Misunderstanding Easton Neston

[Matt Davis]

Hello, I'm a new member and I've searched through the articles and can't find anything specific to my answer/ question. Can anyone help?

Towcester%20loop%20still.png

this is a still from my Northamptonshire video* presentation and I'm trying to work out what the loop is in the elbow of the two routes departing eastwards from Towcester. Railmaponline suggests it is a SMJR transfer loop so trains could (in theory) travel from Bedford to Northampton avoiding Towcester but using SMJR metals. Regardless of this unlikely route, can anyone support this theory or, like some of the older Library of Scotland maps, does it suggest that it's a brick/lime kiln tramway that existed before the 1892 Towcester to Olney branch was completed? 

opening and closing dates and the purpose of the line is what I'm trying to obtain

Thank you in advance

railmaponline%20Towcester%20loop.png

Brick%20Works%20Easton%20Neston.png

* I publish videos under the name Matt Davis - Beechings Ghosts https://www.youtube.com/@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

[Barry Taylor]

Essentially you are correct about it being a relic of the tramway that connected to the Towcester - Blisworth line, but it is a bit more complex than that. A connection was put in from Lloyds Sidings on the Blisworth route about a mile north of Towcester to serve the nearby new ironworks in 1873 - that project didn't last long but the Easton Neston site then became brickworks.. When the new line from Towcester to Ravenstone was planned there were several spurs and connections involved, which would have included a triangular junction with the Blisworth line in the same place. A bit of the old tramway would also have been upgraded to form part of the new route. In the end it was all simplified and just a connection put in to serve the brickworks from the Ravenstone line - the old connection to the Blisworth line was abandoned. The brickworks lingered on into the 1920s. That's the simple version! This plan sort of explains it - this is what might have happened but the junction for Ravenstone was put in nearer to Towcester station instead, so cutting out  most of 'Ry1' and all of 'Ry2' and 'Ry3'. The new siding was where it says 'Brick kilns'

[Matt Davis]

Thank you, muchly.

This all makes sense and solves that problem! Has anyone done a reasonable video on the history of the railway? I may start one of my own on the SMJR

BW

Matt