What's your dream obscure railway restoration project?

What about the much lamented Westerham branch line from Dunton Green, it will never happen because of the M25 being built on 75% of it. But what a nice thought.

 

I can't speak for the LNWR specifically, but I have a feeling that Loughborough is probably a larger original box in use on a preserved line and Kidderminster Station box is larger still.

Anyway, my favourite project would be a line that was never actually finished - the 2ft gauge line from Stornoway to Carloway on which construction began around 1920. It's now a road, which - at least in the parts with proper foundations - looks very like a disused railway. Most of it was built across bogland without good foundations and is very bumpy as a result.

 

Hetton colliery railway along its full length including street running and 10 incline planes.

 

Identically, my 2 top choices.

Asburton is thriving, last few years, like never before - becoming classy, trendy, expensive - restaurants and antiques pushing out the charity shops. The Railway Hotel (currently 'The Silent Whistle') and the rest of the station forecourt still exist, a very short walk down an attractive old street to the centre. The terminus shed (Listed) and the other sheds also still exist http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/a/ashburton . The big problem is that the A38 Devon Expressway was built on the old alignment, which is why the South Devon Railway http://www.southdevonrailway.co.uk was denied acquisition of that final section and had to terminate in nowhere land (sorry, Buckfastleigh).

And at other end of SDR, a short extension, with stylish new Dart crossing bridge, to a new platform face at Totnes mainline station, instead of similarly stopping 0.25 mile short by footpath, at Broadhempston, newly-created, nicely period-style. The milk factory site beside Totnes station is currently up for redevelopment, so land for the link could be released. Lack of such a link was the original line's big problem - the branch joined the mainline and had to squeeze its schedule into gaps between mainline trains. The SDR is thriving, with a profitable wheel-rebuilding engineering works, and seems to be able to readily raise big funds e.g., imminent smart expansion of Buckfastleigh Station Visitor Centre - so maybe not entirely pixie-land - EC grant anyone?

And the Teign Valley line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teign_Valley_Line . Whenever sea and tide blocked the Brunel mainline at Dawlish, 12-coach Cornish Riviera Expresses would trundle down this single-track link from Exeter inland to Newton Abbot. The 8 mile Teign Valley section is a fabulously beautiful, winding deep valley of old lead and arsenic mine workings now entirely gone back to grass and trees. That justification is long gone, just a string of villages now. However a Dawlish bypass is seriously under consideration, as higher sea levels and worse storms are a strategic expectation. But I suppose the LSWR Exeter to Plymouth line would do for that!

 

when I win the euromillions:

the more feasible first; Glos-Warks railway double track mainline connection at cheltenham and honeybourne and the track going on through honeybourne onto stratford upon avon (sod that roundabout that's in the way) turntable (something being planned for a very (VERY) long time in the future already) big locomotive sheds (or just relocate didcot, it gives them a railway to play with, and us some engines!) with room for carriage sheds so we can actually run things other than mk 1s...

And I'd like the wombourne branch, my other local line (how can both of these be local to you I hear you ask - my grandparents almost live on the old trackbed at wombourne!) the station at tettenhall is still there in its entirety, perhaps the halt at compton which is still there could be extended, and the line could have a mainline connection at wolverhampton (woohoo...) and the station at himley and Baggeridge reinstated (that could actually work - good tourist attraction) and would go on along the branch to bridgenorth that never got built (I think you're wandering into the realms of fantasy jones...) where it could link up to the SVR and bob's your uncle, you have the severn valley and wombourne joint railway (this would also mean I wouldn't have to get the bus to go to bridgenorth from my grandparents house!)

finally an impossability, as half of the trackbed is no longer there, but the branch from cheltenham to bourton on the water and andoversford and the rest of that line would be amazing.

I wonder how many times I'll be needing to win/fix the euromillions for that lot...

 

I'll go for a nice obscure one. The mineral tramway that ran north from Bardon Mill to serve various coal mines on the moors. Anyone know if this this ever saw locomotives? Great station site available right next to the Vindolanda visitor centre, which would help to generate traffic.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1779074

Alternatively the Haltwhistle to Cawfields Quarry 2ft gauge line, which did see locomotives. The quarry is on (and removed a chunk of) the Roman Wall, but it's not as good a destination as Vindolanda.

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/17/Whinstone.htm

 

Probably going a bit off topic here, but it would be nice to see either Scotsman or Green Arrow or Duchess of Hamilton return to steam shortly. Shame the NRM wasted millions on Scotsman as it is one of my favourite ever locos.

