The Dinting Railway Centre

Hi all, I have just been watching a couple of those urban explorer videos on YouTube, both at the old
The Dinting Railway Centre as the subject.

One of them was better in that he had also added some footage from when the centre was open.

Also, having done some reading up, I got the impression that the lease was not or could not be renewed at the time and there may have been a falling out between some of the Trustees/Directors.

After the locos had moved out, there was a plan submitted to build houses on the site, but that was refused. I have also read that there have been other planning submissions, and again they too have been refused.

In the other video, the host was saying that someone or something has been in there recently and has started to clean the site up; he was referring to the path from the old shed up to where the old miniature railway used to be.

Now I have never been to this site, but the history has become very interesting, and from what I know, if it were open today it might have become a major mainline steam servicing depot.

Also, I didn't realise that it also had GCR connections as well.

So since I don't know, has anyone been following what has recently happened to Dinting, and is it the same owner from back then who owns the site now? And does anyone happen to know if there are any new plans to clean up more of the site?

 

I can't speak much for the history of this one as I'd no doubt be reading the same resources as you, but the Bahamas Locomotive Society have a couple of interesting videos on there site showing those days in all their glory.

The Dinting Railway Centre - The Bahamas Locomotive Society

 

I guess there's a sliding doors idle thought to be had about what would have happened if David Smith had bought DRC in 1990 rather than Steamtown only a few years later.
Not that it was on the cards but there were similarities of circumstances which meant both of the big steam centres of the 70s and 80s ended up shut down, which nobody 50 years ago could have conceived I'm sure.

 

The GWS might want a word, and you seem to have forgotten Tyesely…

Going back to the OP, I think what also needs bearing in mind is that Dinting was a small single road shed, with limited capacity. After Woodhead closed, it was also left with limited access to the wider network, and that through what is now one of the more congested bottlenecks.

In an alternate universe, where the centre had survived, I suspect it would have struggled to sustain itself. Didcot is no longer the force it was, while the engineering operations at both Carnforth and Tyseley rely on the sites being large and able to cope with a wide range of work.

 

Visited back in the 70's on a railtour.

 

I'm not intentionally minimising the standing of the 2 GW sites but for this northern child of the 70s Steamtown and Dinting reigned supreme. It was inconceivable they'd close to the public.
I'd agree with your analysis of Dinting's limitations vs Carnforth or Tyseley but I suppose the idle curiosity of the sliding door perhaps allows for some consideration of how the issues might have been turned to advantage. Regardless, a depot on the outskirts of Manchester with good connections in all directions would be more than handy.

 

Certainly Carnforth is a better base than Dinting for the type of business that WC has become. Having said that, as is true for anyone who has had the luxury of more space than strictly needed, it does sometimes lead to 'hoarding' ......
My original idle musing was simply based around the fact that, at the time Dinting closed, it wasn't forseeable Steamtown would come on the market so if Mr Smith had designs on a depot of his own at that time, Dinting might have been an option.

 

Steam zoos had their day whilst main line steam was banned, and heritage lines in their infancy. They were oases for enthusiasts to get a fix. Once main line steam returned, the draw of a 1/4 mile shuffle behind a pacific waned - locos left centres in search of lucrative work - I remember as a child going to Steamtown 40 years ago, and there was NOTHING big there apart from the French and German pacifics. We never went again.

 

Hey! Size isn't everything!
I'd rather watch a smaller loco working hard* than a big locomotive with 2 coaches.

* Not being thrashed, just a decent sized load.

 

Indeed - I give you Market Overton.

I have cause to visit an industrial estate there a few times a year and wonder what the railway that once ran alongside the road to it looked like in its industrial heyday.

 

Actually makes me wonder what the most improbable steam centre was in the early days. I don't mean things like Ashford Steam shed, which was at least a shed. There must have been some schemes where someone decided to start a centre or museum where no railway had been before. Any ideas?

 

@Fireline - Bressingham

 

Dowty Railway preservation society in Ashchurch Sidings? Yes there was already some railway there but no loco shed as far as I know.

 

Steamport could have been a decent centre, but the place does not qualify as it was not new to rail having been a shed.
The state of the roof was a major problem.
A Scarborough Spa type service to Wigan and Manchester or maybe to Preston and Blackpool could have developed.

 

North Downs before they moved to Tunbridge Wells has to rank up there?

 

Mangapps

 

And the most amazing "started in a field in the middle of nowhere" site is, of course, Statfold.

 

One that was improbable, but did have railway connections was the Brighton Railway Museum project. It had the shed, stored rolling stock (especially NRM stored locos) but no suitable public access to the site.

I was quite surprised how long some of the stock stayed in there until the shed was demolished.