Reorte

They also look like the building by the road at Kirkby Stephen that's (presumably long) gone now, which so far I've only seen as a small thing in the background. That's very handy.

Might've been mentioned earlier in the thread but whatever happened to all the containers? Call me daft but I'd like to see one in the NRM.

Just goes to show though don't assume that everyone knows about something. A quick word can sometimes do a lot of good.

Contrary to a lot of people I like the weather better than anywhere else, (usually) not too hot or cold and even being out in bad weather can sometimes be quite enjoyable in a strange way. It has its periods where it's dull and damp for a bit too long but overall I'd rather have British weather than something traditionally "nice". I spent 15 months in the south of France and started finding the endless sunshine rather dull. Not too little sun to really, desperately want it and not too much that I don't appreciate it when we get it.

Sorry, I should stop dumping my moans on forums (at least unless they're definitely on-topic ).

Any time I'm somewhere quiet and attractive (which includes feeling like there isn't somewhere big and noisy just out of sight). Sitting outside the pub in my parents' village (just outside the Lakes, so misses most of the tourist traffic that's helped turn that place into some sort of museum) on a nice summer evening, you just don't get that anywhere else in the world. A distant Scottish view where the only obvious signs of humanity are a few small specks is pretty impressive too. Pity we seem hell-bent on spoiling as much of that as possible (stick up some wind turbines! build enough bland, characterless houses to treble the size of the place!) The continual gradual erosion of all the things that I love about Britain leaves me permamently angry and depressed.

Don't some services currently terminate and reverse at New Mills Central? The signal box is still there too so would the terminating trains just running up the branch instead, and the box controlling access to the branch, have worked without very much additional overhead?

I've no idea what it's like these days but I used to travel from Yelverton to Plymouth for school every day (not that the railway is coming back to Yelverton). It was fine over the moors but awful as soon as you hit town, and I can't imagine it's gotten better. A train would've meant a big improvement, even if it meant a walk at the far end (usually walked to the station to catch a bus in the evening anyway). Even with a wait due to an infrequent service I could still imagine a train would've been overall quicker, and certainly less annoying. Like I said it's not an option from Yelverton but I can't see that that wouldn't apply to Tavistock even more.

I disagree - what it needs is to not be timetabled such that people are hanging around waiting for trains for a long time. A train at the right time is more important. If you're commuting it doesn't matter if they aren't running for most of the day. If you're going in to town for shopping it's no use if you've only got 10 minutes then an hour's wait but if the interval is enough to do your shopping then fine. Frequency only really comes in to it (entirely IMO) when it's high enough to turn up and go without worrying about a timetable, which is never going to be feasible, is the only way of supplying enough capacity (and it's not ideal for that if the peaks in demand are sharp), or is so bad that there's no point in trying to use the service.

The ones up against the cliff? Who's looking out of the train on that side anyway? From the beach it'll probably just look like any other bit of retaining wall once it's been there for a while. Even I can't find too much to grumble about there

Looking at the aerial view on Google there's no deck on the central span, so probably not!

If that's a problem then will it be HUDs instead some years down the line?

Said it would be 4th April for a while, and done an impressive job by that time.

Depends how you define "better" though (talking about the options, not knowing better). There's more to life than purely economic or practical considerations and I'm always wary about any argument that puts those so high as to be the only ones worth considering.

Apologies for starting off my life on RMWeb with an attempt to wander off-topic.

Concrete structures can be made to work really well (the Kylesku Bridge is my go-to example - modern concrete design yet somehow fits in very well in a remote, wild landscape - a brilliant piece of work). I'm fine with cladding - rebuilding exactly as was would be a case where "museum thinking" had ridiculously prioritised over practicality, and of course in the short term the priority has to be to get the line operational again. Perhaps I should make it clear that I'm not in any way, shape or form trying to criticise a thing that Network Rail are doing here - to a complete outsider like me it looks like they're doing a good and difficult job in difficult circumstances, and I've often been impressed with what they can achieve in emergencies.

Apologies for my first post being somewhat controversial, but I don't find comments about "museums" very helpful. The railway is as much part of the scene as anything else and just doing whatever is needed practically and leaving it at that, no matter how it looks, is something that's produced too many depressing parts of the country. If a bit of effort can be made to make it fit in to its surroundings and / or look more attractive then that should be done. Sometimes that is achieved well with something modern, sometimes an older look is more appropriate, but it's about aesthetics and not "museums". A 21st century working railway shouldn't be one that simply does whatever it needs to work and doesn't care about anything else. It may be that sometimes the practical considerations have to win out because there's no feasible alternative or way they can be improved - first and foremost the thing needs to work, but please don't just stop at that point and dismiss anything else.