Old Railways

Annie was revising again this morning so I (Chris) headed out and ended up at the Nickey Line, a disused railway between Harpenden and Hemel Hempstead. It's now a walking route and cycle path. I started in the middle (Redbourne) and walked to Harpenden and back. At the Harpenden end a platform and signal remain (see the extra) which is a nice connection with the past although the scene looks nothing like it once did having looked up some old photos. A good walk - more photos here.

Back home, Annie was done with maths for the day so we headed out to look at a bridge on the old Varsity line near Newton Longville which is the main blip. This is part of the route that includes Swanbourne station I photographed (and blipped) a couple of weeks back. This route is intended for re-use as part of the "new" East/West railway from Cambridge to Oxford planned to open in the 2020s at some stage. We couldn't find an official footpath but it was easy enough to get up on the old line track bed. More photos here.