railways remembered

Post by **codrivermike** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 6:15 pm

Unfortunately I cannot see the reopening of the Colne - skipton line ever happening. For one thing the cost of rebuilding the infrastructure would never be recovered by the revenue that the line would earn from passengers. The return of services to the Blackburn to Hellifeild line was only possible because the line was still in place and in use and even though plans were made to extend services beyond Clitheroe and even as far as Morcambe, only the Sunday, Dalesrail service goes further up the line.
Would there ever be enough people wanting to use a daily commuter service beyond Colne to justify the investment. After all, if you want to travel from Blackburn, Accrington or Burnley to Leeds or York then there is already a route via Copy Pit so really you are only looking at passengers from Nelson and Colne.
Gordon Prentice I think it was that said reopening the line would give access to the Dales for walkers. Ok, you decide you want to go for a walk in't hills, so you travel from say Blackburn to Skipton and then change to a Leeds Carlisle service. Would it not be easier and cheaper to extend the service north of Clitheroe to Hellifeild and give access to the same areas that way?
From an operators point of view they would only want to run as far as Skipton anyway as services from there to Leeds are already covered by services from Carlisle and Morcambe and with the recent electrification, the Leeds - Skipton service could not be replaced with a Leeds - Preston DMU.
I'm not saying that the line shouldn't be reopened. I'm just being Devils Advocate and looking at things from a practical and financial aspect.
As for the idea of a bypass instead. Well the M65 just empties out into Colne with no way round. North Valley road is already as improved as it's ever going to be, so a bypass would create a better transpennine route and perhaps take some extra traffic off the M62. Except........ All the traffic that now gets stuck in Colne would get stuck at Saltaire instead.
What's the solution? Well I don't know. As a rail enthusiast I want the line reopening but as a courier I want better and faster roads and as a taxpayer I want it all for nowt!!

salopiangrowler · Post by **salopiangrowler** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 6:22 pm

Why not then extend the M62 past Saltaire Then the traffic Solutions gone from colne and saltaire all together. The Copy pit routes a more popular route. Istead of promoting the reopening of a new railway, improve exsisting ones.

mountainmanUK · Post by **mountainmanUK** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 6:26 pm

The Colne line would cost Heaps more than the Lanark lines costing now, and its about the same distance roughly.

The Feasibility Study quoted a cost of Â£28 million for the entire 11.5 miles.(at 2002/3 prices!). Not too much to pay for the benefits it would bring!. Why not let the Government sell a handful of Trident or Polaris missiles? Or maybe even get our troops back home a week or two sooner than planned? Either way would easily cover the cost of reinstating the Skipton-Colne line.

(Ooooh, I'm getting political and controversial. Please treat my previous comments however you want!)

Cheers,

Dave H.

salopiangrowler · Post by **salopiangrowler** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 6:29 pm

Thats only 2 million less than lanark. where as lanarks biggest cost way excavation and electrification.

depman2004 · Post by **depman2004** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:46 pm

Another useful line if it remained open was the Three Bridges (Crawley) to East Grinstead branch line.
Today is a joke, a bus that takes forever to get there because of bad traffic, and is not a constant service.
People would love to get easier access to East Grinstead from Crawley and vice versa.

Most of the old trackbed is now part of Worth way a public footpath and a few housing estates.

If I had the money and power I would rebuild it and put my own little steam engine on it

mikey2001 · Post by **mikey2001** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:58 pm

The Great Central Railway. It used to run close to my house, and it closed in 1967 I think, should have stayed open and would have allowed extra capacity and a third main line from London to the North.

jimmyladd · Post by **jimmyladd** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:11 pm

mikey2001 wrote:The Great Central Railway. It used to run close to my house, and it closed in 1967 I think, should have stayed open and would have allowed extra capacity and a third main line from London to the North.

The Great Central Railway was a company, not a line, so I assume you are refering to the London Extension?(see previous post)

d1010 · Post by **d1010** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:17 pm

The old southern railway route from Exeter-Plymouth via Okehampton
used to be a double track mainline would be a useful divirsionary route for when the ex GWR route along the seawall gets washed out every winter.

Zackybong1 · Post by **Zackybong1** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:28 am

d1010 wrote:The old southern railway route from Exeter-Plymouth via Okehampton
used to be a double track mainline would be a useful divirsionary route for when the ex GWR route along the seawall gets washed out every winter.

How hard woul this be? The trackbed is still clear from Yeoford to Okehampton isn't it, and is it still as far as Bere Alston at the other?

johny · Post by **johny** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:23 am

d1010 wrote:The old southern railway route from Exeter-Plymouth via Okehampton
used to be a double track mainline would be a useful divirsionary route for when the ex GWR route along the seawall gets washed out every winter.

Before it got ripped up it was used as a diversionary route. This all started in the late 1930s when the South Devon was washed away and the GWR trains were diverted via Okehampton. This led to crew training so that trains from either company could pass over each other's lines without the necessity of having pilots. This was achieved by using the other company's locomotives and crews on regular services.

This all, of course, became a necessity during WW2 for entirely different reasons.

John

d1010 · Post by **d1010** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:46 am

Zackybong1 wrote:
d1010 wrote:The old southern railway route from Exeter-Plymouth via Okehampton
used to be a double track mainline would be a useful divirsionary route for when the ex GWR route along the seawall gets washed out every winter.
How hard woul this be? The trackbed is still clear from Yeoford to Okehampton isn't it, and is it still as far as Bere Alston at the other?

Its been built on in Tavistock station area (Council offices!)
and several bridges missing and sustrans own a lot of the track bed past Okehampton .
one of excuses of closure was the state of meldon viaduct which was recently restored buy Camas who own Meldon Quarry.

The other route used by the GWR was the Teign valley line which left the Mainline at City Basin Junction and went through Ide,Longdown,Dunsford Halt,Christow,Ashton,Thrusham,Chudleigh,Chudliegh knighton and Heathfield and reached the mainline back at Newton Abbot would have made a great preserved line with several nasty gradients at the Exeter end. and a 20 ton axel loading
the diverted express trains Han three 51XX 2-6-2 tanks on the two at the front with one banking up to Longdown from Exeter st Davids.

Sadly most of the track bed ended up under the A30 + A38 the Exeter end of the line closed in 1958 so to early for Preservation.

allypally · Post by **allypally** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:27 pm

An interesting point, my half brothers grand mother owns and lives in the Stoke by Clare station buildings. Exactly where it is and what line it was on, beats me!

mikey2001 · Post by **mikey2001** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:36 pm

jimmyladd wrote:
mikey2001 wrote:The Great Central Railway. It used to run close to my house, and it closed in 1967 I think, should have stayed open and would have allowed extra capacity and a third main line from London to the North.
The Great Central Railway was a company, not a line, so I assume you are refering to the London Extension?(see previous post)

Yes, this is the line I meant, wasnt sure what it was called!