Peak Rail at Matlock.

Is there a link for that story?

It seems then that if they got access to the down platform they would be running not on their own track but over Network Rail's loop? Has anyone else done this sort of thing recently apart from NYMR? Didn't the Dart Valley run into Totnes BR station at one time then revert to their own - what were the reasons?

Ralph

 

I presume having to use the NR loop to get into the down platform is what is causing most of Peak Rails problems, but there is now no foot access to the platform, so a footbridge would have to be built? There wont be any room to get to the NR platforms, with all these footbridges in the way!
Seems a bit of a no win situation for PR.

 

With the greatest of respect to Peak Rail, are they a big-enough organisation, when compared to say the NYMR, to have the necessary motive power and stock certification to run on NR metals, even if only a few hundred yards into the station?

Sadly I suspect not, so as I said earlier, "Matlock Riverside Mk 2" .

Frankly in view of the amount of cash "joint running" would soak up because of certification of everything, Peak Rail are probably better-off with their own station at Matlock, assuming the new road does not prevent pedestrian access from Peak Rail to the Network Rail station, and also that PR can preserve the means of having a NR rail connection at sometime in the future, even if not now.

46118

 

I think that the idea of the footbridge is that people can cross the line and work down a path which was the former access road into the quarry to get onto the down platform.

There have been stories in the media see; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derb ... 192463.stm

that would indicate that it is PR's intention to use the disused platform, whether the income generated with getting the extra 400 metres into Matlock would cover the costs required to get onto NR assets is the key question. Now if PR could guarantee something to pull the punters in every weekend then yes it would probably be worth it.

 

I'm no expert on the area, but surely that would mean residents on that side could access Sainsburys without need to use the footbridge? In which case why was the footbridge needed?
I do wish the railway well, but they have always seemed to be on the back foot.
Why oh why couldnt other railways not a million miles away have joined forces all those years ago and created one superb line to Buxton, rather than what we have today, two railways that run from nowhere to nowhere via nowhere, but then that would have meant sharing and cooperating, and putting arrogance to one side, something man finds very difficult!
OK I will retire to my padded cell now, my rant is over.

 

Chris - don't worry about the rant! What you say is very true. The reason for the footbridge is to enable bus / train passengers and pedestrians to access Sainsburys from the "Town Centre" or the "Transport Interchange" (The Bus Station is relocating to the old Parcels Shed) without the need of quite a long walk

 

royce6229:

Do you mean Peak Rail and the Ecclesbourne Valley (Wirksworth)?

46118

 

Erm no, slightly further away than Wirksworth, and a couple of decades ago now.
Just read a history of the Wirksworth line, very interesting railway, the society have a lot of potential.

 

. :-k ...ok... must be the Midland Railway Centre then, cant think of another combination!

Havn't read the Wirksworth branch history yet, but wasn't it originally going to be the "through route" to Manchester at one time?

...at least it isn't a cycleway now!

46118

 

All to do with the Midland Railway not having control of Ambergate -Rowsley so they put plans forward to extend Wirksworth through a tunnel to Matlock then on to Rowsley,and Manchester, in the end they took control of the other line so Wirksworth was in effect built for nothing, thats a very simple explanation, but the Oakwood Press book is well worth a read.

 

Peak Rail's website (in the News section) has a picture of a tamper on part of the newly laid loop

 

HI ALL; IM NEW TO THIS WEBSITE, BUT YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW ME AS SOME OF YOUR USERNAMES SOUND FAMILIAR;

I MAY BE ABLE TO ANSWER SOME OF THE QUESTIONS YOU RECENTLY POSED RE MATLOCK;

THE ISSUE OF A CONNECTING FOOTBRIDGE TO THE PROPOSED PEAK RAIL PLATFORM; THERE EXISTS IN THE NEW FOOTBRIDGE TO THE SUPERSTORE A CONNECTION FOR THE PART TO THE NEW PLATFORM, IT IS NOT INSTALLED AS YET FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS.

THE ISSUE OF ACCESS INTO THE CURRENT UNUSED PLATFORM, MANY YEARS AGO PLANS WERE DRAWN UP BY THE THEN RAILTRACK PLC FOR SIGNALLING WORKS TO ALLOW PEAK RAIL TO GET INTO THE DOWN PLATFORM,MY COLLEAGUE STEVE MAY WELL HAVE BEEN INVOLVED AT THAT POINT OR HE MAY NOT HAVE, HOWEVER AT THE TIME RAILTRACK WAS GOING THROUGH MANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO ITS STRUCTURE, THE MOST AWKWARD BEING THAT SIGNALLING DESIGN CHANGED FROM YORK TO BIRMINGHAM AND BACK AGAIN, EACH TIME YOU ARE FORCED TO START AGAIN FROM SCRATCH, TO GIVE AN EXAMPLE LOOK AT THE WENSLEYDALE,THEY HAVE ENOUGH EQPT FOR THREE PASSING LOOPS TO GO IN BUT UNFORTUNATELY THE DESIGN ISSUES ARE AT THE BASE OF THE PILE AS REGARDS THE NATIONAL OPERATOR SO ITS BECOME A NIGHTMARE FOR ALL CONCERNED ON PRIVATE RAILWAYS.

MY COLLEAUGUE STEVE WAS A MAMBER OF MANY SIGNALLING ENGINEERS WHO ASSISTED THE NYMR IN GETTING THE TOKEN EQUIPMENT IN TO GET THE THROUGH RUNNING TO WHITBY UP AND RUNNING, AND THERE ARE PRECEDENTS WHERE OTHER HERITAGE RAILWAYS ARE LOOKING TO RUN OVER NETWORK RAIL METALS INTO PLATFORMS EITHER ADJACENT TO OR PART OF N.R METALS, THE OBVIOUS BEING SPA VALLEY(RUNNING ADJACENT TO WITHIN THE 6 FOOT),BLUEBELL, ADJACENT TO AND CONNECTING TO,WENSLEYDALE(IN LONG TERM TALKS TO GET INTO NORTHALLERTON ON ADJACENT LINE),CHINNOR AND PRINCESS RISBOROUGH,THE LINE AT CARDIFF ETC...ETC.

