Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

I have my eye on a suitable frame, but prefer not to discuss such a thing until I have my hands on it as well. Wirksworth may well require signalling in due course, but for the time being the remit from the EVR board is to do something simple and complete it before moving on. The EVR has a series of major projects already in hand and we ought not to try and do too much at one time. More volunteers always welcome and there is the open day for new volunteers on Saturday 18th February. The project meeting for Gorsey Bank is in the morning, come along in the afternoon and we may have news of this scheme for you.

 

Sounds eminently sensible to me, no point in running before you can walk. Looking at the videos of the dust dock removal certainly gives a much more open aspect to the site. Had not realised the work was going to be undertaken this year. Looks like a visit is in the offing when the Jinty starts running.

 

Didn't know there was a jinty visiting?

 

Shhh...don't tell anyone. It was found under the dust dock during excavation. Probably part of the strategic reserve that was forgotten about. A lick of paint and a few squirts of WD40 and it'll be good to go


Keith

 

As requested by "Sleeper Monster" here is Martin Miller's slideshow presentation of the removal of the former "dust dock" structure at Wirksworth during January 2017.

 

Why "dust dock"? Had they run out of coal?!

 

The dock was used for loading limestone dust brought in by lorry, it was built to take traffic from the quarries on the Cromford and High Peak Railway just before that line shut. The dock used to have a nice steel shroud to stop the dust flying everywhere; some enterprising volunteers took that down several years ago and used it towards making the "maintenance facility" at the top of the yard; talking of which, for our next project, erection of the extension to that facility from two tracks to three began on Monday. I see Martin has put up a picture of that. If Spirax could work his magic again please?

 

There was further progress today (Friday)on the expansion of the Maintenance Facility as the experts in this sort of thing connected up the vertical bits and the nearly horizontal bits and a vision of the future takes shape......(picture courtesy of Martin Miller, not bad for the first week)

 

Further news of the Open Day on 18th February. There will be a public service operating; new volunteers who sign up for membership at the event will be able to travel half price on the day. The diesel shunter "Faraday" will be giving footplate rides FOC out to Wash Green and back on the South Headshunt.

 

Somehow the last post would take a picture, but not any text. Anyhow, that is a further weeks progress on the extension to the maintenance facility.

 

I've posted a photo of the Maintenance Facility extension in the media section together with strange goings on in Duffield Tunnel

Martin

 

Old and new photos and captions supplied by Neil Ferguson-Lee. The old dust dock steelwork was used to make the original maintenance facility at the top of the yard, currently being doubled in size.


In just the past month we have removed this monstrosity and this both opens-up the site and presents the opportunity for us to develop the station.



This work alone cost us over £20k, so a modest donation to our funds would help us remove this clutter faster.

 

Fantastic that this is being removed. It will really open up the site. I do plan to make a visit to the railway when the jinty arrives.

 

Am I the only one who think it's a shame that you're getting (or have got) rid of the very thing which explains the branch's survival?

 

You might describe it as a classic example of 1960's brutalist archtitecture. You could also say it was the tombstone of the Cromford and High Peak Rly as it took the quarry traffic from Longcliffe. However, no-one offered to saw it into blocks to re-erect at another location and I say it now makes a very good car park area pending the extension of the platform.

Note how neatly the concrete broke off, about 2 feet above rail level: the wall was about 4ft thick at the base and not reinforced. It is at the correct clearance and should do very well as a basis for extending the platform in due course.

Meanwhile 31206 braved Storm Doris and arrived on loan yesterday, 23rd February.

 

Post#51 in this thread

 

You are joking aren't you?

 

Absolutely not. It's a bit like Foxfield demolishing the remaining colliery buildings - except they wouldn't dream of it, would they?
OK, it's considerably less interesting or historic, but I think the point stands.
I don't blame you for doing it, but it would have been better if you hadn't needed to. There is something rather atmospheric about brutal industrial structures as a backdrop for steam railways. Much better than the sanitised cafe blocks and modern sheds and car parks that seem to abound at most 'heritage' sites. And there aren't many of them, either.

 

Two totally different examples as the colliery buildings on the Foxfield line was the reason the line was built and have been there all the railways life and so is in keeping. This modern building was added to the station area at a later date, yes it saved the line closing but has no historical value and without knocking down other buildings which might not belong to the railway there isn't any way to make the platform shorter. Also this building you so loved was built on the site of the station building which was knocked down to make room for this loading platform.