 

The Longmoor Military Railway in it's entirity, along with the Bordon branchline. The ungated crossings over the A3 will be a joy to behold!

 

Culm Valley Railway....

 

The Liskeard and Caradon has to be worthy of consideration. As with Longmoor, road improvements at Moorswater will mean the gravity propelled wagons dice with cars as the railway crosses the A38 dual carriageway. What fun!

 

If we're talking about a properly silly amount of money, with no caveats on the use of fantasy bulldozers*, then there's a really good business case to be made for a re-established GNR Friargate Line (Burton-Derby-Nottingham).
The main roads twixt these cities are ridiculously busy (15 miles can take up to two hours), and the existing rail service via Long Eaton and Trent Sheet Stores doesn't feel exactly 21st century cutting-edge... whilst it would be lovely to witness an apple-green Gresley deep in Midland territory, though, am advocating something more along the lines of a modern, rapid-transit type development, something Metro-esque, Manchester supertram-ish (for example) - fast, frequent, all-stations services - and there are now some seriously big residential areas along the line that could be tapped. Physically impossible, not pretty, hardly the most historic line, and not a whiff of steam, so why bother? Revenue - all profits from this pie-in-the-sky scheme go towards rebuilding Ruabon-Barmouth (with a slight wiggle around the 'new' tenants at Bala). Two lines rebuilt for the price of one.
Decades ago, my first choice would have been my 'first love' as a rail-fan - the Leek and Manifold (mentioned earlier in this topic). Apart from a little head-scratching at Waterhouses, the ROTW gang could have it back down in a few weekends... but it's been a path now for far longer than ever it was a railway, and we've seen so many contented little faces tricycling and picnicking and walking hand-in-hand along there over the years that a train, now, would seem an imposition on the tranquility.
Decisions, decisions! Just as well that, statistically, there's more chance of me being hit by a six-wheel milk-tank at Ecton than winning the National Lottery...

*Fantasy bulldozers:
Available for hire - reasonable rates - guaranteed** to clear a path through anything.

(**Limits of imagination may apply; terms and conditions; you may lose your keys if you have a hole in your pocket).

 

The Woodhead Route from Sheffield Victoria to Deepcar is still open. The branch from Deepcar to the Stocksbridge works, and £42million shopping complex is still there.
The infrastructure cost would be minimal, the rolling stock/steam locos hired.....the demand massive.... What am I missing?

 

How about the S********h Tramway?

 

trouble is with all fantasy re-openings, you end up with a modern railway not the derelict and delightful original you started out to recreate. Witness the Welsh Highland Rly....beautiful but nothing to do with the railway that was

 

Precisely the reason why, controversial as it may sound, there are many locations where I infinitely prefer a disused trackbed and my imagination to the reality of reopening.

I wonder how many enthusiasts who are getting all excited over the reopening of part of the Waverley route were thinking of A3s and A4s with long rakes of carriages thundering along a double track main line, rather than the reality of modern, three car DMUs on a largely single track branch line which bears virtually no resemblance to the pre-closure route?

 

Portland Branch

 

Being my local closed main line, I often walk parts of the trackbed of the Strathmore route. I regret not having seen it as it was, pre-closure, but nowadays imagination does it for me.

Indeed, rather than regret at lines being closed, there are many that - if I'm being truly objective - I wonder why on earth they were built in the first place. Did somewhere like Brechin really need to be served from three directions, for example? History has proved that the answer was 'no'.

The Brechin-Forfar branch duplicated the main line at only a few miles distance (at a much slower pace!) and went through an area that is still very sparsely populated. The branches to the likes of Edzell, Blairgowrie and Alyth didn't seriously offer much advantage over the horse and cart, due to their comparatively short length and destinations with comparatively few residents.

I still marvel that railway companies went to the expense of building stations at places like Inchbare, for example. Even now, you can count the number of people local to that station on not many more fingers and toes than your average human possesses... and even back in the day it would only have taken half an hour or so to herd some cattle or take a horse and cart of produce to Brechin.

I also lived close to the Waverley Route for a few years and I'm afraid the pale shadow of its former self that modern stations, infrastructure, DMUs and single track will bring do absolutely nothing for me in terms of my interest in railways.

Each to their own, though.

One of the advantages of the model version is that you can build and experience that rose-tinted version of the past