Pics via Google Images.
A few days ago a similar picture to the above was posted to Disused Railways and it brought an immediate response from many members! Everyone was fascinated by it. It appears to be a street running NG line in a British street. I'd certainly not seen anything like it (apart from some very short stretches of NG inset track in SW London back in the 80s that was part of a waterworks system) so I spent an hour or two doing some research.
It turns out that the line is in Shrewsbury, very close to the old Abbey station. The track is still in situ (probably not worth the bother of lifting it!) but the line is no longer used.
The track is 7 1/4" gauge and was used to move freight around the yard. Whilst it appears to be on a public road it probably isn't, it's more like a paved back alleyway. I haven't been able to find out when the line closed, but I would imagine 10-20 years ago. There were two locos used, a diesel outline and a steam loco - both were miniature versions of full size locos rather than Heywood style engines (which is a shame). It appears the chief product handled was sugar. The line went into one or two buildings. Length was in the region of 300-400 metres going by the map (below). It's likely that the track in the buildings has been lifted.
So if you get the chance take a look. As stated above it's near the old Abbey station, off Abbey Foregate. The arch in the distance is next to Home Bargains.
So the line had several unusual if not unique features. It seems to have been used for freight only, it ran mainly on-street and is still there! More info always welcomed of course - please email to leysiner@aol.com.
'Main' line on right with siding to building on left.
Map of line, red is in situ, blue is lifted.
We always love to hear about unusual bits of line, open or closed. If you know of anything like this please email leysiner@aol.com or post to one of the Facebook groups!
No comments:
Post a Comment