If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

Moorlands and City Railway

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Guest, Oct 14, 2009.

  1. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

    Joined:
    Sep 11, 2005
    Messages:
    35,446
    Likes Received:
    9,144
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired-ish, Part time rail tour steward.
    Location:
    Northwich
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I refer my learned friend to my reply to the answer he gave earlier. :tongue:

    OK lets stop now or this could go on for ever....
     
  2. oldmrheath

    oldmrheath Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2006
    Messages:
    2,265
    Likes Received:
    2,452
    I read in a recent newspaper article that Moorlands & City have taken a 15-year lease on the Cheadle branch which will give time to investigate feasibility of restoring services.

    In the March edition of Modern Railways a feature on freight says "a grant was awarded for coal traffic from Ayrshire to Lafarge at Cauldon well over a year before the line was likely to be available." There is no futher explanation but sounds positive.
     
  3. Kenneth

    Kenneth New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 17, 2010
    Messages:
    35
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Clerk of Works
    Location:
    Stoke-On-Trent
    Talk about carrying coals to Newcastle! Was the seam at Shaffalong (Cheddleton) completely worked out? I understand there's still extractable coal at (dare I say it) Foxfield.
     
  4. p/wayman

    p/wayman Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2005
    Messages:
    573
    Likes Received:
    168
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    voulunteer on pway
    Location:
    newcastle-u-lyme
    Hey Ho, Hay Ho, its off to Endon we go, with a shovel and a pick and a measuring stick, we go, we go, we go, we go.
    Started changing sleepers today in glorious sunshine. We are doing the sleeper changing where there groups of 3 or 4 that require replacing together. Doing 1 manually to keep the gauge for when the sleeper changer comes down, warm work but very rewarding. 2 photos of the gang plus 1 of the progress of the S160 and 1 of George Stephenson getting ready for boiler removal.
     

    Attached Files:

  5. SteveTheBoater

    SteveTheBoater New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2011
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    8
    Occupation:
    IT consultant / canals volunteer
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    The Churnet Valley Living Landscape Partnership has today been granted £1.8m by HLF to undertake a wide range of projects in the area. Of particular interest to people on here the platform and signal box at Leekbrook are to be restored along with the crossing gates and water tower at Cheddleton. Press release here. Railway heritage project description here.

    Those of us interested in canals are pretty excited as well as there are restoration and improvement projects on both the Caldon & Uttoxeter canals in the area :)
     
  6. M59137

    M59137 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2009
    Messages:
    1,330
    Likes Received:
    2,113
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Carriage & Wagon
    Location:
    Sheringham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    This is great news for the CVR. I think many of those who have been visiting the CVR for many years will agree with me that this scheme goes some of the way to "finishing off" the very first two stations that the CVR ran a service to/from back in 1996.

    Many of us have spent a long time gazing at the derelict platform/box whilst our engine runs round the train and wondered when we'd ever get round to putting it back in as it was!

    Equally I've heard a fair few people comment that Cheddleton is an excellent station, but would be even better with wooden level crossing gates :)
     
  7. 2165Heath

    2165Heath New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2011
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    [Re: The old Cheadle branch, contractors have spent the last few weeks recovering all the remaining track on behalf of Moorland & City. I am told that it has to be completed within a 7 week contract.
     
  8. oldmrheath

    oldmrheath Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2006
    Messages:
    2,265
    Likes Received:
    2,452
    Some points from the Calton meeting the other night- this is second-hand info so apologies if any I have misunderstood anything relayed:

    1/ Cauldon branch needs some rail replacement before it is suitable for heavy freight
    2/ Extension to Endon will be followed by Milton then Stoke
    3/ re-the contract for coal to Cauldon from Ayrshire. The cement works uses approx 1,000 tons of imported coal a week. The plan pre-Moorlands & City was to take the coal to
    Stoke by rail and then onwards by road, but there was no suitable area at Stoke for a
    wharf . With the M&C project rail throughout becomes a plausible option for that flow.
    4/ Birmingham area is possible destination for outbound bulk freight.
    5/ Single 66 unlikely to be powerful enough for some Cauldon branch workings due to the
    gradients
    6/ Alton Towers services likely to be 2 trains each morning with return workings in the
    evening.
     
  9. 37026

    37026 New Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2011
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    2

    Seen it today the section outside Cheadle to Huntley has had all track removed, anyone know what the plans for the branch line are?
     
  10. Barrykap

    Barrykap New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2008
    Messages:
    105
    Likes Received:
    1
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Biddulph
    Popped over to Endon today to see how things are shaping up.

    Not a big deal of change really. Just new fencing and gates added, plus a little more clearing of the platform area. But still looks like quite a lot of work to do yet before we can see anything running into the old station.

