Castle Aching

[brack]

When we lived at Leicester I often used to wander round the woods and reservoirs near the GCR. Travelled on it a few times. It is an unremarkable but pleasant line, in unremarkable but pleasant countryside for much of it's way. And that is what makes it more representative of the past than most lines - to me (age 37, no experience of the real past) it feels a bit like a real secondary main line, rather than an overgrown branch or industrial spur stuffed with massive locos (which is what some feel like).

Some of the stations are quite lovely.

 

Would I rather be riding over the furka pass or the cockermouth, keswick and penrith? In some ways yes, but that wasnt always the option on a saturday for an hour or two.

 

[Hroth]

44 minutes ago, Northroader said:

(baited trap carefully laid for when people come back in from rubbing noses)

 

Pokes trap with the ladle I'd just been banging the bottom of a pan with....

 

Safe now!

 

Nothing wrong with a Brush Type 2, in the right environment...

[jcredfer]

19 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Speak for yourself...

 

   Born more than three score years and ten ago, I am unlikely to be part of the "Modern" cohort which was referred to in the scientific results of research into lead in modern pencils.

 

J

 

[Northroader]

They started off with Mirrlees engines, mind. Sorry, strayed away from pregroup somewhat. 

On the matter of preserved lines, good luck to them all, even if it’s a five mile rumble behind a diesel in a mark one coach on a soggy wet day, like my last trip.

[Nearholmer]

Yes, it seems a bit churlish to moan, given all the work that people put into them, but I genuinely don't find many "heritage" railways 'worth travelling for', especially not as a family day out.

 

The ones that have interesting scenery, and where the ride is noticeably different from an "ordinary train", and have a destination worth arriving at do get the family vote, but others definitely not.

 

SVR and KESR have destinations; LBNGR and RHDR have 'unusualness' appeal; IoWSR is very well pitched for children, having a not-too-long ride in interesting coaches and a well-thought-out museum; Bluebell has vintage coaches (for me it has a huge amount more, but not for my family); WHR, Festiniog and Talyllyn are unusual and have stunning scenery and destinations; etc.

 

I'm afraid that the GCR scores poorly on all fronts from a family point of view and, TBH, it doesn't do much for me as a dedicated trainspotter either. MHR I'd say is for enthusiasts, not really having family appeal. Swanage has a great destination, but my family thought it was a useful "park and ride", of no intrinsic interest! NNR got half marks, because it seems to take you away from an interesting destination (Sheringham).

 

NYMR, WSR etc we haven't visited as a family.

 

But, right now, in lock-down, I think we'd count as a Grand Day Out riding in a grubby Mk1, hauled slowly by a tired diesel shunter, through a scene of post-industrial dereliction (I won't mention which heritage railways I have in mind there).

 

 

 

 

[sem34090]

That latter wouldn't happen to be located in the North East, would it - I think I know the one you mean. Good museum though!

[Northroader]

One of the team is making a model of that , I believe? Time we had a progress report.

[brack]

Best preserved line I've been on? Probably Blonay-Chamby. 1900s coaching stock, beautiful scenery, mallets and rack tanks, museum, both ends reached by metre gauge public transport (hell, they run steam into the SBB/CEV station at vevey) and after we'd missed the train and had a half mile walk to the MOB station, I asked one of the gentlemen where the path started and he insisted on getting a tram out the shed and giving my friend and I a lift!

 

In this country those which stick out to me are the Manx electric, the IoM steam railway, ravenglass, festiniog/WHR and threlkeld. Doesnt mean the others are bad (I rather like exploring the dump/graveyard at tanfield for example) but that's how I feel.

As a parent of small kids, sometimes the big extensions enthusiasts clamour for make the journey too long.

[sem34090]

I think the two best heritage lines in terms of coaching stock are Tanfield and the IoWSR (And, for a few months longer, the IoW as a whole!). I'd particularly recommend Tanfield to anyone who'd frequent this section of the forum - Although, I believe, an ex-BR line it has a beautiful light railway atmosphere with not a single MK1, and only a couple of bogie coaches, in sight. Even the 'restoration projects' (dubious description of some) in Marley Hill yard are interesting to look round - plenty of unique items there! Part of me wants to see them all restored, but another part of me would want to see them replaced with more derelict stock!

 

I'd love to know how that 3ft 6ins gauge Aussie pacific got there.

Edited April 30, 2020 by sem34090

[brianusa]

13 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

 

Profoundly reassuring, you two, thank you.

 

Meanwhile my daughter, who lives on US-teen Youtube content, seems intent upon sounding like a Valley Girl [Edwardian sighs and wrings his hands].

 

 

 

 

"Grody to the Max!" was the Valley Girls favorite expression at the time! Dig?

     Brian.

[brack]

40 minutes ago, sem34090 said:

I'd love to know how that 3ft 6ins gauge Aussie pacific got there.

It had been at a caravan park in tasmania for kids to play on for a while before it came to tanfield (on the coast, nice and rusty - the cab was so far gone it wasnt sent). I think most of the fittings were gone before it came, and it has a dodgy boiler as they swapped the good stuff off it before withdrawal.

The idea behind its purchase was that its built in the north east (RSH).

 

all 10 of the class are preserved, the other 9 back in tasmania - this one is in about the worst condition out of any of them.

[brack]

I know we're not in pregrouping territory here, but this is what it ought to look like:

[sem34090]

Goodness! It's quite handsome, as such locos go.

 

I remember when I first visited Tanfield, many years ago (by my standards - when I was in single digits), I thought it was some kind of Maunsell pacific - I noted the smokebox door, but not the gauge!

