NINETEEN SIXTY TWO – PART 79
Harringworth Viaduct and Seaton Junction Station
Michael L. Roach
Harringworth Viaduct carries the Kettering to Oakham line of the former Midland Railway across the valley, orientated north-south, just west of the village of Harringworth and about six miles north of Corby. It is a magnificent structure 1,275 yards (1,166 metres) long consisting of 82 arches and is the longest brick-built viaduct in Britain and was completed in 1880. The 20 million bricks were made locally. At the south end of the viaduct was Harringworth Station, closed in 1948. A quarter mile west of the north end of the viaduct was Seaton Station on a different railway line. When opened in 1850 it wss on the Rugby to Stamford line, but it became a junction in 1873 when a second line arrived from Peterborough, and Seaton to Stamford became a branchline. In 1894 Seaton also became the junction for the 4-mile Uppingham Branch, closed in 1960. Towards the end of steam in the mid-1960s the Seaton to Stamford shuttle trains became famous as the very last location in Britain to see and travel on steam-operated push-and-pull trains.
Seaton Station is remarkably intact and is now the depot for Seaton Salvage and Recycling with a very tidy entrance for a scrapyard, at the junction of the B672 road and a minor road to Seaton village. All photographs were taken on the evening of Wednesday 27 May 2009
26th November 1977
Roger Winnen
Some answers to yesterdays St. Budeaux Query
St Budeaux emergency junction
Roy Hart
The junction at St Budeaux was installed in 1943 with two purposes in mind:
1. To allow for diversion of Cornish traffic in the event of war damage to the RA bridge or to facilities between Plymouth and Exeter.
2. To provide a quick and easy access route in wartime between the Admiralty munitions stores at Ernesettle and the loading jetties at Bull Point. This is why the emergency junction -100 yards of double track- was equipped with facing and trailing crossovers
A military special from the dockyard heading for any part of the country, would go via St Budeaux junction and Okehampton because it was direct and needed no reversal.
A train coming up from Cornwall and needing to use the junction because of a blockage between Plymouth and Exeter, for example, would need to reverse in order to use the junction. There was no run around facility at St Budeaux so the train would have to run to Plymouth. All Cornish trains stopped at Plymouth anyway.
Roy
Additional info
Paul Burkhalter
Mr. Wilson’s question about accessing the SR diversionary route from Plymouth to Exeter in times of disruption brings up a couple of answers.
For the particular working from Admiralty Platform mentioned, this would have been the easiest of routes as the Dockyard branch junction faces west onto the Down main line and the wartime connection faces east just yards along the GW line at the opposite end of Weston Mill Viaduct, hence a direct access to the Southern line without reversal.
As for other workings from further west, reversing at North Road would have been for ease as the multiple platforms there have maximum flexibilty for running round and/or loco changing. Added to which loco servicing was readily to hand, plus passengers could then change to local trains there.
Hopefully this provides some information for Mr. Wilson.
Regards,
Paul Burkhalter
The North Wales Coastal Pullman
Paul Barlow
Further to Dave Tozer's picture today, we travelled on the Midland
Pullman to Llandudno too. A wonderful day out with fantastic service all day, highly recommended!
Kind regards
Paul
If any of our readers would like to take Paul up on his recommendation, there are still seats available on next weekends trip to Kingswear, departing from various stations in Cornwall. Click here.