Rother Valley Railway

Area 51? Pete does that mean that once stuff gets shunted into there, its going to disapear? if thats the case can we start with the 33, 25, 14 and DMU? oh add onto that list the 08 and GW railcar .

 

Given that the GWR railcar is more historic (i.e. older) than no less than six of the KESR's steam locos, should they not 'disappear' in there too?

Or is this just the tired old 'selective preservation' attitude writ large? Again. ray:

 

No. This is a carriage shed. No engines allowed

 

Erm... you might want to ask the powers that be about that one!

 

Erm... quite!

 

He who shouts loudest gets his way,
judging by what happened with the C&R Extension, there probally will not be enough room to get anything other than the vintage rake, whats left of it, under cover i can foresee loco s taking one road, the deisels taking another, PW moving stuff up from Whittersham rd it will be full before anyone asks, what about the coaches

 

Is a GWR railcar a coach or an engine?

 

Engine (on its original owner's railway) in that it was run and maintained by the CME and stabled at sheds.

 

Or just a joke?

 

the funding is for a carriage shed, not a loco/ pw covered store, but i'm not stupid, of course the loco dept will take the chance to put some stored engines under cover, in the same way as the deisel group will want to move lock stock and barrel into there also given the chance , the A set will probally remain at Tenterden , i cant see ops wanting to add an ecs working at the end of the day, or an early off shed to shunt the carriage siding to free the stock to run ecs up the hill first thing, so thats how it will happen, roads will be left empty, people will see it presure the management into letting them take up residence, and then when you do need it, there wont be the room for more than 1 rake of coaches .

 

The rail car, its a white elephant, its progressing far to slowly , and i dought if its capacity will be enough to be a useful vehicle , in my view we would be better off selling it and buying another DMMU .

 

My understanding is that engines that are withdrawn pending overhaul may be stored in there, together with the Class 25. The rest of the shed space is intended for carriages that are awaiting restoration, and vehicles not presently being used on the Victorian set. P Way will, I suspect, be told that they're still not allowed out of Witt Road until they're housetrained. It doesn't mean that with, a freeing up of siding space elsewhere, that fresh stock/tat/chicken sheds will be obtained to clutter the place up again! It's an effort to preserve what we have already in the best way we can.

 

I can't say I agree with your opinion Martin, but you're perfectly entitled to it! The Railcar progresses at it's own pace because, for 20 years or so, it's effectively been Andy and Chris doing it on their own. On the rare occasion that the carriage fleet allows, and the C&W boys get hold of the Railcar, sections will suddenly leap forward. There are days where the DMU carries no more than a handful of passengers, and the Railcar would be perfectly suited to doing those trips. She would equally be at home running the shuttles at the Rother Valley Railway.

I think, certainly at the KESR, we have a problem persuading our customers that the DMU is a preferable option to a steam trip. We hardly ever use diesels for the main service train, and we need to look at how we market these trains if and when we do. It would be interesting to study how other lines "sell" their diesel running.

 

:behindsofa: I would say that it is a good thing the KESR hardly run diesel passenger trains :behindsofa:
(Member of the anti-passenger diesel brigade)

 

Colonel Stephens was quite keen on diesel railcars; he would perhaps have bought up a job lot of the ex-GWR ones off BR in 1962 or so had he been still alive and the K&ESR had escaped nationalisation.

 

He certainly tried petrol-driven railbusses, see THE MOTOR RAILWAY - British Pathé

Without doubt it has taken a long time to rebuild the GWR railcar, but what more can you expect given the small workforce (all volunteer) and a limited budget. I was initially against the Class 108 DMU but having seen the passengers enjoying an improved view of the lineside there is no doubt it has an important place in what we offer to the public.

Have you ever travelled in a GW railcar? I have. It will give its passengers the same all-round view of the countryside as does the DMU and give us an alternative to it when maintenance is required.

 

I'd be very happy to take a ride in the GW railcar - I'm old enough to remember when it was in use. And in November this year I thoroughly enjoyed a ride on the class 108 DMU - I got there early and had a front seat!

There is more to railways than steam!

 

Well, that's two seats booked then!

 

I hope that they can wait then, its taken 20 years to get precisly , well, i'm not sure, will it be availible by the time we get to Robertsbridge, time will tell, but it would need to become a C&W job first, IF judging by the last 2 years work achievement ,
iF the Robertsbridge to bodiam section is as well used as i expect it will be, i can see the railcar becoming surplus to requirements