Rother Valley Railway

It frankly baffles me that the owner of the Halt in Salehurst would be opposed to the railway, when it's her who potentially stands to benefit the most. My inner cynic suggests that there is a certain amount of local pressure upon her to "toe the line", lest the atmosphere at the bar get rather frosty, but of course I may be completely wrong on that.

 

A point well, if unintentionally made, as these will not be visiting drivers, but rail-borne visitors on foot.
Anyway, Robertsbridge before the bypass was quite a different animal to the village it is now. Although it is quite clear that you are not a fan of the place under any circumstances.

 

Has something changed drastically at Blaenau while I wasn't looking? Take a close look at a map ... even the National Park which surrounds the place gives it a miss!

My own memory of BF (a decade before the Ffesterbahn got back there) was of the footplate of the corpse of "Princess" being used to scrape dog sh*t from shoes!

IMHO, today's FR could use an additional webcam at Blaenau. It's almost as if the railway wasn't proud of it's upper terminus.

 

I've not been to BF for a number of years. It was better when I was last there than when I was first there. I think though that BF shows that fallacy that the 'has to be a destination in order to make extending worthwhile' argument is. TBH, if people had listened years ago then the FR would never have got started, after all, there is nothing in Port and nothing in BF, some nice scenery but who'd go all that way. Nearest castles are Harlech and Criccieth, and Portmerion village, but none scream tourist destination.

 

Portmeirion doesn't scream tourist destination?

It sells itself as that doesn't it?

In fact Wikipedia seems to think that as well: Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales.

I know I certainly go there when I visit the FR.

 

I meant more that you don't go all the way to North Wales just to go to Portmerion (and of course in 1955 we are pre-Prisoner), to me, Portmerion is akin to Great Dixter, Bateman's etc, somewhere to visit along side visiting other places in the area. There are of course, garden enthusiasts who will go to Great Dixter, or Kipling fans who will go to Bateman's or Prisoner fans who will go to Portmerion or castle lovers who will go to Harlech.

 

Are you by any chance ...... unmutual .... ?

 

And there are rail fans who will go to the Festerbahn, you can technically "do" the FR in a couple of hours if you just stay on the train. It's all about the widening appeal of the North Wales area which, lest we forget, originally drew people in because of its dramatic countryside and unspoilt (...ish) tracts of nature, in the victorian era that would be focused almost wholly on LLandudno and Snowdonia. Portmeirion and the FR both make excellent excuses to visit Porthmaddog (and Tremaddog for Chippie Dees).

The hope is as a terminus Robertsbridge might benefit from similar clustering effects, much like the other stations on the KESR have.

I AM NOT A NUMBER. I AM A FREE MAN!

 

absolutely and this is my point about the RVR. While I am not saying that it is going to be the FR of the South, I do think it can play a part in broadening the appeal of the area from which everyone can benefit.

My point about the FR is that in 1955 the rationale for restoring the line was not 'well it will connect into a number of major tourist attractions' it was because they thought wouldn't it be nice and that it ought to be restored.

 

Be SEEING you!

 

A W.I.B.N. scheme that succeeded? Must be the exception that proves the rule...

 

So no other preservation scheme in history started as a W.I.B.N? I’m sorry but IMO that’s just how the vast majority of them did start.

 

But isn't every preserved line a WIBN scheme? and at the moment the number that have succeeded by far out weighs the failed schemes,

 

I think you’ll find that the W&LLR and IoWSR were not WIBN.

 

Every railway, bus, tram, museum, heritage activity has started out as 'wouldn't it be nice'. Tom Rolt was 'wouldn't it be nice', Weald and Down was 'wouldn't it be nice', Beamish was 'wouldn't it be nice'.

The sneering and patronising attitude towards those who want to see their ideas come to fruition does no one any favours. If the arguments against RVR had been applied to the Tallylyn, FR, NYMR, SVR etc in the early days then we wouldn't have those lines. Or maybe the SVR would only run to Hampton Loade, the FR to Penryn.

Not all schemes manage to succeed in their aims, but that doesn't mean that people shouldn't try. What some people don't get, is that for some people the kick, the buzz, the thing that gets them involved is wanting to see something achieved that they were told couldn't be done, whether that is an extension, a new build project or a restoration of a basket case. Some people get a kick sky diving, some people from gardening, each to their own. If someone is happy with their line as it is then great for them, if someone wants to develop their line good for them. To paraphrase the Pope, 'who am I to judge'.

 

I think Mr Drewett had a tongue implanted in the general vicinity of his cheek ...

Tom

 

Yes, I did.

As Spamcan points out, we wouldn't have much of a preservation movement if people had suppressed the urge to ask 'Wouldn't it be nice?' It's turning the acronym into an insult that I find hard to understand.

 

It is a really good job that no one ever came a long took control of the trackbed and flooded the trackbed with a lake for a hydro-electric power station, or used a cutting as a landfill site. Good thing no one tried to start a preserved railway in places like Bury or Loughborough or Aviemore.

 

It did cross my mind but the absence of an emoticon made me conclude otherwise. Wrongly it would seem.

 

I wonder, if we could go forward say 10 years how many ideas that are dismissed as so much WIBN will have come to fruition, I dare say the bluebell would be viewing Beachy head as just another loco, the Standard 2 tank also ,the patriot will be another interesting mainline loco, the P2 will be quietly efficiently carrying on from Tornado , except that it will be a slogger rather than a racehorse, and hopefully PH will be waxing lyrically about the new build BP 2-4-0 and rake of Ashbury coaches the IOWSR has just launched in original IOW rly livery .