Re-opening Irlam - Timperley CLC Line

Just seen this in the Manchester Evening News, a plan to re-open the former Cheshire Lines Committee route from Irlam to Cadishead. Not much detail but it sounds like there's some money behind it. Watch this space.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...s/salford-trafford-steam-trains-plan-12805401

Pipe dream or real possibility? You decide....

(Edit: Ooops, thread title corrected)

 

I was just about to post on this. I'm going to keep a close eye on it and very possibly get involved in volunteering.

 

Oooh, a new livery to paint FS in, according to the CGI.

 

Given that it's only a couple of miles having what appears to be a pacific on it is a bit optimistic.

 

One question, Why?

Pipe dream.

 

Wonder how much it would cost to restore that viaduct, All for the sake of a couple of miles in unremarkable countryside with no real attraction/destination ?, The cost of repairing that viaduct just beyond Latchford Sidings at Warrington was enough to scare BR off and close that line so I can't imagine this one being an cheaper.

Please tell me he isn't naive enough to think each line only needs one operational locomotive ?, The word to describe that quote sounds similar to a Glasgow shed with a ST prefix numbered 65B...

 

Bit early for April 1st isn't it?
Ray.

 

This line is on network rails wish list to re open so that trains using Trafford park container base do not have to come through Oxford road station,they would reverse at Glaebrook east junction and then go to Trafford park but where on the list it is don't no .As for a heritage railway its a non starter its only a few hundred yards from where i live and this is the first i have heard of it.

 

Well...
It's got two things going for it. Very rich backer, and the entire route is unobstructed by buildings or roads, and in NR ownership, so it might not be too difficult to get a lease. I'm sure NR would like the money. If the guy's going to pump enough millions into it, it sounds like there's nothing fundamental to stop him doing *something* with it.

As to whether it's a good project as such or sustainable in the long term if he lost interest or something, that's a different matter.

I'm not at all sure how he'd get into Irlam though - that would need a reversal if the line was reinstated 'as it was' and there's probably not enough space for a chord facing the other way.

 

Going a bit pie-in-the-sky for a minute, is there not some sort of possibility that an agreement would be made with NR for them to use it for goods purposes eg in the evenings or early part of the week, and run it as a heritage operation during the day?

Seems advantageous to both as it cuts costs for both parties and gives the railway a mainline connection.

As for locomotives, I get the impression that there's a lot of small industrials and shunters around that don't get enough work but could haul a couple of carriages along a short heritage railway quite happily.

 

One fly in the ointment might be a future/ immentment development going in front of Trafford council this week which is a large scale development of the Carrington site covering over 1600 acres of land.
If it does go ahead, and it does seem likely to be given the green light, then different forms of transport into the area may be needed to take the strain off the already saturated road network, for example Metrolink using the old trackbed which runs alongside, and the spur off to the old Carrington power station cuts through the development area.

I just can't see it as a heritage railway, maybe at some point in the distant future it might open again as a metrolink/tram train loop from Port Salford round to Timperley but I don't think that will be likely in in the first half of this century.

 

I'm still trying to work out where all these spare locos are. From my experience there's more railways than suitable locos available!

 

Come back Paul Hitch, all is forgiven

 

irrespective as the lack of working steam locos are where are all the coaches going to come from, the days of dozens of spare Mk 1's laying about waiting for someone to just pop along and buy them are long long gone

 

Can't really throw this in with the other wibn stuff really, this scheme has the money and the local businessman with the will, he's already transformed Irlam station into something wonderful, got some hope for this one. So long as network rail play ball.

 

There's plenty of spare loco's it's just that there's very little spare money and not much spare engineering facilities either.

 

5 miles Glazebrook East Jct to Skelton Jct.

 

The question being asked by whoever wants to do it ought to be whether it can be achieved as a quality product, and that's where I get doubtful. A lot depends on what one terms as a quality product but for most visitors (even the fabled Joe Public) that does not mean industrial tank engines and cast-off Mk 1s. The lines that do tend to remain relative backwaters (Contraversial statement I know, but I think it holds true generally, which is part of the reasons why lines like the KESR have belatedly woken up to their future needs and invested in a fleet of GWR tanks. Another reason is of course that such engines are better suited to longer runs.

Building even a small fleet of quality locos and carriages will cost a lot of money, because even where locos and stock are privately owned the lines they are based on will try very hard to hang onto them and where they cannot the bigger lines stand ready to hoover up the good stuff (and even the not so good!). Its a case of the rich getting richer. How often do we see ex-BR locos for sale passing on to individuals or even other railways? Coaches are the same - look at the pages of CAR services for coaches for sale and its mostly stuff that no-one wants. If a Pullman or a good TSO or FO were to come onto the open market they'd be snapped up for a high price.

 

Thoughts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-39424802