Friends of Fledborough

Hello everyone
Just recently I started a group looking at preserving a part of the old LD&ECR mainly Fledborough High Marnham. The aim is to start a small heritage centre on the old high marnham sidings and expand from there with the main aim being connecting to the test track and running steam and diesel from fledborough towards Ollerton and Edwinstowe. There is also the possibility to create a station on the Thorsby pit spur to serve sherwood forest.. With the talks of extending the Robin Hood line onto the line being constantly muted by mp's this could be a chance to create a community led railway and have apprentiship courses tied in with network rail. To be short the possibilities are endless..... The main thing we as a group are doing atm is spreading the word and gaining support. Please find our Facebook page 'friends of Fledborough' and add us. I am working on a website and we are now holding monthly meetings to try and accelerate the project
Thank you for reading look forward to your comments positive and negative

The photos in order are..
1. Fledborough 2014 when we cleaned it out last it's a right state now again..
2. The network rail buffer stops 400 yards behinds here the first photo was taken.
3. Looking into high marnham sidings lots of lovely room and no future plans for use
4. Ordinance survey showing sidings and station but without station track layout as it had been lifted..
5. Fledborough with full layout high marnham being constructed. It may be able to combine these track layouts without using the junction site held by network rail.
6. A little sketch to give you an idea of what I mean there is room for more as it is not to scale

Nick.

 

As I work with Auto CAD 2D / 3D everday 'steel shell boilers production & plantroom design' I have endevered to overlay on CAD and create some simple but effective images to show you what we are proposing This is very much a WIP
Plus it makes it easy to change

Nick.

 

I hear alarm bells. An oft-used phrase in recent railway preservation history, usually followed in short order by 'commuter/shopper services', but one which has never come close to being realistically fulfilled.

Have you approached Network Rail about these? Does it agree with your assessment that they are a possibility?

Without wishing to sound too negative, be aware that these possibilities may be - in reality - far more limited than you hope they will.

The fact that you have not kept it clear would make me rather concerned about your true dedication to this project and, indeed, your ability to make any realistic progress with it.

Say no more. And I won't. Sorry, but I've seen too many of these threads. I'm out.

 

Will Stuart and Alf be on hand as motive power and infrastructure/asbestos removal consultants with back-up from Meon Valley man and 'Peak Oil Steve' me wonders???

 

I'm with the others in doubting whether this can be anything more than a "wouldn't it be nice" scheme. Looking at what you've posted - I don't "do" Facebook, so haven't looked there - I'm left with two fundamental questions:

1. What are you actually trying to achieve?
2. How do you see yourselves interacting with the Network Rail "RIDC" test track that runs almost all the way to Shirebrook?

If you want the pretty jaded audience here to take you seriously, you need to show you understand these dimensions, otherwise I fear you are inviting grief.

If I'm honest, even if you were successful, I'm struggling to see what would make me want to visit. My memory of the two railtours I've done to High Marnham is that it was a long, slow and frankly dull branch through uninspiring scenery. Driving that way over the summer did nothing to change my memories, though it did occur to me that if Network Rail pulled out of the RIDC, it would make a great extension of the Sustrans cycleway now that it's open over the Trent.

I suggest you step back and give this some careful thought, then provide answers. You've done well enough to get people out to clear the site of Fledborough station; you need to think on what else you need to do to repeat and maintain that, year in, year out.

 

It's not being proposed as a regular commute line.... it will be a weekend job. The robin Hood line is still a possibility but only to ollerton...

No not about appretiship's as this is a long term aim if it takes off.. preliminary talks have been done to find out who owns what. As we have limited No's of people. This post is about spreading the word and progress...

people said the same about the A1 and P2.... You don't try you don't know

I have a family to look after and I work full time. lack of No. = lack of progress .. again the reason for this post..


Say no more. And I won't. Sorry, but I've seen too many of these threads. I'm out

Thanks for your views

 

Well that went downhill quickly....


Keith

 

Thankyou for your reply.

It's basically going to be a another GC North except its in a location that has no preserved railways in a railway mad area. Newark, Retford, Lincoln, worksop... The end aim is to operate a weekend service in conjunction with the test track. We already have lots of ex workers from the line interested and there are local groups at edwinstowe & Ollerton. You also have to remember what part the line played in the black gold.... you could almost add chasewater into the mix..
I would love to see it run to Thorsby as this would put Sherwood forest on its door step, clumber park and pines nearby...
Also you have to remember they are looking at developing the thorsby site into a country park and lots of houses.....
Yes the line may be boring but don't forget how well it's kept and the line speed is quite high now.

We will be looking at hitting the site hard in spring when we have had more communications with EON & Sustrians and we have bodies
I have only recently taken the group by the reigns again as it subsided a bit over the last 2 years..

I will be writing to the railway mag's and creating a article with some of the ex railwayman from the line.

I hope to prove you all wrong but I can only do that by trying to get this off the ground

Regards Nick

 

Of all the "wouldn't it be nice" schemes I've read about, this is the one I can see succeeding - at this remove, in some ways the nature of what you describe reminds me at least as much of the Mountsorrel scheme.

 

Only as far as a healthy reality check.

How many times have we heard this predictable retort? The harsh reality is that the sight and sound of a long-lost class of express locomotive screaming along a main line at 80mph appeals to the hearts and minds of people in precisely the same way that a branch line through a featureless part of the industrialised East Midlands doesn't.

Yet you haven't acknowledged the, ahem, small matter of Mountsorrel having an already highly successful and well-patronised steam line at one end...

 

I haven't, but that wasn't the feature I had in mind.

 

Yea mountsorrell is a good reflect of preserving the quarry aspect... I'd like to do the same with coal so we can have industrials.. first and it will be okay.
It is going to be a hard slog....
But get a base, get the right groups and more importantly get connected to the test track. And the rest should flow.

 

No just got a fully working line 400 yards away... with may I add lots of paths.... as let's be honest it's not used to it's full..

 

You might do worse than head-hunting the gentleman who led the Mountsorrel project, which is WIBN made flesh. One gets the impression that the GCR management thought this had been kicked into the long grass, and were dismayed to find that the project leader was unusually competent and that they had a completed branch line absorbing management time and with no easy way of operating it.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/989025661195354/members/

 

Yes I have heard of this lady. she was / is a mp ..?? I can't remember her names. She's worked on the gap too?? I'll have a look on gap page thanks

 

I think the lady you mean is nicky morgan our local MP and no she has no connection with the GC except for getting her photo taken wielding a spade on the Bridge the Gap project. the gentleman who has led the Mountsorrel project is Steve Cramp. But given the work still to be done on that project I doubt he has much time to devote to another project, but it might be worth picking his brains on how to involve local non-railway enthusiasts to build a railway

Colin

 

Firstly thank you for your comments..