once again becomes obscured by modern developments, such as a car dealership and a modern industrial estate. Here once stood "Godwin's Halt", a very minor railway station named for a former landowner of the area. The original bridge at Godwins Halt remains, though again largely filled in. It carries a footpath between Highfield and Pennine Way, which is a lane predating the redevelopment of Hemel Hempstead new town.
The line becomes easier to follow a few hundred yards further on, since this part of the line was open until 1979. From here the line crosses largely open country, roughly parallel with the main Redbourn road. Most bridges are still intact and have been maintained as part of the cycle route. The modern Redbourn Bypass, built in the 1980s, cuts across the route several times and there are no separate bridges. The wrought iron bridge carrying the line across the A5 at Redbourn remains intact. This bridge is of a type identical to those originally crossing the Bulbourne and the canal at Boxmoor. There was once a railway station at Redbourn just beyond this point but very little evidence of this remains – the site is marked with an information board today. The route then crosses more open countryside, including fields belonging to the Rothamsted Experimental Station, to Harpenden, where it crosses over the main London road on a brick arch bridge, to connect with the Midland Main Line. The course of the original connection towards Luton is also discernible.
Stations.
The full list of stations on the route is:
Heath Park Halt was the terminus for passenger services. It opened on 9 August 1905. Passenger services were withdrawn 16 June 1947 and the railway station closed with the line in 1960. Nothing of the railway station now remains, although its site may be seen at the junction of St. John's Road and Corner Hall Road with Station Road. A combined iron drinking fountain and gas lamp still stands near the site of the now demolished Heath Park Hotel, which had stood directly opposite the railway station.


Linslade Tunnel

Linslade Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Bedfordshire, England, on the West Coast Main Line about north of Leighton Buzzard railway station and built under Linslade Woods. Consisting of three individual bores, the tunnel is somewhat unusual as there is a slight bend in its alignment.
The first bore was constructed during the 1830s, the engineering of which having been performed by the pioneering railway builder George Stephenson. The only of the three bores to accommodate double track, it was first opened to traffic during 1837. During 1857, the eastern bore was opened to serve a branch line from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable; this has since been closed. In 1876, the western bore was completed, being noticeably narrower than its predecessors. During the 1960s, Linslade Tunnel was outfitted with as part of a wider scheme to introduce electric traction on the West Coast Main Line. In the 1970s, the tunnel portals on either side of the tunnel were recognised as grade II listed buildings due to their connection to early railway engineering history. During the 2010s, remedial engineering works were performed in the tunnel.
History.
Construction.
A total of three bores have been constructed to date, the first of these being the central bore. This is the tallest of the three, and the only one that carries twin tracks. It was also the first tunnel on the site to be constructed, an individual contract for its construction on behalf of the London and Birmingham Railway being issued around 1834, shortly after the purchasing of land along the route was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1833. The engineering work was performed by the pioneering railway builder George Stephenson. The local geology largely consisted of clay and iron sand. Possessing a length of and a depth of roughly , its excavation involved the removal of 20,433 cubic yards of spoil. Atypically, the bore has a slight curvature or bend along its length. This first bore was completed during 1837, and services commenced running through it thereafter. Contemporary accounts around the time of its opening described the original Linslade Tunnel as being relatively spacious.
During 1859, the eastern bore became the second to open, carrying a single track to serve a branch line from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable, which has since been permanently closed. In 1876, the single track western bore was the third to open, it is the narrowest tunnel of the three. The northern portals were finished with a brick castellated retaining wall that incorporated all three of the horseshoe-shaped arches. On 1 May 1975, the northern portals were recognised as a grade II listed building, the listing text observing that it is "an interesting example of early railway architecture". The southern entrance has also been listed despite being noticeably less ornamental than its northern counterpart.
Activity and services.
During the 1960s, Linslade Tunnel, along with the majority of the West Coast Main Line, had apparatus installed, which facilitated the line's transition to using electric traction.
On 9 December 1982, during the British Rail era, a fatal incident occurred at Linslade Tunnel, an inadequately secured load that had fallen from one train was struck by the next train passing through the tunnel, causing its derailment and the death of its driver.
During the late 2010s, deteriorated parts of the brickwork within Linslade Tunnel were repaired. In early 2020, the tunnel was again subject to engineering works, largely focused upon a comprehensive track renewal, to improve service reliability.
The eastern bore and the eastern side of the central bore are used by goods traffic and West Midlands Trains services to and from London Euston respectively to mainly local stations including traffic using the Northampton Loop Line connecting to and from Birmingham, Rugby, as well as several stations further to the north. The current maximum speed on these lines between Euston and Northampton for passenger traffic is . The western side of the central bore and the western single bore are used mainly by Avanti West Coast services to and from London Euston respectively services, at up to .


