Folkestone Harbour Branch

Please respect that there's too sides to every argument.
You only discredit yourself if you get offended too easily or of you start poking fun of the opposing view.

Keep it above the waist and below the neck.

 

With respect, ADB968008, I don't think I've been either offensive or poked fun. I asked what are pertinent questions about things which are fundamental to the success of a preservation project and martinbutler - who is evidently passionate in his belief in the Folkestone Harbour Branch project - conspicuously failed to provide sensible (or indeed any) answers to them. Instead he chose to get the hump and walk away.

Like any preservation project, if it is to succeed then it will need organisations and individuals to stump up enormous sums of cash, who will also want to hear viable answers to such questions.

This is merely an internet forum, so what on earth chance does the project have out in the real world tf he - or other members of the project - are unwilling to answer them?

If (or should I say when) they need loans, how would a bank react to someone just keep repeating what seems like a highly idealised view and then storming off in a huff when the manager doesn't merely roll over and agree with their vision, which seems to make very little economic sense?

Rather than criticising forum users for asking such questions and then expressing exasperation when they are conspicuously failed to be answered, perhaps it would be wiser and more constructive in the long term for those involved in the FHB project to advise them to grow rather thicker skins?

 

I agree

 

DB - I don't believe the comment was aimed at you (unless you are wobbling your bottom lip and have taken the ball home in a huff!!)

 

I'm not wearing any feathers in this turkey shoot, however...

http://railways.national-preservation.com/showthread.php/687-Forum-Rules

The reference here is a yellow card on thread rather than anyone in particular.
please don't shoot the referee, you may be the one crying fowl next.

PS beyond Eurostar, ive never been to Folkestone either, so I've no idea if I've missed out on something good or not.
:grouphug: :focus:

 

Chumpy's chips are very nice!

 

OK, fair enough - I took it as a reply to my post and so apologise for taking it the wrong way.

Which point neatly, and rather ironically, illustrates why it's so pie-in-the-sky that those who wish to see the FHB reinstated are using the soft-focus (and utterly impausible) vision of a reinstated ferry to France as a USP!

Folkestone probably used to be quite a nice town in its Victorian heyday. But the Luftwaffe and postwar planners did it no favours and, ever since, it seems to have sunk lower and lower into the status of s**thole. Not helped, of course, by the loss of the ferry service and being neatly bypassed by a railway beneath the Channel, followed in fairly quick succession by a deluge of illegal immigrants. My wife worked in Folkestone for several years around the turn of the century and said she hated winter, because she never felt safe walking to her car after dark.

I hear there are two 'nice' pubs too, although I certainly never found them. :wink:

I'm trying... :wink:

 

Think the pubs in the harbour are quite decent but I would imagine a bit boisterous on a Saturday night. When we go to the annual Skabour festival they do a roaring trade with all the old Ska-boys and girls in there.

Illegal immigrants? I thought the first tongue of Folkestone was Kurdish anyway...

Anyway back to the thread. Another small scheme a bit further on from here is the East Kent Line. It is never mentioned on here even though they have been running for quite a few years. We were invited to a miniature steam weekend which was a disaster both in organisation and advertising and never repeated but the line did have potential as it was in a nice location with a reasonable run. Surely the FHB people could assist this scheme. Two small groups combined can achieve something far more than two groups, two sites and not enough of anything to do anything.

 

I agree with you, Maunsell man. Unfortunately there are always those who, underneath all the worthy rhetoric, simply want their own train set to play with. Being invited round to play with the neighbours train set is never good enough for them, even if they could make it twice as good with the added help.

For further proof of this malaise, witness the amount of demic Class 37s littering the country and the schemes to re-create 'lost' diesels, when the guys working on the Class 15 and Class 28 are crying out for more cash and physical help to return these unique locos to service.

 

I went to on the first ‘last’ train and was amazed by the spectacle of the climb, even though I was ill at the time and drugged up with Lemsip tablets to ensure I made the trip. I also went on the second ‘last’ train a year latter, which may yet be the last passenger service to leave Folkestone harbour. For those who witness the events on those two days you will understand why I joined the Remembrance Line Association, those not present are unlike to understand but this may help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSLaAp7AmaA

The RLA may not succeed but I have been impressed by what they have done, it may be not be highly visible and they are going to have ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ but for the memory of 34067 and 70013 powering up the climb it’s worth a try. I have subscribed to the share offer and wish the scheme the very best of fortune.

 

For those who haven't visited the line, below is a collection of pictures starting as near to the carriage sidings as you can get and then following the line down to the harbour.
I think the pictures give a fair idea of the line - except the carriage siding just around the bend from the level crossing - the good the bad and the needs pulling down and starting again..

http://simonwhittinghamphotography.zenfolio.com/p810011202

 

Very impressive, fascinating !!Simon
a big thank you!:cheer2:
regards
Noel

 

Thanks - some of the pics wouldn't normally be good enough to make it into a collection but hopefully they serve to illustrate the debate on here.

 

There's no doubt that it was/is an interesting piece of railway. But viable as a standard gauge preserved line???

 

How about a dry ski slope? Might make enough to fund future development plans.

 

You get over yourself. Maybe your fantastic siding - sorry I mean line can utilise the j39 & L1 new builds along with the fleet of gas producing R1s!

My memory is fine thanks - like your imagination

fervid - I think you mean fevered?

Leave a dry ski slope there? Don't be daft, it would be nicked within a week!

 

Lucky Nat Pres wasn't about say 30 years ago otherwise many of todays railways might not have existed!

Will

 

Many of the people posting on NP were busy 30 years (and more) ago laying the foundations for what we have now!