Cycling Closed Railways

[Nearholmer]

Having searched, I don't think there is a thread covering this subject (happy to be corrected), although quite a few people mention in passing various routes that they've ridden.

 

I've covered a few local ones recently, and have a few more on the list for this year.

 

Which routes can we recommend to one another?

 

And, has anyone covered the section of the SDJR that is now a cycle path?

 

Kevin

 

[njee20]

The Downs Link between Guildford and Shoreham is very pleasant, c35 miles in its entirety, it’s a bit circuitous until south of Guildford, but then follows the old railway line all the way to the coast.

 

A few stations remain, a level crossing at Bramley & Wonersh, a mk1 coach (I think, before my time!) at West Grinstead as well as a semaphore signal to play with. 

 

A couple of lovely cafes on the route; Stan’s Bike Shack at Partridge Green and The Milk Churn at Rudgwick are lovely. 

 

Great day out. 

[Dava]

My favourites way of experiencing the country.

 

Whitby-Scarborough [staying at Ravenscar at the summit], High Peak & Tissington trails; Tarka trail; Great Central & other lines in North Derbyshire. Lots more. Let's respect Sustrans' long term contribution, back to Cyclebag & the Bristol-Bath route in the 1970s, even if relations with preservationists have sometimes been testy.

 

What better use is there for disused railway lines?  

[Nearholmer]

NJEE,

 

Well, odd you should hit on that one, because it's No.2 on my list, with a firm date allocated. 

 

Intent is to go south on Downs Link, then along the coast to Eastbourne (where one of my brothers lives), then up the Cuckoo Trail, and across to Three Bridges along the old line from Tunbridge Wells.

 

I've read that the very start, near Guildford, is way too steep and twisty to cycle, although looking at your avatar you probably think the rest is for wimps!

 

K

 

PS: I'm a wimp.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Nearholmer

[johnofwessex]

My sons & I have done bits of the two tunnels from Bath to Wellow, very nice it is as well.  Also the bit just south of Blandford, around Spetisbury, though that was on foot.  Again very nice.

[njee20]

Haha, nothing wrong with being a wimp

 

The first bit from St Martha’s Hill is very picturesque, but not railway related, it’s quite sandy (which isn’t great) and you have to climb up and then come back down the North Downs. I’d personally start at Bramley, there’s a car park adjacent to the station as was, and the path’s right there.

 

I’ve not done the Cuckoo Trail, but have heard good things - that sounds like a great ride!

 

Edit: 2 tunnels is great, as is the Bristol-Bath, which can be directly linked

Edited June 1, 2019 by njee20

[Nearholmer]

I've no intention of going up that hill, to be frank.

 

If the plan goes to plan, and these things don't always, I'm intending to do home to Windsor on Day 1, Windsor to Partridge Green Day 2, then on to Eastbourne on Day 3, so a bit of MTB with panniers in the middle, is not on the agenda.

 

My 80+yo mother occasionally does the Cuckoo Trail, so I'm bargaining that that must be quite benign.

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, Dava said:

My favourites way of experiencing the country.

 

Whitby-Scarborough [staying at Ravenscar at the summit], High Peak & Tissington trails; Tarka trail; Great Central & other lines in North Derbyshire. Lots more. Let's respect Sustrans' long term contribution, back to Cyclebag & the Bristol-Bath route in the 1970s, even if relations with preservationists have sometimes been testy.

 

What better use is there for disused railway lines?  

You mention the HIgh Peak - now there's an unusually steep uphill slog for an old railway cycle route!

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Hasn't the old GNR route south of Ingrow, been converted into a cycle way ?

 

manna

[Dava]

47 minutes ago, Reorte said:

You mention the HIgh Peak - now there's an unusually steep uphill slog for an old railway cycle route!

 

The High Peak is level from Middleton Top - Parsley Hay except for the Hopton Incline which is quite short & sharp. The line was built for horse haulage on the levels with cabled inclines, on canal principles. 

 

Tissington-Ashbourne is easy,then cycle back & find out why!

 

 

 

  

[Chris M]

I love old railway lines for cycling. One of the best, but also the most crowded, is Wadebridge to Padstow. The route of the Leek & Manifold railway is a nice one as is the one at Bakewell (also love the tarts here). Perhaps we could all take pictures next time we go out?

[Nearholmer]

Not all disused railways are rural or super-scenic.

 

This is part of the Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable, Luton, Harpenden and Welwyn line,  a section of which is a guided busway and a mega-high-quality-surface path.

It is part of National Cycle Route 6.

 

What a difference a century makes!

 

 

[eastglosmog]

I can recommend the old Merthy, Tredegar and Abergavenney line up the Clydach gorge between Llanfoist and Brynmawr (cycle route 46 on the OS map).  Lots of interesting civil engineering structures to see and early mining remains.

[drmditch]

We are fortunate in County Durham to have these: http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/3691/Railway-paths

Please be a 'polite cyclist' though, some peoples manners seem to have deteriorated in recent years.

Edited June 2, 2019 by drmditch

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Not all disused railways are rural or super-scenic.

 

This is part of the Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable, Luton, Harpenden and Welwyn line...  

The other end of this route as it diverges from the ECML is considerably more attractive. You might find me on some part of it on fine days...

[Michael Edge]

S&DJ to Bath is superb, Combe Down tunnel a bit spooky though, with eerie music playing at intervals in the darkness. Road cyclists blasting through with no lights can be startling as well. Selby to York on the old ECML is very good, it has a scale model of the Solar System along it for added interest. Miles and miles of old railway paths round here in Yorkshire, more and more of them with a hard surface - I ride a touring bike, not a mountain bike and the type of surface is vitally important to me but maps and information rarely tell me anything about it. Recently the section of TPT from Aldam Junction to Worsbrough was surfaced, turning an unusable quagmire into a vital link.

