Moorlands and City Railway

What are you wittering on about????? Banning you seems to have little effect as reports of your trepassing on railway property abound.

 

See what I mean IRWELLSTEAM? Tell you what, if you really want to trigger a response, try asking them when they are going to start work on Ipstones Station, after all they have got the money now for that job following the scrapping of the most scenic part of the Cauldon line. Go on, I dare you.

 

What are you on about? I was just saying Leekbrook Platform looks good now. Now I can see why that entailed a curt response if they're sick and tired of having to respond to comments like the quoted all the time

 

Just to say thanks to p/wayman and lil Bear for continuing to post - as I said a while ago, it is appreciated.

I don't think anyone is taking clogger seriously anymore, so please don't be distracted or demoralised by him.

 

No-one at CVR taking him seriously for a number of years...

 

MCR have got the money for Ipstones - Cauldon scrap, and they have no reason to re-open Ipstones.
It's CVR who use Ipstones, but we've got more pressing projects on elsewhere to be getting on with.

Stop confusing the two to try and make your arguments appear legit, when quite frankly they are not.

 

Perhaps "they're" not going to as the potential threat of the closure of Cauldon Lowe has required a re-assessment which might - and I stress MIGHT - see the MCR looking to re-open the Waterhouses branch thereby using Ipstones as a simple passing loop. If such is the case then providing a station is a short term cost that won't help and may aggravate the good relations that currently exist with the adjacent land-owner.

As usual you seem to be confusing short term against short term and confusing the future of what's desirable against what's possible. In a slight corruption of your monicker I would suggest you "knock" your criticisms on the head and "clog" your desire to prove how little you know about what is going on; perhaps start by renaming yourself Knock and Clogger.

 

I hope no-one is distracted or demoralised. But I know that when I have encountered Cloggers in the past whilst doing voluntary stuff I have found them demoralising and so when I see someone else copping for it I want them to know that what they are doing is appreciated, if only to even up the score a bit. I know how soul destroying it can be to put your heart and soul into something and then have it nit-picked or mis-represented.

Besides I get the impression that the CVR and MCR have had a bit more than their share of this stuff and the CVR is one of my favourites, so I'll keep reaching out to them.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I look forward to riding to Endon and Waterhouses, (maybe even behind the New L 0-6-2 some day.

 

That would be good, a proper NSR loco, perhaps hauling the coaches from the Foxfield? And then, just for completeness, a change of trains to take a trip through the Manifold valley on the L&M...

 

Now there's nothing wrong with dreaming but that is going waaaaaaay out there!

I have to agree though. I've walked the whole length of the LMVLR and it is a tragedy (of Shakespearean proportions) that it didn't make it to the preservation era. Even if it did run from the middle of nowhere to the back of beyond the line passes through a dale of sublime beauty and I still try to walk there when I can. Some years ago a bunch of guys used to run a miniature version of the LMVLR through part of the valley with live steam. I wish I'd had the chance to ride on one of those trains but I missed out

Even if "all" the CVR / MCR could do was to run a line to Waterhouses that would be worth doing, imagine if the GUV had a few bike racks in it so people could ride up to Waterhouse on a train then ride their bikes to Hulme End and back then ride the train back to Chedd or Froghall. Marvellous.

There are some wonderful books on the LMVLR, I think I'm right in saying that the first 2-6-4 tanks to run in this country were on that line.

Such a shame, but maybe it's not completely lost.

 

It was indeed definitely a dream, the next step of course is a facebook page

I like the idea of a bike rack GUV, that would be good. I'm visitng the area soon and hope to walk the L&MVLR line, it looks excellent. I think you're right with the first 2-6-4 tanks to run in Britain as well.

 

Well if it's a facebook page you're after I'd recommend you speak to Alfred Roberts, he seems to have mastered that (at least)......

The CVR has the original, prototype GUV, but sticking bike racks inside would not alter its appearance and would make it even more valuable. Don't know how it would sit with a New L and a 3 coach vintage set but then it's easy to be too fussy about things....

The area is fantastically beautiful and well worth a stay, the line, allowing for the fact that it sits in a dale, is a brilliant walk. There's a very fine pub at Hulme End, another at Butterton, another at Wetton and a fine one at Waterhouse , not to mention the (unique and wonderful, but wonderfully weeeiiiirrrd) Yew Tree at Cauldon, a sort of combination antiques showroom cum old school pub, with a "patented" Dog Carrier that would bring tears to the eyes of the cruellest caninophobe.

