Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

I can't remember which station -I was GW, and the place in question was LMR- but in 2002ish there was a proposal to build a station on the site of one closed in the 50's. North Wales or Cheshire is my best recollection, and what had been a village had become considerably developed. Replacing the station on this original site was the only practical solution as much of the new housing was close to the railway, which ran in a steep cutting and there was not anywhere else with road access.
The line was on a gradient, 1 in 70ish, but there was a flatter bit where the station had formerly been that was more like 1 in 120. There are numerous existing stations where the platform road is rather steeper than this, but the ORR were unwilling to permit it for a new build station. I think 1 in 200 was the maximum permissible. It did not appear practical to flatten the line through this new station as it would have meant moving the height difference somewhere else and making the line even steeper. I never knew how or if this was ever resolved.
At the time I was having issues with HSE over a station in a picturesque village on the GW, also in Wales, where the office door was not 1982mm tall, it was about 6'1". HSE wanted us to change the door height. The building was listed and the local authority were quite against altering it. It was getting to the stage the options were a. turn it into an unmanned station, b. close the existing ticket office and put a container type office in the car park, c. build a new station somewhere else.
The regular staff were all about 5'8" tall, and no-one had ever recorded any incident with this door, but the HSE do not respect grandfathers rights. My solution, which the HSE approved, the TOC accepted, and the local council were happy with, was to supply hard hats for staff to use when entering/exiting the office. Whether they were ever used is another matter ....

 

It seems that Clown World is nothing new

 

London Underground nearly fell foul of the legislation about platforms on gradients when they built Canada Water on the East London Line (as it then was). This was a brand new station cut into an existing tunnel at the point where the new Jubilee Line went underneath it, so there weren't really any other places it could go and the gradient was what it was. But I seem to recall the station was very nearly not allowed to open because of the gradient, after it was already basically finished.

As a 6'-ish-tall person I am well used to banging my head on doorways, including one in my own house which gets me about once a fortnight, but I've never yet considered suing myself. I like the hard hat idea though. I shall see if my wife will let me hang one on a hook by the offending doorway.

 

The toilet at Worcester Shrub Hill Signal Box was a 'Hard Hat' area when I visited in about 1990 as its accessed via the frame room

 

When you wear the hard hat you will probably bang your head on several other door frames that are 3" taller than the one that you currently hit your head on.

Sent from my SM-A105FN using Tapatalk

 

On the L & B website, is the welcome news that they are looking at a Woody Bay re-opening date in Spring.

 

As well as more preliminary work on the extension.
Boring news from North Devon March 2021 | The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (lynton-rail.co.uk)

 

I'm totally against the concept of CP especially if the requirement isn't for nationally critical project, a heritage railway isn't critical nor should it ever be if the landowner doesn't want to sell their land they've legally brought then so be it. You either wait until their passing and hope the estate are minded to sell or you accept the land will never be yours and move on.

Talk of CP will always push people from broadly supportive to totally against / over my dead body style of objections.

 

I wonder why that has not worked for all those people who have objected to the passage of HS2 over their land ? Hardly a 'nationally critical' project is it now, given that its origins lie in a dream from the EU - to which we no longer belong - and the advent of Zoom and WFH has shown how well in fact business can cope without the need for thousands of people to rush madly about the countryside every day.

 

I wont drag this thread into HS2 talk, but I will say (Okay, I will then) when HS2 is built the amount of freed up capacity on the southern most congested end of the WCML will allow for millions of tons of freight to be taken from HGV onto rail. Forget speed or time, HS2 is really about building capacity without a decade of T3s and weekend blocks on the WCML.

If the UK is ever to meet its Co2 targets then freight needs to move to rail in huge volumes, without capacity it cant happen so HS2 is nationally critical.

 

We have been asked not to discuss CP on the L&B thread as it could jeopardise future or on-going negotiations. Could I respectfully ask you to refrain from bringing the subject up on this thread. Thanks

 

Agreed. This does seem to be turning into a stuck record. The TWAO hearing will answer everyone's questions in a full and frank manner.
In the meantime, speculation on here can only have 2 possible outcomes, those being either nothing, or ultimately negative. Leave this to the experts.

 

Well said - totally agree. We have to be patient and wait and see.

 

I replied to the comment prior to any advice / request being issued as I was catching up on posts from at least 6 pages back from the most recent.
I respect the request, however I like everyone else without any connection to the L&B are fully entitled to talk about whatever we like without censorship (for now at least!) obviously what is discussed needs to be within the law.

It would appear someone, at some point raised the prospect of CP in relation to L&B reinstatement which has gone down like a lead balloon in the local area, and rightly so. Locals have a right to live in peace and quiet, the railway left us back in the 1930s? almost 100 years ago now, any 'right' the railway had to exist has long since disappeared. I'm all for the railway being reinstated, but it needs to co exist within the community not fight against it which seems to be the same with even the weakest suggestion of CP.

 

Brought up again :-(

 

Its rude to ignore people.

 

I am confused here. By CP, are we referring to the Canadian Pacific? The tenuous connection being that Jack Howey was wont to travel on the CPR when travelling to visit his somewhat lucrative holdings in Australia. He had a footplate pass, and despite holding a first class ticket on the train, would spend much of the journey on the locomotive. He bought CPR type whistles for two of his 'US Style' locomotives, and the Pilton Works turntable ended up at New Romney.
If we refer to the Central Pacific, I am lost. It ceased trading in 1885, ten years before the L&B bill was passed, and I cannot think of any connection at all, other than a Baldwin spent several years masquerading as CPRR no 60, Jupiter at Promontory

 

Why would he travel on the CPR to visit his holdings in Australia? Most people in those days travelled there by P&O.

Peter

 

Because he got to drive a train across Canada, quite frankly I would probably go that way if it was on offer!

 

In this case Ross, CP. Stands for Compulsory Purchase which has been mentioned more than once through out thread......