New heritage railway route miles

Anyone got any idea how many heritage railway route miles have been added in the last 10 years (standard and narrow gauge separately)? Presumably, if laid end to end (like the proverbial people in China) it would amount to quite a decent length - 100 miles or more? How many lines are actively extending at the moment (money, resources, legal work, etc permitting)? I've always been curious to know the rate of regeneration of many of the old trackbeds lost in the 1960s. I suppose from Belgrade I should be asking for the info in km and metres, but good old imperial measures will suffice.
Cheers,
Steve

 

Preserved Diesels has (reasonably) accurate mileage details for preserved lines, http://www.preserved-diesels.co.uk/railways/index.htm (click on the name of the railway, then 'mileage details'). I suppose, therefore, depending how dedicated you're feeling, you could work it out from that and a list of the opening dates of various extensions! ... If you feel like going to that much trouble, do pop back and tell us the answer! :lol:.

 

Robert, many thanks for the info and web address. I'll have a look and assess how much of an uphill struggle it will be to go through the lists and total it all up. I'll sure get back to you with the answer one day (month or year!).
Cheers, Steve

 

Minor railways online might have been able to help but seems to have disappeared (or perhaps moved - I have only looked at my bookmarked page)

 

The Minor Railways Online is now at http://www.scottjf.demon.co.uk/minor_railways/index.htm, although you really need the actual book 'Minor Railways', http://www.scottjf.demon.co.uk/minor_railways/mronline publ.htm as this gives full mileage details of all 'minor' railways. However it would still be quite a task to work out what has been opened in the last 10 years!

 

the spa valley railway are about to extend its running line 1.5 miles in to the mainline station at Eridge so add that to the figure when your done!

 

The Ecclesboune Valley Railway will extend its route mileage from 4 to 9 on 8th April. By my calculations (I put a spreadsheet together from statistics in Heritage Railway), this will make the EVR joint 12th in length for standard gauge lines.

Oh, and just for good measure, our service will connect at a main line station with the East Midlands Trains service from Nottingham to Matlock!

 

OK guys. Here's a down-payment. It's not the answer to the question I asked, but it's the total route miles shown on the http://www.preserved-diesels.co.uk/railways/mileages.htm#AV webpage. The total opened so far comes to 297.75 miles - end-to-end that's more than London to Newcastle! However, I couldn't find any information on the site about when each section of track was opened. I suppose it'll mean a visit to each railway's web site and rummaging around. Hmm .... How about a list of all the heritage lines that are actively extending at the moment? In random order as they occur to me:
Helston
Plym Valley
Shillingstone
Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust
Swindon and Cricklade
Bluebell
Spa Valley
Kent and East Sussex
Blaenavon
GWSR
Epping and Ongar
Northampton & Lamport Railway
MNR
Whitwell and Reepham
Telford
Cambrian Heritage Railway
Osrail
Mountsorrel
Moorland and City
Ecclesbourne
Peak Rail
Llangollen
Stainmore
Aln Valley
WRHA
Strathspey

No doubt I've missed some out. Feedback welcomed.
Cheers,
Steve

 

maybe we should run a book on who gets the closest guess

 

I think you need to set a few rules before opening the betting. Gauges, operational, carrying passengers etc.
I would guess around 50-70 over the last 10 years with NG lines with over 50%.

There, a number range and I am now ready to be shot down in flames....

 

Add Gwili to the list - 2 mile Extention to carmarthen being progressed

 

The WSR will soon be extending its passenger mileage of c22.75 miles by a further 57 chains from Allerford Junction along the West Chord to Allerford Bridge. Already passed for passenger use, this part of the Norton Triangle may see its first fare paying passenger train during the weekends of the Spring Steam Gala 19, 20, 24-27 March.

 

Rules? Hmmm, I did wonder whether there should be a distinction between just renovating existing track (like Moorlands and City), and laying new track where none had existed previously (at least since being taken up by BR or the previous owners). Although it's relatively "quick" to lay panels of rails, it takes much longer to establish all the associated infrastructure, safety management system, etc. Rails that don't do anything aren't much use, so I suppose the criterion should be open for passenger traffic. Standard gauge and narrow gauge should be counted separately. Is it just route miles, or would sidings, loops, etc count? Maybe a spreadsheet with the following headings could be set up:
Year Railway Gauge Total extra length of rails laid Total extra route miles laid Total extra route miles operational Total extra passenger route miles

For railways where existing track has been renovated, such as the Ecclesbourne, columns 4 and 5 could be 0, but operational miles could be added to column 6. Would that work?

My imperial measures are getting rusty, is it 10 chains 1 furlong, and 8 furlongs 1 mile? If so, that makes it 0.71 mile more for the WSR! Over to the rest of you to add the rest!
Cheers,
Steve

 

That's quite a nice bit of work you have given yourself... I wish you luck.

 

I tried setting up a spreadsheet as a forum thread, but it didn't work, so I've done it in Excel starting with 2010. So, anyone else like West Somerset Wizard who sends me info on track extensions for their railway will get it added. From memory new rails, varying from a couple of panels to several miles (WHR), were laid last year by:
Helston
Plym Valley
WSR
Shillingstone
SDRHT
Swindon and Cricklade
Bluebell
KESR+Rother
GWSR
Northampton & Lamport Railway
Whitwell and Reepham
Telford
Mountsorrel
Stainmore
WRHA
WHR (narrow)
Any offers on the precise length in each case?
Cheers,
Steve

 

With regards to the WHR, the answer very much depends on the question. Track *laid*? Track *opened*? and what timescale. The OP suggested track opened in the last 10 years, which would be from Waunfawr to Porthmadog, somewhere in the region of 29.4km, ignoring loops, sidings and the like, give or take a few,. Track laid in the same timescale would be about the same, since in 2001, phase 3 hadn't really kicked off and was about to hit the foot and mouth quagmire.

If you go with track laid in the last 12 months, as the last posting suggested, the reality is somewhat different. Again, ignoring loops, sidings etc, the track laid on the WHR since Feb 2010 can be very acccurately measured. None, since the physical reconnection had been made a year earlier, in February 2009. However in Feb 2010 the WHR was only running as far as Hafod-y-Llyn, so the line opened since then is in the region of 8.7km. This unfortunately, is the sort of problem you run into when trying to get a fairly generic answer to a non-specific question relating to a line that has been built as fast as the WHR has. 25 miles laid in 13 years is nothing short of amazing in the heritage movement, and shows both the dedication of the staff and volunteers, and the sheer oomph of cold hard cash.


John

 

Shilligstone has some 90ft of Bullhead rail in the cattle dock and a 40ft panel of flat-bottomed rail in the Up platform well. This last panel is due to be removed as next week we intend to start laying some of the 1/2mile bullhead we purchased earlier this year now that the bed is levelled, drained and ballasted.
Watch this space and update that spreadsheet!

 

Track laid at Helston will be one mile once the current work on extending to Truthall Halt has been finished (Spring 2012, exactly 125 years after the line was initially opened). Their website has pics of the work in progress.

 

also towards llanpumsaint(3 miles and half)
regards
noel

 

Difficult this one for me, how does the fact that up to yet, the Churnet Valley is running an extra 7 1/2 miles regulary this year, with about another 15 miles in the near future. It does not own the lines but has got a stake through shareholders in the owning company MCR. So does this qualify and is this the way to extend for more railways in the future