Ivanhoe Line

[Simon_R]

Ok so that's not it's official name, rather the name the campaigners were/are using to try and get much needed passenger services restored. What i'm waffling about is the goods only line from north of burton-on-trent that goes via Coalville and Bardon and joins the Midland in Leicester.

 

I know FL work the Bardon to Leicester section quite regularly as there are generally a couple of FRED's stables at Bardon and i remember seeing some excellent cab shots on the earlier RMwebs.

 

What i'm interested in is the workings to the west of Coalville, across through Ashby and down to the burton-Derby line. It passes within about 200 yards of my house but i haven't as yet seen a single train on it. I remember seeing a couple of EWS sheds crossing the M42 some years ago but that's it.

We have a signal box at Moira West if that helps as a passing point? It's definatly live as it's all been re-signed and tarmaced and the box has a NR hi-vis jacket hanging inside.

 

Can anyone with access to TOPS or Frieghtmaster give me the times of the regular workings?

[Simon_R]

85 views and not one reply. I guess the workings along this line are even more elusive than i thought

[great central]

85 views and not one reply. I guess the workings along this line are even more elusive than i thought

Sorry, don't have a clue about workings, but might be worth going and looking at the state of the railhead, even if it has not been used overnight (say) it will take on a fine coat of rust if damp. Depending on trains, it may just have a line in the rust or if longer trains are passing the whole railhead will become shiny.

Not much help, I'm afraid but may give some clues.

[Guest Phil]

The most recent working to my knowledge was the London tube stock delivery formed of top and tail class 20s, barrier / translater wagons and the new (??? type) tube stock.

 

There was a solitary return coal trip to one of the opencast sites, possibly Hicks Lodge, running from Toton via Stenson Jn. Whether that still occasionally runs, I can't tell you.

[eastwestdivide]

If you haven't found it already, there's a flickr group which could help at:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/807340@N24/

[Simon_R]

The new tube stock ran past my house? How random is that!!

I'm sure it does get used as i could have sworn i heard a shed the other night. It was definatly a shed type 'ying' and it did seem to move so couldn't have been to do with the industrial units that are the other side of the line.

A couple of 'non train' people in Ashby have suggested that there may be a morning and afternoon working of 'frieght' along the line so i shall continue the quest.

One thing to note about the line is that it isn't fenced for the most part. I could easily have strolled along the track on sunday morning. I'll have a look through the Flickr, thanks for the tip.

[Guest Phil]

The new tube stock ran past my house? How random is that!!

I'm sure it does get used as i could have sworn i heard a shed the other night. It was definatly a shed type 'ying' and it did seem to move so couldn't have been to do with the industrial units that are the other side of the line.

A couple of 'non train' people in Ashby have suggested that there may be a morning and afternoon working of 'frieght' along the line so i shall continue the quest.

One thing to note about the line is that it isn't fenced for the most part. I could easily have strolled along the track on sunday morning. I'll have a look through the Flickr, thanks for the tip.

 

 

There are Network Rail employees and other Railway personnel on RMweb so this post will almost certainly initiate Paillisade fencing coming to a railway near you sometime within then next six months !!!!

[Simon_R]

Doesn't it have to have trains to be classified as a 'railway' rather than just strips of redundant rusty metal.... It runs right through the middle of the Conkers development in the national forest so i'm pretty sure they are aware of it.

 

Apparently there's a tunnel as well

[sleepyrider]

I've worked next to the line in Coalville since September and seen one 'Fred' running light! It's strange though, it doesn't look derelict and I'm sure there was someone in the box at Mantle Lane the other day as I drove past.

[tubs01]

Sorry to reply to an 11 year old topic, but I feel like my life is a lie. I always thought that the freightliner 66s used the part of the line that goes through ashby-de-la-zouch. Atleast once a week I go down ashby just incase I see anything, and I know the line does get used, since the signals are on (this is the bridge on packington road)So, who uses the ashby section of the line and what for? And what is the best time to go down if you want to see it?

[Invicta]

When I'm not working from home, I work from an office backing onto the line in Coalville- we usually get a train of stone hoppers, bound for Bardon quarry, come through from the Ashby direction a couple of times a week. I think it usually passes through Coalville between 1-2pm?

Edited March 10, 2021 by Invicta

[tubs01]

15 hours ago, Invicta said:

When I'm not working from home, I work from an office backing onto the line in Coalville- we usually get a train of stone hoppers, bound for Bardon quarry, come through from the Ashby direction a couple of times a week. I think it usually passes through Coalville between 1-2pm?

Thanks, I'll try going a bit earlier then

[tubs01]

Currently waiting at the bridge on station road

[Northmoor]

Sadly the re-opening of the Leicester-Burton route to passengers is another example (like the Portishead branch re-opening)  where there seem to be an endless list of reasons why something can't be done, rather than an enthusiasm to get it done.  It's an existing (active) railway, has had endless business cases built to predict passenger levels, serves an area known to have been badly impacted by de-industrialisation. Yes I know the junction at Leicester faces the wrong way, but seriously, if this country can design and build HS2.......