[Gordon A]

The old Midland line from the outskirts of Bath to Mangotsfield.

Part of this double track bed is occupied by the Avon Valley Railway, which has a buffet at Bitton.

 

Gordon A

[Nearholmer]

Michael

 

I adopt a sort of 'touring' attitude to bike-riding, 'cos I is too slow for the peloton stuff, but now ride a cyclocross bike, because the quality of surfaces is so variable on 'traffic free' routes. I find a hybrid very tiring for any distance, something to do with sitting-up too straight. A friend of mine uses a US-style 'gravel road bike' for the same task, which is similar to, but not quite the same as, a cyclocross bike, and I think that might be the ultimate for the job, because it has a better back-end for panniers.

 

K

[kernowtim]

The 'Granite Way' route from okehampton follows the former SR main line from the station alongside the line to what left of Meldon Quarry, then across the trackless Meldon viaduct to the well preserved  Bridestowe station, a distance of about 8 miles. There is a visitors centre at meldon,  and stored rolling stock in the former Quarry yard can be viewed from the cycle path, have not been for a few years though, was a small model shop and Buffet/cafe at okehampton station too!

[Reorte]

10 hours ago, Dava said:

 

The High Peak is level from Middleton Top - Parsley Hay except for the Hopton Incline which is quite short & sharp. The line was built for horse haulage on the levels with cabled inclines, on canal principles. 

 

I cycled it from Cromford to Parsley Hay...

 

It's easy enought to get thrown with old railways, thinking they look flat until you try to cycle them in the uphill direction. Once or twice I've got home and the first thing I've done is see if I can find a gradient profile, with a bit of "ah, that explains it!", I wasn't just getting tired.

[Killybegs]

Tarka Trail in Devon, Stawberry line in Somerset. Numerous routes in the Forest of Dean.

[PatB]

Not really relevant as a recommendation for most on RMWeb, but I do part of this, and a bit of this on a daily basis as I commute from Chidlow to Mundaring and back on the old 3'6" gauge track bed. I've also walked, but not yet cycled, the section of this from Mundaring to Mundaring Weir, which is also a former rail formation and which, I believe, further south, utilises some former timber tramway routes.

 

I've done the whole loop in the past, on (among other things) a fixie with silly tall gearing no less, and it didn't hurt too much so the going can't be too hard. I was quite fit then mind. The climb up the scarp from Swan View (or Bellevue, depending on which way round you're going) is a bit relentless though. I tried Swan View tunnel on foot and without artificial light once and must have fallen into every sleeper indentation along its length. I go around usually.

 

Surface is mostly quite hard packed dirt, with the odd patch of well compacted old ballast. Whoever does maintenance has an evil sense of humour as they tend to place patches of pea-gravel towards the bottom of fast downhill bits. My current hybrid has some cheapo cyclocross tyres on it and they cope OK with all of it. When I ventured east on the Kep Track as far as Bakers Hill, a lot of the surface beyond Wooroloo was either badly cut up by horse hooves or covered in deep pea gravel. That was hard work (stupidly tall geared fixie again). A lot of people seem to think you need a full on mountain bike for the trail, but you really don't. Having had a bit of a layoff from cycling, though, I am appreciating the lower gear range on the hybrid at the moment :D. Once I'm back into some semblance of shape, I've got my eyes open for an old English roadster, with 26" wheels and a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub, which, I think will annoy the serious people most satisfactorily. Or maybe a Raleigh 20 :D.

 

I feel quite priviledged to be able to use the route for my daily commute. Most of the time on a weekday I have it to myself, apart from the wildlife, which you can sneak up on on a bike. Sadly the WAGR seem to have been pretty thorough in removing railway artifacts when the lines closed. You can still see sleeper indentations in places, and I pass an old sleeper every day that must have sat where it lies for 50 years now. There are a few concrete signal bases, and some of the stations have substantial concrete beams set into the ground. At one stage I thought they were signal cabin foundations, but looking at old photos and orientatating myself accordingly to judge position I now believe them to be foundations for the water towers.

[johndon]

3 hours ago, drmditch said:

We are fortunate in County Durham to have these: http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/3691/Railway-paths

Please be a 'polite cyclist' though, some peoples manners seem to have deteriorated in recent years.

 

Strange that it doesn't mention the C2C that follows the route of the Tyne Dock to Consett line...

 

John

[peanuts]

local to me you have the former micklehurst loop line that has now apart from one  section where you have to take to the canal towpath  been converted to a linea park running from stalybridge  to uppermill .witch in turn after a short ride accross the valley leads to the path along the trackbed of the former Delph donkey .you can return to stalybridge along the towpath of the Huddersfield narrow  canal 

[Butler Henderson]

The former Leeds Northern north of Harrogate over Bilton Viaduct and then the Pateley Bridge branch most of the way towards Ripley Valley station is a properly tarmacked cycle way "The Nidderdale Greenway"; to the south east the section from Spofforth into Wetherby including the vast majority of the triangular junction is also a cycle way, part of the same National Cycle Network route (NCN67 Long Watton (Loughborough) to Northallerton)  albeit not as yet hard surfaced so is more a Hybrid/MTB territory than one for road bikes. Beyond Wetherby  after a subway under the A1(M) to Thorpe Arch is also part of the National Cycle Network (NCN665)