THERE ARE ALSO CHANGES IN THE LEGISLATION THAT CAN ALLOW RAILWAYS LIMITED ACCESS TO THE NETWORK,(SIDINGS ETC)REMEMBER THE LINE PEAK RAIL WANTS TO USE AT MATLOCK IS NOT CLASSED AS A PASSENGER RUNNING LINE,WHICH FIGURES HEAVILY IN THOUGHTS,ITS MORE AN ISSUE OF SAFEGAURDING BOTH OPERATORS AND THEIR INTERESTS LEGALLY,SAFETY AND PROFESSIONALLY WHICH IS THE REASON TALKS ARE TAKING SO LONG, IT ALL HAS TO BE DONE CORRECTLY AND PROFESSIONALLY, YEP IT MAY COST MONEY, I WOULDNT DOUBT THAT BEING A SIGNAL ENGINEER.

SOMEONE ASKED ABOUT WHAT THE DART VALLEY RAILWAY USED TO DO AT TOTNES, THEY HIRED BR CREW/INSPECTORS TO ASSIST IN THE SAFE RUNNING ONTO BR METALS WHICH WAS HOW BR DID IT AT THE TIME AND IT COST ALOT, HENCE WHY THE DVR DID NOT CONTINUE THE IDEA AND BUILT TOTNES RIVERSIDE(VERY FINE STATION) INSTEAD.

HOPE ITS ANSWERED SOME QUESTIONS!!!, I CANT SAY TOO MUCH AS I WORK FOR BOTH N.R AND P.R AND MAINTAIN A PROFFESSIONAL INTEREST IN THE PROPOSALS TO GET INTO MATLOCK,WHEN WE HAVE SOME NEWS GOOD OR OTHERWISE!! WE WILL RELEASE IT THROUGH THE PROPER CHANNELS.

BEST TO ALL

DOMINIC SIGNAL ENGINEER.

PS THE TAMPER PICS MINE,FEEL FREE TO USE IT IF YOU WANT,JUST MENTION MY NAME.

 

Welcome to the forum Dominic, please don't SHOUT in future

 

SOS i always end up in capitals as ,people complain when i spell their name in lower case!!!!!

 

i took the tamper pic when we were donated/given the trackwork-points n all from the layout at matlock,as it required to be relayed as part of the whole job of putting in a new run round loop there for engineering trains.

the relaying job ran slightly behind but all in all was well handled and put in, the finished land formation is supposed to be capable if ever upgraded to through passenger working of 45mph ,though thats wishfull future thinking.

the peak rail line at riverside will have to be slued right over into the cleared patch at the side of the new bypass to meet up with NR metals.

dom...whispering this time!!

 

Question for kestreleyes

Is the upgrading of the bridges from Whatstandwell to enable Meridian vehicles to run to Matlock in stead of Turbostars?

This came up in conversation as work today whilst commenting on the problems caused by the new road system in Matlock.

Alan

 

hmmmmm not sure but i would assume both NR and the new franchisee would like tohave an asset (the branch) which could be used for more than such a low status of traffic (low R.A)as its classed, and i can forsee the franchisee having a run in period then putting their own better plans for services on the table rather than the ones they merely inherited to start with.

would makeallround sense plus itfits in with the aspects of getting more capacity out of the railway.

 

Hi, Dominic.

Passed through Matlock this morning, and called in Bill Hudson's bookshop for one or two items.
Things have certainly changed around the station, with the new car park and bus/rail interchange....and Sainsburys of course.

Two points for you: First, whilst I did note that that horrible new black footbridge does appear to have been built to allow future access to the unused platform, I could see that the unused platform is in very poor order, and will be expensive to upgrade. Who pays??
Second point: I tried walking past Sainsburys to find the access to your Matlock Riverside station and gave up!! Unmade footpaths, bollards, road traffic,barriers, etc.
PR urgently, repeat urgently, need to get Birse or whoever is responsible to get your station access sorted and properly signed. Unfortunately you are now rather isolated by the new roadworks.

Judging by the number of people who came into the shop and asked for directions to Matlock Riverside, customers wanting to start their journey from Matlock are around, but unless access is made much easier they will lose interest.

46118

PS: Just use your Caps Lock for a capital letter in the usual places! :-k

 

duly noted, the platform will be paid by us but there will also be grants etc and donations available as far as we know,though thats not my side of project so im not in any position to say exactly on that!!!

the footpaths a little odd,it does exist, the nearest i know off is theres some sort of way from the road itself right next to riverside,it does as you say want properly sorting out,though theres still a lot of groundworks to do.

we had a reasonable disabled access before so i would assume the same would have been thought about by the contractors when its all done!!

il pass on your thoughts to the boss when i sees them!!

many thanks

dom

 

The access from what I could make out, is immediately on the right as you turn into the car park/complex, right opposite the huge willow tree that overhangs one of the banks, Nationwide/RBS maybe. It is very vague,( a couple of small faded signs) with an opening in the large security fencing and a very rough path that meanders along the river bank around the whole carpark to the PR platform, about a 10-15 min walk as quoted in the bookshop.
Sorry to be so negative, but before we discovered the path, we set off in the general direction through the carpark, and ended up in the building site, literally! I was amazed we were not challenged and escorted out.
Anyway the point I am trying to make is if an enthusiast has this much trouble, like 46118 says, what will the general public do?