Rotting away?

To say nothing of the fact that the Pickering-New Bridge section is the only part of the line which is not in the National Park and subject to stringent planning conditions. Within the park, new buildings associated with the tourism industry are only permitted if they will not generate additional noise and activity which may be detrimental to the quality of life of local residents, as a result of which the only place within the Park where new facilities can be added is the MPD. Even so small and remote a new structure as the weighbridge catering outlet at Levisham only has planning permission to open on a limited number of days.

 

It cannot be easy and I sympathise but..... Are the Park authorities really more content for railway equipment which may not be in parade ground condition being on open view rather than being camouflaged by a building which the said authorities can approve the design of? Perhaps they are.

@gwalkeriow can comment with more authority than me about how a tourist railway can co-exist when bordered by A.O.N.B.s or S.S.S.I.s. It can be done.

PH

 

The NYMR went through a lot of grief to get the Atkins carriage repair shed built at Pickering. If I remember correctly a fair bit of opposition from a couple of locals regarding their view being spoilt, plus the railway was offered some land to rent for car park at Pickering which the local council opposed.

 

But to do so you needed (and were seemingly fortunate enough to have had) lanowners amenable to selling.

 

New Bridge Long Siding and P Way depot are outside the Park (the boundary is just north of the yard), and such stock as is stored at the intermediate stations is in generally good external nick. That just leaves the MPD, which the Park authorities are presumably not too bothered about because it is an industrial site with no immediate neighbours.

The irony is that right next door to New Bridge depot and within the Park itself is a farmyard which always looks as though a bomb has hit it.

 

Who knows which "side" was being "awkward"? I certainly don't.

PH

 

It is not something that I dealt with on a personal level but we do have to treat our neighbouring S.S.S.I. with the greatest respect.

Our greatest difficulty has been with the Official that is in charge of hedges, Those of you familiar with entrance/exit at Havenstreet will be aware that the visibility is almost none existent in either direction, the railway sounded out the local authority about the possibility of moving the entrance onto a straight stretch of road and closing the old entrance, the answer was a resounding no from the Hedge man! He then went on to claim that the hedge that boarders the drive way that goes past the houses was a Saxon hedge despite photos from the 1960s and 70s showing that no hedge was present at all. In fact the hedge was planted by the present Railway. Some people seem to have a strange view all of their own.

 

How fortunate that the land became available to buy.

Sawdust.

 

If I remember correctly Swanage started with just the station and extended from there onwards.

So at what point should they have built storage sheds for carriages.

Sawdust.

 

We have indeed been fortunate. I think that seven different parcels of land were purchased from various owners and very rarely at the initial asking price. In some cases a number of years elapsed before a lower offer was accepted. Somebody at Havenstreet must have amazing negotiation skills.

A further benefit to the land acquisitions is that no one can build houses right next to your centre of operation and turn into NIMBYS.

 

Well, I don't want to point the finger particularly at any one line and there are others who have been around for longer than Swanage. Once again @gwalkeriow deals with the issue, this time in Post #130. If you don't get on and make a start to acquire parcels of land to go towards an eventual larger total holding then nothing will ever happen. (A truism I know but it seems it needs to be said).

Incidentally, a modestly sized pocket of land acquired at Havenstreet is ancient coppice which is an S.S.S.I. This is now the subject of a traditional coppicing regime and inf0rmation boards are displayed for the information of visitors. It's not all about trains!

PH

 

... which will only happen that the land is there in the first place, that the owner is prepared to sell, and that it can be used for the purpose.

You can't criticise a railway if these three criteria can't be met. Or equally praise another for achieving it just because they happened to have the right situation. It doesn't matter how much fundraising you do or how good a business plan you have if there simply isn't the appropriate and available space to do it.

To be honest, it would be kinder to praise railways for what they do achieve *without* the relevant facilities rather than try to compare or criticise them.

Your pet railway project may have been fortunate.

 

I think you need to read again what was actually said. For my part, I particularly said I did not want to point he finger particularly at at any organisation, @Sawdust specifically mentioned Swanage not I but I did say there were other places which had been around longer. @gwalkeriow referred to land assembly (the proper term I think) at Havenstreet, involving around seven different transactions, some involving negotiations over a period of years. Not exactly straightforward I would have thought but the point is that it has been done. Others have been successful also. More need to be.

PH

 

But the point remains, that you can not buy land unless the owner wants to sell or lease it.

Sawdust.

 

I am glad you mentioned leasehold. It could be a way out if landowners did not wish to dispose of their family heritage for all time. If the railway itself operates by virtue of a lease, there would be added advantages.

PH

 

Low level vents at without roof vents will do little in the ventilation stakes and will leave stagnant warm air at high level leading to the inevitable condensation. Ridge ventilators are very cheap to install at high level during construction - post construction can be awkward (£) unless spacing is left at the ridge with the top two purlins (roof steels for the uninitiated) further down slope to retro fit a ridge vent. I would NOT recommend the type of roof used on the Carriage Shed @ Sheffield Park with louvres in the vertical in a raised section, they are not as effective and in certain wind directions make things worse and more to the point are more expensive.

 

Can you actually point to any railway that has turned down the opportunity to acquire a sizeable parcel of land suitable for a locomotive or carriage shed development? I don't think I can and that suggests to me that your pet theory of "big chufferitis" has no basis in fact. It has already been demonstrated that in general most of the early locos to leave Barry were small to medium sized engines acquired by heritage lines, not the larger express types which tended to be bought by organisations wanting to return them to the main line. I can also tell you from my own experience that those of us involved in the restoration of any form of rolling stock are acutely conscious of the desirability of a. somewhere dry and warm to work and ideally somewhere dry to keep them when finished. There are numerous examples of groups that have built workshops for restoration but few examples of storage sheds built by rolling stock owners because of the non-availability of land. Moreover, many restoration groups have been around a long time so I don't think that the lack is for want of trying.

You support an organisation that has a singular background and has been fortunate in the opportunities that have arisen for it, please don't generalise and criticise the rest of the movement for not taking opportunities that they may not have been presented with!

 

I would be extremely surprised if any railway did not have to make the first move to acquire land or that landowners might be reluctant to sell. Some of these places are not the tidiest of neighbours and @gwalkeriow has already referred to the risk of nimbyism. However a considerable proportion of them has now been operational for in excess of forty years which is quite long enough to develop reasonable relationships with these owners and raise the funding needed. You can be quite certain that extension projects would not have to wait this order of time.

The Dartmouth Steam Railway demonstrates for one that a small/medium sized locomotive is sufficient to haul trains over a severely graded line. This is on a railway that was engineered to accept machinery of considerable size "in the day" and not an erstwhile branchline.

PH

 

Largest is a "Manor", the smallest a small "Prairie".

PH