Colne Valley Railway

Unfortunately, the CVR website is not very informative on this subject, only a roster of operational locos and DMUs. The best answer is, as mentioned by gwalkeriow in a previous post, the Vintage Carriage Trust carriage and wagon surveys. Which, I'm afraid, leaves the non-working locos unaccounted for, unless you can beg, steal or borrow an Industrial Locomotive Society handbook.

 

I think it would be great if we could literally relocate the whole package elsewhere.. Rolling stock, buildings, artefacts, even the gnomes from the garden...

 

I really do feel sorry for the volunteers, something they have put alot of time and effort to is being reduced to saleable lots. It must be heart breaking. Id love to see them moved to another location near by or take over County School until MNR get there fully.

 

Oh well I didn't know the MNR owned that land, so that changes things somewhat, though again as with anything, money is the prying issue. Whatever is to be done with that will cost a fair amount, let alone the idea of it being a place auto put all the CVR stuff if they moved it there...

 

I agree with much of that, though I wouldn't want to suggest any specific location without knowing the views of the CVR members and the suggested host.

There have been similar situations before, where the synergy between the displaced railway and the new host has been to the benefit of both. The North Downs and the Spa Valley spring to mind.

 

This is the best I can do.

Engines are't so easy http://www.uklocos.com/preservedrailwaystocklist/first-results.asp as you might need to join to see this list.
Coaches http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/results.asp
Wagons http://www.ws.vintagecarriagestrust.org/ws/wresults.asp

 

For the engines, http://www.uklocos.com/first-search.asp doesn't need a login. Currently shows 8 steam and 14 diesel, but unfortunately not much help with the ownership thereof.

 

Talking, as in the previous post, about signal boxes, it occurs to me that there are 2 signal boxes on the Colne Valley (Cressing and Wrabness), not to mention station buildings, all manner of infrastructure, goods rolling stock, etc. etc...... Yet nobody on this thread seems in the least interested in those items or their future.
It makes me wonder if those of us who have tried to put together interesting collections on heritage railways have been wasting our time; we should have just filled the place with Barry wrecks and Mk.1s! Or perhaps NP members are not very representative

I'm sure that people are interested, but much of what is there will probably be GER-related and hence of little interest to say, the Llangollen Railway.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Colne-Valley-Railway/1412694342379218

 

Would the MNR welcome and assist the relocation of the CVR to County School ? it would certainly be of benefit to both parties, the eventual extension, would certainly give both groups a shared aim, and a reason to co exist, Then with any luck they will go from strength to strength, and the landowner who just wants profit wont get the planning persmision he needs and be left with a worthless wasteland.

 

Re-location to County School would appear have many advantages, though I suspect that volunteers who are located near and used to travelling to, the CVR, would find travelling to County School rather like going to the far side of the moon! It might not look far on the map, but the road system between mid-Essex and deepest mid- Norfolk is a nightmare.

I think that there is an excellent chance that he won't get planning permission! Pure conjecture here, but I guess that the timing of his decision to evict the CVR has something to do with the Government's recent relaxation of planning policy, in order to encourage residential development, particularly on "brownfield" sites. The Castle Hedingham site, if the railway were to close, would become "brownfield", i.e. ex-industrial, land which, if the full 20 acres got permission for housing, would be worth, in theory and after costs, £8-9m. Except that it might very well not! The whole site is subject to major constraints on conservation grounds and, more seriously, much of it is subject to regular flooding.

So he faces four possibilities; if he gets planning permission on the lot (very unlikely, some of it is actual river!), he nets £8-9m. If he gets the non-flood prone part, £2-5m, if he is refused permission on the lot, he is left with a patch of largely contaminated, low-grade agricultural or amenity land, worth £200k if he's lucky. Or he could retain the current leisure use, by allowing the CVR to stay, whereby his property is worth, say, £1-1.5m.

Quite a gamble!

 

Whatever happens, it is highly unlikely that everything will move to a single site - it would seem that much of the rolling stock collection is owned by the site owner and will therefore be sold off. If he's not interested in railways why keep all the rolling stock? There's such a lot of stuff that it would take very deep pockets indeed to buy it all, and there are very few lines that could accommodate such an influx of stock.

 

The position regarding ownership of stock is extremely complicated and that in itself means that it would almost certainly be disposed of piecemeal. Apart from what is owned by the landlord, some is owned by the CVR Society, some by separate groups and some by individuals. To add further complication, apparently the landlord has said that if the Society are able to sell his rolling stock, they can keep the money! It's not clear whether that applies to some or all of his stock, but if true it seems to confirm that his priority is simply to get the railway off the site asap and thereby create a "brownfield" site.

 

Could they (in theory) sell the rolling stock to themselves, for a nominal £1, thereby gaining ownership of a good quantity of stock at minimal price. The owner wouldn't (shouldn't) care as the money wasn't coming to him anyway. The CVR would become more attractive to other railways to offer a home to, as they would be coming with a good quantity of good condition rolling stock.

Keith

 

If they can sell the stock to themselves they could then choose the best bits, and sell the bits that are not required to offset the price of transport. Maybe even someone like Andy Goodman who recently sponsored the Betton Grange societys SSS4 gala would move the stock for minimal cost?

 

On the other hand, there's probably £50-60,000 in movement costs for the rolling stock if they were to keep it all, not to mention any other relocation costs - and if they were to do as you suggest, why alert other possible buyers by mentioning possible sales in the press release? There's also the question of whether they would want all of it!

 

I know of a haulier who did a lot of work for a society for free or at cost. He ended up going bust because there is still a real cost involved. People always want these things but you can be too benevolent if you are not careful.

 

Does the MNR have its own rake of MK 1's if not, then the transferring of some usable stock from the CVR could be attractive to them, and longer term ,the 2 black 5's under restoration would be based on the line, so whilst i would hate to see any railway close and the site flattened, if as much can be saved and rebuilt at County School along with an owning group would most likily welcome them with open arms,
the decent stuff could be purchased by the group and any thing that may be beyond ,or a duplicated item, sold to provide funds to move stock out.

 

I really hope the Great Eastern BTK doesn't go for scrap. There are so few Great Eastern bogie coaches surviving, apart from royal and inpection saloons I think there is only this, BTK 295 at the NNR and the Boston Coach at EARM

 

I would certainly hope that it finds a new home on the NNR - best place for it.