Defunct preserved railways

do you wish to expand on that?

 

The North Downs moved about a bit after HS1 was built that project was a non starter, we then moved to Higham good yard before that got built on then we ended up at Chatham Dockyard, before it became what it was, then we moved to a yard at Rochester Kent and from there to Dartford and Stone Lodge Farm Park at Dartford which closed. Finally they went to the Spa valley railway and that was the end of that

 

Don't know what it'd come under but there's the complex at finmere. They've got a few bits there which includes 4CIG 1753 which occasionally runs around the station propelled by 73130.

Sadly soon to be wiped out as HS2 is routed through the station site.

 

I am sure some one will take the 4Cig and the 73, may be its time the Bluebell could consider having a 1950/60's train set in the collection.

As for Finmere that has to be a good thing that a railway is going to be rebuilt on the site, I have been a strong supporter that the old GCR line should be rebuilt for today modern railway traffic, rather than cut in to virgin green belt land.

 

Bluebell might consider taking the cig & 73. Imagine they'd want repaint the pair & remove the eurostar coupler off 73130.

 

Most of the old GC is once again virgin green belt land

 

Or housing, or the road to nowhere in Staveley.

 

Have not seen any mention of the now defunct Clapham Transport Museum which in its time was a fantastic museum which included the Mallard among its list of exhibits.

 

I think you will find that our meaning of green belt may be different, as I understand it green belt refers to natural use and has not had any man made works on it, where as Brown field land IE railway track bed is considered to have had been used before and can be reused again without going against any local green belt legislation.

 

Parts I understand area now a nature reserve and I think there is a colony of bats in one of the tunnels! Possibly Catesby.

 

They are interested in a 'heritage rail industry'. Some other folk are interested in preservation. Sometimes the two coincide.

 

Unless you want a heritage railway to be a sterile, stagnant experience there has to be some potential for future development, and that row of decaying locos/carriages/wagons represents the potential for future restoration projects. Ideally, resources should be allocated at an early stage to getting them stored securely under cover.

 

It is slightly more involved that that...

Green field is not built on (in recent centuries anyway), i.e. normally farmland or open space.

Brown field is previously used/built on e.g. former residential or industrial/commercial use - including ex railway land: but the zoning can include "green" bits - if someone wanted to build on your house the entire plot is brown field including the garden.

Green belt is specifically zoned areas around certain towns and cities, which is supposed to be kept free from development as an amenity.

However I don't think any railway can return to virgin anything, erm, the point of virginity is once lost.... best leave it there.

 

To be pedantic the 'natural landscape' Is nothing of the sort. The 'unspoilt countryside' so beloved by NIMBYs, environmentalists, wild animal lovers, etc only exists because humans made it so. Clearing vegitation for grazing animals, or building materials, or to create personal hunting grounds, in the distant past has done far more to change the rural landscape than transport system builders

 

Read George Monbiot's Feral

 

I know Caerphilly closed due to vandalism and the Society moved all their stock to another railway.
For those who didn't know it, this was on the Harold Wilson Industrial Estate in that town.

 

Didn't the East Somerset come pretty close to shutting recently

 

The Bluebell already owns a 4VEP, why would it want to take on a CIG as well?