Are there any "complete" heritage railways?

They also own HL 0-6-0ST Isabel and have recently taken newly restored Barclay 0-4-0ST Victory on loan

Keith

 

May I suggest the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway which we call “Britain’s Last Perfect Branch Line”?

The line has been reopened in its entirety and indeed includes the Ravenstor Branch (1 in 27) which was only used for quarry traffic until we opened the line. The branch has no other routes leading from it and other than the fact that the Midland Railway built the line with the view to extending it to Rowsley and onwards to Manchester, what we opened accounts for 100% of the branch.

This does bring issues. We do not have an “Extension to Narnia” plan for the future, so we need to concentrate on what we have and to broaden the line, rather than extend it. There is plenty to do, from providing improved facilities for steam, through to building a station building at Wirksworth that will be welcoming, serve as our administrative headquarters and be profitable. At Duffield, we need a smaller but equally useful building for visiting by rail, while the expansion of facilities at Shottle to provide a crossing point for the line will allow a doubling of service frequency.

It is good to have the dream of a route extension, but having a complete line offers opportunities to concentrate on the line’s core and develop what is there.


Neil

 

It's not bad I'll grant you, but don't I think your claim stands up to close scrutiny. A visit to the KWVR amongst others would serve as a good yardstick on how much further you have left to go.

 

Yes indeed but they do have 40 years' start on us!

 

So perhaps "Britain's latest perfect branch line" would be more appropriate?

 

A fair compromise!