The Remembrance Line- The campaign to save the Folkestone Harbour Branch

We need all the help we can get-please sign this petition.https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...?source=facebook-share-button&time=1411981865

 

The above picture depicts Folkestone Harbour as one of the most spectacular scenarios on the UK railway system. The picture shows 2 classes iof R1! Oh and there's 2 more banking!

 

That'll be a Kirtley R1 then...

For a time around nationalisation 1708 was occasionally used at Folkestone Harbour, though apparently the local crews preferred the Stirling R1s.

Tom

 

It's easy - one's ex-LCDR design but ordered by Wainwright in SECR days. The other is ex-SER, rebuilt by Wainwright in SECR days...

Tom

 

The petition says we should save the station, but doesn't say how it could be used if it is kept. Who would maintain it? What would it be used for? If it is an important part of the Remembrance Line project (http://www.theremembranceline.org.uk), then why doesn't it say that? It would need more than the station to be saved to make this light rail happen.

 

We thought very carefully on how to approach the appeal petition-it seems to have worked very well without info overload. For more details check out our website on http://theremembranceline.org.uk/

 

By the way all the locos in the picture have 'H' class boilers!

 

Oh God, not this load of old piffle again!

Quite apart from my finding the name of the project distasteful in the extreme (i.e. using the memory of thousands who died in conflict to gain public support for your desire for your own 12in/ft train set), the whole project is pointless and unsustainable. It's as pie-in-the-sky as Alf's Asbestos Line in Luton!

You first proposed a traditional 'preserved' line, now it's a 'tram-train' service... you seem to change your aims every time your previous plan is proved that nobody apart from yourselves is interested. What wild plan will you come up with for the FHB next when this one proves to generate little interest? A launch ramp for space tourism?

Your obvious enthusiasm is to be applauded but, for goodness sake, put it into the KESR, RVR or the EKR and let this dead duck go!

Where's Maunsell Man when you need him?

Quite. Making it up as they go along, as always...

 

Can I ask... what does this image have to do with what you are proposing?

Given that, even if it succeeded, with your 'tram-train' service the FHB would never look like the depicted R1-fest again, isn't it more than a little misleading to use it as a hook to try and tug at the heart strings of enthusiasts? Just like your project's name cynically tries to tug at the heart strings of the general population? Tssk tssk...

 

But signing up to a petition like this is just saying DON'T do something. It doesn't suggest any sort of viable alternative, and I doubt would be seen very favourably by the council/landowner/developers.

It's easy to say NO to something, but you need to present the alternatives. Then people can make an educated choice. Do you want a £xm development, or a smaller development with a light-rail project (which will need access and presumably take up some land). Do you want them to demolish the station or let us our volunteer group preserve it (as what?)?

As a result, I'm out!

 

The first bit of good news on this thread...well at least the Maunsell Troll stayed in bed, with just a minor opo of his wishing he was around to spew out his usual brand of arrogant contempt.

 

That statement doesn't answer the questions you've been asked though, does it?

If you're going to ask people to sign a petition to save the station then you should at least have the courtesy to respond to those people's questions about what its future would be under your control.


Keith

 

This appeal, being made on the Forum, is asking a lot from enthusiasts, who are usually very generous with donations - how else would we have so many Heritage and other rail operations in the UK?
The facts one reads in the web site and other web pages is not clear at all. Originally a railway, now a tramway it appears. If it is such a viable proposition then why do the group not try to raise the money for what would be a commercial operation? If it were that viable I would have thought bus/light rail operators would be in the running, supported by the local authority, thus keeping the line open and no need for a preservation movement. There seems to be an awful lot of infrastructure to the line that a Heritage movement might find expensive and difficult to maintain.

I am uneasy about the name: 'remembrance'. I have seen mention of closure being an insult to those using this port in WW1. One web site suggests the line actually was closed during both wars however? Besides, there were lots of other ports in southern England which were embarkation ports - Southampton was called No.1 for instance. Richborough, Dover, Deal and WW2 the spread of ports was from north Norfolk westwards to Plymouth. There was even a Welsh port. The name of this project gives the impression that Folkestone was the only place - which is far from the facts.

 

Agree. From a quick look at the website I'm not clear what I'm being asked to support, or why is a good idea.

If it's a heritage scheme, why the tramway and Parry People Mover? If it's a commercial scheme, why the call to enthusiasts and history for something that won't demonstrate that history?

Either might be a viable project, if the agenda is clear. As it is, despite my like for the branch, I see nothing to draw me in or make me think that my support is likely to give rise to something tangible and worthwhile. Which, in turn, would make me want to ask what's actually wrong with the proposed development and what might be better for the town.

I have not signed the petition.

 

Not only is the whole project about as feasible as Alf's Asbestos Line, the posts by it's latest protagonist on NatPres are every bit as "LalalalaICan'tHearYou" as the great Roberts himself! Not to mention the legendary 'Mr Meon Valley' of this parish and the infamous BDLPG.

Just to correct your misapprehension, Austerity. I am not a 'minor oppo' (note correct spelling) of correspondent Maunsell Man. I don't even know the guy. However I do agree with his view on the merits (or otherwise) of this project and that it's being marketed in an unpleasantly cynical way. I also stand by my earlier comment about the picture of the R1s being used in a completely misleading manner, just to tug at the heartstrings of enthusiasts

Now, are you going to answer the (entirely justified) questions people have posed here? Or are you just another dreamer with no answer when it comes to the important issues?

Answer some serious questions and people might take you seriously. Ignore them, or just dismiss those asking them as 'trolls' or naysayers, and you may as well just carry on pi***ng into that bracing Folkestone sea breeze. Don't forget to invest in a sturdy macintosh.

Just because users of this forum are all, by nature, railway enthusiasts, it doesn't mean that every Tom, Dick and Harriet is going to automatically go "Wow, what a great idea!" whenever the latest idea/plan/Facebook page with someone desiring their own 12"/ft train set comes along. You're not the first and you sure as heck won't be the last...

 

The Parry People Mover and gradients, from the previous trials of this technology, seem to be mutually exclusive.

 

Just so. I have personal experience of how a Parry People Mover copes with 1 in 30. It doesn't.

P.H.

 

That's why you need the R1s...

See, it all makes absolute sense

Tom