What's your dream obscure railway restoration project?

Definitely with you on this one, a fantastic bit of railway, I walked the Killin branch last year and there are still loads of concrete sleepers lying in piles from when the track was lifted.

I'd like to add an ex-LMS 12-wheel diner to this project - as you say, we can dream!

Dave

 

Bude to Holsworthy (and then onwards to Halwill and Okehampton in the due course of time). That is, of course, if we still had the stations in Bude (instead of a housing estate) and Holsworthy (instead of a supermarket), and there weren't various bridges and the like missing along the way. However, a 10 1/4" or 15" line with cycle trail running from the main road outside Bude through to as close as possible to Holsworthy would be possible, although completely uneconomical in offering a ride from nowhere to nowhere. We can but dream!

Failing that I'd quite like to see 10 1/4" or 15" on the branch from Boscarne Jct up to Wenfordbridge, obviously tying in with the Bodmin & Wenford and leaving plenty of room for the Camel Trail. Cycle one way and ride back on a little puffer, pausing every so often at the next hamlet or tearooms - what could be better?

 

Agreed! Or at worst, some sembelance of the big 4!

 

First Group, Stagecoach, National Express, Arriva?

 

And the award for the most random suggestions of the thread go to - me.

The North Sunderland Railway - Seahouses to Chathill on the ECML on Northumberland coast. need a replica of Manning Wardle L class 0-6-0ST Bamburgh (surprisingly easy given that two boilers have already been done), then loan the Armstrong Whitworth diesel electric and suitable ex NER carriages from Tanfield and Y7 68088 renumbered as 68089 from the North Norfolk plus potential for visit of ex BR sentinel from Middleton and a Pug. About three miles of sheer bliss on the Northumberland coast.

The narrow gauge line from Rookhope to Wolfcleugh in Weardale. Utterly obscure but trackbed basically still there for quite some way and a couple of narrow gauge Black Hawthorn (which you'd have to build from scratch) saddle tanks rattling along in an utterly beutiful and undiscovered little valley just pushes all the right buttons for me.

Finally any part of the old Lambton Hetton and Joicey Collieries system, Philladelphia to Herrington - now the site of a country park - would be a good start on a track bed that already exists and you could make use of the engine sheds that are still there too. Could even take Sir Nigel Gresley back for a bit - an 'A4' with a genuine industrial pedigree, how cool is that!

Ok random industrial drewling over - everyone can return to their main line related dreams now!

 

The Bridport branch, right through to West Bay. Much of the track bed still exists, but a bridge would need to be built over the Bridport bypass. I know it's been suggested many times before, but providing a public service on weekdays and steam on weekends and bank holidays would help pay the bills.

It is in a marginal tourism area. Any professional development would help the local economy. Just look what many preserved railways do for their local economy. I can't remember the exact figures from a HRA meeting but many local traders reckoned their trade dropped by over 50% when the SVR was closed by flood damage last year.

Do you remember Alresford or Swanage in the final weeks of the BR service? There was not a single shop open on a Sunday afternoon.

Also it's where I had my first footplate ride when I was 6 years old in 1962 and first asked questions about signalling. The railway bug hasn't given up yet ....

Regards, Neil

 

The Kemp Town branch would be fun I suppose, or maybe the Selsey tramway just as something a bit different.

 

Romsey - out of interest where is the 'dogger bank' referred to in your signature, it's not the Seaham one you're referring to is it?

