Moorlands and City Railway

A very productive day at Cauldon despite a team depleted by the change of day (Thurs vs Wed) and one of the gaffers joy-riding all day! Six of us, by dint of hard graft (and a little assistance from Si on the roadrailer ), managed to relocated and re-assemble the point recovered from the Tarmac Quarry bridge to form the east end of the much needed run-round loop. Certainly didn't notice any chilly breezes as we mopped the sweat from our brows, p/wayman!

 

They were sonicly checking the rail for cracks, flaws, wheel slip wear and erosion in fact anything that might cause rail failure in the future.

 

MCR (Un-Official) Website Has Been Updated Folks, http://unofficial-mcrailway.weebly.com/

 

Blimey, six of you and you didn't finish the point, I'll have to come up to help you out next week. I bet it looks good though knowing what a good job the team does. It was certainly cool on the exposed Moors, have a good soak in the bath and you'll get rid of the dint, see you next week.

 

Is the overgrown line from Endon to Stoke parallel to Leek Road, the one which will be cleared in the future?

 

yes from stockton brook to wall grange you can see the line in places.

 

Yes, and also the bridge over the road at Abbey Hulton. I'm looking forward to a large advertising hoarding appearing on both sides of that one, to give some hope to the frustrated "commuters" trying to make their way into the City!

 

I have followed a large part of the route out from near the Mazda Garage on Leek Road and then along the canal to Cheddleton.

 

Might have helped if we had had the mini digger to dig a track bed for us for the spur of the point. Compacted small limstone, tar and dirt is bloody hard to dig! ooooh me shoulders.
That was the last time the weighbridge will see any traffic for an unknown number of years. Hopefully it will get reconnected and used a cripple or rescue siding at some point.

 

Please could you post a direct link to the gallery. I couldn't find it!

Thanks,
Nigel

 

Some photographs of the line at Endon can be found on the Geograph site. http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=19246960

 

It will be interesting when we start to clear the Stoke to Leek Brook Junction line in March,to see how many twitchers will be about, making sure that no nests are disturbed. Could put months on the work don't you think.

 

The law is the law.

 

I know the law is the law and it will be followed by the railway to the letter. I was just remarking about the extra length of of time taken to refurbish the line to running order. Hope this has been taken into consideration with the timetable.

 

has anything happend on the signing of the lease then as on thursday there was no news? and greg said he wasnt sure how long it would take for them to get back to them

 

There is a link here Ralph.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/planting/hedges/the_law.aspx

As far as I am aware there are only a few exceptions such as feral pigeons. I remember years back a local farmer always waited until crow and magpie young were about to leave the nest before blasting then with a shotgun so as to bag the whole lot in one go. He never tended to bother with shooting the adult birds.

When I was groundworking with tree surgeons it was a regular thing to have to tell a customer in March-June that we have to drop certain trees/hedges in a couple of months due to nesting birds rather than being able to do the job there and then.

Neil.

 

I don't think it matters wether they are protected or not, we need to show that we are enviromentally friendly neighbours, we need supporters of the railway not anti railway nimbys.

 

I'd just like to point out that a twitcher is somebody who travels anywhere at the drop of a hat to see a rare bird. A Bird watcher or ornithologist is interested in birds in general, not just rare visitors, and yes I am a bird watcher, but most definitely not a twitcher. Its as bad as calling anybody who has any interest in railways a train spotter.
Jim