Lazarus Lines

Morning All

Thought i'd start a thread in a similar kinda vein to the defunct railways 1. As most of us are probably aware there's quite a few preserved lines & projects that are somewhat under the radar, some are well known & others less so. Thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss as the pres movement seems to be growing constantly.

(1)Vale Of Berkeley Railway - Seems to be a slow burner this 1, I did post on the dedicated thread for this a while ago asking if anyone knew a possible length of time before they start running anything public but nobody answered. Alls I know is their rebuilding the sharpness docks branch, plans to run to berkeley.

(2)Mangapps Farm Line - One i've wanted to visit for years as they've got quite a collection of industrial steam locos & the 03s plus the only surviving class 302 emu. Don't think they've any plans to extend as it's all built on farm land & nothing on the webpage

(3)Whitrope - AKA the waverley route heritage association (wrha), think they're working on rebuilding a section of the former route. Unsure how much they'll have though as IIRC there's a tunnel collapsed somwhere, also now home to 26040 recently arrived from methill power station.

(4)Aln Valley Railway - Plans to reopen between alnmouth & alnwick, from what I understand it'll only be a short run of 3 miles or so & a new station needs building at alnwick due to roads built on the trackbed.

(5)East Anglian Railway Museum - Just got the station site at chappel & having visited last yr can confirm it's pretty good. Some interesting railway artefacts etc too.

(6)Colne Valley - Seem to be back on track now they've got a secure future after the sale of their site fell through. Only a short line, but deffo on my to do list this yr.

(7)Eden Valley - Got IIRC approx 2 miles of current running line, plus a load of southern region emus & a couple of MLVs. They're slowly extending but rumoured to be having problems though as sustrans apparently own a big chunk of the trackbed & aren't keen on selling due to wanting to make it into a cycleway, so who knows how far they're likely to get.

(8)Stainmore Railway - Headquartered at the kirkby stephen east station & seems to be progressing very well from the reports on their news & facebook pages. Slowly but surely extending the running line up towards the tebay formation, from what's been said by folks asking on facebook they're working towards re-connecting with the eden valley at warcop. Certainly going to be a mammoth task!

(9)Northampton & Lamport Railway (N&LR) - Located on the outskirts of northampton at pitsfor, currently extending south towards boughton crossing & beyond. Seems as though they've got big plans so I reckon 1 to keep an lookout for in the near future.

For now that's all I can think of, but if anyone thinks of anything else or i've got details wrong somewhere please correct me.

 

Sustrans have been known to block extensions to heritage lines as they believe it should be cycle ways and then come up with the excuse that railways will pollute the environment and damage the area. This is one of the reason why Bodmin and Wenford railway hasn't arrived at Wadebridge sooner.

You could also add the Helston Railway in Cornwall, who want to connect Helston to the main line again. Currently have a mile of track and run brake van rides.

 

The Derwent Valley Light Railway take being under the radar to a whole new level. http://www.dvlr.org.uk/

“Thank you for visiting our web site. We are sorry that their (sic) is nothing for you to view.”

 

The royal deeside at milton of crathes & keith & dufftown railway aren't in limelight that much but still pretty active. As mentioned above sustrans are a mega headache, by trying to block extensions in places.

 

From their website it seems the royal deeside are aiming for banchory, also the plym valley is only a very short line of just a couple of miles or so.

However don't think they're planning to extend much further tbh as a lot of their trackbed is gone now.

 

Mangapps is well worth a visit not just for the rolling stock but a very intensive museum of mainly GER equipment station signs, signals etc, and a delightful café inside a former SR buffet car, I had my wife with me on my visit and even she liked it, now believe me that is really saying something.

 

Oswestry?

 

"....nothing on the webpage?" Oh, you mean nothing about a line extension! That's because we don't intend to extend the line- Mangapps is small, or rather it is short in terms of running line, but it is perfectly formed. We continually improve facilities in other areas and plan further improvements and extensions, but the operational length will remain at one mile, unless James or I have a brainstorm or otherwise change our minds.

