Colne Valley Railway

Are there any plans to extend the Colne valley railways running line?

 

As far as I'm aware there are no plans to extend the running line. Extending would be very expensive as the site is hemmed in between two roads, the A1017 and Nunnery Street, the latter street having had homes built on the old trackbed formation where the line used to cross it. Needless to say, I have no idea how much of the remainder of the trackbed is still in situe, so getting across these roads could be a minor obstacle in comparison!

Its a shame really. Its in a lovely part of Essex and could do with a bit of 'a run', particularly if they managed to get to Halstead.

 

They do have future ambitions to extend, i remember not that long ago a donations bucket for it. However the Colne Valley have other things they want to achieve. They would much rather increase the amount of attractions available as i remember reading that they stated extending now would be nice but it wouldn't mean increasing the visitors hugely where as constructing new buildings such as a mock up victorian street would give people much more to look at. In this railways case i doubt doubling the length would double the visitors sadly so they've chosen the right option in my opinion.

 

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Its such a shame that they have not got better access or indeed the realistic prospects of getting some, as it is a nice area. To get a decent run behind steam in Essex about the only place to go is the Audley end miniature railway

Still there will be the EOR very soon so we can look forward to that.

 

The EARM down at Chappel is the obvious route to head - they have locos & DMUs but little to no running line. I wonder if there are any 'ambitions' in that direction, let alone plans?

 

If only Chappel could get access to the Sudbury branch line at weekends ..............

 

The problem with heading in the Chappel direction is the Museum being on the opposite side with the Sudbury branch in the middle. It surely would have to require running on network rail for a short distance for access.

I notice the Colne Valleys website hasn't been working for over a week now?