Walking the old railway lines after closure.


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From about 1965 onwards, my old schoolpal and I took to walking along the trackbed of then recently closed railways in the Nottingham area (and also some that had been closed for years). We started small by walking from Daybrook station to Leen Valley Junction then exited through the grounds of the City Hospital. The sheer destructive vandalism even in those days was quite sickening. We even had a go at pulling the levers in the disused Leen Valley Junction signal box. It was 15 years later when, as a BR employeee, I did a course called 'The Safe Working of Trains' when I found out why the levers were all but impossible to move.

Did any of you railway buffs out there do any trackbed walking in those days?

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Not specifically Nottingham, more northern; for people who like disused railway lines and the engineering works. At about 10mins there's some great footage of Bennerley Viaduct which can be seen for m

A guy at Lincoln St Crossings in the 1970/80's I knew used to take his guitar and amp in the box and practice most of his shift!

Not the most exciting photos you'll ever see, but an ex-railway line which hardly gets any mentions here. The MR which went out of Nottingham Midland, over Lady Bay Bridge, through West Bridgford and

Most of our stuff was to the north or west of Nottingham. A regular bike ride was along the Nottingham canal to Langley Mill, then along the Cromford Canal to Ironville then up the Pinxton branch. Then the best bit, down the ex-GNR line from Pinxton to Eastwood and back along the old A610. I remember standing holding on to my mates bike like mad while he stood on the saddle trying to undo one of the totem signs at Jacksdale station. No avail. the nuts were rusted onto the bolts and we didn't have a hack-saw. Eastwood North and South signal boxes were of particular interest to us. For years, my mum and dad's porch toilet had a brass penny in the slot sign on the door from the toilets at Eastwood GNR.

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Do you remember that sunken barge in the canal near the 'fork' just before you reached Stanton Iron works with it's double slag heaps like mountains and the old mine shaft in the ground that we called the 'endless well' (when you dropped a rock down it took forever to hear the splash).

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I walk the dog down the old GNR line at the back of Arnot Hill Park every day.

Once in a while, some left-over from the old days resurfaces, like the tie-plate and fixings I found not too long ago. And a fair bit of the fencing put up in the days when the line was active is still there.

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Can't remember the barge you're talking about but there was one partly submerged on the Nottingham Canal near Coventry Lane.

My favourite time was when we walked across the brick viaduct at Giltbrook. it was pretty scary, especially when I nearly fell down one of the chimneys built into a brick support. I think it was for an archway business.

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Used to ride my horse down the old line from North Clifton to Harby, 15 years ago, it was great for a gallop being long and straight. I do believe it is one of the tracks they have turned into a cycle route, though I haven't been down there since the old girl turned up her hooves.

Also used to play on the disused track bed at Watnall before they turned it into the M1.

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I have walked that disused track near Harby with my grand daughter quite recently (2008/9). Over several different days, we walked from Ollerton to Marnham but I wouldn't walk her over the Fledborough Viaduct. We also walked from North Clifton to Harby. Not a cycle track then. We were confronted by an apple tree growing in the middle of the trackbed. Also, we had a teenage friend with us. We heard a dog barking near South Clifton station. The young lad said 'Oh if it comes near us I'll upper cut him' showing his fist. Anyway the dog came running out and our young friend ran up the side of the cutting to escape. We must have misheard him. He might have said 'I'll run up a cutting' LOL.

The bit from Ollerton to Marnham has now been reinstated as a test track.

There were lots of disused tracks at Watnall. The one you are talking about must be the old Barber-Walker colliery line which once ran from Watnall Junction on the MR Basford to Bennerley line to Watnall New Colliery which was situated near the old brickworks. This piece of track is now buried under the M1.

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Walked Mapperley Tunnel in 1960's, rode motorbike through tunnel Woodthorpe Park to Wells Rd , then through to Daybrook bridge, plus lots of the old lines inc later M1 route mentioned earlier, Walked New Basford to Victoria (post Viccy Centre) then Weekday Cross over Midland Station to west of Arkwright St. after that most bridges already down but rejoined route to cross the Trent, (nearly fell off bridge "rescuing" signal arm and diamond circuit sign) another time I think 17 years? after closure got the blue "go" cast iron signal lamp from high up the wall in weekday cross tunnel, originally an oil lamp it still had pot bulb holder with intact standard household size bulb (but 12 or 24? volt) stamped BR and it still worked! far as I know the matching red one (with smashed lens) is still in there, About 1979 when they were levelling the area that is now Brittania Ave/Mallard Close on Arnold Rd plus some of the GCR the contractors opened up the old rathole bridge under that road so lorries could get up on the embankment leading to Valley Rd bridge, one night I did same, drove fiesta van under Arnold Rd then over that bridge, had hell of a job turning round to come back! barmy

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Aren't we all Ashley? We did the suburban. We had to deviate where it was built over but we did walk through Bluebell Hill tunnel and also the one from Sherwood vale to Wells Road. We also walked through the one under Woodthorpe Park, sitting high up on the north parapet swinging our legs and eating sandwiches. I was about 16 at the time. There was still a lot of infrastructure on the Nottingham Suburban at that time considering the last train used it in 1951. We didn't get around to walking through Mapperley Tunnel unfortunately.

