Churnet Valley Railway General Discussion

How’s the Leek extension going? Any news on an opening date?

 

I visited the line a month ago. There is a trackbed that extends to the industrial units before Morrisons. A single line of rail extends along much of this and the junction at the triangle appears complete, though there is no signalling.
No sign of a station at Leek and i don't understand where it would go and what the access would be.... Though Morrisons carpark? There doesn't appear to be much space for parking etc.
All of this can be easily seen from the public footpath.
So the actual physical work, except for the station, seems mostly complete. I've no idea what permissions are required to complete and provide access.

 

AFAIK there were some issues related to a culvert, that should have now been resolved.

The track has barely changed for the best part of 6 months.

Sadly I thought the station would be open by may this year according to original reports, but as we know things never go to plan.

I don’t think you can see the station location from public view now, I’ve been meaning to take the drone up to leek for a few months but haven’t had chance.

From memory the platform and runaround will go roughly here…



This was 24 weeks ago…basically ready to go.

Can anyone else confirm any more?

 

So that's quite a long way down the track. How will the public access the station and where will they park?

 

I think all that derilict land is your answer.

 

Indeed, the plans show parking just off the roundabout on that scrap of land where the red container is

 

As I understand it, the Station buildings, car park, North Staffordshire Railway Museum etc all form part of the Barnfields development, which relates to the old Cement works immediately to the west of the trackbed. The Station would be accessed from the A53 Leek to Stoke road via a new access road, which I believe would allow the Leek to Hanley Bus service to call at the Station.

I believe that the plan is to have a run round loop big enough for a 6 or 7 coach train but that too may also be part of the Barnfields plan.

Quite when the Barnfields development actually happens is anyone's guess I'm afraid.

Sorry but that's the best info I have. Fingers crossed trains could at least go, topped and tailed, to the site of the planned Station later this year. One step at a time.

 

From the planning application

 

At the top of this photo you can see that the trackbed has been extended over to the right. I presume this was done to avoid having track laid directly on top of the pipes but the angle of repose is far too steep to support a railway and it is already showing cracks and signs of slippage. If the run round loop is only designed for six coach trains then that sounds like there will never ever be passenger trains coming in off the network at Stoke I am afraid.

 

Finally the stoke to leek feasibility study has been released…

https://www.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/...-_Stoke_SOBC_Final_241122.pdf?m=1724397363367

https://www.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/...ix_A_-_Economic_Appraisal.pdf?m=1724397415597

https://www.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/...Engineering_Report_230922.pdf?m=1724397488437

https://www.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/..._-_Cost_Estimate_03.11.22.pdf?m=1724397475273

 

The study was completed two years ago looking at the dates in the documents, it’s all toilet paper now anyway being that restoring your railways was humanely cancelled last month by our new overlords. Would be interesting to know a little more detail about the waterhouses plan, the re-extension to cauldon was not the main thrust of the sobc, still interesting to see statistics like the quarry supplying 10% of the nations cement, didn’t realise it was that high. Makes you wonder why railfreight from there has been so difficult to achieve.

 

Indeed being the “only” quarry without a railway (but mothballed one which runs pretty much right by) just strikes me as typical north Staffordshire.

I found the remark “Alton Towers supports this bid, and the Churnet Valley Railway is developing plans for the ultimate extension of their operation to the closed station at Alton Towers.” One of the most interesting.

I appreciate it’s a lot of money that could be spent on other things, but we and the public at large need to see it as an investment in the future. And for an area that’s had very little whilst the rest of the country seems to get development, why not!

I don’t think it’s quite a done deal, local politicians are murmuring about a possible “lighter” rail option.

 

the Alton towers part is the bit I doubt the most, for crowd control reasons into the theme park, having two entrances/exits on different sides of the park is a non starter, the only reason I can think of that alton towers would be in favour would be for some sort of rail themed special occasion or an ‘exclusive night at Alton towers’ where the park is opened up to a exclusive smaller gathering of clientele with a rail trip thrown in, a lot like their Halloween ‘scare fest’ special event which is extremely popular but on a smaller scale that the railway entrance can be used for, the crowd barriers are still there from 50 odd years ago and show clearly how undersized the place is for modern crowds, the station building itself is a thriving holiday let and is very peaceful, I’m sure they would be none too happy. The trackbed is certainly wide enough but oakamoor would be difficult with a bridges over the river and the trail car park. Agreed on the investment, the roads are far less suitable for quarry traffic than the roads around buxton for tunstead, so the case is even stronger!.

 

Some years ago I was told that the cement from the quarry is largely bagged rather than bulk cement , not sure if that is the case , but if so then I suspect rail freight is less viable

Jon

 

I've said it before-Alton Towers are quite happy for everyone to pay to park their car at the main car park and to finish their day walking through all the merchandising in 'Towers Street' on the way back to the Monorail link to the car park. I very much doubt they have any real interest in a rail link at the other end of the park , particularly if the new Universal Studios theme park goes ahead near Bedford and provides more competition

Jon

 

The thought of a heritage railway acting as a feeder to a theme park is cloud cuckoo land. A theme park is already an expensive day out for a family. If you add on a heritage railway journey first, you not only add to that cost, but you make the theme park bit of the day less valuable, since you would always be keeping one eye on the time of your return train, rather than just maximising what you do inside the park.

It doesn't really make sense for the railway either, since in effect they'd find the first train of the day going and the last train returning would be the only ones with any passengers. If you keep the times of those trains within one 12 hour shift, then you likely only get about 6 hours between them - too short for the theme park. If you stretch that out to a more realistic day for the theme park, you need two crews who basically don't do very much ...

If the CVR is to be a long-term success, it needs to build that on the quality of its own offer. Acting as a kind of park and ride for a theme park is a non-starter.

Tom

 

If that was true I think the cement business must be in sharp decline. When Blue Circle owned the plant they had a large fleet of press flow tankers and I would have thought that Lafarge must have access of to something similar. If your rumour is true I don’t see why pallet loads of bags cannot also be transported by rail. If anything made rail transport difficult in the past I would suspect it was to do with the very steep gradients and limited space at Waterhouses.

 

I think you will find that Alton Towers couldn’t care less whether or not the railway reopened but one thing is for sure there is no way on God’s earth that they would ever contribute towards the cost of reopening. Having the railway run to the Towers would be very beneficial both in terms of tourism for the area and a draw for the railway which would be able to offer a much more satisfying train ride and more reason for people to volunteer.