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Matthew Rose

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #25 on: December 04, 2015, 11:22:03 AM »
My home muni growing up had a railway line running through it; it split the 4th and 5th holes from the rest of the course. It was to your left off the first and second holes and very much in play as in course OB. There were two level crossings, one back and left of the third green and then another to the left of the fifth green, as well as another one for maintenance vehicles near the second tee. The practice range was also tucked in between the railway and the fifth fairway.


The rail line was very much active with maybe 3-5 trains a day and in all the years I worked and played there I don't remember a single incident of any kind.
American-Australian. Trackman Course Guy. Fatalistic sports fan. Drummer. Bass player. Father. Cat lover.

Sam Andrews

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #26 on: December 04, 2015, 01:26:09 PM »
Don't forget the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature steam railway passes by the Warren course at Littlestone, does a lot of tooting that little train...
He's the hairy handed gent, who ran amok in Kent.

MCirba

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #27 on: January 04, 2016, 12:45:36 PM »
A train passes along the 8th fairway of the Great Southern Golf Club in Gulfport, MS last week, the oldest golf course in that state.   

"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent" - Calvin Coolidge

https://cobbscreek.org/

JC Urbina

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #28 on: January 04, 2016, 01:14:49 PM »
Mark,


The very first course I was involved with, A Pete Dye design in Colorado had a railroad running along the 5th,6th,7th and 8th holes.  I found it odd that a developer would choose such a site and that a golf course designer would not try to hide it.


 Little did I know that Pete Dye embraced the RR, how did I know back when I was 22 years old that every famous golf course in Scotland had rail line close by.

David Kelly

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #29 on: January 04, 2016, 01:17:01 PM »
Does any course have tracks more in play than Royal Adelaide?
"Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." - Judge Holden, Blood Meridian.

Richard Fisher

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #30 on: January 04, 2016, 01:54:43 PM »
Dear Bob

No you weren't (misinformed). The 4th at Woking sits right beside the former main line of the London and South Western Railway from London to Southampton and beyond, and North Hants and West Hill (and once upon a time Bramshot) are all likewise adjacent. This route is both a major national artery (with significant international traffic in the days when transatlantic liners docked at Southampton) and an important commuter route, feeding into one of the busiest railway stations in the world, London Waterloo.

Mark_Rowlinson

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #31 on: January 04, 2016, 02:22:41 PM »
Don't forget Liphook. If only I had pictures of these things. Keep 'em coming. I love the picture of Royal Adelaide. What sort of line is it? How many trains etc?

Mark Chaplin

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #32 on: January 04, 2016, 05:43:59 PM »
Woking used to have a halt by the 4th. Golfers would tell the driver they were alighting at the club and the train would stop especially for them.

Deal/Sandwich had a Pullman train for golfers departing London on Friday evening and back Sunday evening. Rye had a two carriage train for golfers and caddies from town to the club which linked with the trains to London. Some of the track remains by the 12th tee.
Cave Nil Vino

David Kelly

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #33 on: January 04, 2016, 06:11:20 PM »
Don't forget Liphook. If only I had pictures of these things. Keep 'em coming. I love the picture of Royal Adelaide. What sort of line is it? How many trains etc?


Fast commuter trains go through Royal Adelaide all the time.

"Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." - Judge Holden, Blood Meridian.

Jamey Bryan

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #34 on: January 04, 2016, 10:03:52 PM »
Camden's tracks are only a little more removed than Adelaide's (3-5 yards, maybe?).  There is a line of small trees that have been planted to serve as a screen, but they're not very effective.

Jamey

James Bennett

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #35 on: January 05, 2016, 03:21:05 AM »
David

Integral part of the course too - this gentleman overshot the 18th green.



James B

ps I barely recall our game at RA - I was a visitor then.  I do recall the temporary greens and other amendments preparing for the Eisenhower Cup. Much better course today, with better conditioning.  Time to visit again.
Bob; its impossible to explain some of the clutter that gets recalled from the attic between my ears. .  (SL Solow)

Thomas Dai

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #36 on: January 05, 2016, 02:12:56 PM »
What courses these days, other than Royal Adalaide, play across railway tracks?


Any courses - other than RA and TOC (sheds/sidings) - play across railways at some time in their history?


Atb

Richard Fisher

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #37 on: January 05, 2016, 02:38:26 PM »
Rye was famously served by the Rye and Camber Tramway, with its own station for the club. Henry James, who lived for many years at Lamb House in Rye, used it to access the club for tea (as a house member), where he would (inter alia) discuss murders with Bernard Darwin. Playing off the back tee at the 12th, you can see evidence of the old tracks in front of you. However, I am not 100% sure if this tee was in existence when the actual tramway (a narrow-gauge railway, in fact) was extant.

James Bennett

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #38 on: January 05, 2016, 02:49:29 PM »
Thomas

RA doesn't play across the train lines - well not intentionally.  There are two 'back tees' introduced for the 1998 Australian Open which do have tee shots playing just over the lines, but they are not in regular play, except for the best of players.

The issue of play over the railway lines is (apparently)one of the reasons that encouraged RA to engage Mackenzie in the 1920's when he visited Australia (in particular, Royal Melbourne).  The original routing (Cargie Rymill) did have holes that played across the then steam trains.  The State Government advised that it intended to electrify the railways, so the club needed to look at re-routing to avoid the gantries that would be built.  Mackenzie came, some of his plan was installed (including eliminating the rail crossings on lines of play) and the government decided a decade later that they wouldn't electrify the lines after all - they converted from steam to diesel.

