Southwold Railway

A small additional reminder - Blythburgh Station Open Day this Sunday 13th September, between 10.30 and 15.45. Everything free, except small charge (£5.00) for the short train ride (almost certainly the shortest heritage railway in the UK!)
This day sees the first timetabled train services since 1929 - they connect with free buses from Halesworth Station and Town Centre.
The Halesworth Hoppa bus will leave Halesworth Thoroughfare Car Park (rear of White Hart) at 10.50 and 12.15, and Halesworth Station at 10.40, 11.02, 12.02 and 12.35. Return from Blythburgh Station at 14.10 and 15.25, dropping off at the Halesworth Middle Car Park by request, and at Halesworth Station at 15.25 & 16.00.
Driving to Blythburgh is also easy - free parking near the Church will be signposted. (NB - this Car Park closes at 16.30 on the dot).
Model Railways in the hall, with light refreshments, films, diplays, books. SM32 live steam railway at the station, with short (320yds or 14 1/2 chains) rides in our first passenger coach, hauled by a 70-year-old battery electric loco which is entirely solar charged. First part of our miniature railway, along the SR trackbed.

 

Got an email today from Ben Woolnough MRTPI , Head of Planning and Building Control at East Suffolk Council:
Application no.: DC/26/2129/FUL
Development proposed: To install a 3' gauge railway line along a route previously cleared for a permissive footpath but not now required.
Location: Blythburgh Station Heritage Centre, Station Road, Blythburgh, Suffolk, IP19 9LQ

I refer to your correspondence submitted in connection with the above planning application, and am writing to inform you that the scheme has been approved under powers delegated to officers by the Full Council. Having considered all comments and other relevant matters, the local planning authority is of the opinion that there were no material reasons whereby refusal of permission could be justified.

The Officer’s report and the Decision Notice can be viewed online on Public Access

Yours sincerely, Etc.

So, YAY! Congratulations to the Southwold mob. I know the permission is for a fairly small extension , in reality it seems to have been a pretty big victory.

 

Thanks very much - yes, we heard this morning - a great day for the HSR! Yay indeed! We have now broken out of the station confines....
There are pages and pages of conditions, all of which we have to dealt with before a single piece of track can go down - but we are used to that now. More difficult is a restriction on motive power to battery electric "Helen" only, with our Ruston 48DL only allowed on there in an emergency (as a Thunderbird).
The round trip will be 400m, unless, which is likely, we include the platform road as well, making the return trip around 550m, or 600 yds in old money. We will still, I believe, be the shortest UK heritage railway operating passenger trains.
However, it's a start.
(After this section we have to cross a public footpath, which is an expensive thing in itself)
Our thanks to you, and all the other Forum members, who supported us in this application.
We plan to provide a "Sponsor a Yard of Track" opportunity once we have ploughed through all those conditions - I will keep Nat Pres readers informed of progress on that.
James

 

Excellent news! Well Done to all concerned.

 

Good news... I've never heard of a railway having a type of traction stipulated as a planning condition before, though. Can they do that?
I mean, you're a small organisation, it probably isn't worth arguing about that point... but if you ever extended more significantly, it might become a problem.

 

Is the restriction to the battery-electric locomotive a noise thing or a 'fire' thing?

 

It sounds like a possibily unreasonable condition if, in the event of a serious failure of Helen, it could prevent all operations indefinitely on that part of the line.

 

It feels odd to me. (I seem to recall a similar discussion recently in the context of the L&BR?) To me it feels wrong for a planning decision to place operational constraints, essentially in perpetuity.

I think it would be appropriate for the planning committee to state what harm they wished to see removed, but then allow the railway to propose an operating method to mitigate that. For example, if the concern is noise, then state that, but leave it up to the railway which form of traction they feel best delivers that objective. They might decide that actually it is horses, but as things stand, that is precluded!

Tom

 

I tend to agree, but note that as the approval is for electric power with diesel as an emergency back-up, the effect of the policy is to mitigate the harm of excessive emissions.

 

You might still argue horse power met that objective! I guess the point is that it is proper to state the objective, but less so in my mind to provide prescriptive advice about how to meet that objective.

Tom

 

Tom - agree (and with other comments on here). However, we have already been delayed by a couple of years on this one, and, frankly, many of us might not be around (or at least reasonably healthy and compos mentis) to see and enjoy it if that were to go on for more years, which it well might if we complained. (Must say it is nice to see vigorous discussion here on what many local people call "silly old men playing trains")

So - for now we put up with what we have - any permission actually gained for anything railway-related around here is a massive bonus: East Suffolk, by and large, does not support the idea of heritage railways the way Norfolk does, so we are grateful.

It'll take 2 or 3 months to work through, and pay for, the consequences of the very onerous conditions - and we are not allowed to lay even one track panel - or to trim one branch, or even initiate groundworks - until all that is done and signed off.
However, we can prep sleepers, rail and fishplates so things are ready. That has already started.
Inevitably we will be asking for money! Watch this space James

 

Hmmm.

At least what we do is harmless. Perhaps they'd be happier if folk turned up wearing balaclavas and marched through Southwold chanting "Stop The Boats" instead? I also wonder how many of these objectors are truly local or just escapees from Notting Hill. I'm sure there's a lot of snobbery involved.

 

I'm sure a lot of the objections are just prejudice. People hear the word 'railway' and they immediately assume noise, smoke etc. Hopefully, taking baby steps will gradually break down the resistance. People will see the extended railway, realise that it isn't so bad after all, and then they might be more open to you going a little further.

A friend of mine once argued that the turning point will come once local families realise that the railway is a great way to keep the kids occupied during school holidays. Certainly, the more you can embed the railway into the local community, the more the 'old men playing trains' stereotype will diminish. It might well be worth taking a look at the Men's Sheds movements and arguing for the mental health benefits of volunteering, the preservation of traditional skills, etc. Those positive impacts counter any damage from emissions etc. (which, on a global scale, will be negligible anyway).

Well don and best of luck!