Anyone fancy joining a putative line revival project?

I have long tried to uphold good standards of written English. You will not find me transposing "you're"/"your" or "their"/"there"/"they're", for example. As in all things, I am not infallible. Politics? Well, as a Eurosceptic monarchist socialist who'd like to do away with the political parties and replace them with a Joint British Forces junta under the monarch's command, I doubt I'd win many friends in that sphere! Steam Railway - oh yeah, I am a subscriber and the new issue should have hit my doormat earlier this week. Should it fail to arrive, I shall be contacting the publishers to give them a right bollocking. I fear you overestimate the time I've put into this of late if you think it's all-consuming. There's a great deal else to do here, and writing does enter into it (a few bits of fiction which I think will probably remain for my eyes only). I also started a campaign some time ago to save a fine 1930s super-cinema from an insensitive redevelopment, but unfortunately lost that one - not only because planning permission was obtained for the wrecking but because the building's condition was deteriorating so rapidly as to make its restoration impractical. A few NIMBY issues there too.

Saggin' Dragon, don't forget the founders of the Bluebell originally wanted to preserve the whole caboodle - Lewes-East Grinstead and the Ardingly branch to boot. It's good to have long-term aspirations to work toward, even if achieving them would be a monumental task.

One thought that occurred to me some time ago: if a heritage railway were to host a community rail service (assuming it has a NR connection), rather than running it itself, could it be possible to just make paths available to one of the local TOCs? Both SWT and FGW have DMUs in this area.

 

Depressing as it is to reflect, you could generate a lengthy thread on schemes that fell short, or failed completely. For me personally, having been involved in the early decades, Peak Rail has been a massive disappointment when measured against the original prospectus.

 

I remember reading about PR way back in the 90s, when I was a little kid - it seemed terribly exciting, something on a par with the Great Central. It has yet to deliver on that - hindered in no small part, it seems, by the Peak District National Park Authority. Not the only NPA to hinder railway reinstatement, of course! However, Pete Waterman's relocation of his fleet to PR is interesting. I also wonder if "Peak Rail" isn't the most appealing-sounding name they could come up with...

 

Sidmouth - two of us are pretty committed, separate to the possible investor. I am well aware that the lack of experience is a big problem, which is why I originally started this thread, recognising that, without sufficiently experienced people, the proposal would go nowhere fast. I am aware of South Bedfordshire and the other aspirations of Alfred Roberts, and have been warned off him. He seems well-intentioned, earnest, even eloquent, but a very odd character - and clearly not getting much backing. There has to be a reason for that!

 

I think you miss the point - your characterisation of the LWR may be harsh, but I doubt they'd be in a position to deny it altogether.

If you aren't going to take @Sheff's excellent advice, you really need to broaden your perspectives on the good, the bad and the ugly of rail reinstatement - both "heritage" and "national network". In my c. 30 years of armchair enthusiasm, some schemes come to mind as relevant examples. For the "national network", why did Aberdare or Paisley Canal succeed, but not the 1980s campaign to reinstate to Dunstable? What were the factors that got the Borders Railway off the ground and through a supermarket carpark in Galashiels?

In preservation, why have the likes of Churnet Valley or GWSR been able to achieve so many of their ambitions, but Peak Rail or LWR only been able to achieve some of the ambitions they published 30 odd years ago? Why have other schemes hit troubles, and how did they get through them?

I'm sure there will be people on this Forum who will give you views on one or other of these; I doubt that the information you would really need would be well gleaned from public postings. That cannot be done online or in the library, but only through personal contact with people on all sides of the debates that these schemes will have had.

 

Martin/Dragon, how about Helston, or the Garw Valley Railway in South Wales? Mountsorrel branch off the GCR? A mile or so of the SVR's Bewdley-Stourport branch is also to be rebuilt, albeit I think by a commercial concern.

35B, I am certainly not rejecting Sheff's advice out of hand, and am about to send him a PM... have there actually been any NR reopenings other than the SNP-forced Borders Railway? I certainly don't see a modest wee branch line attracting NR support, especially when much more major lines like that to Ringwood (also in the 2009 ATOC report) got overlooked. The Churnet Valley has obviously now got the backing of Moorland & City Railways Ltd... I would be interested to hear more of the GlosWarks though, as they seem to be largely self-supporting. Reading between the lines, I wonder if there was something of an exodus from the SVR in the Michael Draper era?

