S&D Chilcompton Station Project

Say more?

Did the locals object to the whole idea or just how it was done?

 

That seems reasonably conclusive.


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I'm intrigued by this scheme and had a look at their website in the hope of being able to understand the project better. I hoped to find a map of the area showing the route of the line from the tunnels to the station, but there was nothing like that.
I had a look at Google maps and quickly found the tunnel and the route to the road bridge, but after that the course of the line seems to be lost to a housing estate.
I wonder if a better plan for the project would be to join forces with the Midsomer Norton group, build a new station, (like the Cambrian group have done at Llynclys), just before the road bridge and restore the line towards MSN.
The original Chilcompton station could perhaps be restored as a heritage site similar to what has been done to good effect at Sandford and Banwell station.

 

I am not sufficiently familiar with the remains of the S&D to know where you might be able to assemble the biggest bit of useable trackbed - and of course if you had assembled a suitable bit you might not have assembled the team you have at Midsomer Norton.

I suggest however that it seems unlikely that extending the line in either direction appears viable sadly, marvelous project though it is

 

Thank you for that information, it explains a lot.
When I visited MSN earlier in the year a friendly chap I got talking to there told me about the firing range in the tunnels, and the cutting but I'd forgotten about them.

 

This explains a lot , some of the things I knew nothing about.

Chris

 

Are we saying there here is someone who wasn't happy being one cog in the wheel of someone else's 12"/ft scale train set and so wanted their own?

It wouldn't be the first time we've seen it and it won't be the last.

 

I believe post #4 is the one to read. It does unfortunately seem to be a case study in how not to get the locals onside.

 

The S&D was an iconic railway that failed to make a profit before the first world war.
I for one, had the privileged of working with former S&D personalities at Bournemouth and loved to listen to their stories about this railway.
Peter Guy said to me on more than one occasion that it was a dangerous line.
As far as a business case, who wants to drive to Midsomer Norton or Chilcompton to sample a steam train ride?
Look at the the Avon valley who enjoy sitting between Bath and Bristol who, to be honest, have not achieved their goals.
It's lovely what has been achieved at MSN,
I am a member; But a viable, self sustaining railway?
Think not.

 

Surely the quoted Cambrian offshoot at Llynclys is not a useful precedent, a siding which can never be accessed from Oswestry due to the former station position and which has taken resource from the wider project for little overall benefit. Similar divided effort exist at Warcop and KS, one static at best the other vibrant, pushing on.

 

It is not the case of not wanting to be a small cog in a big wheel, it is more complicated than that IMO.
Others get jealous when they see an individual doing well and work to discredit them, happens at all Railways .
That said the Chilcompton project is I believe a non starter.
Chris

 

Me?

Hmmm....there are many issues with the AVR that put people off, I wouldn't hold them up as a evidence in this particular debate

 

Given what the AVR have achieved relative to the S&D at Midsomer Norton and the time it has taken to do it, I can easily see what project is doing well, and what is not

 

It makes you wonder how serious they were from the off?

Alas, a couple of feet of scraped platform coping stones (probably done in an act of trespass) and some rose-tinted nostalgia does not a successful business make. Another one to put in the burgeoning filing cabinet marked South Bedfordshire Railway ;-)

 

Rather like The Scottish Play?
He who must not be named?
Rather than Scotland, more connections to Poland.
Thus The Polish Play. 'macbet'

 

I certainly would and as I have already witnessed, when they have a steam running day so would many others.

The folk at Midsomer Norton have achieved so much in such a short time. I say good luck to them for the future. <BJ>

 

Well said that man