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PHOTO
GALLERY GROUP 27
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Above: Granton
Gas Works station. The first two photographs on this page
pick up the trail of the Caledonian Railway's branch from Princes
Street station, Edinburgh, to Leith North, which we featured
in Photo Gallery 25. Just west of Granton Road station, a freight-only
branch headed north to serve Granton Gas Works and Granton
Harbour. So how come we have two pictures of a listed
passenger station? The answer is that the station was built
by the Gas Works company, which provided
its own service into Princes Street station! The first half
of this 'branch off the branch' has been built over by a road – West
Granton Access – with a cycle path alongside, whilst
the remainder to Granton
Harbour is a separate cycle path. July 2007. (Ralph Rawlinson)
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Left: This
elevated view of Granton Gas Works station shows that the
passenger platforms still survive, albeit infested with
a few weeds. Incidentally, anyone
planning
to explore the lost lines of Edinburgh should get a copy of the
Edinburgh Cycle Map, price £4.95 post free from local
cycling group 'Spokes' – it's worth every penny. For further
details, click here. July
2007. (Ralph Rawlinson) |
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Right: Modern
offices and a road now occupy the site of Edinburgh Princes
Street, but the Caledonian Hotel that provided the station's
facade onto Princes Street is still there, together with
the station entrance alongside. The hotel, including piers,
railings and former screen entrance to the station, is
listed Category A. When Princes Street closed in 1965,
trains were diverted to Edinburgh Waverley via the Duff
Street
Spur, which had been installed two years earlier. A path
runs through the site of Merchiston, the only other station
on this
closed
section.
July
2007. (Ralph Rawlinson) |
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Left: Longbridge
Signal Box. On a rather gloomy day in April, member Phil
Mullarkey was lucky enough
to gain access to the disused branch into the closed Longbridge
Rover Plant. Members of the Chasewater Railway were visiting
the site as the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway had said
that they could have a 'look around' to
see
if there was anything they wanted to salvage. April 2007.
(Phil Mullarkey) |
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Above: Longbridge
Signal Box – front elevation. The signal box was an obvious
contender for re-use, but the bottom section was in a poor state
of repair,
as can
be seen here and in the view above. Some thought was given to
salvaging
the
top section and re-using it on a platform, but so far as we know
nothing came of this. It is interesting to see the box still
in Western Region colours. Does this mean that it
lived through the era of the British Rail corporate image without
being
re-painted black and white, like everything else? April 2007.
(Phil Mullarkey) |
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Above: The
interior of Longbridge Signal Box. If it looks as if the box
could still be operational, that's because it was. On arrival,
the
party from the Chasewater Railway was met by two engineers from
Network Rail, who were on site to see if the box was switched
out – it wasn't. Not surprisingly, their request to Saltley
box to throw the switch to see if anything
happened on the main line was firmly declined! Later that day,
the Chasewater team took away smaller items such ground discs,
point
rodding, etc., and came back a
month or so later with an articulated lorry to remove the trackwork.
April 2007. (Phil Mullarkey) |
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Above: Merstone
on the Isle of Wight was the junction station where the line
from Newport split into separate branches to Sandown and Ventnor
West. Most of the Newport to Sandown line is now an
attractive
cycle
trail,
although
the Ventnor West line remains in private ownership except
for a short length of public footpath situated midway between
St. Lawrence and the Ventnor terminus. This sculptural sign has
been
erected
on the station's island platform, its design conveying a visual
impression of how the old railway has been reclaimed by nature.
15 August 2007. (Chris Jennings) |
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Above: A
view of the Great Central Railway from across Swithland Reservoir.
On the last Saturday of January, Bob Prigg, Paul Hudson and Nigel
Willis explored the area south of Quorn & Woodhouse station,
taking in Mountsorrel (home to a huge stone quarry), Beacon Hill
and Swithland Reservoir. The GCR was so busy that it could have
been
mistaken
for the
West
Coast Main Line, but it turned out to be a Winter Steam Gala
Day, with photographers out in force at all the strategic locations.
The
train seen here
is a real 'outsider' – there
is no mistaking the Southern green livery of the coaches, which
appear to be in
the charge
of
a GWR prairie tank engine. 26 January 2008. (Bob Prigg) |
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