 

My aspirations aren't necessarily huge - if I can get a brake van running on 200yds of track, that'd be a start... everything could follow on from there... S&D at Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone haven't been going much more than 10 years... albeit not standard gauge, the Lynton & Barnstaple came back after a much longer closure than any ex-BR line, ditto Welsh Highland...

 

Richard,

All good questions, but ones that I suggest you study in the library and by getting out and talking to people, not relying on those who come onto a Forum like this. In particular, I worry that you have the wrong end of the stick in many ways. For example, NR are an infrastructure provider, not an operator of services. So why would NR reopen Cranleigh or Ringwood without a push from those would operate &/or fund an operation.

Slow down, do some real research, visit places, talk to people, and then take time to think and absorb what you are hearing. When you've done that, then start thinking about whether and if so how you could apply that learning to what you want to achieve.

One other observation. Here, you are looking for support to drive a scheme off your own bat. On another thread, you suggest the need for a group to validate and co-ordinate the development of new builds. Regardless of whether preservation is best driven bottom up or top down, your thinking is fundamentally inconsistent. No top down scheme would focus on Cranleigh; your thinking about co-ordination completely misunderstands the role of the passions that drive your ambitions, and those of other would be and actual preservationists.

If you genuinely want to be taken seriously and not dismissed as a fantasist in the mould of Alf Roberts or others, pause and ask yourself what your posts say about you.

 

I know that NR is an infrastructure manager, not a TOC. I don't know where you got the idea I was unaware of this. The point is, NR is the one that ultimately has to reopen a line if it's to be done as part of the national network. If SWT couldn't push for Ringwood, I doubt very much that they'd succeed (or even be bothered) with Cranleigh. As it happens, I was just thinking about whether the HRA could perhaps also play some role in structuring the new line projects so we don't end up in the mess that the Cranleigh line group has dragged itself through!

 

You could also cite the Caledonian Railway. They had the significant benefits of two existing stations to run in to and a completely unobstructed trackbed. Yet, 20 years on - and despite how incredibly hard the small band of volunteers obviously works - the railway still has virtually no beans to rub together. No covered platform space, no signals, industrial-loco-on-a-few-Mk1s, limited running days, etc. Two decades on, four miles of track and even the most modest of extensions is in the realms of fantasy.

I admire the OP's persistance and the fact that, at 23, life seems infinite. But I fear all this hope and optimism he continues to exude will only end in disappointment and bitter hindsight that "I wasted a bunch of my life on that bloody railway idea."

His eloquence is commendable, but was I the only one to pick up on his mention of being a 'college dropout'? It's not for us to speculate on his personal life but, given the cataclysmically huge gulf between the challenges of completing a college course and those of building a railway, I can't help but wonder that, if he couldn't complete a college course without dropping out, how long would he last once the fantasy of his railway reopening scheme began to turn to the vast amount of hard work to turn it into a reality?

I am really sorry to say this, but this is starting to sound more and more like Planet Alf Mk2. A little more eloquent, not quite so contrary and I'm assuming Cranleigh is slightly less of a dump than Dumpstable, but it's still all just a bunch of written puff and very, very nebulous 'potential sources of funding'. And there are startling similarities in his capacity for going "Yeah, but...." "Yeah, but...." "Yeah, but..."

By the way Mr Dragon, I had no idea you were in my neck of the woods...

 

By the way, as a professional writer myself, do not underestimate the challenges of making a living if you want to go down this route! It can be incredibly rewarding in a creative sense, but I'm twice your age and still prety much skint (although the collapse of a 20 year marriage hasn't helped on that score! )

 

Aln Valley?

 

That's something of an understatement, *but* unless you live there, aside from cycling around the Olympic circuit, there's not a lot to attract tourists. The route to Guildford is nice enough if tree-lined cuttings are your thing, but there's generally not that much to look at.

Simon

 

The BBC radio 4 program is "Mark Steel's in Town" Melton Mowbray, Series 6 Episode 2.
I don't think it is currently available on iPlayer.

Robin L