Peak Rail General Discussion

Ian and myself put in a days work building up the wheel benches for Rowsley cabins wire worked points (yes in the rain as usual)and wondering what all these odd engine noises and grinding was which turned out to be the German re-enactors trying to get the half track to turn on a sixpence at the top of the site (much fun watching people curse in German) before stopping to watch the warring forties event.

As usual IPhone battery of death issues right at the good bit of the battle stopped me getting any useful pictures to post so if anyone has any please post , I only have the three following but it was busy on the Saturday even given the rain in the morning which then became sun by the afternoon


Pete Briddon and Rob were busy running the troop train during the demonstration battle at Rowsley and the crowds filled the platform and cars right back upto the main road itself

Hope you all had fun too it was much sunnier on Sunday so should have been a better day all round
Crowds on half the platform for the battle
Wire benches for signalling otherwise known as big lumps of awkward pain giving things
The big gun in one of the trenches in rowsley wood (makes a nice big boom with its pyrotechnics)

 

Full page write-up about it in Railway Herald, the event broke all previous attendance records despite a rainy Saturday morning, therefore management happy!

Dave

 

excellent news dave, any chance of a link for s not subscribers

spent wednesday with a couple of colleaugues (principles testers) at Riverside energising electric locks and testing,found a few snags mostly related to not having been used in a few months,but working through the list to completion)

 

Any news on the Darley Dale footbridge project please?

 

il ask when next down,i heard there are some irons in the fire but until its definite news its not worth reporting, either way il ask those in the loop if theres an update pending.

 

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/counci...o_have_their_say_about_pedal_peak_project.asp

Looks like DCC are pushing ahead with the extension of the Monsal Trail

 

They've got to spend the money!

Dave

 

Where does this leave Peak Rail in relation to the Bakewell Extension Project?

However, the new cycle track may not be actually ON the old trackbed..

 

There are 2 ways at looking at this.
Firstly, it is obvious now that the original ambition of Peak Rail going all the way to Buxton is over, as the trail is far too established for it to be given back as a railway and the tunnels could not be shared with a cycle/footpath and a railway. So the more realistic goal of reaching Bakewell may in itself be scuppered by these latest plans.
The other side of the coin could be that a bridge is needed I believe for the railway to cross the A6. Maybe a double use bridge could be put in benefitting both the railway as a single track with a cycle / footpath on the other side seperated by an appropriate division albeit of solid construction. If some or all of the costs of this bridge could be paid for as part of the footpath scheme then that would be most welcome to the railway.
As regards putting the original cut and cover tunnel at Haddon Hall, then thats a whole different Issue, but as has been mentioned the route could possibly take a slight deviation and if it is being built from new then there is no real reason it could not be constructed wide enough to accomodate both railway and footpath.

 

@Alan Brader
It's the first time I read that calamitous "new" it is very very infortunate!!!!!!!! and Peak Rail, if real impossibility to go to Buxton, is condemned to extinct progessively!!(albeit under the musuem form an under-or secondary- Didcot!)very sad new indeed!

 

As far as is known the doom and gloom predictions are as likely as all the other doom and gloom predictions that have ever occured to us on the forum, in that theyre not that doomy or gloomy, id wait to see the official responses that come with any discussions and id be very surprised if the council,railway et al dont work together to the benefit of all which is what the general press surrounding all this mostly points towards, not forgetting things like the lease we hold ,LRO etc, as for the dream of going to buxton, when I was a youngling in the buxton days I had the same dream however as I grew up and grew older I looked more at reality and like most while we`d still love to go all the way to buxton, in reality bakewell would be a more realistic goal we`d all be happy to work to, as with most things we run a decent 4 mile railway with nice facilities,nice locos and groups,plenty of small projects to keep us going and every potential to go that bit further if and when needed;bigger is a goal but bigger is not always neccessarily better !

Wait the space

Elsewhere on signalling Ian and myself managed to get supersoaked at the weekend finishing off the last wheel bench for rowsley,david and ruth have started to paint the lever frame up and we also managed to get loads of maintenance done at darley,riverside and church lane on signalling,the windows start to be reglazed on rowsley cabin in the coming weeks.

Carriage wise, the ex loadbank coaching set is being worked upon with new steel siding and window frames being refitted, very good work to all the chaps doing that job and I noted the heritage shunters group doing painting work on some of the shunters and some roof work on their class 14,didnt manage to get a picture as no sooner had they emerged from the shed than the rain threatened and it was back under tarps quick guys!

I know how they feel

 

You have to remember that PR owns the viaduct over the River Derwent at Rowsley and the embankment adjacent to the A6, these will have to be used to keep the cycleway separate from the road system, and therefore give PR some bargaining powers. It's taken many years but the local authorities now recognise how important the railway is to the local economy. and have actually stated as much, so maybe things aren't too bleak!

Dave

 

Wow! Kestreleyes you must have had a sneak preview of DCC plans..

 

I would love to see it connected up to Buxton, as then steam trains could utilise the line again, plus brink trade into Matlock again,as well as Buxton.

 

The link will take you to the proposal document

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/images/Pedal Peak Phase II - DfT Bid Document_tcm44-224114.pdf

And this will take you to a survey

http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/news.php?articleid=162

 

The plans on the link from the 18 Bikes Shop are interesting, especially the Darley Dale to Matlock plan "realigning the track on the bridge over the Derwent" my recollections were that the track had to be in the centre as it was the strongest part of the bridge

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/images...ock route information Aug 14_tcm44-250612.pdf

 

So with this cycleway, there may be no chance to extend to Buxton again? Why cant they extend the rail line to Buxton,and have cyclists use the train,therefore you have created a link into Peak district,but also have the link to the main line too.

 

If DCC are proposing to share the Haddon tunnel and the trackbed with PR then they must not expect real safety problems.
Once the shared corridor has been established to Bakewell, and no safety issues arise then a precedent is set for the Millers Dale extension..

 

I have read through the links that have been attached since my earlier post and it makes for interesting reading.

I do not see anywhere that mentions shared use of rail and path through Haddon, or any other tunnel for that matter, and I really cannot see how anyone could write a safety case that would be acceptable for shared use other than completely partitioning off the tunnel into 2 definitive sides.

The footpath does look awfully close to the running line on sections between Rowsley and Matlock too. I would not dare to think of the consequences of hot embers coming from a steam loco and bouncing onto the footpath, or an injector that suddenly decides to stop picking up and spewing steam or scalding hot water all over the footpath too. I would like to think that someone has already looked into this and considered the risk minimal or they would not be pressing ahead with the plans. If however an incident as described did occur, I think it would have very serious implications towards Peak Rail. I did read somewhere about a solid fence, but if that is going to be required for the full length of the railway, there are going to be some large costs involved in construction and maintenance. Some may argue that there is already a footpath in situ and no incidents have occured, but that footpath will only have a tiny amount of use compared with the volume that will use it once completed. The more useage the higher the risk.

 

The Avon valley railway has co existed with the Bristol to Bath cycle path for many years and as far as i know there has never been any incidents with the railway this path is very busy as well especially on weekends