Stainmore Railway Company (Kirkby Stephen East)

Yep sorry about that!

Slender are doing the repairs, though I'm sure NRM shildon do a bit of work too.

 

Streetview pic of the missing river bridge
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.5...n_klLsBVhPp3b45nZgJA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Nice spot though!

 

Nice little challenge for the royal engineers...

 

I recall reading that the railway had been donated a bridge from somewhere in Scotland?

I believe it was from someone who attended the Stainmore 150 celebrations and had been chatting to volunteers there. Hopefully it was true!

 

Allegheny - It'd be a truly excellent achievement if the stainmore railway at kirkby stephen east & eden valley at warcop could eventually reconnect & open the eden valley route again. The stainmore group apparently have plans to start extending their running line in the future, however 1st & foremost is the need for a shed & to build up the yard trackwork/infrastructure to enable them to have some undercover sheltered accommodation from the ahem rather inclement cumbrian weather

The eden valley railway - Well if the s people, (yes unfortunately folks i'm talking about SUSTRANS) ever stop arsing about & agree to allow the railway to extend & build their cycleway alongside then appleby just might be a possibility. The railway do apparently have plans to extend into appleby as it's a fairly large market town & would give them a good destination, however sustrans do supposedly own that portion of the trackbed & thus far haven't been very cooperative.

 

Footings for the maintenance shed are well underway, I believe it is 2 roads, 3 inspection pits with an extension out to the car park for loading.

 

I went to the Kirkby Stephen East station at Easter this year almost by chance. Surprised it hasn't been mentioned but there is a huge commercial vehicle rally which takes place every Easter there and there was probably about 30 vintage buses ranging from 1930 to 1970s doing a big circular route from the Kirby Stephen (west) station which is on the Settle Carlisle line to Kirby Stephen East ( the former NER station) then onto the town centre and finally to Brough where there is some Castle I believe. They also stopped in some small villages. It wasn't well advertised and even when I got there I wasn't sure of the exact route of the buses but was very busy with people.

You could jump on and off these buses for free whenever you wanted although many people gave donations in a bucket. Buses were coming along every 2 minutes or so so my son in particular enjoyed riding on them. There was also lots of vintage cars and lorries on display in Kirkby Stephen town center and it was very busy with visitors.Of course the Kirkby Stephen East station was open and lots of displays there.

The station is a bit surrounded by industrial buildings, Originally I think there was an Engine shed there and good facilities etc where the industrial buildings now are. It is much closer to the town than the other station on the Settle Carlisle. They are slowly extending it North in the direction of Appleby. It wouldn't be possible to go south because there is a huge caravan park ( for mobile caravans) on what was the lines going into the station from the South. Stainmore and Belah viaduct were also south.

Incidentally my father's cousins family farmed the land which Belah viaduct was on so my Dad used to go and stay there regularly as a child and remembers the viaduct well. He told me a story once about how he went there during the WW2 and they had a German Prisoner of war working on the farm and more or less as a dare I think, he witnessed the German climbing up the entire side of the viaduct to the top without any ropes or anything and then back down again.

 

Interesting story yes there is a recycling centre (I think) where the loco shed was, the new shed will be on the opposite side of the station building. There was also a goods shed on the other side of the road bridge, I think it's still there along with the station masters house, the road bridge has had the arches filled in so looks like an embankment now. The new shed will be very useful for restoring those lovely teaks they have, aswell as keeping the j21 out of the rain!

 

It's shaping up to be an excellent heritage railway at kirkby stephen east. The station itself is very well looked after & with their new restoration shed will finally give them some undercover storage & a running shed.

Plus it'll enable them to shift their steam loco out of the platform road. The water column certainly looks a very high quality restoration job & the water tower looks brilliant. Hopefully once they've sorted the new track layout & shed they can start on laying down a bit of a running line.

 

Where does the railway own the track bed to?

 

Just looked at the latest pictures on FB,some dedicated people there!the weather of late has not been kind but you are still at it!
Congratulations to those dedicated fellas,you deserve to succeed .
Weather forecast for this weekend is not good,so good luck.

 

Shed is flying up, only hampered by the cats and dogs that fall so torrentially in that part of the country, here is their donate page, the shed floor is not funded so that's where it is all being directed at the moment https://app.statichtmlapp.com/tab/1/visitor/260228887347271/wrapped

 

Just being nosy, but are there any plans or intentions as to which vehicles will be first to enter the facility for maintenance and/or restoration? I read recently that there was a Mark 1 BSK having bodywork outdoors, so perhaps a contender there?

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Yes the BSK will likely be the first in the queue, the j21 will probably take up the other shed road, as the funding is in place, followed by its accompanying stores van. The teaks are obviously a long term project, as they are for anyone taking on a unrestored teak.

 

Thanks for that, I'm sure the shed will prove to be worth it's weight in gold!

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Donation sent

Dave

 

The frames of an austerity together with NER stores van 5523 and NER passenger brake van 2131 will be first into the shed. The owners of the austerity and the passenger brake van have made large contributions towards the funds needed to erect the shed. The stores van needs to dry out before we can begin any serious restoration work. Initially only a single road will be laid in the shed so we can get plant and machinery through to enable us to construct the outside pit at the west end.

The shed will facilitate speedier repairs to the BSK bodywork.

The water crane was repaired by Slinden Services. If you have cast iron components that look beyond help get in touch with them.

Thanks for the kind remarks made in previous posts about the work we are completing at Kirkby Stephen East. The KSE volunteers do appreciate them.

Thanks to daveannjon for the donatation. I know who you are!

Rob

 

Once the shed & associated trackwork around the yard & shed/station is completed what's next on the list? Signalbox or extending the running line??

How much trackbed do the railway own & how much is it planned to relay as the running line?

Heard a while ago that there's a frame for a signalbox on site which is planned to be rebuilt to the designs of the original.

 

We have a long list of small jobs that need finishing to bring parts up to a good standard so that our visitors are seeing a proper railway environment. There are paths to lay out, fences to erect and so on. When we have ticked off these jobs we will be looking at other construction projects. With regard to signal boxes we have planning consent to rebuild the original Stockton and Darlington box, parts of which survive, and the later junction box. Present thinking is that the S and D box should be rebuilt as a volunteer project including the installation of a Steven's lever frame of which we have an example. The junction box project is a few years off yet.

In the longer term we hope to extend our line but there will be much work to do to secure access to the trackbed which is in the hands of several owners.

Rob

 

An error went unnoticed in my reply to Luke. I should have typed, "We have a long list of small jobs to bring parts of our site up to a good standard so that our visitors are seeing a proper railway environment."

Rob