Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: disused

The beautiful little station at Vale do Peso station is on the closed Cáceres branch line from Torre das Vargens to Castelo de Vide, opened in 1880, which used to run over the Marvão-Beirã border into Spain. It is covered in exquisite blue & white tiled scenes of the region which fortunately have not been vandalised. The regional trains service on the Cáceres branch line ended on February 1, 2011. The station is frozen in time with everything still in place; track, signals, points, goods shed, loading gauge, water tank and clearly hasn't been disused for too long. The photo was taken from the "new" goods loading yard which according to the stone plaque was inaugurated by the "Camara Municipal do Crato" on 7th May 1993. I guess the optimism of the 1990s was misplaced and the crisis of 2008 badly hit the region. I would like to believe it will open again someday.

Vale do Peso A station is on the closed Cáceres branch line from Torre das Vargens to Castelo de Vide, opened in 1880, which used to run over the Marvão-Beirã border into Spain. The regional trains service on the Cáceres branch line ended on February 1, 2011. This halt is on the same line as the main station and goods yard posted earlier but closer to the town. HFF to everyone. Enjoy your weekend.

The end of the Line! And what a line it used to be! The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, later MSLR/GCR/LNER/BR, Woodhead Route opened through Hadfield in 1845 and was a major trans-Pennine transport link for nearly 140 years. Approved by the LNER pre-war the line was finally electrified by BR at 1500 vDC in 1955. It was the most modern railway in Britain at the time but was unfortunately the only main line using 1.5 kVDC and this system was soon superseded by the later network standard of 25 kV AC. When the infrastructure needed upgrading the decision was made to close the line instead and all traffic between Hadfield and Penistone ceased in 1981. The Manchester commuter lines were eventually upgraded to 25 kV AC and trains still run to Hadfield & Glossop via Dinting Junction. Interestingly the original 70-year old overhead structures have been reused...

Almost taken over by nature now and lost in the greenery GCR Bridge 356 over Rothley Brook to the south of Rothley station was built by the Great Central Railway in the 1890s but has never carried a railway line. The main line actually runs on a very high embankment about 100yds east of this location. It was provided by the GCR to compensate a landowner for the building of the railway embankment which cut off and orphaned part of a larger field and needed this occupation bridge over the river to access it. It has clearly not been used for many years. HFF and have a great holiday weekend.

The Great Oxendon tunnel (414m) on the closed ex-LNWR Northampton to Market Harborough railway line. This is beneath the ventilation shaft half way through the tunnel. The line was opened in 1859 by the LNWR and closed to passenger services in 1960 although sleeper services from St Pancras passed this way until 1973 and freight until full closure in 1981. Today the Brampton Valley Way foot/cyclepath passes through one of the 2 single line bores.

Is this the light at the end of the tunnel that we keep being told about? Great Oxendon tunnel (414m) is on the closed ex-LNWR Northampton to Market Harborough line & today the Brampton Valley Way foot/cyclepath passes through one of the 2 single line bores. This is the northern portal and another candidate for HFF! The line was opened in 1859 by the LNWR and closed to passenger services in 1960 although sleeper services from St Pancras passed this way until 1973 and freight until full closure in 1981.

Light and shadow in Leicester. Now definitely out of gauge, Berne or BR, the abandoned Great Central Railway London Extension through Aylestone in south Leicester is crossed by Soar Valley Way, the outer ring road. The GCR closed as a through route in September 1966 and the Rugby-Nottingham section completely in May 1969. It is now the Great Central Way a foot and cycle path which the for-once enlightened Leicester City Council opened in the early 1980s.

The Chemin de Fer de Provence metre gauge line from Nice to Digne-les-Bains has seen better days. In the station yard the hand operated crane, unused for years, is disappearing into the undergrowth.

The view northwestwards from Keighley Road at Denholme north of Halifax. The skyline is dominated by Ilkley Moor of bart 'at fame. Bingley & Keighley lie in the Aire valley in front of the moors Centre foreground is dominated by the disused Hewenden Viaduct on the former Great Northern/ LNER line from Bradford to Thornton & Keighley via Queensbury.

Designed by John Roberts Tyrone House was built in 1779 for Christopher French St. George, part of an old Co. Galway family with Norman Irish roots. Empty since 1905, the house was torched by the IRA during the War of Independence in 1921 when the house was rumoured to be a base for the Black & Tan army during the War of Independence. An elderly and bed-bound caretaker was reputed to be inside at the time, but the IRA carried his bed, bedding and furniture downstairs, put him in one of the out-offices and then set the place alight. It has lain derelict since but many of the valuable architectural features have been removed. It is a very atmospheric and melancholy sight especially at sunset.

A scene which covers over a hundred years of Pennine railway construction history from the opening of the first 3-mile long Woodhead tunnel (right) in 1845 by the MS&LR (later Great Central) to the opening of the new double bore tunnel in 1954 by British Railways (left). Sadly all of it is proper history now since this former important main line closed in 1981.

Birmingham Snow Hill's disused signal box from just inside the tunnel. No chance of a King or Castle running me down by this time - through trains had been withdrawn in 1967. In 1969 it was the world's largest unstaffed halt - the only train using the station's 12 platforms was the single car dmu to Wolverhampton Low Level which still ran from the bay platform in the left distance until 1972. The station lingered on in grand decrepitude until June 1977 when it was finally demolished. In 1987 a new station was reopened on exactly the same location. What a waste of effort all round.