[Balamory Jn] Wannabeck Junction – Raspberry Central
28.09.1846
Goods traffic
[Balamory Jn] Wannabeck Junction – Raspberry
Central
27.03.1848
All traffic
Raspberry Central – Gobbledegook East
1.10.1852
All traffic
Wannabeck Junction – Gobbledegook East
14.05.1961
Passenger traffic
Wannabeck Junction – Gobbledegook East
01.06.1966
All traffic
Manningwick West Junction to Manningwick East Junction
01.06.1966
All traffic
1
Junctions and other features
2
Running lines and signalling system
3
Stations, Signal Boxes and Junctions
4
Distance from Signal Box above
5
Loops and Refuse Sidings
6
Notes
7
Up
Down
Maximum permissible speed 45 m.p.h. on Main lines.
Maximum permissible speed 25 m.p.h. on Good lines.
1
↕
Wannabeck Junction
–
Charlie Chump Halt
2
↕/↕
Garden-by-Backwater
3m 966yds
CL26
3
↕
↓
Chump Junction
1m 85yds
c. 1.1.1942
4
↑
↓
Raspberry Central
0m 550yds
Grumbleweed Junction ◊
Table Top North
c. 4.5.1917
5
?
↑
↓
Westhampton Tip (Controls up line only)
0m 542yds
DRS57
6
↕↑
↓
Grovel West (Does not control down line)
0m 858yds
7
↑
↓
Manningwick West Junction
0m 1216yds
8
↑
↕
Falls-cum-Handly
1m 742yds
Falls-cum-Lowly
c. 01.01.1961 ro. 18.9.1965
—
↕
–
Gobbledegook East
1m 103yds
1
Manningwick West Junction 8
–
2
— 11
Manningwick Goods 8
X
Grunting-by-Chelwick SB11
X
Groton-by-Lees11
LINKS 9
The Lets Open the Railway Again Group
References 10
The Wannabeck and Gobbledegook Railway: Railway Magazine, August 1966.
a. Each page is coloured according to the regional livery adopted post
nationalisation. So the Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway takes
LMR colours, but the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway is shown as GWR.
b. Closure dates can be misleading, unless it is the final and complete
closure of a line. Some lines lost their stopping passenger service, or perhaps
never had one, but retained or had an occasional express passenger service. The date
for the withdrawal of these occasional services can rarely be found with ease
and often has to be assumed from associated closures. A good example of this is
the Fallowfield loop in south Manchester. Stopping passenger services ceased in
1958, but express trains from Manchester Central continued to use the line and I
am yet to discover the exact date when this arrangement ceased.
1. Only block posts (i.e. signal boxes) are numbered. On
the Cromford and High Peak Railway, for instance, there were block posts,
performing the same role as a signal box, but there were no buildings as we know
a signal box to be. Sometimes level crossing boxes were block posts in all but
name, but the difference is important. A crossing cabin, with signals, bells and
sidings, is still not a block post.
Some of the regions ‘nested’ minor branches and connecting curves in the
tables. Good examples of this can be seem
here. Between locations 1 and 2 on that page there are two branches, one
from Cordio Junction to Northallerton Station and one from Longlands Junction to
Boroughbridge Road. They have a separate numbering sequence and, where
available, separate mileages and speed limits are shown. 2. These features are as at October 1960, so junctions, etc., that
closed prior to this date are often not shown. Where features that closed before
1960 are shown, they are coloured blue. Sometimes I am able to give extra
information about earlier features, but frequently I am not. A question mark denotes that a junction
existed, but I am not sure in which direction it headed. This usually only
applies to small goods/mineral lines. My area of expertise is Manchester, where
I would have a good go at drawing a map of the entire railway system, including
passenger stations, signal boxes and goods station, from memory. Outside of
Manchester it is proving difficult for me to link some routes accurately.
Liverpool and, of course, London come to mind in this respect.
3. This column shows the number of running lines, along with various other
pieces of information. Red arrows indicate passenger lines, blue arrows indicate
goods lines. Being a passenger line does not necessarily mean that a passenger
service was in operation. The designation simply means that passenger trains
could use the line without special arrangements being made. In other words, a
line that had once carried a passenger service might continue to be designated a
passenger line long after the service had been withdrawn. Also, some goods lines were
permitted to carry passenger trains without special arrangements being made. I do not show
the signalling system in use but, as a general rule,
on double track routes, passenger lines are usually Absolute Bock and good lines
Permissive Block.
