Moorlands and City Railway

Hello, I'm new to the boards but have had an interest in this railway for a long period of time. Is there scope for young volunteers (19) to get involved and help with the renovation of railway? I'd love to be a able to lend a hand with this project if it's possible. If so, who do I contact and does anybody have the necessary contact details?

 

Hi Rob

Try this link; Become a Volunteer

Cheers.

Barry

 

Excellent, thank you! I must have missed that link when I viewed the site, much appreciated.

 

I would imagine the two largest obstacles for a Bradnop reopening would be the rebuilding (replacement?) of the platform wall (what's left of it seemed in pretty poor condition when it was uncovered) and the realignment of the track back to its original position (it has been slewed away from the platform), the difficulty for both being cost of course. I would tentatively suggest that platform vegetation clearance and a rough platform surface/pedestrian access path could be provided relatively cheaply given the will, as neither were anything special back in the day when the station was open.

I stress the above is pure fantasy on my part of course. As far as I'm aware there are no plans whatsoever by either MCR or the volunteer group who have spent a day on clearance to reopen any intermediate stations.

 

In these days of work-experience and assistive Government grants, along with private sponsorships, surely there is scope here for joint efforts, maybe a local firms helping with sponsoring and getting rewarded by the publicity for revamping little halts like Bradnop. No need to go mad. Just a legal platform, maybe used as a 'request stop' or special timetabling.

Just throwing in ideas.

It could bring a lot of rewards to a lot of people including the CVR/MCR of course.

 

Would 'grandfather' rights apply to a long closed station platform as regards compliance with modern elfansafety and political correctness footbridges etc?

 

Not even 'elf n'safety require footbridges at single platform stations!

As regards possible sponsors, it would be just wonderful if a company wanted to test and demonstrate its mega-devegetator / flail mower from Endon to Stoke

 

OK, no footbridge needed at a single platform station, but what about access? I haven't been to Bradnop, so that is a genuine, not rhetorical, question. Even single platform stations can be expensive - see what it cost at places such as Beauly, just to rebuild a platform to modern standards; IIRC it was £100K 20 years ago. I don't know whether there may be a relaxation as regards heritage lines. It isn't just the expense of compliance, but a modern platform doesn't look right on a heritage railway. But the Moorlands and City Railway perhaps is a different kind of heritage railway as it seeks to make a living from genuine freight traffic.

Either way, I hope that they succeed, with or without a station at Bradnop.

 

Don't do it. It sucks up much needed scarce manpower and doesn't bring in new ticket revenue. It just adds to the maintenance and H&S burden

 

We're not!!!

 

Just get the weedkiller and tree root killer down and then keep what exists nice and tidy. It is a little bit of N. S. R. history that the travelling public will be able to see from the passing trains.

 

Maybe Bradnop is a "stabilise the ruins" case but, once the railway is well established, it would be rather nice if a way could be found to rebuild to Waterhouses. It's a nice train ride to Cauldon but the destination doesn't offer much unless one is a fan of quarries and cement works. Waterhouses is a fair-sized village, on the A523 bus route and is at the start of the Manifold Valley Trail with its attendant cycle hire facilities. Cauldon would do as it always used to, be the freight terminal. I'm not suggesting a scheme to rebuild the Manifold Valey Light Railway as frankly the trail for walkers and cyclists is of far more use than the railway was or could be again.

 

Yes, definitely. Waterhouses branch is a very attractive prospect for said reasons.

And would allow 'passing traffic' if freight was waiting to get to Cauldon.

 

Low in the priority stakes but once everything else is done - including reopening to Stoke - then putting Bradnop station back might well help revenue from walkers wanting a stroll back downhill to Cheddleton.

 

All the talk of the reopening of Bradnop Station is pie in the sky. Once the freight is up and running there will be no way that passenger trains could run in the week. Weekends maybe 2 trains a day just not worth the expense of rebuilding the platform and station plus skewing the track nearer to the platform. The idea of clearing the platform is purely to show passengers where the original station was, something to look out for in the cutting. We are looking to have a sign put up there when we do the second day, possibly 5th January.

 

Enough money will be being spent on bringing Leek Brook Junction platfrom back to life.
Nobody has found or cut down a money tree up the line .

 

We do not use a money tree, it costs the railway nothing. We are volunteers working on the pway gang when the trains run on the CVR on a Wednesday, we go as instructed up the Cauldon Line, to cut the trees back to open the skyline out allowing the Sun (when we get it) to assist drying the track out and keeping leaves off the line. It costs nothing to cut the trees down, bowsaws loppers and maybe a chain saw, the man who uses it even pays for his own petrol.
The Bradnop dig is done by a separate group at their own expence (labour, Chainsaws, even a mini digger has been promised for part2). Good luck to the Leek Brook Junction platform, cannot wait for it to be completed but we are not diverting money away from it.

 

Depends if it was in fruit or not and where the fruit were. Now if we could pick the fruit and plant them on the lineside ................................

 

Good grief it was cold yesterday, we elected to give the tree cutting a miss up the Cauldon line and worked around the Cheddleton/LeekBrook area, where at least we could get a bit of warmth to have a coffee or so. Now the B team decided to do a line walk from Ipstones to Leek Brook. They must have been frozen have seen a photo where they are sitting on the rails having a cuppa and the sleepers are covered with frost. Hope you have thawed out by now lads, don't catch a cold for next week.