Heritage Railways expanding or extending

I know that there are many problems and difficulties which are associated with various heritage railways at times. However, I then thought of the lines which are extending or expanding with new facilities - the "Good News" aspect.
Of the top of my head I thought of....
Rother Valley
Lynton and Barnstaple
Corris
Churnet Valley
Great Central Railway
Cambrian Railway
Southwold
Northampton and Lamport
Bala
Gloucester and Warwickshire Steam Railway
I'm sure there are more to be added, it really shows that there is a lot of very positive news which is sometimes being overlooked.

 

Helston? (Not sure if they are actively working on reaching Helston itself or this is just a future ambition).

 

I think it is rather debatable about which heritage railways are extending, e.g. actively extending at present, planning to extend or long term plans. The G&WR for example are not extending at the moment, now that they have reached Broadway, but they have very long-term plans to get to Honeybourne.

 

Good point batamd, but I put the GWSR in as I believe they are expanding their facilities with station buildings etc.

 

Aln Valley have aspirations to reach Alnmouth from Alnwick
Grantown still to be reached

 

The Swindon & Cricklade has been making steady progress with its northern extension towards Cricklade, but the next step involves re-installation of a bridge.

The Avon Valley has a long-term aspiration to extend from its current Avon Riverside terminus towards Bath, but the pandemic may have put that back a few years.

 

Gwili expect to start the new Car Park, access and Carriage Shed at Abergwili Jtn later this year.

 

Strathspey?


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NYMR expanding facilities at Newbridge.

 

Leighton Buzzard extension opens in a couple of weeks.

 

IMHO the state of the the bank balances is infinitely more important.

 

Have you told the senior management team, Bryan?

 

Embsay & Bolton Abbey steam railway worth a shout there, Plans to rejoin the Embsay jct back up so a D.M.U. service could be run into Skipton mainline Station or plans to extend from Bolton Abbey to a new station site at Addingham.

 

Much as I agree with you Paul, I think your point possibly belongs on another thread.

 

Without wanting to sound like a smartarse, aren’t all of our heritage railways very much like a 00 gauge layout, in there’s always some sort of extension or expansion that needs to be done?

If there’s a day we have a heritage railway that comes out and says ‘yup, we’ve reached all our objectives and ticked all our boxes on what we’ve wanted to achieve’ then I think we may as well pack up and go home.
There’s always something to be done.

But I certainly think we’ll see a lot of expansion in other facilities, encouraging secondary and tertiary spend, for example I saw recently on social media that the Ecclesbourne Valley have opened a pub, whilst not necessarily an instant cash cow, if it’s done right it could in the long run prove to be a nice little earner for a facility that might be open not necessarily when the railways open.

 

Absolutely, if you're not moving forwards you're going backwards, and there's absolutely loads of potential stuff that could be moving forwards that doesn't involve making the journey any longer, be it enhanced station facilities, enhanced operations, restoring more rolling stock, new sheds etc.

 

Does that mean a coal heated fryer? If so, after queuing for the excellent fish & chips at Beamish, I can see why - simple lack of capacity for serving crowds.


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