West Norfolk Junction Railway

The West Norfolk Junction Railway was a standard gauge eighteen and a half-mile single-track railway running between Wells-next-the-Sea railway station and Heacham in the English county of Norfolk. It opened in 1866 and closed in 1953.
At Wells the line made a junction with the Wells and Fakenham Railway and at Heacham it connected with the line from Hunstanton to Kings Lynn.
History.
The West Norfolk Junction Railway was opened in August 1866. The line came from Heacham on an single track aimed at exploiting the great arc of coastline between Hunstanton and Yarmouth. 1866 saw the start of a major financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Overend Gurney Bank; the year also saw the outbreak of a "cattle plague" in North Norfolk which impacted on the cattle receipts on the line. The West Norfolk was amalgamated with the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway in 1872, forming the "Hunstanton and West Norfolk Railway", which in turn was acquired by the Great Eastern Railway in 1890.
During the Second World War, the railway's strategic coastal location meant that it provided a natural 'rampart' behind which a potential beach invasion could be repelled. For this reason, a line of pillboxes were constructed along the railway.
The post-war boom experienced by the King's Lynn to Hunstanton line was not felt on the West Norfolk Junction Railway whose inconveniently sited stations contributed to declining passenger traffic. Passenger services from Wells-next-the-Sea to Heacham were eventually withdrawn from 2 June 1952, but the line remained open to freight. However, following the North Sea flood of 1953, the track between Wells-next-the-Sea and Holkham was so severely damaged that British Railways considered it not worth repairing and the line was closed completely between these two places.
Up to the end of its existence, the line was one of the last where one could travel in gas-lit clerestory coaches hauled by Victorian locomotives.
Route.
At Heacham, services to Wells-next-the-Sea started and terminated in a bay platform to the east of the line, while trains to Hunstanton and King's Lynn departed from the platforms just to the west. The station was rebuilt at least twice, with the Great Eastern Railway adding platform canopies, a turntable and improving the platform buildings. More substantial modifications were carried out by the London and North Eastern Railway in 1937 as Heacham had by then become a significant holiday destination, and it was necessary to extend the passing loop to accommodate 13-coach trains. A lattice girder footbridge linked the platforms, while a signal box was situated on the down side.
Sedgeford railway station was the first station after Heacham on the single-track West Norfolk Junction Railway. It was a small station located in a rural area, equipped with a single platform on the down side, built to smaller dimensions to other stations on the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway, and without a stationmaster's residence. Very basic goods facilities were provided in the shape of a single carriage siding on the down side. The station's staff amounted to two persons, reduced to one in the final years. Traffic on the line was largely agricultural, consisting of corn, sugar beet, cattle and agricultural machinery. A level crossing lay to the east of the platform.
After passing through Docking, trains arrived at Stanhoe railway station, situated more than a mile from the village from which it took its name; its remote rural location was accentuated by the fact that it lay at a height of around 200 ft above sea level. With no goods facilities provided, the station had one of the simplest layouts on the line; a single platform on the up side on which was built a signal box and single storey station building out of Norfolk flint rather than the usual Great Eastern Carstone. A level crossing lay to the west while the line climbed to the west, running parallel with a minor road before crossing it on a level about a mile from Docking.
Burnham Market was the principal intermediate station on the West Norfolk branch, serving the largest settlement between Heacham and Wells-next-the-Sea. Its importance was to decline towards the end of the nineteenth century as it shed its urban functions to become the village it is today. A single platform was provided together with a brick station building situated on the down side of the line. There was a crossing loop to the west of the station allowing it to be a passing place. Four sidings led from the loop to serve a goods yard equipped with a red brick goods shed. Another siding led to a nearby brickworks which used the railway to import coal. The station, like many others along the line, also handled its fair share of agricultural traffic and, in addition, some fish traffic (notably shellfish) from nearby villages such as Brancaster and Burnham Overy.
The station was also the nearest to Lord Nelson's birthplace at Burnham Thorpe, a fact capitalised on by the Great Eastern Railway which erected large nameboards proclaiming that this was the station "For Burnham Thorpe & Nelson's Birthplace".
At Holkham the railway line curved away from the main village centre dominated by Holkham Hall, and followed a path nearer the coast. The line had been opposed by the occupant of Holkham Hall, the Earl of Leicester, who feared that it would lead to large scale resort development and an influx of holiday visitors near his home. A station was nevertheless opened opposite the main gates of Holkham Park which had been laid out by Thomas Coke who had reclaimed from the sea some of the land over which the railway now ran. The station's approach road, Lady Ann's Drive, continued for around half a mile to the beach at Holkham Gap. The station itself was very small, equipped with a single platform and no goods facilities. Architecturally, it was a miniature version of the Great Eastern's "Victorian House" design, incorporating a small platform canopy. There was a level crossing over Lady Ann's Road which was controlled by a wooden signal box.
The line entered Wells-next-the-Sea on a sharp curve, turning through a full 180 degrees before converging with the Wymondham to Wells branch from Dereham for the final approach. West Norfolk services used the outer face of a sheltered wooden island platform to the south of the station, with the inner face being set aside for services to Dereham and Wymondham. The Dereham side was unusual in that there was a platform on either side of the train, allowing the passengers the choice of which side to alight from, much the same as Ventor and Ulverston stations.
Preservation.
The majority of the route remains unobstructed although some of it now traverses open fields with no visible sign of the trackbed. The stations at Heacham, Sedgeford, Stanhoe, Burnham Market and Wells-next-the-Sea remain in good order, and large sections of the route remain in transport use as roadways and drives. For example, at Burnham Market, the former route passes east of the station across a field and is not visible, but the trackbed then survives as a concrete road leading from the south end of "Joan Short's Lane" to the sewage works, from where it continues as a public footpath through woodland.
Holkham station has been demolished, although the WW2 pill boxes remain. The site of Docking station has been redeveloped as a housing estate, although the station house survives as a private residence, and the route into Wells-next-the-Sea has been partially redeveloped as housing, a school playing field and an industrial estate.