Where a signal box did not control all the running lines, this
column still shows the full number of tracks that passed at this point. For
instance, in this example, Grovel West only controls the two up lines, but a
down line is still shown passing the box towards Manningwick. The up and down
columns should be read separately for ease of understanding. In this instance,
reading upwards in the up column, the line between Gobbledegook East and
Falls-cum-Handley was a single line. From Falls-cum-Handley there is then a
separate up line to Grovel West, where there was an up and down goods line. The
up line then continues to Chump Junction, where it becomes a single line. For
the down direction, read down from Wannabeck Junction, where the route is a single
line until Chump Junction, double track until Falls-cum-Handly, and then single line
again until the terminus at Gobbledegook East. The symbols at
Garden-by-Backwater, separated by a / indicate that there was still only a
single line, but that it’s status changed from passenger to goods in the up
direction.
4. Where possible, I have tried to
include information about stations and other locations that closed prior to 1960,
but this is very much on an ‘as I find the information’ basis.
5. Distances are usually only shown between block posts. In the case of dead
end lines, where the terminus station was not a block post, the mileage is to
the nearest block post or to the end of the branch.
6. DRS = Down Refuge Siding, UGL = Up Goods Loop, DPL = Down Passenger Loop CL
= Crossing Loop. From this information it is fairly easy to figure out all the
other abbreviations. The number indicates the number of standard wagon lengths
that a loop or siding would accommodate, plus an engine and brake van. Refuge
sidings far outnumbered loops. This necessitated backing trains off the
main line, but it reduced the number of facing points. This information is
included because a widening of the track bed, where loops or extra running lines
once were, can help locate features.
7. The notes will be anything that takes my fancy, or clarifications of items
in the rest of the table. Closing dates will be of stations closing to
passengers unless otherwise stated.
8. This is a short branch that left the main line at Mannigwick West Junction
to Manningwick Goods.
Some regions gave each and every curve and branch a separate table in the
Sectional Appendix, but some regions (Notably the Scottish and Eastern Regions)
simply nested many of them within the table for the main line. For ease of
reading, I have tried to un-nest them and to place them at the bottom of the
main line table, as shown here. Unfortunately, when they are nested this way,
the only detail given is mileage. No mention is made of running lines or speed
limit.
9. This will include links to local history groups, relevant photo
collections and heritage railway groups.
10. This will provide information about relevant articles that I have found
in my collection of railway magazines. I MIGHT be prevailed upon to provide
scans, depending on my work load.
11. Whilst I am trying to present a snapshot of the railways in 1960, much of
interest had passed into history prior to this date. I will attempt to include
some information about these lost railways through the inclusion of long closed
stations (See note 4 above). Also, where possible, I will indicate that a
terminus station was once a through station by the use of blue arrows instead of
the usual black. Thus, Gobbledegook East was
a terminus in 1960 and always had been. Mannigwick Goods, however, was not
always a terminus and a line had continued beyond this point. On the closed
sections there were two further stations, Grunting-by-Chelwick and Grotton-by-Lees.
I will attempt to slowly include this information. Sections of line closed
before 1960 will be shown by an ‘X’ in the running lines column.
Some Notes about Pre-1960 Information
I admit to probably biting off more than I can chew by attempting to include
pre 1960 information, but then this whole project borders on ‘more than I can
chew’, so what the hell? Most of the pre-1960 information is based upon two
sources: old maps and the 1937 Sectional Appendices for the LMSRly. Lets recap
on some symbols:
(Station One): This is a station that closed prior to 1960
(Location Two SB): This was a signal box that closed prior to 1960 that had
no station associated with it.
[Location Three]: This is a location that opened after 1960. : This arrow
works in just the same way as the other arrows, except that it indicates
either a junction of section of line that closed pre 1960. Don’t expect the
hyperlinks to be as functional, especially at LMS boundaries.
Running lines and mileages are NOT shown for routes closed pre-1960.
11