What's your dream obscure railway restoration project?

We would need a much bigger loco and carriage fleet to cope with running the entire system. LOL

Lots of new build 02s and lots more coaches!

 

New build 02's? Now thats one new build idea that no one can disagree with, imagine seeing a couple running up ryde pier once more at the head of new built brighton or SE bogies maybe someone could produce flat pack coaches that you just assemble onto an underframe

 

The Dornoch branch in Scotland has struck me as one of the most beautiful lost branchlines.I have book on Scottish Railwayphotographs by W J V Anderson and he had the fortune to photograph the line in October 1956 and took a colour photo of the Highland 0-4-4 pulling a carmine and cream LMS composite in stunning scenery.Where else in Scotland could you operate a GWR pannier authentically!
Charles Boylan

 

Fill the Gap between GCR and GCR(N)!!!!!!!!!!!:becky:
regards
Noel

 

I sympathize (that's top of my general wish list too), but I don't think it qualifies as "obscure"!

The Other Noel

 

my"wish" is heavily ironic and provocative! enough of the optmistic commentaries about this project is ridiculously interminable:flock:
regards
noel

 

May well be done later in the year...

A while ago I did seriously look at the ex MOD wagons being sold with a view to rebuilding them as additional passenger stock.

Duncan

 

Barnstaple to Ilfracombe (including re-instating the bridge over the river and the swing bridge in Barnstaple). 1 in 36 for two miles straight off the platform at Ilfracombe; 1 in 40 for 3 miles the other way; any reasonable size train requiring a Bulleid at the front and a Maunsell N at the back to provide oomph - plus a ready to go exchange station for when the L&B get all the way to Barnstaple.

Now, what's the Euromillions jackpot tonight?

Tom

 

If i go down the replica route a replica Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway train. Flora plus carriages.

Regards

Duncan

 

Everyone seems to be going for heritage reproduction lines, but I would suggest one for the national system that would be beneficial to the network and that is to reinstate March to Spalding. It would fit in with the upgrading of the remaining parts of the joint line, save a considerable distance from the Haven Ports to the north and avoid the potentially hugely expensive insertion of a flyover at Werrington Junction. Some new alignment is needed on the entry to Spalding but there is little else in the way.

As an add-on, how about the Lincoln avoiding line? If the improved joint line is as successful as is hoped the Lincoln level crossings will become a serious inconvenience for the locals.

 

Three pipe dream options, all of them scenically excellent, in decreasing order of financial viability but increasing order of operating challenges:-


Scarborough to Whitby. Between two major resorts, a link to the NYMR and with terrific coastal scenery.

The Woodhead route. If money is infinite, reopened to allow steam working right through (think about it).

The Rosedale Railway line up the Ingleby Incline and across the North York Moors.

 

A section of the Dumfries - Stranraer 'Port Road' in South West Scotland, an underated and beautifully scenic line, plus I had ancestors who built part of it..........

Kirkby Stephen East - Stainmore Summit - that climb up the side of the Eden Valley would be a classic.......

Haverthwaite - Plumpton Junction/Cark and Cartmel - re-link the L&HR to the mainline and open it up to incoming charters..........

Foxfield - Coniston.

Alston - Haltwhistle - extend the STR all the way down the Alston branch trackbed. Would create a spectacular narrow gauge journey..........

Buckfastleigh - Ashburton - think of that classic GWR branch terminus with a 14XX + Autocoach simmering under the overall roof on a summer's evening......

Glen Ogle line - the best part of the Callander and Oban line........

The full length of the Gwinear Road - Helston branch.

Lynton to Barnstaple - throughout......

Blaenau Ffestiniog - Lyn Celyn - I agree with the earlier post on here, that high ledge with the viaduct and bridges would be tremendous........

Yelvertown - Princetown.

 

My dream obscure railway project would be for the Settle-Carlisle line and the Waverley route to be bought, taken over and reopened by some form of hilariously wealthy trust fund, and operated as closely as possible to the old railway. Carnforth would also be taken over and become the main steam shed and a large extra works would be built. Services from the West Riding to Edinburgh and back, most of it on a railway that would look right.

Ambience paradise!

 

Old Dalby test track as an 'electric' museum!

 

I would like to re-double the Southern's West of England Mainline from Salisbury to Exeter, and reinstate many of the wayside stations en-route. I'd restore them to 1950s-1960s condition. Then I would enjoy them from a new-build rake of Bulleid-outline carriages with steel frames. May even add a Tavern Car into the mix!

 

Millers Dale back in steam, I would settle for connection to bakewell.

 

First the Crescent Link on the NVR to take it into Peterborough NR station (only a bridge over the Nene and a new station to build.....), and then rebuild the northern link from Yarwell Junction over the Nene (again!) and through to it's junction at Market Harborough via Seaton junction and under the Harringworth Viaduct. From a mjor city to a good sized market town linked to the two NR stations. ( a nice diversionary route between ECML and the Midland too)
A nice 30 mile run and a lovely incline up to Kings Cliffe from Yarwell.
Totally impractical, but what the hell!

 

That's not so far fetched (apart perhaps for the Bulleid carriages!). SWR/NR have already installed a 3 mile 'dynamic loop' at Axminster to allow for more frequent services, and I can see, perhaps one day when we are not in 'austerity measures' (and when there are fairies at the bottom of the garden) that the whole line will indeed be re-doubled.

 

I have a rather modest one, though involving a lot of infrastructure reinstatement - to extend the Isle of Wight Steam Railway all the way back to Cowes, by skirting the edge of Newport (and putting in a new station) and making a new crossing of the River Medina to link the two original alignments. I always loved the Island's railways with their quaint Victorian locomotives and ancient rolling stock, and was immensely sad when the Cowes and Ventnor routes were destroyed at the end of the 'sixties. And that reminds me, also the reinstatement of the line to Wroxall and Ventnor, under St Boniface Down. One can but dream......!

 

See a preserved railway have a "main line" terminus.. that is several platforms and an overall roof architecture, fully semaphored.
Which railway has the most platforms on a station ? (I know ELR has 3.5 at Bury, Bluebell has 4 at Horsted Keynes ?)