Elsecar Railway

so what’s the story behind them loosing the Mardy Monster and handing the lease back
It seems to be a big sudden shock of a situation.
I feel sorry for the voulenteers if its down to poor decisions on the board

The melter

 

See Elsecar Mining Memorial thread: https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/elsecar-mining-memorial-cortonwood-station.139106/

 

Not sure how long this has been on the Elsecar Railway website (https://www.elsecarheritagerailway.co.uk) but I think it fairly recent.

"Notice to all Customers and visitors

Following the surrender of the lease by the Trustees of Elsecar Heritage Railway in August 2020, after a number of challenges further compounded by the pandemic, we will begin a consultation period to shape the future of a Heritage Railway offer at the well-loved visitor destination.

We are committed to developing a vision for the whole village, including a successful and sustainable heritage railway offer. The industrial railway heritage is an important part of Elsecar’s history and something we want to celebrate and remember.

Consultation in February and March 2022 will give people the opportunity to share their ideas about the future of the village, as a place much loved by local communities and visitors.

The future of a heritage railway offer will be an important part of that consultation and people and partners will be asked to take part in online surveys, workshops, drop-in sessions and other activities which will be a starting point for future change.

Local residents, business owners, volunteers and visitors will be invited to share their ideas about what they would like to see in Elsecar in the future, and what they can contribute to help make that vision a reality.

More details of this process will be announced shortly."

Nice to see that someone apparently wants to get things open and moving again. Good luck to them.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-60720424

https://www.elsecar-heritage.com/ne...ich-helps-safeguard-nations-cultural-heritage

£3.93m awarded to the Elsecar Heritage Centre - no mention of the railway in the press releases though sadly.

 

The website now includes a link to the Council’s consultation on what they should do with the heritage centre, following receipt of the Arts Council funding. It includes questions about the railway, but no details of any proposals. Anyone’s welcome to respond.
https://www.elsecarheritagerailway.co.uk/

 

A remarkable digital reconstruction of the Elsecar area in 1880. Full marks to those responsible.

https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/news/st...rkshire-village-s-remarkable-industrial-past/

 

Some news hinting of a possible future:
https://www.elsecar-heritage.com/forging-ahead

"The future of the heritage railway in Elsecar

Over recent months, thanks to the extensive and positive response to consultation earlier in the year, an inspiring new vision has been coming together for the future of a heritage railway in Elsecar.

That vision to create a sustainable future for a heritage railway in the village will need significant investment, which is currently being explored. We look forward to revealing more details of that vision over the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to the Elsecar Heritage Action Zone's work, the railway station area and yard site, originally the Elsecar Ironworks, are now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This means that we need a very close understanding of archaeology and ground conditions to plan for future structures that may be required for that new vision for the heritage railway.

Over the coming weeks, sections of the modern track in the station area, laid since the 1990s, will be lifted so archaeological digs and ground investigations can take place. This will also allow small temporary structures and cabins, which belong to third parties, to be removed from the site. We are also doing seasonal maintenance work to the rest of the track route.

The Railway Trust handed its lease to the land back to the Council in 2020. This did not include any rolling stock.
A great deal of work has been carried out to establish how a successful and sustainable heritage railway offer can be re-established at Elsecar, reflecting the pride in our railway heritage and what it can mean for our region’s visitor economy. We look forward to sharing more about that work and the resulting vision soon."

 

That might be a double edged sword. While preventing inappropriate development, it may also severely limit 'beneficial' developments too.
Suddenly the word 'preservation' is going to become far more dominant in any future plans.

 

So any ideas of, say, a cafe extension or carriage shed become more much more difficult.

 

I hope not too much. Whilst the archeology needs to be looked at it is often sufficient, in many developments, for it to be 'recorded' before it is either destroyed or, if feasible, buried again. I imagine "sustainable future for a heritage railway" and "plan for future structures that may be required for that new vision for the heritage railway" means they're looking at things like a cafe/shop/exhibition space etc. which would help sustain the railway financially rather than the "small temporary structures and cabins".
I agree, from an operational sustainability point of view, carriage sheds are also highly desirable.

 

Barnsley Council’ve had a ‘vision’
https://www.elsecar-heritage.com/forging-ahead

And Sir Steve’s made a video (beware of the music). Good luck to them:

 

Im 99.5% confident this will fall flat on its face unfortunately.
My prediction;
They will submit plans to redevelop the former Ironworks/loco shed with a railway.
It will be overspent
The railway college & operational railway will be dropped.
A statue/static display will be erected instead (probably of a Finnish loco given the artists impression in the proposal).
It will end up as *another* catering venue and lacklustre museum/interpretation building.
Alternatively, a developer will get involved, brown envelopes will be exchanged and it will end up as studio apartments.
Chris

 

Oh ye of little faith

 

I live in the locality and sadly have to watch the council squander money and miss opportunities at every turn.

Our village has also fallen foul of the council letting developers have a free pass to do what they like.....

(build on former green belt, alter the permissions to remove affordable housing and build more, more expansive houses than originally on the scheme, ignore warnings about flood risk, not keep to assertions they would sort the road to make them better suited for more vehicles)

Chris

 

Where's cash strapped council going to get 25 million quid from?!

 

Given that they seem to be unable to do simple things like repair roads in Barnsley.......

Either they won't.......or anonymous envelopes........

 

Ive spken to a couple of folk, and despite the nagevityi above, I reckon this is a scheme sufficiently different and rooted in heritge that it will work in a far betterw way than an idnustrial and some Mark 1s. It has a real USP once you stop getting wound up abou a continental loco on an artissts impression

 

I'd love to think you are right.

Also, its not about getting wound up- but it shows the lack of thought/planning that is going into it if *even at this stage* they can't be bothered to include a representative image of what they are apparently trying to achieve- that gives me even less confidence.

Edit:
Further to the above, the high speed rail and technology college has *just* closed in Doncaster, a mere 35 mins away, in a better location, with infrastructure ready and in place- so why would they even consider building another similar facility?

My personal take on this is that if the railway is to be rejuvenated that yes, it needs to be different.

In my mind some sort of a combination of the facilities at Beamish and Middleton come to mind.

Converting wagons with seating is both unusual nowadays and adds to the industrial atmosphere- or converting covered vehicles like Middleton to carry passengers.

Industrial locos are 100% part of this- there are a large number of industrials that have worked in or around the Barnsley and wider South Yorkshire coalfield that have survived.....that local connection is all important.

If there were to be a display shed/area.....where better to house an out of ticket 8f (or other representative loco) than a stones throw from Royston where they worked the longer distance coal trains from the area.

The key to it all is making sure that the run to Cortonwood is restored, it had been implied previously that it was the council highways department that took issue with part of the route that prevented this.

Otherwise it's just a shunt down a short bank and back, which limits the appeal for many.

Chris

 

If this does go ahead… I hope they don’t purely focus on early/mid Victorian steam as Beamish primarily do. It absolutely has its place and would be relevant but I would like to see some industrial locos in use as well as maybe a mainline freight loco on display to give a complete picture. I’d love to see demonstration trains of coal wagons in local PO liveries.

 

Latest news - nothing's happened:
Ambitious plan for visitor-attraction railway fails to attract funding