[65179]

1 hour ago, tubs01 said:

Currently waiting at the bridge on station road

 

There's nothing booked to run today. The only train using this bit of the line in the last few days is the Tinsley- Bardon Hill which runs as required. According to Realtimes Trains it last ran on Thursday. It may run on Monday. If it does keep an eye on the actual timings here:

 

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/MOIRAWJ/2021-03-15/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

 

Simon

[tubs01]

39 minutes ago, 65179 said:

 

There's nothing booked to run today. The only train using this bit of the line in the last few days is the Tinsley- Bardon Hill which runs as required. According to Realtimes Trains it last ran on Thursday. It may run on Monday. If it does keep an eye on the actual timings here:

 

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/MOIRAWJ/2021-03-15/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

 

Simon

Thank you! Strangely enough though I found an estate where the line runs by (you can't see the line because of a concrete fence) and I heard a horn, not a 66 though, and I also heard the wheels but there was only a handful  so it was clearly a short train. Quite confusing.

[tubs01]

Also does anyone know what I could put in the location part that's closer to ashby? I've tried putting ashby de la zouch in before but nothing. Do bridge codes work? e.g. KSL 55 (station road bridge)

[65179]

2 hours ago, tubs01 said:

Also does anyone know what I could put in the location part that's closer to ashby? I've tried putting ashby de la zouch in before but nothing. Do bridge codes work? e.g. KSL 55 (station road bridge)

 

If you click on the particular train shown in the Realtime Trains page I linked to above it gives you all the timing points for that service, and as it happens all the timing points on your bit of line.  Therefore around Ashby it is Moira or Lounge Junction. Don't choose something that is in the system, but for which nothing is recorded. I thought the Clitheroe-Hellifield line was quieter than it really is until I realised no timings were recorded for Gisburn Tunnel!

 

Simon

[phil-b259]

On 13/03/2021 at 13:00, Northmoor said:

Sadly the re-opening of the Leicester-Burton route to passengers is another example (like the Portishead branch re-opening)  where there seem to be an endless list of reasons why something can't be done, rather than an enthusiasm to get it done.  It's an existing (active) railway, has had endless business cases built to predict passenger levels, serves an area known to have been badly impacted by de-industrialisation. Yes I know the junction at Leicester faces the wrong way, but seriously, if this country can design and build HS2.......

 

You have got privatisation to thank for that!

 

In the final years of BR, that organisation had drawn up plans to reinstate passenger services subject to a very small (by todays standards) contribution from HM Treasury towards the costs.

 

Regrettably, said Treasury first insisted they were too broke following the 1990 recession and then after the 1992 election that Privatisation was more important.

 

We are actually incredibly lucky what is known as the Robin Hood line to Mansfield actually got done - had it not been up and running by 1994 and thus 'a fact on the ground' when it came to letting franchises them it would no doubt have suffered the same fate.

[tubs01]

Also if the line was reopened would there be no station in ashby? currently the station is used as an office and I don't think they can force them to leave

[phil-b259]

9 hours ago, tubs01 said:

Also if the line was reopened would there be no station in ashby? currently the station is used as an office and I don't think they can force them to leave

Hardly an insurmountable problem - lots of reopened stations are either (1) on slightly different sites or (2) don’t have anything more than bus shelters.

 

The more difficult problem has been (1) the system of contracting out services and HM Treasuarys reluctance to do anything that upsets the franchise agreements or which increase the subsidy profile and (2) the way new infrastructure costs have skyrocketed over the past two decades.

Edited March 15, 2021 by phil-b259

[tubs01]

If it dies get reopened, which fortunately seems a bit more likely now, I do wonder if a brand new operator or an existing one (cross country?) would operate it. Also what units would operate the line, or maybe entirely 'new' ones like the repurposed underground D stock. quite an interesting topic really

[great central]

9 minutes ago, tubs01 said:

If it dies get reopened, which fortunately seems a bit more likely now, I do wonder if a brand new operator or an existing one (cross country?) would operate it. Also what units would operate the line, or maybe entirely 'new' ones like the repurposed underground D stock. quite an interesting topic really

 

Pure guesswork but I would imagine it would be fitted into the east Midlands franchise area, assuming such a thing still exists by then and operated by whatever rolling stock the TOC of the day has. If it's to link up with Leicester it would make a decent circular route based on Derby. Willington already has, or at least had, 'Ivanhoe line' shown on the station nameboards.

Racking my brain now to remember if the stations between Loughborough and Leicester have the same?

[tubs01]

Also interestingly, it says on the CRIL (campaign to reopen the ivanhoe line) website that on weekends, 'leisure' trains to sites around/in the national forest would run 

[tubs01]

Currently at the bridge, it should come through soon, the adrenaline's going hard