I'm delighted to hear that you've wanted to visit us for years, you will certainly be very welcome, but can I ask, what's been stopping you? Macclesfield is well within the civilised world- I've done Burnhan-on-Crouch to Macclesfield and back well within a day, so come on, give it a try- you won't fall off the edge of the world.

Last point, we've been just Mangapps Railway since 2001, having dropped the "Farm" bit due to the Foot Mouth crisis. The railway is, indeed, built on farm land, but so were most railways.

 

Disappointed to find this thread is not about a new build Merchant Navy.

 

May I ask an awkward question? What's the matter at Oswestry?

I first went though there in the early '70s. The line to the wonderfully named Blodwel Junction was still in use for ballast traffic and there appeared, even then, to be embryonic preservation activity at Oswestry. What a fantastic place for a preserved railway, I thought.

Around 20 years later I visited Oswestry again, accompanied by the late Len Humphries, who lived there latterly and had become involved with the preservation scheme. The preservationists occupied the station area, there were some locos and wagons and the track was still intact, though they had access to very little of it.

Another 20 years went by and in 2014 I was again in Oswestry. TBH there appeared to be little change. Track in the station area had been fettled and there were a few other minor changes and signs of preservation in the surrounding hinterland, though whether these were active or moribund and connected with the Oswestry scheme or not, I don't know.

Elsewhere in the country and over that same timescale, whole, fully developed heritage railways have sprung up, often in, apparently, less promising circumstances. So, with no disrespect to those involved and, presumably, working hard on the Oswestry railway project, just what is the problem?

 

They have only recently got acces to the line
http://www.osrail.co.uk

 

Hello,
More info here:
http://www.cambrianrailways.com


Nick

 

Thanks, both of you, for posting those links, particularly the "Osrail" site which I hadn't seen before. However, whilst there appears to be progress, the situation looks similar to what I found two years ago and is not exactly overwhelming, especially considering what has happened at many other heritage railways during the 42 years since I first visited Oswestry.

Even now, looking at the various websites connected with the Oswestry/Cambrian Railway projects, there appears not to be much to encourage the casual, or even the interested visitor, to make the effort to investigate further, let alone take their family for a visit. I'm still intrigued as to why.

 

I think that you'll find that things at Oswestry have started to move on much more quickly in the last 12 months and the small but dedicated group of regular volunteers deserve our support. The forum section of the CHR website is updated every few days, usually with photos of the work being carried out.
Ray.

 

The oswestry project looks interesting, forgotten how big the station buildings are too they're massive!

 

Sorry to wake an old thread folks but does the S&D project count? They've been making decent progress & seem to have made progress on extending their running line some more.

Another that's sprung to mind is the poulton & wyre railway. Making slow but steady progress clearing the track & works are ongoing to their 108 DMU at butterley so they can run services.

 

Do they count as a relatively unknown line? Depends who you ask, a small operation nonetheless, worthy of mention all the same.
The ferryhill railway is another one
As is the shed 47 group in fife
Leiston works railway is also not very well known.

P.s just noticed you're a Macclesfield man,a place I'm not too fond of these days. the lovely lovely council of said place have allowed my school to be bulldozed in the next few years for housing, the whole place is becoming one giant soulless housing estate or as Ian Nairn would say 'subtopia' saying that you can escape to the rudyard lake railway down t'road if it gets too depressing for you

 

FearOfManchester

Macclesfield isn't the best but it's where I've put down roots with having family local & very happy & settled in my church so I'll stay put.

Plus I'm quite handy for a few lines:

Churnet valley
East lancs
Rudyard
GCR & GCRN are only a couple of hours drive too as is the battlefield so can't moan too much. It's what you make of things after all.

Also thought the blaenau railway up in north wales are a small project. Can't remember how much of the route they're planning to reinstate, should be interesting though cos if the 414 group are successful then they'll be running services with a 2HAP (4311) emu which will be an odd 1!