KESR axle loadings

Indeed there are limits but there rather too many "heritage loos" on "heritage railways" even now.

Paul H

 

I believe the crews quarters on RY "Britannia" were not special either.

PH

 

If you've seen the Queen's bedroom on the Britannia, you'd not be impressed.

 

Don't know how the W&LLR has fared this year yet. It runs through a beautiful landscape but not close to holidaymakers hotspots. Owns its land and all equipment without debt.

The IOWSR has just enjoyed a record breaking season, comfortably beating 2015 which was, itself, a record. Principal problem has been a rolling stock shortage. None of the carriages are newer than 1924. No we don't want any Mk. Is, there is an USP to protect. Stray Bulleid pacifics are not required either; they cost far too much to run

PH

 

Is the IOWSR going back to sea dredged ballast?

 

Autre Temp Autre Mors.............

Submarines anyone?

 

As far as I am aware, only the electric line uses sea dredged shingle. Somewhere on Youtube there is a sequence of 41298 doing some ballasting with the rather nice air braked 2o ton ballast hoppers. Definitely not shingle

Paul H

 

Parts of the railway are still on shingle ballast, some of it is fairly recent but the mainline is largely on imported stone ballast

 

I think you have rather missed the point of my questions. How are they doing from a heritage perspective? You have answered partly, but only partly. You emphasis what you see as the positives at the IOWSR and the WLLR, and the negatives elsewhere. I've never been on a photo charter, but the magazines suggest that many railways can turn out good approximations of 'how it used to be'. Many of these formations are seen at galas, often rather stuffed to the gills due to their popularity. For this reason usage is understandably limited on lines which are more popular. The WLLR limits the Pickering set's usage for completely understandable reasons. The IOWSR, as you point out, is getting very popular indeed and will face difficult decisions on rolling stock and motive power in the future if this continues.

 

The questions were a bit gnomic so I had to do my best.
My disappointment with railways which do have interesting rolling stock is that it does tend to be on "special occasions only". The Pickering set has been out rather more this year but there have always been advertised days when it is for use other than by special hiring. It is often operated as a mixed train with goods vehicles at rear. This necessitates complicated shunts at the termini which again shows "how things were".

On the Isle of Wight the Ventnor West set is in use whenever there is a two train service. It is also the Royal Train set so if you want to ride in the seat occupied by various Royal Family members, including H.M. The Queen, you can. It is often hauled by W8 or W11 as in the early thirties. That is heritage with a capital "H".

What does bug me particularly is the use as default vehicles of tatty and sometimes unclean stock, when stuff which is neither remains parked up in sidings. Not heritage with a capital "H"!

PH

 

I don't know.. that sounds like a genuine BR 1970's/80's experience to me!

 

I have come across an attitude of almost 'you can't let the public near authentically restored stuff', which then is usually followed by 'unless you make it exclusive by charging them a supplement and run it as an additional service'!

While I can have sympathy with those who have spent hours restoring a vehicle to pristine, 'better than new' condition being a little reluctance to let typical family with 2.4 children near it, in most cases, I do believe passengers have a better sense of 'something different' and 'something special' than they are usually given credit for and have tended to find staff can be rather worst for not appreciating such qualities (or seeing 'different' as a negative)!

There can certainly be a temptation to 'save the good stuff for special occasions', and I suspect this would tend to occur anywhere that has the choice - IOWSR don't! I do like to be able to see and ride in non-Mark 1 stock when I visit a line (but have nothing against really any loco hauled stock) and find it a shame it if that isn't possible except on special occasions - even worse if they are locked away or otherwise not even visible. Just as I think most in here would believe that steam locomotives were built to be in use and hauling trains, I tend to believe Railway Carriages were built to be ridden in!

Steven

 

I once saw a picture of 592 or 65 from the bluebell Railway at Kent and East Sussex Railway This picture was taken a couple of years back I would have thought that both engines were too heavy for the track but it appears to be fine for one of the engines anyway.

 

It as No. 65. Bear in mind the axle load of that locomotive is very low (less than 14 tons per axle on average) - indeed, the loco worked on the KESR in BR days.

Tom

 

I seem to recall that pre-preservation the O1 was only permitted between Headcorn and Rolvenden.

It is of course well within the current axle loadings permitted.

 

Thanks for that - certainly all the photos I could find from pre-preservation days showed it on the northern section of the line.

Tom

 

Yes this would have been correct. However its fair to say that the upgrading had begun even before nationalisation when the bridge over the River Rother to the west of Junction Road Halt was replaced with one of a main line standard. In the British Railways Era the weak bridge at Newmill Channel (between Rolvenden and Wittersham Road) which had been one of the limiting factors on the axle load was also replaced unfortunately this was never a success as the concrete abutments shifted causing the bridge to skew. In order for passenger trains to run it had to be replaced again by the preservation society. A decision was taken to go for an axle limit of 18 tons primarily to allow the USA tanks to run beyond Rolvenden. The other weak structure which required replacement was the Hexden Channel bridge which required required replacement before passenger trains could serve Northiam.
I think there are two factors to be considered here:
The first is that a side effect of the lightweight construction of the original Rother Valley Railway from Robertsbridge to Rolvenden was that it did not have the design life of a main line railway and that much of the infrastructure only had a life of around 50 years.
Its well documented the battle that the early preservationists had with Barbara Castle and the Ministry of transport which continues to this day with the Robertsbridge Extension.
Imagine the effect on morale when owners started to move locos away from the line because of the axle load limitations.