Peak Rail General Discussion

I was interested to see that at long last somthing was to be done to safeguard the structure after 50+ years of total neglect !! however reading the proposal it states that chanels originally meant to hold timbers for rail mounting are to be filled with concrete !! how would this impact any future railway use.. surely any work carried out should allow for easy rail reinstatement... just a thought & concern...

 

Wow, didn't expect this, millers dale is very popular for cyclists and it's been crying out for some regeneration, a few of the station buildings are unoccupied, the goods shed doesn't have a roof, it could be a cafe or used for bike rental, though that could impact on bike rental business at Blackwell mill, but the car park at millers dale is larger so it could be useful for extra capacity. a few questions, who's paying for this and what do they get out of it, being that the other viaduct is already open, I'm glad that something is getting done but it doesn't appear to be anyone connected with the Peak District national park.

 

Should the route be brought up to modern standards, buy shares in concrete and galvanised steel! All charm would be swept away between Rowsley and Ambergate Jcn.

 

Yep, maybe in the peak national park is there a chance of any heritage being kept, but not outside.

 

I'd have told you what the owner said, Mick, in response to your appeal, but lost my email address book a while back. Pete Waterman's 21t steel mineral wagon is in fact under restoration in the loco shed.

 

Well, Whatstandwell footbridge has recently been repaired, and Cromford station buildings restored. Cromford Station buildings, Bakewell Station building, Matlock Bath Station building, & Darley Dale Station building are all grade 2 listed.

 

True, but I bet the platforms aren't listed and would be lengthened/rebuilt; track would be slewed and lifted; footbridges could still be removed if deemed a restriction (as at KX); modern signalling would see 100s of loc cases, miles of troughing, UTX chambers, supply points, relocatable equipment buildings at crossings (with modern barriers, wigwags and sounders); points heating equipment would litter passing loops, etc etc. There would be a modern railway, which is good; but the trade off would be the loss of much of the heritage 'feel', which would be sad.

 

Small update this week from my own department S&T

Pete John Andrew and myself shimmed gate four at Church Lane on Wednesday with aluminium shims that we made to test if we could raise the droop in the gate enough to stop the bar sticking in the slider.

Luckily this has improved the gates now and there's no problems getting the bar into the slider at all. We've made some steel shims for when the time comes to replace these and these are on site ready now.


Yesterday Andrew and myself started pruning the tall branches from around church lane 6&13 signals using the forty foot pole normally used to roller paint the tall posts on signals, 6 signal has been completed and we got so far on 13 signal before the main bolt that held the lopper on decided to disappear up in the trees, luckily that's repaired now and will be back in action soon, apart from all that Andrew also replaced some.of the woodwork on the footway under gate 3 which was splitting and tired.

 

Darley gates have been repainted in their yearly repaint,church lane box is next,some more tree pruning for signal clearances and sighting has been done and the works train was out midweek dropping sleepers off for replacement and taking cut branches back for removal,more steelwork has been completed for the base of Rowsley box and speaking off steelwork Mr briddon has done a fine job getting rs8 dismantled,the cab and body of which has been sand blasted down and spray primed up,work progressess nicely and Il pop a Link up to the recent work. I did spot some parts being worked on at Tarmac while around in Great Rocks the other day but didn't get into the works unfortunately

 

And here's the link to mr Briddons "Weekend Rails" blog https://www.weekendrails.co.uk/

 

I see from facebook that D7659 class 25 has arrived at the railway,Il get some pics when I get back from the Green and pleasant land that is Eire

 

Courtesy of The internet a very good potted history of the loco http://www.derbysulzers.com/25279.html

 

That's D7629.

 

http://www.derbysulzers.com/25309.html

This is the one.

Dave B

 

The millers dale viaduct repairs have been approved too, no indication on whether it will be opened for people to access.

 

And a photo at Rowsley today.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave goo

 

ORR don't seem very happy regarding Darley Dale Level Crossing

 

Why?

 

The remedial work is scheduled for Thursday 17 August to Monday 21 August and will of course include the road closure. I'm not sure if any trains are running.

Cheers
Dave