Cambridge station - Huntingdon station and Sandy station - Bedford station. Distance cycled - 35.6 Miles
At a time where the East - West Railway linking Oxford and Cambridge was being rebuilt I had a bike ride along a couple of old railway routes between Cambridge and Bedford where the route of the new line had yet to be finalised. This involved cycling the Great Eastern Railway's Cambridge - St Ives line which is now a guided bus route and cycle lane. At St Ives the line met a Great Eastern and Great Northern joint line to Huntingdon of which only fragments remain. At Huntingdon I folded my bike up and took the train to Sandy where I joined the London & North Western's former line to Bedford which is now a cycle route.
To start with I cycled south from Cambridge station to Trumpington and back. This is now another section of guided busway and cycle route and was built on the former LNWR route to Sandy. This would have been a more direct route towards Bedford though sadly the M1 cuts across the route just west of Trumpington's park and ride site. West of this about a mile stretch of the trackbed was used for the Ryle Telescope, a series of movable telescopes that form part of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. The road bridges on the above map survive, though widened in later years.
Returning to Cambridge I headed north from the station to pick up the former St Ives branch.
More about the Cambridge - St Ives line can be found on the Wikipedia article
A huge collection of photos from the Cambridge - St Ives line can be found on the East Anglian Railway Archive website.
Chesterton / Cambridge North
The St Ives branch left the main line at Chesterton Junction. The line was closed after the Beeching closures in 1970 but remained in use for sand traffic from Fen Drayton just outside St Ives until 1992. In to recent years sidings were still in situ at the junction site to serve construction traffic. A station was situated close to the junction for a matter of months in 1850. Close to the junction the new Cambridge North station has now been built, serving a large business park and much other development that has taken place since the days of the above map. It also connects nicely with the busway. Arriving by bike the cycle route is accessed off Moss Bank.
As the above maps show there was little in the way of engineering for this part of the route which was on fairly flat ground with level crossings.
Hilston
Below - Former Hilston station. The canopy was cut back during the construction of the busway to allow space for the machinery that laid the concrete sections. In the background the goods shed can just be seen in the trees. Since my trip land around the station has been redeveloped and the station building refurbished.
Below - Looking towards Cambridge from Hilston Station along the busway. The bridge carrying Bridge Road can be seen.
Oakington
Below - Former Oakington Station, a murial has since been painted on the former station building.
Longstanton
Below - Former Longstanton station.
Swavesey
Below - East of Swavesey are some stretches of embankment, the cycleway runs alongside at ground level while the busway occupies the former railway embankment.
The former station at Swavesey no longer survives but a stop on the busway has been built with modern bus shelters.
Below - A scenic shot as the former railway passes the Fen Drayton Lakes. The lakes are now a nature reserve but were once the sand pits that led to the route having freight traffic in to the 1990s. The above map shows the site before the sand extraction when the area was all fields. The above map also shows a Navigation Drain from Swavesey to the River Great Ouse with the silted up New Dock next to the railway, this has all but disappeared but can be made out on the satellite images.
St Ives
The park and ride site served by the busway now sits to the east of the former station site at St Ives with the busway connections to it through the former station site. The station was situated on a Y shaped junction. Heading north was the GER line to Ely (with the GER/GNR joint line to March branching off a short way to the north), Harrison Way now occupies the course of this line through St Ives. Heading west was the joint line to Huntingdon. With the Huntingdon line becoming single track west of St Ives it only had a single platform at the station while the lines to the north had two. More information about St Ives station can be found on the Disused Stations website together with several photos of the site.
Between St Ives and Huntingdon little remains of the former railway. This section closed to passengers before the Beeching closures in 1959 and closed completely in 1969. More about the Great Eastern and Great Northern joint route can be found on the Wikipedia article.
The line crossed the River Great Ouse four times and all four bridges have been removed. I took the Thicket Path to Thicket Road, crossed the river at the National Trust's 18th Century Houghton Mill.
Godmanchester
From Common Lane a path runs along another section of the railway past Godmanchester Nature Reserve. Another river bridge has been removed over Cooks Backwater, immediately west of the bridge was the site of Godmanchester station, the site of this is now occupied by a car park with a factory on the former goods yard site. The Riverside Mill that was once rail connected still stands and the arches were wagons would have entered the mill can be seen.
Huntingdon East / Huntingdon
I emerged on to The Avenue and took the roads to Huntingdon Station. The dual carriageway A1307 was built on the former trackbed leading to the connection to the main line at Huntingdon. At Huntingdon the joint line had its own Huntingdon East station next to the station on the Great Northern's main line. The site of this station is now part of the car parking for the surviving station.
As mentioned before this was where I reached a very much active bit of railway, the East Coast Main Line. I folded up my bike and took it on the train to Sandy.
Sandy / Girtford Halt
The route from Sandy to Bedford was part of the Varsity line between Oxford and Cambridge, I touched on the eastern end of this route with the trip to Trumpington along the guided busway. From Sandy to Bedford is mostly cycle route and from Bedford to Oxford the line is still in use or in the process of being reinstated. More about the route can be found on the Wikipedia article.
Bits of the route in Sandy have been redeveloped. I found a stretch of trackbed alongside Sandy Slate Park close to the junction north of the station. This emerges at Sandy Village Hall and from here there was a detour along Medusa Way to pick up a footpath leading back on to the former railway route. The roads have also changed substantially since the old map above and it's hard to even find where Girtford Halt was but it would have been somewhere around Medusa Way.
Blunham
The route passes under the A1 on a more modern bridge and for a short stretch is occupied by a roadway connecting nearby industrial sites. Reaching the first proper station site the cycle takes a detour off the trackbed as the former station is now in use as private residences on Old Station Court. This road leads back on to the trackbed.
Willington
The next station is Willington and though the station itself has gone some remnants of the goods yard could still be seen.
Below - Remains of Willington's goods yard, this platform was once the cattle dock.
There are a couple of little wiggles on the route, one being where the A421 cuts across the trackbed. I caught up again with the River Great Ouse which splits in to a few branches, the railway crosses branches of the river four times.
Below - A couple of the bridges across branches of the River Great Ouse.
Bedford St John's
1926 Map (top centre of map).
Approaching Bedford the cycle route emerges on to Cardington Road. Between here and Station Road the trackbed looks to be intact on satellite images but is in the middle of a retail park and industrial estate.
Station Road accessed the original site of Bedford St John's station. It used to be on the east side of a triangular junction with links to the Midland mainline to the north and the line continuing to Bletchley to the west. The line to Bletchley survived in passenger use (just) leaving Bedford St John's as a terminus. In 1984 the station was relocated to the north side of the triangle allowing trains to continue in to the main Bedford station. There are a few remnants of the original station including the platforms and some of the lamps. My visit was in summer though when the vegetation was quite thick and little could be seen through the fence around the site.
Below - Bedford St John's station in 1962 taken from the surviving Station Road bridge. The platforms and some of the lamp posts survive but the site was covered in vegetation at the time of my visit. Photo from the Wikipedia page by Ben Brooksbank, CC BY-SA 2.0,
Having not timed it right for a train at the current St John's station I carried on to the Midland station on my bike for a train home.
No comments:
Post a Comment