Moorlands and City Railway

Hope the weather aint to bad for you two tommoz! I'll see you in a week
Just to add to whats been posted about the future, I do believe that the plan is to relay the line down towards Waterhouses because that is where Lafarge's plant is? I've not managed to find out if this is really what is to happen or just wishfull thinking sofar. I'll update when I know for sure.
Jim

 

Ok, as I mentioned in post #255 above I have now moved those posts specific to the gala into this thread:-

http://railways.national-preservati...ys-Cauldon-Lowe-Branch-re-opening-Gala/page16

Neil.

 

Thanks Neil, its far more tidy now

 

Well after all the excitement of the weekend, it was time to see how the track had stood up to the hammering it took. Today the weather on the moors was more like normal, with wind and driving rain, even so 7 of the gang turned up. We split into 3 teams to cover the line walk and a couple of specific jobs that the drivers thought we ought to look at on the track. As you can imagine we all met back in the messroom in the late afternoon and surprisingly enough there was not a lot to report, some keys out and a few loose fishplate bolts nothing that was not expected. The mpd must have taken it very gently over the weekend. It looked as though we had got soaked for nothing. Oh the joys of the p-way.

 

I've ordered nice weather for next wednesday when I'm there Jeff

 

Pity you couldn't have ordered it for this Wednesday; those of us on the photo charter suffered problems including condensation inside the filters on our camera lenses - and that was outside !

 

Had my first journey over the new branch today and was impressed by the track providing such a smooth ride - congrats to the PW dept. Is the line speed limit over the branch the same as that which applies to the CVR?

A good day out.

 

Its 25 mph to Cauldon and I think, although don't quote me, 25 mph return, until Apesford crossing where its 15 mph down the bank to Leekbrook Jcn.

 

15 mph opps. Think i have exceed that on the p way trolley

 

With the steam trains running on Wednesday, most of the mid week gang will be doing the line check on the Cauldon line on Tuesday. They will split into 3 groups to ensure it is all covered. Several of us will be down on Wednesday around Consall doing some work that was identified by the Sunday gang on their line walk on the CVR. If you see us give us a wave, we could be traveling down on the 1st train from Cheddleton.

 

Does that mean we'er having us dinner in the Red Lion?:rockon::thumbI cannot believe theres no beer drinking smiley!)

 

Oh yes there is

 

Ha ha sounds good to me. Had lovely lunch in there on Friday. Good times.

 

UK Railtours have organised a tour to Stoke-on-Trent on April 2 2011 which has an optional coach trip to the Churnet Valley Railway. Once at CVR, there is opportunity to take a trip to Oakamoor by DMU and a steam/diesel top & tailed trip to Caldon Low.

http://www.ukrailtours.com/tourshow...ins&tourfile=110402_THE_MOORLAND_AND_CITY.txt

 

well i'll drop bow legged! :rofl:

 

I read that there are 3 or 4 different spellings of the name of your moorland terminus, and that the railway has now settled on the longest, Cauldon Lowe. Is your spelling what the locals use? What's on the (probably few) local road signs to the quarry?

 

I don't know about the locals, but Moorland & City Railways chose to adopt "the spelling 'Cauldon Lowe' as currently used by the Staffordshire County Council in 2010" (David Kemp, Nov 2010). I've seen both spellings on road signs in the area as Caldon and Cauldon appear to be two places, on an OS map at least!

 

Anyone know the rosters for Wed 24th Nov? Thanks

 

Should be on the MCR website within an hour. Slight change to our plans as 8624 has failed and the Duke is going sooner than planned. We are running 34028 & 44767 on 2 rakes top & tailed with 2 diesels i.e. 34028 & 33 then 44767 & 37. Steam will be leading from Froghall up the hill.

Not ideal but better than cancelling services. 5199 is being gauged on the Cauldon branch later today, and when it has sufficient miles on the CVR from its recent repairs it will (subject to fitting) be running on the branch.

Gregory Wilson.

 

Hi Gregory
Thanks for Info - much appreciated.
Peter