Stainmore Railway Company (Kirkby Stephen East)

Anyone would think Highways England don't know that concrete production is bad for the environment, never mind using it in this way.

Dave

 

Anything to do with Highways is bad for the environment, proverbial ducks-back

 

There is now a petition on line.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/588581

 

I've signed up but having read the earlier posts, I wonder if the infill is perhaps air entrained concrete which will give sufficient support yet is comparatively easy to remove. It certainly seems to have slumped a lot. What is that digger doing on the slope? The newspaper article does quote HE as stating that the bridge arch is now supported but the fill can be removed at any time in the future, at no cost to the parties concerned, should the linking up of the 2 railways be organized and other obstacles overcome.(Note, this is my interpretation of the written words). Yes the bridge has been infilled but it is not a nail in the coffin for the railways, if people keep to their word that is, and if the quote was correct.

 

Two very big “ifs” there given the rebuttal to the minister’s words in the Lords.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

There was a story about this (and other bridges) in the Guardian yesterday

https://www.theguardian.com/culture...may-have-to-reverse-act-of-cultural-vandalism

 

Highways England have lost their request for retrospective planning permission, so having spent £124k filling the bridge in, are now faced with spending £431k to dig it all back out again …

https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/national-highway-loses-battle-of-musgrave-bridge

Tom

 

Keep up at the back.... https://www.national-preservation.c...-stopped-dft-told.1419076/page-2#post-2746419

As noted in that thread, I am not sure how they are going to unfill it without causing irreversible damage to the bridge itself, making the whole process rather pointless (part from being a massive deterrent and stopping them doing it again!), any concrete which has adhered to the stonework of the bridge will be considerably harder and stronger than the stone of the bridge itself so if they try and move it the stone will fracture way before the concrete does wrecking the stone, much as applying concrete render does to historic buildings and cement based pointing to stone buildings.

 

Ah, I’d missed that thread (I’m not generally a regular habitué of General Railway Chat).

Tom

 

Perhaps a statutory order to rebore/repair /replace the bridge as of when required at prices ruling should be sufficient. Given the lack of trust in any government quango to carry out its future promises /obligations , and imagining that if a future operation wants to reinstate a line between x and y and two or three infilled structures need to be instated the bill to the government would prevent such a thing being approved, perhaps not.

 

I suspect they will have to cut away the air entrained concrete as much as possible and then cut away any residual concrete to leave a minimum depth adhering to the stonework, hence the greater cost involved.May leave the bridge in a slightly improved structural state than it was by virtue of a concrete layer under the arch.

 

The lack of posting on this thread is in antithesis to the activity going on at Kirkby Stephen east, so to put that right: With a recent grant the rebuilding of the original 1861 box has started, the new blog for it is regularly updated - https://ksesignalling.blogspot.com/

 

I’ve not checked in on KSE in a while, they’re charging ahead with the box rebuild, it’s all proper ashlar stone on the string courses and is now up to wood frame level. Once this box is done, they have said the later box is next along with the wickham sheds and then comes the signal gantry with a mix of authentic recast/original NER equipment, I’m not sure of any heritage railway that has a signal gantry like this, it will be quite a sight, particularly from the restored footbridge.


what they’ve done up to now:https://ksesignalling.blogspot.com/2024/03/completing-second-string-course.html

what is to come:

 

Does anyone know how the Kirkby Stephen East project is funded? They've been beavering away for ages on a very authentic recreation, but I can't imagine costs are covered by revenue from short train rides on occasional days. Are they good at writing grant applications or is there a wealthy benefactor?

 

This partly answers your question:
https://cumbria24.com/stanmore-railway-celebrates-213000-heritage-grant-for-bicentenary-project

This grant covers much more than restoration and conservation work. Stainmore Railway are very keen to use their railway to provide local community services, and this grant has allowed them to develop activities for local people with dementia and autism. As part of this, they've been working with my social enterprise All Aboard Club CIC (www.allaboardclub.com) to run inclusive play sessions for local autistic children and their families based around giant Tomy train sets, which help to develop the children's social and communication skills. We've previously worked with the Bluebell Railway and are in discussions with other heritage railways (standard and narrow gauge) about providing similar activities.

 

Stainmore confirmed on FB earlier this week that No. 910 has now left the line and returned to Locomotion in Shildon. It appears its place has been taken by the newly restored NER storage van.

 

That NER style signal bridge will be superb - and yes, I rather fancy that it will be unique. The team at KSE are doing a fabulous job of their recreation of the station area.

Mark

 

Update: the roof is now boarded in, the box is now weathertight (save for the windows) for the first time in many decades. https://ksesignalling.blogspot.com/2024/09/raising-roof.html?m=1, a new public path is being built that gives a closer vantage point of the site and easier access to the footbridge, hopefully it doesn’t lead to unwanted intrusions in the future.