    Some shots of the station area;-

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Plus one of 45379 on a test run approaching Endon from Leekbrook. :)

    [​IMG]
     
  11. p/wayman

    p/wayman Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2005
    Messages:
    573
    Likes Received:
    168
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    voulunteer on pway
    Location:
    newcastle-u-lyme
    Another great sunny day at Leekbrook, needed plenty of drinks today, no shelter where we were working. We got to the section by the old loop and the concrete sleeper started, thank goodness. So about 1/2 mile done, with 60 sleepers hand changed, about 50 dug out by the mini digger where the sleepers had crumbled so bad that neither we or the sleeper changer could pull them out in 1,2 or 3 pieces. I estimated that at least that many again will be done by the sleeper changer, so somewhere in the region of 220-250 sleepers in that section alone. Thankful of a nice warm bath and a nice cold pint.
     

    Attached Files:

  12. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

    Joined:
    Sep 11, 2005
    Messages:
    35,446
    Likes Received:
    9,144
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired-ish, Part time rail tour steward.
    Location:
    Northwich
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Thanks for the pics Barry, it's coming on steadly.
     
  13. Merlin

    Merlin New Member

    Joined:
    May 1, 2008
    Messages:
    83
    Likes Received:
    4
    Is there likley to be any steam running soon or over Easter?
     
  14. NeilL

    NeilL Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2012
    Messages:
    1,916
    Likes Received:
    1,402
    Occupation:
    Retired & OAPWay & tree feller
    Location:
    Staffordshire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Where is the track going to?
     
  15. Jark91

    Jark91 Member

    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2009
    Messages:
    244
    Likes Received:
    1
    See the discussion in the CVR 2012 thread in Events.
     
  16. p/wayman

    p/wayman Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2005
    Messages:
    573
    Likes Received:
    168
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    voulunteer on pway
    Location:
    newcastle-u-lyme
    Neil, the line under restoration at the present time is the Stoke to Leekbrook and we are working on the section from Leekbrook to Endon now. At Leekbrook it can go 3 ways to Oakamoor, Cauldon and eventually Leek although this is just a siding as it stands at the moment.
     
  17. Barrykap

    Barrykap New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2008
    Messages:
    105
    Likes Received:
    1
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Biddulph
    Neil,

    The Leekbrook-to-Stoke line can be seen here if you have Google Earth installed.

    The photos (click on the location icons) shows the places along the line before any serious restoration commenced.

    http://barryknapper.com/CVRF/Stokeextension.kml
     
  18. NeilL

    NeilL Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2012
    Messages:
    1,916
    Likes Received:
    1,402
    Occupation:
    Retired & OAPWay & tree feller
    Location:
    Staffordshire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Sorry - what I meant was - the track that is being lifted - where is that going. If the line to Cheadle was going to be reinstated I was puzzled why the track might be being lifted unless it was being used elsewhere.
    Whether the Stoke line had been abandoned seems to have been an issue but with the track still in situe clearly it hadn't but lifting the Cheadle track ????
     
  19. FJR8642

    FJR8642 Member

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2010
    Messages:
    445
    Likes Received:
    396
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Stoke On Trent
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    There seems to be a lack of advertisement about Churnet Valley's current locomotive status & what's operating.

    Loco's most likely to appear this Bank Holiday weekend (May change) -


    Friday 6th April:
    - Cauldon Lowe service - Class 33021.
    - CVR Local service - BRCW Class 104 Dmu.


    7th & 8th April:
    CVR Local service - Either Class 33021 or Class 104 Dmu.


    9th April:
    2 Train CVR Timetable - Class 104 Dmu & Class 33021.


    The current situation with Steam locomotives is that the S160 6046 has over run its overhaul, BUT it's hopped that it'll be out for the 'Railway at War Weekend'.


    Other loco news:
    - Black 5 44767 has had it's boiler removed and sent away for repair by the owning group.
    - 33102 is progressing nicely, should be all complete by the September diesel gala.
    - 47524's overhaul is steadily progressing.
    - S160 5197 should be next on the Steam overhaul list.
    - Brightside is progressing steadily.
    - 37407 & 37424 are stored at Cheddleton MPD along with Class 25 Tamworth Castle.
    - Privately owned ex Barry 8F is stored awaiting restoration.
    - Class 04 & Janus are operational shunters.
    - Loaned Class 33021 is operational.
    - Class 104 DMU with 110 car is operational.
    - GWR 5199 has now gone back to Llangollen Railway.
    - Other 104 Power Car's are stored on CVR site.
     
  20. Sheff

    Sheff Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2006
    Messages:
    7,569
    Likes Received:
    2,346
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired Engineer & Heritage Volunteer
    Location:
    N Warks
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Frank, to my knowledge that's 3 places you've posted this. So I'm guessing it's in many more too. Trust there's no hidden agenda here?
     

Share This Page