Tweeddale Heritage Railway

[009 micro modeller]

I was reading about this new Scottish narrow gauge line in Narrow Gauge World, and there’s a bit more info here: https://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/people/ps200k-heritage-railway-project-is-well-on-track-3791094

 

It seems as though it will be 2’ 6” gauge and that they now have a suitable site to lay track, but out of interest does anyone know more specifically where this is? Some of the articles online seem to imply that it’s an old bit of standard gauge trackbed.

[Michael Hodgson]

Quote

 

That article says they are at Broughton, which had a station on the Caley line from Symington to Peebles.

 

Another link ..

https://www.railscot.co.uk/news/tags/tweeddale_heritage_railway_society.html

[009 micro modeller]

18 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

That article says they are at Broughton, which had a station on the Caley line from Symington to Peebles.

 

Another link ..

https://www.railscot.co.uk/news/tags/tweeddale_heritage_railway_society.html

Exactly - but it doesn’t say if it is on that particular stretch of trackbed. Their social media interestingly suggests that the Talla Railway trackbed was considered but found not to be suitable.

[papagolfjuliet]

Every time I drive from Peebles towards the Drumelzier/Dawyck area I look down at that line and especially the stunning setting of the viaduct over the Tweed by Neidpath Castle and think how wonderful it would be to reopen it, so I can't think of a project I'd rather support than this. Super stuff.

[Luke Piewalker]

They had a little model railway show at Romanno Bridge a couple of years ago. Had one of their narrow gauge locos outside. Then the next year it got snowed off. Then I think COVID happened.

 

To cut a short story long, I can't remember exactly their details, but they definitely exist.

[009 micro modeller]

2 hours ago, Luke Piewalker said:

To cut a short story long, I can't remember exactly their details, but they definitely exist.

They definitely exist and I don’t doubt that for a moment, and they seem to be getting on very well (though perhaps a bit more quietly than some other groups, though maybe they’ve found that that’s what works well for them). I was just wondering if anyone knew more specifically where they are based; the NGW article only indicates the general area and older articles might be incorrect now as I understand they looked at a couple of possible sites before they got the one they’re now using.

 

For a bit of trivia/interest, though maybe a little bit off-topic, I’m now wondering when was the last time that a UK narrow gauge project was started based substantially on the use of an old standard gauge trackbed? I think Apedale technically falls into that category so possibly that’s the most recent one, unless Golden Valley is more recent; the well-known ones (Bure Valley, Teifi Valley, Bala Lake, South Tynedale, Wells & Walsingham, Launceston etc.) are all a bit older and a lot of recent NG projects have understandably been based around resurrecting historic NG lines (Corris, L&B, Southwold and so on).

[papagolfjuliet]

18 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

 

For a bit of trivia/interest, though maybe a little bit off-topic, I’m now wondering when was the last time that a UK narrow gauge project was started based substantially on the use of an old standard gauge trackbed? I think Apedale technically falls into that category so possibly that’s the most recent one, unless Golden Valley is more recent; the well-known ones (Bure Valley, Teifi Valley, Bala Lake, South Tynedale, Wells & Walsingham, Launceston etc.) are all a bit older and a lot of recent NG projects have understandably been based around resurrecting historic NG lines (Corris, L&B, Southwold and so on).

 

The bit of the Gartell Light Railway which uses the old S&D trackbed isn't especially old. Late 90s, I think. 

[009 micro modeller]

3 hours ago, papagolfjuliet said:

 

The bit of the Gartell Light Railway which uses the old S&D trackbed isn't especially old. Late 90s, I think. 

Ah yes, forgot about that one. And it does ‘substantially’ use an old SG trackbed, unlike Alford Valley, for instance (which I think uses only a very small section with entirely new alignments on the rest of the line).