[Andy Hayter]

Perhaps unsurprisingly my favourite preservation line is the local Chemin de Fer de Vivarais - rebranded now as le Train de l'Ardeche.  

 

0-6-6-0 Mallet tank locomotives +/- 100 years old.  Rugged scenery - steep climb up through a river gorge - sharp curves, that mean you can sit at the back and photograph the front of the train or sit at the front and watch the crew as they drive the train.  

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I've increasingly come to feel that a number of the larger standard gauge heritage railways are best enjoyed from the lineside. The experience of travelling in an ordinary Mk1 TSO - or even Mk2 - doesn't really amount to much. One might hear the beat of the engine and get a few smuts in through the window but that's about it for on-board atmosphere. I'm afraid I'm not good news for their revenue!

 

I make an exception for lines such as the Severn Valley and Bluebell, that regularly field grouping and even pre-grouping vehicles. 

 

I would plead differently for the West Somerset Railway  starting at Bishops Lydeard you do feel a re-creation of those journeys to the seaside which were a feature of us oldies childhoods.

 

Don

 

ps Would an S&D 7F in blue livery count as pre-grouping?

 

[Donw]

On  business trip to the IOM I caused some surprise by rejecting the offer of a lift to the Airport for the return trip. I had worked out there was a train from Douglas which would arrive at Ronaldsway at a suitable time. I couldn't resist claiming the fair back as travel expenses. The only time I have been able to do so. When I was editing the Gauge 0 gazette Mike Vincent arranged the meetings to be held in a coach attached to the trains on the Forest of Dean Railway. A saloon coach, sandwiches supplied at lunch time tea and coffee plus an ocassional footplate ride my idea of the proper way to hold meetings.

 

Don 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The ones that have interesting scenery, and where the ride is noticeably different from an "ordinary train", and have a destination worth arriving at do get the family vote, but others definitely not.

 

 

The next time you are in the area, Tasmanias West Coast Wilderness railway is worth a visit - it ticks a lot of those boxes.

 

Opened in the late 1890's (so its pre-grouping!) to move ore from Queenstown to the harbour at Strahan.  Scenery is nothing shabby, coaching stock is nicely  polished, the ride is different thanks to the ABT rack and pinion system it uses (needed due to the steep grades - steepest is 1 in 15).

 

Stole these pics from the web since I don't have my own on me here at work. (apparently I'm essential and can't work from home!)

 

 

 

Destination (Queenstown) is worth a walk around, due mainly to the fact that all the trees in the area were consumed by the smelters and the pollution killed the rest so its like some American desert style town but in the middle of a rainforest (less so now that things are growing back, but still had that look when I first went there in the late '80's).

 

 

 

Famous-ish for having  the worlds only gravel footy field.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by monkeysarefun

[runs as required]

Those have got to be just the most persuasive pics of Oz I have ever seen.

2

I hadn't realised our own Durham Tanfield railway was so special.  

We have always loved it's works (at right angles to the running line) which you can visit on the bleakest winter weekend afternoon and warm up by the open forge hearth, before inspecting the 'yard of Hope' outside.

3

As a 'full circle' bellringer, my bell tower will be forever grateful to world famous bell founders (now former) Taylors of Loughborough for casting bells enabling us to upgrade an abandoned belfry of 4 bells into a new 8 bell ring - in good time for us to ring in the new Millennium.

We first approached them with some 'dead' bells from a demolished church in Blackhill (NW Durham  better known as a former NER station) which they reduced to molten bell metal to cast four new ones.

These were then very skilfully 'tuned' with our existing 3 c18 bells plus the big hour bell of an 1886 clock into a musical ring of 8 (with the old hour bell as no. 8, the big heavy 'tenor' bell).

The new bellringers in training at Newburn (of Swindon CME's house fame) were invited to L'boro to witness the casting of our new bells followed by the inevitable 'cold collation'. 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by runs as required

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, sem34090 said:

But true. They rely too much on their double track, I think - A nice feature, but a lot of the rest of it feels a bit dull.

Not really their fault though (disclosure - >40 years ago I used to dig S&T cable trenches on the GCR and rehydrate in the Great Central Hotel).

[Donw]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Not really their fault though (disclosure - >40 years ago I used to dig S&T cable trenches on the GCR and rehydrate in the Great Central Hotel).

 

No one doesn't aim to run a railway through the most up and down scenic bits. Unless of course 'this will make a great preserved line after beeching' pops into your mind while surveying the line.

 

Don 

[Nearholmer]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The next time you are in the area, Tasmanias West Coast Wilderness railway is worth a visit

I’ll bear that in mind in case of reincarnation.

[Edwardian]

29 minutes ago, Donw said:

 

No one doesn't aim to run a railway through the most up and down scenic bits. Unless of course 'this will make a great preserved line after beeching' pops into your mind while surveying the line.

 

Don 

 

So said the Midland's engineer in the 1860s when surveying Monsal Dale, largely in an effort to shut Ruskin up.  Both would have been disappointed at the outcome. 

[Compound2632]

For UK readers only, I'm afraid:

 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-through-millers-dale-near-buxton-derbyshire-midland-railway-1898-online

 

[Tom Burnham]

What a great film clip!  Filmed on 68mm (!) so very good detail for the period.  

[Compound2632]

Just now, Tom Burnham said:

What a great film clip!  Filmed on 68mm (!) so very good detail for the period.  

 

These 19th century films are of superb quality compared to what was to come later. Yet another case of Gresham's Law, I fear.

 

A couple more of my favourites, for those who may not have come across them when I've linked to them elsewhere:

 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-railway-traffic-on-the-lnwr-1897-online

 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-kiss-in-the-tunnel-1899-online-0