Gradient profiles of Heritage Railways - List in Post 1

Thank you.

Yep - the gradient is out biggest asset, even with three coaches locos have to work hard. More so when we used to top and tail.

 

Mildly amusing that the 'mutual improvement' on this one doesn't appear to include being able to spell the name of their main terminus correctly.

 

How many times must I have looked at that and not noticed.

 

Impossible to proof read your own stuff.

Interesting how Tenterden Bsnk is an order of magnitude different from the rest of the Railway.

I was out one evening long long ago with 'Frim' on a pump trolley for some reason now lost in the mists of time when he had a hay fever attack and I had to pump us both back up the bank to get help. Not sure I could do that now....

Robin

 

Deliberate, methinks

 

I suppose you're alright once you reach the sand quarry.

 

East somerset railway. Diagram from Richard Harman's 'The East Somerset and Cheddar Valley Lines". Mendip Vale is towards the bottom of the 1 in 56 heading to Shepton.

 

The Severn Valley link on page 1 is broken due to a software update on the SVR Wiki. The new link is:

https://www.svrwiki.com/mediawiki-1.28.2/images/7/78/SVR_Gradient_Profile.jpg

Hopefully @Jamessquared will update the list in due course.

 

Thanks for that - I've updated the list on page 1.

Tom

 

Thanks - I've updated the main list to include this one as well.

Tom

 

The link for the Isle of Wight Steam Railway gradient profile is broken. In response to my mentioning that on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway thread

 

Around the time of and ever since the Railway Touring Company's visit to the Wensleydale Railway in March 2015 (T&T K1 and K4), I've been searching high and low for any data I could get hold of on the the line's gradient profile. At last, I've come up with something which is very detailed and from a most unexpected source - a Network Rail response to a Freedom of Information request for Wensleydale Railway Gradient Profile data lodged in August and responded to on 5th September. It can be viewed, with attachments at
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/requ...sts&utm_medium=link&utm_source=whatdotheyknow

I am attaching a formatted pdf to summarise the data that the Network Rail table presents. And its good news, but with one significant anomaly. First of all, there's far much more detail than I had ever hoped to access, and at a greater level of detail. And, echoing earlier posts about the nature and measurement of gradients from a surveyors perspective, the table appears to give very specific information about the distances over which a specified gradient is maintained, allowing for transitional rates of incline/ decline at the end of each such length.

But the data also appears to present an anomaly that would affect the interpretation of what happens to gradients in the final half-mile or so leading to the terminus of the line at the western end of the Loop at Redmire. I was alerted to this by the Railway Performance Society's mileage table for the Wensleydale Railway, which runs to some 130 Excel rows of mileage description covering the route between between the Buffer Stops at the north end of the Castle Hills Junction reversing line and the station building at Redmire at the western end of the line.

The RPS table shows that there is a significantly misplaced mile post - MP22 on the approach to Redmire - that is actually situated at 21m 58c (measured from Northallerton Station, which was the start point for Wensleydale branch trains until withdrawal in 1954). Cross-referencing mileages from three different sources, I have come up with the following discrepancy on the overall length of the Wensleydale Railway ......
RPS data Castle Hills Inner Jc. to Redmire Station 21m 26c. Plus Quail Redmire Station to western terminus of line 21 chains. Overall total 21 miles 47 chains.
Network rail data Castle Hills Inner Jc. to western terminus of line 21 miles 73 chains - difference 26 chains.

I'm puzzled as to why this discrepancy has arisen. And I wonder whether the misplaced milepost has corrupted any of the mileage and gradient data west of that point? Whatever the reason, I'm not quite sure how to interpret the Network Rail data beyond 21m 58c. Any ideas?

But at least from all of this we get to see exactly how the line manages to achieve an altitude gain of 455 feet in the (exactly) 10 route miles from Bedale to Leyburn.
Hope this is of interest to all contributors to and users of this thread, and that the level of precision and accuracy is consistent with what would be expected of serious research into this specialist topic.

 

This is excellent. Do you have anything for the section to the summit, Waunavon?

I also heard the branch to the Varteg Hill colliery was notoriously and dangerously steep...

 

My local Heritage Line, Epping Ongar Railway:

 

Alas, no on both counts, sorry. The profile I linked to is from our rule book and as such only includes the line we are currently operating.

 

Nevermind.

Thanks for checking anyway.

 

Update 23rd October 2017
Since my original post in September, I have pursued further research into an apparent anomaly in published Wensleydale branch mileage data which might affect the interpretation of NR gradient profile data from the source that I previously signposted a link to (Post #114 above). With the valued assistance of Ian Umpleby, who, as the Distance Chart Editor of the Railway Performance Society, is a leading authority on mileage data, and with kind permission to publish formatted mileage data from the RPS's own Member's Database - a primary Work of Reference in this area - I am now attaching a table that brings together detailed distance and gradient data, cross-referenced against the infrastructure and notable way-points (over-bridges/ under-bridges/ crossings etc) along the whole line of route from Castle Hills Junction to Redmire Station.

I cannot unfortunately offer a cross-sectional diagram of the gradient data, but I am sure that this table will present information in sufficient detail for anyone who is interested to do so.

Please note that the data for the eastern approach to the Redmire Loop and the station itself has been adjusted to reflect the true m/c distance of the site of the misplaced Milepost 22 - actually 21m 58c - which was originally measured from Northallerton Station via a long-disappeared south to west curve from the ECML onto the Wensleydale branch. As such, this adjustment has generated an equivalent difference (shortfall) of c.20 chains compared with mileage data previously published in Quail Track diagrams, and this difference is noted on the tabulated mileage entries for Redmire Station and Loop East.

 

A clearer view of the Swanage Railway profile all the way from Wareham, courtesy of @Mogul