Defunct heritage railways

[341o2]

There was an attempt to save Barnstaple - Ilfracombe, but never got off the ground & society folded.

David Shepherd's locos were once based on the Longmoor military railway, Liss Hants. Plans to turn the main line into a heritage railway met with local opposition. Relocated to what is now the East Somerset

The Isle of wight steam railway originally had its HQ at Newport station, but the site was aquired for the bypass, hence relocaton to Havenstreet

as mentioned, the S&D trust once occupied Radstock, again local opposition hence relocation to the WSR

 

[PaulLothian]

Say Whut?

I think you'll find that they have always been one company

Well since 1933 anyway!

http://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Welsh_Highland

The relationship between the Festiniog and the Welsh Highland has never been less than complicated! The article that you link to makes it clear that they haven't been technically one company since 1933. Both were under common control and the FR leased the WHR.

In any case, there is still the separate Welsh Highland Heritage Railway in Porthmadog, which hoped for many years to take on the re-opening of the WHR - see: http://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Welsh_Highland_Heritage_Railway

 

[341o2]

The society that planned to reopen the Welsh Highland had 1964 added so it is a different company. Their section of line is on a new formation, their proposal was to extend onto the actual WHR trackbed towards Pont Croesor as the next stage, but reconstruction passed to the FR, so this railway has nowhere to extend to

From Northern Ireland. Shane's Castle Railway closed and rolling stock transferred to a reconstruction of the Giant's Causeway tramway. also attempts were made to save a stretch of the County Donegal railway, this is debatable regarding the definition as per the OP as a museum has been set up

An attempt was made to reopen the Bodmin & Wadebridge line

Isle of Man railway. Was it 1965 or 1966 when no trains ran at all. Then the entire system reopened, but the lines to Peel and Ramsey only lasted a few years before being closed and dismantled.

reading the above, to be precise, the system on the Isle of Man as it existed prior to closure was reopened - the three lines to Port Erin, Peel and Ramsey. Foxdale branch not included

 

[Smethwickian]

Methinks there be simply too many preserved railways in Blighty - perhaps austerity will weed-out the dross ?
The only such with any future should be those with a decent length of line to run trains along - five miles minimum ? Also, those which encompass other railway or heritage attractions - the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, the Nene Valley Railway, The West Somerset Railway....

Agreed.

I just cannot see how tiny preservation centres with a handful of carriages and a loco, shunting people for just a few minutes from nowhere in particular to nowhere else in particular, are viable.

Just think what might have been achieved if instead of spreading the available fundraising, expertise, goodwill and volunteering among scores of tiny little vanity projects, it had been directed over the past 40 years to those longer lines with a decent tourist potential and even, dare I say it, the potential to perform a useful public transport function.

 

[341o2]

continuing from this, a key part of reopening the Bodmin & Wadebridge would be that china clay traffic would revert to rail. when the quarries decided to stay with road transport, the scheme folded.

Mention earlier of the Rommney Hythe & Dymchurch. Yes, it did nearly fold. It now has a contract to transport schoolchildren, so it is more than another heritage line

This of course brings mention of the Swanage line which faced uncertainty over the proposed Corfe Castle bypass, and did very nearly collapse due to its finances. When it resumes regular services to Wareham, it is hoped that it will become of the rail network, commuter use even.

The success of the Ffestiniog is in part due to the fact that it runs right through the Snowdonia National Park, a recent copy of the Woodland Trust magazine carried an article on waling routes between various Ffestiniog stations

 

[The Decapod]

Just think what might have been achieved if instead of spreading the available fundraising, expertise, goodwill and volunteering among scores of tiny little vanity projects, it had been directed over the past 40 years to those longer lines with a decent tourist potential and even, dare I say it, the potential to perform a useful public transport function.

I don't think any heritage railways have been able to sustain a purely non-tourist public transport role to date. And why are smaller railways seen as vanity projects any more than the longer ones? Most heritage railways started as someone's 'mad idea' and began operation as a short piece of usable track. Gradually as projects gathered pace, track was extended, buildings restored and nice shiny things appeared to move along the tracks. Some railways have been lucky and been able to extend for miles and miles, while others have come up against immovable obstacles, whether physical or financial.
These so-called 'vanity projects' are local to a lot of volunteers and if they closed down those volunteers wouldn't necessarily transfer to a longer line that's further away.

 

[341o2]

I don't think any heritage railways have been able to sustain a purely non-tourist public transport role to date.

Agreed, but the slogan of that well known institution which has come under fire for selling shergar burgers "every little helps" heritage railways also run refreshment rooms, fundraising activities, Thomas the Tank engine weekends and so on, with the aim of raising the necessary funds to operate the line.

Its been said that one of the biggest problems of the southern region is that much of its traffic is the large numbers of people wanting to travel in one direction for a short time

The Swanage railway will be far more attractive once regular services to Wareham are established - I may well join it, because currently a 10 minute walk, Wareham in about an hour. To drive there at peak times means lengthy delays between the A35 and Wareham, or the frequency of the Wareham - Swanage bus service meant half the day spent in getting to and from the line

Not quite a failure or near failure, but the Great Central was once proposed as the main line steam trust, and proposed to recreate a steam hauled express line

Is it stretching this thread too far to consider locomotives which failed to survive such as the last Claud Hamilton scrapped by mistake, or the Furzebrook locos which survived closure also to meet the same fate

And what was the fate of some preserved diesels targeted by metal thieves