80 years on, the diesel trains are still running, although a different line has just been electrified.  Other lines which were to be electrified have not, and there are no plans to electrify the small line through the RA course.

As an aside, I quite like the second hole tee shot across the railway line, which makes the tee shot on an otherwise straight hole as one having a Cape characteristic.  The fourteenth hole tee shot doesn't really have anything to be said of it from across the line.

James B
Bob; its impossible to explain some of the clutter that gets recalled from the attic between my ears. .  (SL Solow)

Philip Hensley

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #39 on: January 05, 2016, 03:02:59 PM »
I have a pretty embarrassing story involving the railway that passes right by the Troon Portland course, don't think I will be posting it here.


Down in the Sandhills of NC there are numerous courses that have tracks running by/through them.


I have shoved my 2nd shot on the 2nd hole at the Royal & Ancient Southern Pines Golf Club OB and over the tracks.


Hyland Golf Club (technically in Southern Pines I believe) has a couple holes on the back 9 that are bordered by tracks.


I have not played the course but I believe Pinewild in the Pinehurst area has a track divide on one of it's courses. A friend was there with a group and the first cart in the group raced across the track to the next hole and beat the train. Meanwhile the other cart was held back a considerable amount of time waiting for the train to go by. Not good for pace of play that day.

Jamey Bryan

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #40 on: January 05, 2016, 05:12:25 PM »
Walter Travis's 1923 routing of Camden Country Club (then Kirkwood Links) included a hole (#2 at the time) where the tee shot was over the tracks, doglegging up to a green below what is now #16 green.

Donald Ross, in his 1938/39 renovation, was asked to eliminate the tracks being in the shot line so he eliminated the hole.  He lengthened #1 (now #13) slightly to change it from a 4 to a 5, and added a new Home hole, the Par 3 now playing as #12.  I have an aerial from 1942 which clearly shows the old #2 "green" (it was made of sand).

Jamey

Tim Martin

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #41 on: January 05, 2016, 05:53:23 PM »
The approach to the 2nd green at Shennecossett in Groton Connecticut plays over railroad tracks. I will endeavor to find a picture.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2016, 05:57:45 PM by Tim Martin »

Sam Krume

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #42 on: January 07, 2016, 06:29:22 AM »
I seem to remember reading that you would once be able to get off the train from London and walk directly to the first tee at Broadstone. Unfortunately the line has since long gone but you can still see the tracks and cuttings whilst playing the course. You can still do that at Mitcham though(smack bang in the middle of South London). I believe it was once a favourite of MP's a long time ago

Mark_Rowlinson

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #43 on: January 07, 2016, 11:59:42 AM »
I remember Mitcham in the 1970s. It was in those days a pretty run-down municipal and the sort of place that you drove over low bushes, failed to find your ball, and an urchin would come out with 'wanna buy a ball, mister.' It's so long since I have been there I ought to go back.

Eric Morrison

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #44 on: January 07, 2016, 04:01:06 PM »
Here are a couple of the second at Shenny

It is what it is.

Sam Krume

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #45 on: January 08, 2016, 04:24:20 PM »
I remember Mitcham in the 1970s. It was in those days a pretty run-down municipal and the sort of place that you drove over low bushes, failed to find your ball, and an urchin would come out with 'wanna buy a ball, mister.' It's so long since I have been there I ought to go back.


Mark, played it Tuesday just gone(05/01) and it was in good shape considering that we've had the wettest December on record. Greens a little woolly but hey....urchins have gone by the way, now you just get some old fella with maybe 4 teeth asking if you want to buy any balls from his blue plastic bag. 8 pro v's for a fiver

Paul Rudovsky

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #46 on: January 08, 2016, 05:26:48 PM »
I don't have any pictures, but as a lover of classic courses, I have always felt that being able to "hear" a train from a course adds to the "cache" of the course.  I know this sounds absolutely nuts, but I love that sound when I am on a course, even if the train is distant and cannot be seen. 


Almost all old courses were built near train tracks as that was the only way members and/or guests and other players could get there.  Think about it...Shinnecock, very near train tracks, North Shore of Chicago, Garden City, Winged Foot and Quaker Ridge, etc etc etc.

Don Jordan

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #47 on: January 11, 2016, 11:52:34 PM »
As noted by other Royal Adelaide is a great example as it goes between the 1st and 2nd, the scary part is how close it goes to the 19th and the potential to stumble out after spending a long time in the club house.


James Bennett

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #48 on: January 12, 2016, 12:00:24 AM »
That is a recent picture Don Jordan - it is only in the last 18 months or so that there has been short grass from 2nd green to third tee, as shown in the photo.  Part of the Doak/Slawnik initiatives.

The picture must also be at least 3 or 4 months old as well, as the clubhouse amendments (ladies locker rooms) has been underway more recently.

James B
Bob; its impossible to explain some of the clutter that gets recalled from the attic between my ears. .  (SL Solow)

Thomas Dai

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Re: Railways and golf courses
« Reply #49 on: January 12, 2016, 03:49:42 AM »
By chance I came acrosss this Royal Adalaide video - toot, toot at the start and 50 secs in - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaz7quESsIM


Cracking looking course.



Atb

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