Peak Rail (Buxton) - What went wrong?

I just watched a early BBC program about Peak Rail at Buxton, they seemed to think that a bridge that would allow them to break out of their site would be in within 2 years.

Seemed like a good steady railhead to really crack on with the route rebuilding.

So what went wrong ?

Regards

 

The bridge is in. Look on Google maps street view..



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Lack of access to the mainline, restricted site etc

 

As "Woodster" says it was lack of main line access. East of the bridge there was perhaps only 100m before they met the national network which, at that point is the remaining single track from Great Rocks Dale. They also realised that operating a heritage railway from two ends some 16 miles apart just wasn't sustainable. Apart from Peak Rail's own aspirations a link would have enabled a service from Sheffield to Buxton via the Chinley East Chord. This is currently only possible with three reversals at Buxton because of the restricted layout adopted for the quarry trains.

 

I seem to recall that the Darley Dale site might have been under threat of redevelopment so they upped sticks and got started there to protect the viability of the whole route. Now thet have the obstacle of the demolished A6 bridge in Rowsley to overcome before they can break out of their current limits

 

I seem to recall British Rail wanted silly money to fit facing point locks in Wye Dale, ie bearing no relation to actual costs.
Dave

 

all correct, Br wasn't going to let us out without resignalling the goods line to Great Rocks to allow us to work regular services, there was talk of a separate alignment and we run along side but that meant silly cash as Br had already moved the formation to the middle for best operations,not to mention altering the access to the still then working Topley Pike quarry as wed have cut through their pointworks, Darley to Rowsley was under threat of development and luckily we got through Church lane only a few years later on as the estate was being built down towards us, then theres my own take on the fact the local council in Buxton was more interested in shopping centreing the whole place than assisting any local tourism,eg look at what happened the Micrarium,the steam centre,the parks,the Crescent etc etc etc, Buxtons still a shadow of its former self.

 

Didn't the site mostly get sold to Buxton mineral water, although sufficient space was left for a platform and run round

 

That's correct,bit overgrown but trees are never problem, there's a chance site may go yet with town developments,but all speculation until confirmed.

 

For some of the background at this time - see "Memoirs of a Railway Volunteer part 3" in Bullhead Memories. In the early/mid 80s there were a number of steam specials into Buxton down the Ashwood Dale line, and Peak Rail operated a rambler service with hired DMUs over the same route, leading to the construction of Blackwell Mill halt, in I think 1986. it seemed a very reasonable idea to build the bridge and make a connection so that these services could operate into the Peak Rail site. Derek Hatton organised a grant of £20,000. In turn the scheme led to such adventures as the salvage of Mold turntable. The cost of the connection would have been substantial, but I think we would have managed it. The real problem was that either higher management or the inspectorate then stepped in and declared that the signalling system and track circuits were only fit for passenger use in an emergency. It may also have been the case that use of the Ashwood Dale line increased with a new lime burner at Hindlow, but after nearly thirty years I'm not sure of the details and I was not directly involved in these projects.
At any rate, it had got to the point where the abutments had been rebuilt and the bridge deck was fabricated, so it was less loss to install the deck rather than give up.

Tim

 

Presumably, the bridge structure could be used on the Bakewell Extension Project?..

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Not to bridge the A6 at Rowsley, the span is insufficient.

 

For my take on bridge matters - see Memoirs of a Railway Volunteer - part 2 I think. Anyway, there is no way a short span double track bridge can be used to make a long span single track bridge, on a different angle of skew. The real problems are 1. that the deck is usually around 10% of the total bridge cost and the old abutments have been grubbed out, 2. There is a very severe gradient profile in this area, in that the track needs to climb at a steep enhanced gradient to clear the A6, which has been raised, and then descend immediately afterwards to get back down to the stone arch railway viaduct over the Derwent. 3. If Peak Rail is to extend to Rowsley as an interim measure then the track at the proposed station site near the A6 must be as level as possible. I have not yet seen any reconciliation between 2 and 3.

Tim