I think the splitting embankment at Daybrook junction is still there.

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I recently read "Through Great Central England" by David Ablitt , which describes his walk from Annesley to Marylebone twenty years after closure. A very amusing but albeit sad book describing a lost gem. Give it a read.

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I think the splitting embankment at Daybrook junction is still there.

A little bit of it, yes. But there's only about 30ft of the Woodthorpe section that you can access, then its gated as its now someone's back garden.

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Would have loved to see the line from St Ann's station over Wells Rd to and through the tunnel to Thorneywood, very few photos exist of that bit, in fact The NSR in total! that split embankment sounds the same, no photos understand there was a bridge walkway between the 2 and the signal box but hard to visualize even after walking there (long after closure but whilst bridge over mansfield rd at Daybrook still there) maybe someone here could do sketch or diagram of the walkway thingy?

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that split embankment sounds the same, no photos understand there was a bridge walkway between the 2 and the signal box but hard to visualize even after walking there (long after closure but whilst bridge over mansfield rd at Daybrook still there) maybe someone here could do sketch or diagram of the walkway thingy?

This shows a few of those features

suburbanmap.jpg

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About 15 years ago I was looking around Comet (or one of those shops on the site of Daybrook Station) and decided to nip across to see what was left. I struggled up the embankment (there may have been steps) and the junction embankments were pretty well defined then. Also a few bits and bobs of S & T equipment in the undergrowth. While I was looking a chap living in a bungalow on the site of the first 30 yards or so of the Suburban came across to see what I was up to. We ended up having a chat about the old railway. He told me there were all sorts of S & T stuff in his garden when he first moved in.

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I would say my fondest memories are of walking the Basford to Bennerley route before they completed the M1 and other times we did it afterwards. All the old industries to the west of Bulwell were still there. We had to keep dropping down onto the little backroads as all the bridges had gone. Sellers Wood Road follows that bit now.

Further along we encountered that funny bridge that you can see to the west of the M1 now. Beyond that, we dropped down into a deep cutting that was waterlogged. The old Watnall station was still there complete with the derelict barracks that once served RAF Watnall. Built into the sides of the cutting were the sealed up underground cold war bunker which had just been moth balled. We didn't know anything about this at the time. When we managed to get in through a vent shaft and find an ops room, it frightened the hell out of us as we knew we shouldn't have been in there.

We did walk through the old MR Watnall tunnel as far as the old Kimberely Midland Station which was still in room as Hardy Hansons workers social club.

The old barracks was finally demolished and levelled in the early 1980s. I took my kids to show them when they were still quite young.

I noticed that Nottstalgia member - Firbeck- posted some photos of this derelict rail route on another thread. I was with him and I am actually on one of those photos as a 16 year old.

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A few photos from a friend, showing the area around B&Q at Daybrook where the GN/NSR lines met.

The GN embankment coming from Gedling direction, into what is now B&Q car park. The Suburban line went off to the right.

nsr2.jpg

The reverse angle to the previous, the embankment continued towards Daybrook station which was beyond B&Q - who definitely weren't there at the time.

nsr5.jpg

From the embankment looking towards Gedling.

nsr1.jpg

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The reverse angle to the previous, the embankment continued towards Daybrook station which was beyond B&Q - who definitely weren't there at the time.

No they weren't...I was. Where the car park is now with the Daybrook right outside my window...And the odd game of cricket on the park to keep me amused when working on a Sunday.

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Fantastic place was the area around Daybrook station. I have a book about Nottinghamshire Railway ghosts and according to this, both Daybrook station, the Bero flour factory and the cutting near Edwards Lane were all haunted.

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If you believe in ghosts, a fair bet some railways are haunted given the high number of deaths on such in times gone by? in 1938 for example nationwise 622 people were killed on the railways, 30 were passengers, 210 suicides, 40 killed at crossings and the rest, all 342 of them were railway staff. (if those figures seem high the same year 8,172 were killed on the roads!)

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