Peak Rail General Discussion

Nice box interesring with the use of a stell frame to support the box instead of usual brick. Must be quicker and cheaper

 

That's the sentiment here, its the prime site in buxton and needs something significant there, when they proposed a hotel on the site people were far happier with that, but nestle shot it down, we have a 5 star spa hotel opening soon, and it has no car parking, and parking for tourists is cripplingly bad, personally I think car parking should be focused on the fringes of the town and the central roads and thoroughfares should be 'beautified' with cobble and other surfaces to promote shared road space and slower speed habits, but we have a lack of vacant sites on the fringes of the town, so the station road site should have an underground car park personally, that way other car parks in the town that really shouldn't be car parks can be reverted to other uses, a tourist information and bike hire centre could also be there, being right next to the train station is a good place for it. shoehorning a retirement complex in between a railway line and a busy road is not the cleverest idea, nor is focusing all health services on the most congested road in the town, trading 1 vacant site for 5-6, Buxton's a large town made up of smaller enclaves, I.e burbage, Fairfield etc and moving the health services from near people's doorsteps all into 1 location will just add to the congestion. It's all a cynical money saving exercise anyway, doesn't matter what they say about providing 'world class' health services, selling off 5 sites and putting them all into 1 means they can make an obscene amount of money at the expense of the town and cut nurses and gp's, which is all the worse as people fought pretty hard to stop wards from closing at cavendish. This is the same goal, only they're going about it a different way. The cgi's for the new hospital and retirement complex are obscene, it provides no compliment to Paxton's efforts next door

 

Problem is you can see why they decamped down to the other end of the line, and outside the national park to try and get better revenue in. The only way on from Buxton would be straight into the park and they tend to be funny sods about letting train lines terminate inside said parks.

 

Actually Peak National Park are pretty positive about the railways plans, see the L&B railway story to see that national parks are understanding of the tourism aspect of what a railway can bring.

 

They are now because as heritage railways have matured they've proven to be an excellent way of getting people through or into the parks without choking up the roads. I suspect we can thank the NYMR for that one as well as people putting together strong business cases and plans to show why it would be a great idea. It helps develop the local economies in a relatively straight forward way, usually bringing, what? £2.70 in tourist spend pennies for every £1 spent?

L&B and Exmoor working together has been great to read about, especially as they have geared their plans towards that business and road-relief aspects.

20 years ago though? I'm not so sure...

 

Proposals to revive a disused rail line through the Peak District have moved a step forward, but not the passenger service some have called for.

Read more at: https://www.matlockmercury.co.uk/ne...consider-peak-district-railway-line-1-9086593

 

There is very little chance that if the line is reinstated, it is for freight and steam trains only. Lets be realistic, if freight and heritage trains can run on it, why cant DMU's for everyone else?

 

It’s more for future proofing, wooden legs eventually go,and once up it costs good money to repair and to fix, Mick our engineer some years back started putting steel legs in church lane to solve this problem And yes it is easier, since then the old Darley cabin has a total steel frame and riverside was done on blockwork for security there’s no wooden bases down our line to cause problems in the future.

My colleague Andrew did a cad package drawing of every individual component of the cabin which means you can build it all exactly in the computer before committing to reality ,it makes construction easier too.

 

Its good forward thinking having a big meccano set and lot of bolts. the average euthiasant wouldnt notice. cuts down the future maintainence costs in future. You plan to expand its application further on the line?

 

I suppose the answer would be that it could be a lot cheaper. If it was run something like the GCR (Nottingham) which (as I understand it) has freight during the week and heritage at weekends but never both, it could potentially live within the 25mph constraints and no/minimal signalling. Any sort of 'proper' passenger service would need considerably more infrastructure.

Anyhow, it's probably more likely that I'll win the Euromillions and fund it myself than this plan suceeding (and I don't even enter the Euromillions draw ).

 

Looking at maps of the area as it was. e.g. http://maps.nls.uk/view/91792650 and http://maps.nls.uk/view/101600316, the Midland passenger station was right beside the LNWR station that is still there, so was the platform that is still just visible in the pictures for other traffic?

Edit: Sorry to be slow on the uptake. I gather that the derelict platform in the pictures post-dates the demolishing of the Midland station, having been built by Peak Rail but effectively abandoned with the move to the other end of the line.

 

The platform you see was built with blood sweat and tears of the PR Buxton volunteers, it breaks my heart every time I go back and see what became of all the hard work. Even the Railway Hotel has closed last time I was back, so many happy memories.

 

The railway hotel, you mean the pub under the viaduct? It's open, but god I wish it wasn't. greene king sold it on and it's been hipsterised until there's nothing left, fake AstroTurf , wooden seating area outside, heat lamps and 'trendy' filament bulbs, and since its opened I haven't seen a soul sit out there, surprise surprise! Pretending the pub is in a less rainy place doesn't make it any less rainier. And I believe it's got the 'grey window' treatment, certainly the 70's beige/poo brown of the modern era, it will be reviled in 10 years time. The interior got ripped out and all the rooms knocked through so there's no snugs or quiet areas, just a cavernous mess, and they've tried to make it 'family friendly' so it's noisy as all hell. Oh and get this, it's not 'The railway' anymore, its 'railway @ buxton' it actually has an aspirant on the sign, just classless all round, wouldn't recommend it for anything but the beer, as its a Joseph Holt's they do my favourite bottled tipple 'maple gold'. Sorry for the rant, you did ask!

 

If there is one thing that has impressed me about England, its the pubs. You lot know how to do a nice pub! That you can go almost anywhere and get a decent meal, or more often that not in my experience so far, an exceptional meal, never ceases to amaze me.

 

Oh dear. Sad to hear about an old haunt. Many a Saturday night in there hatching plans. My brother is still in Buxton so next time I pay a visit I'll avoid the place!

 

Yes, avoid it and head straight to 'the sun' on the high street, best pub hands down, got a reasonable selection of scotches and at least 1 German beer on the go. If you want one near the station 'the old clubhouse' by the opera house is a cracker, wonderful Victorian interior and very much in the grain of a railway hotel feel. On doing the monthly pub sightseeing/staggering night with family members I try and do a count of how many pubs there are, somewhere between 15 - 20, it's a lot for a largish town, and that's forgetting all the craft ale places, which I have mixed opinions about, only because they take business away from the pubs, but the tap house is one to try out.

 

We have great pubs, until those designers with big egos think they can improve on the concept, they try and turn them into more of a restaurant or a spa (that's happened to one near here) or a glorified weatherspoons, (our weatherspoons is great, it's the imitations that seem to get it wrong) and then the clientele that a pub has worked hard to foster and keep gets driven out.

 

Best pair of pubs round my way are owned by the same family, who seem to know how to drive freehold pubs with great grub and regular events.

They also have a good "in" on the local entertainment circuit, so get in good live music and such as well.

 

Two upcoming notices,firstly the easter weekend approaches and details of an event for that and then the Race the train event following