 

I'd like to see a complete double track Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway from Honeyborne Junction to Cheltenham. Honeybourne would also be home of a replica of the 1908 double roundhouse at Tyseley, complete with turntables, traverser, repair shop and coal stage. The roundhouse would house a complete set of Churchward, Collett and Hawksworth locomotives, all designs by those CME's, with the preservation gaps being filled with replicas. There would also be a suitable carriage shed to house a large collection of GWR coaches, formed into appropriate sets to run the line. Where possible, all locos, carriages and Wagons would be in Great Western livery.
Daniel

 

I like the idea of the Wolfcleugh line. What gauge and how long? There is a Black Hawthorn 2' gauge 0-4-0 lurking at Marley Hill somewhere. Other candidates.... the Brampton Railway would be a good way to extend the South Tynedale without using Lambley Viaduct. I saw a substantial length of Shropshire & Montgomeryshire trackbed recently which looked overgrown but unbreached, though the old sheds at Kinnerley have been flattened as far as I can tell. But if we want something dreamy grassgrown and obscure, the grand daddy of them all has to be the Bishops Castle Railway.

Tim

 

A 'Welsh Union Railway' from north to south using the Rhyl to Corwen or Festiniog to Bala, Mid Wales, Brecon to Neath and Merthyr and hence to Swansea, Cardiff and Newport. Oh, and a long tunnel between the line of the Barmouth to Ruabon and the Cambrian main line. Trains could be HST's, with original engines of course.

 

One I would be genuinely interested in seeing re-open (and it is in some way being done so) is the Corris. A full length Corris would be a magnificent narrow gauge railway; the old line is one of my favourites.

I remember an old friend on the TR saying that the TR should have shut and the Corris been saved; bigger gradients, tighter curves and more interesting scenery. Imagine No.1 or 2 on the Corris!

 

Waveny valley line (beccles to tivetshall) trackbed in good condition to from beccles marshes to ditchingham with a few billion you could demolish about 50 houses and a bypass and rebuild the whole line \/
also southwold line, although there is a group having a go at this one already. L&B £39 million for 9 miles and southwold £9 million for 9 miles.

also the M&GN line from holt to reepham and whitwell (and re using melton constable works) then the GER line to connect with county school.

and the line through stainmore summit!

now who has some money i would be interested in rebuilding all of these =P~

 

For me, one of the mid-Anglian branches, partly because I live in that area and there are no standard gauge preservation schemes particularly close by! Something like the Buntingford branch with the N7, Saffron Walden with the J15, or the 'most likely/easiest' restoration, what is now the Cole Green Way path between Welwyn Garden City and Hertford - a manageable length for a preserved line, structures intact, very pretty countryside throughout, and an easy jaunt out from London, so no shortage of potential day trippers. All of course restored to the highest standard, with modern working sheds etc hidden away out of sight.

Paul

 

No, because they run only one type of train, they don't run all the classes of stock in their region, nor do they operate the infrastructure underneath of them, meaning they look for an excuse to blame someone else for a problem, rather than just sort it and get on with running a railway as best they can.

 

The Somerset and Dorset Railway. \/
or I do like dhic001 idea for Gloucester and Warwicks,linking up with Network Rail at both ends(is the Cheltenham end feasible??).
or the Wombourne Branch,my local line when I lived in the Midlands.

 

not a restoration but the leader project would be nice with an endless amount of cash

 

The trouble with this thread is the more you think of it, the more ideas come to you!

Another one I wouldn't mind seeing would the network of lines that used to exist around Midhurst, from Petersfield in the west, to Pulborough in the east, down to Chichester in the south.

Then for good measure a vintage slammer to Havant, for a connection to Hayling Island.

One can but dream...!

 

The old Carmarthen to Llandeilo line (LNWR). It's the ideal length for a preserved line (about 10? miles) and runs past several tourist attractions including the National Botanical Gardens and Dryslwyn Castle. The station there was a gem with a level crossing opposite a pub and the river, all within the shadow of the castle.

Even better if you can get 5051 from Didcot to pull up next to the Castle it was named after.

The only problems would have been lack of decent terminus at either end and prone to flooding but a few extra £££'s could sort that out!

 

Dare I say Bala Town to Corwen!

And what about bringing those two 04's back from Australia? Or a new build for a long lost engine class like a Midland 3F or a J10 maybe?

Or The Robin Hood Bay line

or

the best of the lot... STAINMORE! including a rebuilt Belah viaduct!