Peak Rail General Discussion

Yes, interesting manoeuvring, I would have thought that the new management at Peak Rail would be wanting a permanent solution to the Matlock platform 2 farce by now, I bet the run round loop as never been used by Network Rail as test trains are all push pull now.

 

I don’t have any photos to provide, but seeming as no updates have been forthcoming on this thread I’ll just say that the restoration of the Darley footbridge is well underway at an engineering firm, if not already completed, don’t know when installation will be , a lot of vegetation clearance has been done of the wall and postbox in the vicinity of the level crossing where the footbridge originally was, hopefully it won’t be long before we see this view again:

 

Not much news coming out of peak rail since @kestreleyes stopped posting here, I have heard that Darley dale foundation works for the footbridge re-instatement is well in hand, sub base has been sourced and ‘authentic’ reclaimed railway masonry has been recovered out of storage from the old buxton midland station site and is being re-cut for use as the footbridge plinths. The footbridge itself has most likely been restored by now.

 

Also Pete Briddon’s blog has dried up. Hope all is well.


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One item of news is that ex Weymss Private Railway No.15 is going to Peak Rail for all of this year. It was restored last year.
So that will give them four working steam locos if Peckett 2000 is staying with them for another year.

 

Its good to hear that a healthy rotation of steam is coming through the railway, a credit to the more positive management we’ve seen the last few years, since Mr waterman announced the disposal of his assets on the railway I had fretted somewhat on the long term future of steam at PR. Loan agreements rather than more permanent fixtures seems to be what the future looks like for the time being.

 

Did I hear somewhere (maybe this thread) that the Austerity from the EVR is also moving to Peak at some stage?

 

Incidentally Peak Rail currently has a very active facebook page though marketing rather than enthusiast driven https://www.facebook.com/share/1GBdMEj8FJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Their website also seems current. https://www.peakrail.co.uk/


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The re-worked foundation stones arrived at Darley dale recently, here are the uncovered original plinths for the uprights, in need of some attention, it’s all happening this year finally.

 

Railway Herald has a feature suggesting that Peak Rail is considering full line reinstatement options. I'm not a subscriber so don't know any more but I would like to hear more! There doesn't seem to be anything elsewhere on the internet, so can anyone reveal more?

 

Rather than Peak Rail, it's probably to do with these - https://www.peaksanddalesrailway.com/

 

This has been rumbling on for years.
To me it’s very much in the WIBN category. It’s not made it into any of the strategic rail reviews, even at stage 1 feasibility study level iirc.
Disappointing for those of us who were in at the launch of Peak Rail in the 70s but realistically the political case for need and funding just isn’t there.

 

Sad but true. I've lost count of the number of relaunches of this proposal. If a single mile of track had actually been built every time it's been resurrected they wouldn't just have reached Buxton by now - they would have reached Manchester Central.

I wish them well of course but if wishes were horses beggars would ride.

 

The VLR scheme is very much still in play, there are very few things peak rail can do with the reach and resources they have, what they can do is establish a visible presence on the ground in buxton, a lot of things are changing in the town and PR needs to be ahead of them before the initiative is lost and the station road site becomes rather truncated. All they seem to do at present is set up an information board when the spa express comes through.

meanwhile at Darley dale padstones have been cleaned up and bolt extenders attached to the original threads, some concreting to do on the other side and the restored bridge should follow on after.

 

Darley dale station bridge update:

The bridge components have returned and are at rowsley ready for the engineering dept to get their teeth into the many hundreds of rivets, and of course paint:


Padstones are fully done on one platform and all rebar and threaded studs are in place on the other, concrete pour is imminent:

 

Well that happened sooner than expected! concrete pours been done, seems like everything will be painted in situ, presumably with a possession in place.

 

Impressive stuff.
Interested to know what loco the boiler pictured between the loco shed and small brick building belongs to?

 

I think it’s off Hudswell Clarke S100 No.1822, the sister loco to cathryn.