TRAINS IN THE ROAD
An LJ friend has sometimes posted images of steam railway locomotives on railway tracks that, usually because of lack of space, had to be located for a short distance along public roads. Well, here are two shots of this situation in England - Southampton to be precise.
In 1892 the London & South Western Railway purchased the Southampton Docks for £1,360,000. The docks were subsequently expanded into one of UK's largest and most important passenger and freight ports. In addition development of flying boats, sea-planes - including the engine for WW2 "Spitfire" fighter and hovercraft took place in and around the docks.
Unfortunately, with the town of Southampton already occupying prime location at the mouth of the river Itchen 10 miles (=16km) from the open sea, there was no room for a rail link to the docks other than by crossing a busy public road - Canute Road - in the town centre. Thus all rail freight and special "Ocean Liner" passenger expresses to and from the docks crossed Canute Road . . . at walking pace.
Some "Ocean Liner" expresses were composed of up to 11 passenger carriages and two equally long baggage vans. These passenger trains could not be time-tabled, the precise arrival time of a liner depended upon weather conditions at sea and the state of the tide. The railway administrators thus left windows in the annual timetables to accommodate such traffic. Invariably the "Ocean Liner" expresses ran to/from London: Waterloo and Southampton Ocean Terminal stations non-stop. The ocean liner would be moored at the quayside next to the art deco Ocean Terminal building, passengers and their luggage would pass through this building and after the necessary checks would then board their train to London which was awaiting them at the platform adjacent to the Terminal building.
Here is the situation described in the paragraph above - the liner "Queen Mary" moored at the quayside, the Ocean Terminal building between it and the London bound train waiting for its passengers. The locomotive is "Lord Nelson Class" number 30853 a 4-cylinder 4-6-0 named "Sir Richard Grenville, May 1965." [Original photo: Brian A. Butt].
The train would depart the docks slowly through a public area with some very tight curves in the rail track, and when passing through Southampton Terminus (city) station, start to accelerate for its non-stop 121km run to London. During the 1960's some of these expresses reached 100mph (=163 km/hr).
S15 class 4-6-0 crossing Canute Road with a London bound freight in 1962. [Original photo: Les Elsey/Colour-Rail.com 342025].
For many years, Southampton docks handled 46% of UK's ocean-going passenger traffic and, for example 90% of South Africa's fruit imported into UK (which alone accounted for 4,200 trains annually or some 160,000 wagons - fruit arriving by ship in the morning would be delivered to London markets by the afternoon, such was the efficiency of the dock and railway). Records for 193 show 18.5 million tons of shipping by 32 different companies to/from 160 schedules world-wide destinations. All rail born traffic had to pass the Canute Road bottle neck.
During the late 1960's the now much declined passenger and general freight rail traffic had transferred to road and only the occasional train load of cars for export now cross Canute Road.
In 1892 the London & South Western Railway purchased the Southampton Docks for £1,360,000. The docks were subsequently expanded into one of UK's largest and most important passenger and freight ports. In addition development of flying boats, sea-planes - including the engine for WW2 "Spitfire" fighter and hovercraft took place in and around the docks.
Unfortunately, with the town of Southampton already occupying prime location at the mouth of the river Itchen 10 miles (=16km) from the open sea, there was no room for a rail link to the docks other than by crossing a busy public road - Canute Road - in the town centre. Thus all rail freight and special "Ocean Liner" passenger expresses to and from the docks crossed Canute Road . . . at walking pace.
Some "Ocean Liner" expresses were composed of up to 11 passenger carriages and two equally long baggage vans. These passenger trains could not be time-tabled, the precise arrival time of a liner depended upon weather conditions at sea and the state of the tide. The railway administrators thus left windows in the annual timetables to accommodate such traffic. Invariably the "Ocean Liner" expresses ran to/from London: Waterloo and Southampton Ocean Terminal stations non-stop. The ocean liner would be moored at the quayside next to the art deco Ocean Terminal building, passengers and their luggage would pass through this building and after the necessary checks would then board their train to London which was awaiting them at the platform adjacent to the Terminal building.
Here is the situation described in the paragraph above - the liner "Queen Mary" moored at the quayside, the Ocean Terminal building between it and the London bound train waiting for its passengers. The locomotive is "Lord Nelson Class" number 30853 a 4-cylinder 4-6-0 named "Sir Richard Grenville, May 1965." [Original photo: Brian A. Butt].
The train would depart the docks slowly through a public area with some very tight curves in the rail track, and when passing through Southampton Terminus (city) station, start to accelerate for its non-stop 121km run to London. During the 1960's some of these expresses reached 100mph (=163 km/hr).
S15 class 4-6-0 crossing Canute Road with a London bound freight in 1962. [Original photo: Les Elsey/Colour-Rail.com 342025].
For many years, Southampton docks handled 46% of UK's ocean-going passenger traffic and, for example 90% of South Africa's fruit imported into UK (which alone accounted for 4,200 trains annually or some 160,000 wagons - fruit arriving by ship in the morning would be delivered to London markets by the afternoon, such was the efficiency of the dock and railway). Records for 193 show 18.5 million tons of shipping by 32 different companies to/from 160 schedules world-wide destinations. All rail born traffic had to pass the Canute Road bottle neck.
During the late 1960's the now much declined passenger and general freight rail traffic had transferred to road and only the occasional train load of cars for export now cross Canute Road.