Feel free to PM me about the area and the LMVLR.

 

[anorak] The New L was introduced into service after the 4-wheel Knotty Coaches had been withdrawn, so not wholly appropriate[/anorak]

Agree with the rest of your comments though. Stick a CCT ala North Norfolk style on services to Waterhouses, and also get an agreement with the cycle hire company in the former Signal Box at Waterhouses, you've got a big attraction for people to go from Stoke / Leek to Hulme End without using a car!

Are you referring to the pub on the corner at Waterhouses, or one elsewhere? Definitely agree over the Yew Tree though, a truly quirky place full of character!

 

There is no signal box at Waterhouses, that ended up at Amerton Farm years ago, the only NSR building left there now is the ex Fenton Goods Warehouse that was moved there when the Manifold opened, which presumably was the same time that Fenton level crossing closed. Another thing, if you want to run CVR trains to Waterhouses you would have to buy loads of land and do a lot of very expensive earthworks as the original station would only hold three coaches.

 

I am well familiar with Alf Roberts, I was hoping he could offer me some advise in regauging some irish stock to run on the 2ft track, obviously him having removed the asbestos first

Yes the area is beautiful, a walk along the old line is a definite must, will look up pubs! I have several books on the area and the narrow gauge line and it's something I'd quite like to model, more obtainable than the full size thing anyway!

 

There's a fine model of the line in the visitor centre at Hume End and you can still make out the track layout and buildings there.

The bulk of the track bed is now a trail but Swainsley tunnel is shared with a road now.

I've feeling that models of LMVLR locos and stock were available some years ago.

Have you seen the 3 part DVD from a few years ago?

 

To be honest, before your post I didn't actually know that CVR had dropped the idea of reopening Ipstones Station after announcing it's resurrection on their website last year; it is just that I never believed what they said for a minute. They also said at the time - if you remember, that the track from Ipstones to Cauldon would "probably be relaid next year" (2014), clearly that is not going happen either. As for for reopening the old Waterhouses trackbed, that would be even more of a pipe dream if the cement factory closed as half the track bed no longer exists and would cost mega millions to put back. Lets hope that the cement factory stays in business because the only hope of a revival would be if NR did the work because MCR would never have the money, the interest or the means.

 

OK C&K
Enough is enough we all get it that you have had a spat/falling out with the CVR but why do you have to constantly have a dig at them? its not as though you will change the past or convince any body here that you hold some sort of moral high ground due to your supposed harsh treatment at the hands of all those nasty CVR Volunteers/management types.
2 years ago I resigned my membership of a preservation group due to the fact I had a fundamental difference of opinion with the way the management of the railway was running it. I had been a member since 1977/78 and had been an active working volunteer since 1988, Yet I have never felt the need to plaster my opinions of the way the railway is being run or my perceived shortcomings of the management all over the web. many of my friends work on the railway and despite knowing my opinion they still enjoy the experience of working and supporting the railway and I would not try to deny them that pleasure by constantly trying to denigrate the railway and its aims.
My only regret is thatI no longer have the pleasure of working on the rolling stock and motive power that I have invested hundreds of man hours and thousands of pounds of my hard won cash on.
But management changes and even deeply entrenched opinions can alter over time and I would be foolish in the extreme to burn all my bridges as I maybe one day decide to swallow my pride and pick up a spanner again.
So can you please quit with the constant sniping and move on with your life as I for one am heartily sick of your constant negative posting.

Colin

 

Whose knocking the CVR? I am the only person on this site that actually retains the desire to restore and preserve what is left of the NSR in North Staffs, if I occasionally point out that the emperor has no new clothes then I am very sorry but the truth is bound to leach out eventually. As for any spat I may have had with CVR, that was over twenty years ago and is was because I chopped a tree down at Cheddleton during veg clearance - but that had nothing to do with me leaving the railway. I have never met any of the people on this site yet they all claim to know everything about me so somebody must be telling lies as part of an organised smear campaign. I do find that people on this this site tend to be dreamy, impractical spotter types who have a tenuous grip on reality, so don't blame me for making them smell the coffee now and again.


Post edited to show quote correctly. RW.