Dinting Railway Centre

As another ex-member from the happier days of Dinting, perhaps I can clarify the involvement of Williams & Glyns Bank. It was George Davies, a bank manager and railway enthusiast who with others was behind the drive to establish Dinting after the purchase of 45596 "Bahamas". Mr Davies ran a Bank railway society as well. Mr Davies stepped down as Chairman in 1975 and was succeeded by Dr B S Bryant.
The exhibition hall framework was an ex- MOD structure from Handforth, Cheshire, and cost £500 plus £250 for demolition. At that time there was no road eccess to the site, so the steelwork was carried onto the site by hand across the railway tracks from Dinting station yard.
The members constructed the concrete blocks as foundations for the steelwork, at which point the money ran out, but a grant of £1000 from the Transport Trust allowed work to continue. The first steelwork being erected in 1970. Loan facilities were granted by Williams & Glyns to allow the work to be completed, as it was in 1973, having taken some three years to build and fit out. One very nice 200ft by 40 ft exhibition Hall, now sadly demolished. Supposed to be somewhere on the ELR now?

Incidentally I dont think a large locomotive was ever delivered by road to Dinting, access being up a steep lane from the valley bottom. The industrials might have come in by road though.

Purely a personal opinion, but I cant see them going back there now.

 

It was

 

sorry to bring you back down to earth but the dinting shed/metal work on the elr has been weighed in last year to the scrap merchant as has been left outside and has rust beyond use.

Just a shame the elr didnt put it to use

 

If I made a comment DL would be along shortly to condemn it - That shed was a superb building at Dinting - weighed in - says it all!

 

I hope that turntable doesn't go the same way. The ELR...the home of missed oppotunities...

 

Unlikely to have been problem in the 70's. Back then, BR would move almost anything as long as it had decent wheel tyres and was structurally sound. If necessary, moved as a special load with a 25mph speed limit, or less. They moved several locos out of Barry. They were still common carriers, then. The bearings and what happened to them were your responsibility, though.

 

I hope that the canopy from Oldham doesnt end up the same way as the dinting shed, stewarts lane wheel lathe, carriage washing plant.. etc...at least the lifting jacks got a safe home.

 

And they wonder why I won't throw my lot in with them.

Not while its the rule of Law and the fiction of Vickers World

 

...does the ELR have a bad reputation for looking after historical artifacts then?

 

I have very fond memories of Dinting, a visit there c1978 rekindled my interest in railways. I'd be astonished, however, if the centre could be re-born. Perhaps it should be let go.

Regards

 

As this appears to have turned into an anti-ELR thread thought I might as well respond.

Some of the framework from the former dinting shed has been scrapped, due to its condition. The framework was examined and tested to see if it could be re-used but it was not suitable. Having been in store for almost 20 years at Bury, the frames had suffered from severe corrosion, but there were also a couple of other issues which precluded its reuse if I recall correctly.

The turntable is securely stored at Baron Street and the East Lancashire Railway Preservation Society has funding set aside towards the project when it is started. We are reviewing plans for the long term development of the Baron Street development and once this has been finally completed, work will begin on the installation of the turntable. There is plenty of desire amongst the membership and officials to get this installed and I believe it will happen over the next couple of years.

Oldham Canopy framework is in reasonable condition and is now stored until we have some funding to put it back up again, and we are looking at various ways of funding the construction of five bays of it on Platform 2 at Bury Bolton Street station. The L&Y fencing that stood at Oldham Mumps is to be installed at Rawtenstall station imminently.

Hope this clarifies. There are many jobs we would like to do, but like many other heritage lines we don't have a bottomless pit of money to make them all happen straightaway and sometimes you have to take an opportunity when it arises to acquire something and then wait until finances are available to bring them back to life. I don't believe we are any different to other heritage lines in this regard.

Regards

 

Please do not take this in the wrong way - but when I tried to give away the canopies at Guide Bridge I couldn't find any takers because I was told :-

1 It was impossible to supply building regs loading calculations for the re-use of nineteenth century cast iron spandrels which could be subject to invisible cracking and incapacity simply
due to age

2 The cost of cleaning back to bare metal was prohibitive due to the depth of historic lead based paint applied over the years

They went for scrap - something I regret to this day

What was the difference in the view taken as to the Mumps canopy for which actual money changed hands??

Have these problems since been overcome?

If it is now possible to economicallyre-use Victorian ironwork, I think the preservation world should be told

 

Frank,

Thanks for the message about the canopies and not took in the wrong way at all. Don't know about the situation with the Guide Bridge canopies, as it was before my time, but as one of the people that was involved in securing Oldham's canopies (two canopies joined in the middle) we did our homework before deciding to go for them. When we rebuilt the ex-Miles Platting canopy at Ramsbottom in 2007, it was found that the columns weren't suitable for re-use as they had suffered from cracking, so new steel supports were installed and the columns are surrounded in a decorative resin finish. The actual canopy ironwork was restored and is the original components from Miles Platting. There is no reason for us to believe that the same process cannot be repeated for the ex-Oldham canopies. Overall, they are in relatively good condition, but as can be expected they weren't exactly spoilt with maintenance attention during their final few years protecting the good people of Oldham.

I suspect one of the reasons for us deciding to buy the Mumps canopies when they were offered by MPT was because there are now fewer and fewer opportunities to get hold of them and the days when they were given away and could be removed by volunteers over a few leisurely sessions or weekend possessions have now long since gone unfortunately. Having seen the amount of work done by the contractors to dismantle the Oldham canopies and the method statements etc, it is easy to see why they couldn't be given away, but it does seem a shame if similar canopies have been offered gratis before and not taken up. Ironically, I believe that the canopies at Altrincham are also earmarked for removal over the coming months, but suspect we probably have enough canopy components now for our requirements.

I think most of our heritage lines, including the ELR, have overlooked something that was offered thinking there would be plenty of opportunity to get hold of them in the future - only to find out that those days have gone forever. Oh for a time machine!

Regards

 

Somewhere Martin, there is published in a book or magazine a photo of a Sulzer type 2 delivering the 04 by rail. Wish I could remember where it was...

 

I've never understood the plans for altrincham at all. it seems more of an architect wanting to make his or her mark than real progress. The canapies on the metrolink side had a fair amount spent on them not that long ago as have the network rail side. I'm more worried about the footbridge! planned to be flattenned and replaced and with lifts either end. It would make sense if it wasnt the case that all the platforms can already be accessed by wheelchair. just getting between platform one and four if tickets need collecting from the main station building but again could be resolved by keeping the office on platform 4 in use.

Regards
Duncan

 

The 04 was moved by rail from Leicester to Dinting. Having run hot on route it received remedial treatment at Longsight Depot before proceeding on to Dinting. When the Centre closed in 1990 it was moved to York by rail. At that time the point at the end of the site had been removed and arrangements were made with BR to slew the branch across and make a temporary connection to get the engine out.

 

Who are the 'Dinting Railway Trust'? I can find nothing about them on the web, the Charities Commision does not list them (not always conclusive I admit) and they are using a Hotmail account for contact which doesn't inspire confidence. Is this a made-up grouping with no formal 'Trust' registration? Is it a 'one-man band'? Are any plans/finance actually in place or is it just an idea?


Keith

 

We dreamers would like to know a ball park figure for a new connection if Dinting is revived. Any offers...