Prairie_5542
Member
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2012
- Messages
- 274
Which line if you could choose to be extended, which one would it be and why?
Why can't Mid Norfolk run from Norwich anyway?
Or Ecclesbourne Valley from Derby?
Because the lines are busy with normal services, there isn't the room for Heritage stuff.
For me, I would love to see the Bodmin & Wenford reinstated back to Wadebridge, and ultimately to its former terminus at Padstow.
Wensleydale Railway all the way from Northallerton through Hawes and up to Garsdale.
If North York Moors Railway went to Malton it would make Whitby more accessible.
A post that illustrates the misconception at the heart of this thread.
Railway preservation isn't about opening up as much closed route as possible. It has to be sustainable. In many cases, there would be a diminishing return, for the extra expense of maintaining extra railway. it's not public transport.
Somewhere like the Moors, SVR, etc, are in the business of entertaining a family for a day, in return for their c£50 family ticket. If you can fill the trains with a 24 mile journey, there is no point in adding the cost of maintaining another 6, even if you could raise the millions to reinstate it (and bulldoze supermarkets, major road junctions, re - route to avoid level crossings, etc).
The numbers for Pickering - Rillingoton have been well and truly crunched, and they don't stack up.
My fantasy - to make the journey from Northallerton - Garsdale. Will it happen?
Sadly, I doubt it. Without public funding, the capital costs will be prohibitive. Beautiful though the journey would be, I think it would be too long for a family trip, though I would love to be proved wrong.
The North York Moors Railway would have higher usage and be more sustainable if non-car people could get there without an hour long bus ride, wouldn't it? Other connect heritage lines look to do better than non connected ones. And public transport does account for some travel, hence why Wirksworth is on National Rail Enquiries now.
A post that illustrates the misconception at the heart of this thread.
Railway preservation isn't about opening up as much closed route as possible. It has to be sustainable. In many cases, there would be a diminishing return, for the extra expense of maintaining extra railway. it's not public transport.
Somewhere like the Moors, SVR, etc, are in the business of entertaining a family for a day, in return for their c£50 family ticket. If you can fill the trains with a 24 mile journey, there is no point in adding the cost of maintaining another 6, even if you could raise the millions to reinstate it (and bulldoze supermarkets, major road junctions, re - route to avoid level crossings, etc).
The numbers for Pickering - Rillingoton have been well and truly crunched, and they don't stack up.
My fantasy - to make the journey from Northallerton - Garsdale. Will it happen?
Sadly, I doubt it. Without public funding, the capital costs will be prohibitive. Beautiful though the journey would be, I think it would be too long for a family trip, though I would love to be proved wrong.
It would be any line that allows access to it by rail- the Rother Valley /K&ESR would be right up there for me.
Why can't Mid Norfolk run from Norwich anyway?
Or Ecclesbourne Valley from Derby?
For me, I would love to see the Bodmin & Wenford reinstated back to Wadebridge, and ultimately to its former terminus at Padstow. Another would be the Llangollen Railway to Ruabon, and at the other end to its former junction with the Cambrian coast line, there's a few others too...
The bus runs Peterborough to Norwich / Lowestoft bus but is advertised at Peterborough railway station as Peterborough to Dereham in case intending Peterboorough Norwich passengers caught the bus rather than train. The bus provides a useful connection between Peterborough and Kings Lynn / Kings Lynn and Norwich but permutations between intermediate stops. Thus an existing "Peterborough to Dereham" bus service in its own right does not demonstrate the potential demand for a future rail service via the existing MNR.Hi.
Im not going to pretend that I know what im talking about, but someone earlier mentioned about passenger trains running from Dereham to Norwich.
Now obviously, sometime in the dim and distant past, trains did run like this. Also, I know that the last freights ran on what is now the MNR around 1989.
There is a bus service that runs frequently from Peterborough to Dereham market place. This must be for people who get off trains at Peterborough.
My question is... WHY?????
If there is enough justification for a bus to run permanantly to Dereham, why not upgrade the MNR for a passenger service. I believe there are occasional services on the MNR anyway. Please enlighten someone!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Hi.
Oh... as I was typing all that, Duffield had the same thoughts!
But how many people would you actually be talking about?
L&HR to Plumpton Jn thence Ulverston/Carnforth/Carlisle (and Coniston!!)
Extending heritage railways isn't all it's cracked up to be.
The Bluebell, when it ran between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes, was a delight, in particular trains were so frequent you could just turn up whenever, it didn't take too long to go out and back, there was time to look round the station at the other end, and such like.
Nowadays there's a much longer route but also much less frequent service, less classic heritage stock and more Mk 1s, the trip takes most of the day now which is boring to the non-enthusiast family members, and if you do just Sheffield Park to HK and back you are torn between a 2 minute dash between trains or waiting what seems too long for the next in the service.
As far as Ecclesbourne Valley is concerned, if there was a suitably signalled connection and suitable main-line passed stock there is no line capacity reason for them not to run into Derby on Sundays (e.g. they could alternate with the Matlock service which only runs every two hours on Sunday).
The reason is almost certain not to happen is that the cost of reconnecting the branch and signalling the connection would be £millions x X where X is unknown but probably something like 6 or more. For comparison, it cost £3million to include Worgret junction in a larger re-signalling scheme - and this was a special low price due to it being done at the same time as the rest of the signalling, and there was already a physical connection!
The only possible circumstances I can see it happening are:
1/ Local authority grant (as per Worgret) as part of a scheme to reinstate a regular scheduled service (but I'm not sure if there are enough paths into Derby apart form Sundays, and I'm not in any way saying this is financial viable).
2/ In conjunction with a Freight scheme (don't have any specific in mind) where the Freight company paid for the connection and got running rights.
3/ Very rich person dies and leaves loads of money for this specific purpose.
Mid Norfolk to Norwich would surely be a lot easier, it's already happened on special occasions and as far as I'm aware the junction is fully signalled etc. (correct me if wrong - the Wikipedia entry for Wymondham Station states " In December 2012, the signal box was closed and the semaphore signalling was replaced by lightweight LED signals controlled from Cambridge signal box." and I assume this covers the junction). There are surely enough paths from Wymondham Junction to Thorpe Junction but I don't know if there would issues with platforms/station approach capacity at Norwich. Apart from that issue the main problem would be providing suitable main-line passed stock.
Duffield is spot-on here. The cost to reinstate Duffield Junction is in excess of £1m although one factor is that 'passive provision' has been made to retain signalling interlocking even if the ironmongery has gone.
Capacity on the Duffield to Derby stretch would be an issue but I cannot see a circumstance where we at the EVR would want to run regular timetabled services to Derby. I'd never say never but it doesn't feature in any plans. However, to have a mainline connection would open-up the possibility of allowing through excursions: something that would be very attractive.
The real deciding factor would be freight. Should freight return to Wirksworth (not an impossibility, more of a long-term opportunity), then that would require the junction to be reinstated.