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Heritage Railways expanding or extending

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Flying Phil, Apr 15, 2022.

  1. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    I know that there are many problems and difficulties which are associated with various heritage railways at times. However, I then thought of the lines which are extending or expanding with new facilities - the "Good News" aspect.
    Of the top of my head I thought of....
    Rother Valley
    Lynton and Barnstaple
    Corris
    Churnet Valley
    Great Central Railway
    Cambrian Railway
    Southwold
    Northampton and Lamport
    Bala
    Gloucester and Warwickshire Steam Railway
    I'm sure there are more to be added, it really shows that there is a lot of very positive news which is sometimes being overlooked.
     
  2. mdewell

    mdewell Well-Known Member Friend

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    Helston? (Not sure if they are actively working on reaching Helston itself or this is just a future ambition).
     
  3. bantamd14

    bantamd14 New Member

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    I think it is rather debatable about which heritage railways are extending, e.g. actively extending at present, planning to extend or long term plans. The G&WR for example are not extending at the moment, now that they have reached Broadway, but they have very long-term plans to get to Honeybourne.
     
  4. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    Good point batamd, but I put the GWSR in as I believe they are expanding their facilities with station buildings etc.
     
  5. garth manor

    garth manor Well-Known Member

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    Aln Valley have aspirations to reach Alnmouth from Alnwick
    Grantown still to be reached
     
  6. bluetrain

    bluetrain Well-Known Member

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    The Swindon & Cricklade has been making steady progress with its northern extension towards Cricklade, but the next step involves re-installation of a bridge.

    The Avon Valley has a long-term aspiration to extend from its current Avon Riverside terminus towards Bath, but the pandemic may have put that back a few years.
     
  7. Matt78

    Matt78 Well-Known Member

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    Gwili expect to start the new Car Park, access and Carriage Shed at Abergwili Jtn later this year.
     
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  8. Sheff

    Sheff Resident of Nat Pres

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    Strathspey?


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
     
  9. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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    NYMR expanding facilities at Newbridge.
     
  10. tony51

    tony51 New Member

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    Leighton Buzzard extension opens in a couple of weeks.
     
  11. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

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    IMHO the state of the the bank balances is infinitely more important.
     
  12. Steve

    Steve Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Have you told the senior management team, Bryan? ;)
     
  13. Davo

    Davo Well-Known Member

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    Embsay & Bolton Abbey steam railway worth a shout there, Plans to rejoin the Embsay jct back up so a D.M.U. service could be run into Skipton mainline Station or plans to extend from Bolton Abbey to a new station site at Addingham.
     
  14. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Much as I agree with you Paul, I think your point possibly belongs on another thread.
     
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  15. Martin Perry

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

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    Llangollen Railway new Corwen station should be open sometime this year.
     
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  16. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Without wanting to sound like a smartarse, aren’t all of our heritage railways very much like a 00 gauge layout, in there’s always some sort of extension or expansion that needs to be done?

    If there’s a day we have a heritage railway that comes out and says ‘yup, we’ve reached all our objectives and ticked all our boxes on what we’ve wanted to achieve’ then I think we may as well pack up and go home.
    There’s always something to be done.

    But I certainly think we’ll see a lot of expansion in other facilities, encouraging secondary and tertiary spend, for example I saw recently on social media that the Ecclesbourne Valley have opened a pub, whilst not necessarily an instant cash cow, if it’s done right it could in the long run prove to be a nice little earner for a facility that might be open not necessarily when the railways open.
     
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  17. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Absolutely, if you're not moving forwards you're going backwards, and there's absolutely loads of potential stuff that could be moving forwards that doesn't involve making the journey any longer, be it enhanced station facilities, enhanced operations, restoring more rolling stock, new sheds etc.
     
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  18. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Interesting about the pub, always a useful source of income for the SVR!!!

    On a similar vein, I’m always surprised that there hasn’t been a railway yet whose expanded the heritage aspect and opened a fish and chip shop such as the Black Country Museum have. It doesn’t have to be an original building, (although if it was and relocated from elsewhere even better), but at least using traditional methods.
     
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  19. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Does that mean a coal heated fryer? If so, after queuing for the excellent fish & chips at Beamish, I can see why - simple lack of capacity for serving crowds.


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  20. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Possibly, I don’t think it’s coal fired at the BCM, by traditional methods I meant using dripping instead of oil basically. They seem able to cope with crowds.
     

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