time for a Glyn Valley revival?

(30.5.1985)

I often show the bottom picture to friends and ask them to guess where it is. Switzterland, France, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary have all come up. It's actually the Ceiriog Valley in east Wales and it once contained possibly the best of the Welsh narrow gauge lines, the Glyn Valley Tramway. This was a mainly roadside 2'4" (and a bit) gauge line which connected the quarries at Glyn Ceiriog to the main line at Chirk. There's a small preservation group already in existence, but it's always seemed to lack ambition to my eyes - but they do have a blog! What they need to do is proclaim that they intend to restore the line for tourism and 'real' trains, bringing back the currently extinct (in the UK) steam tram in the process, giving their line a unique selling point. This would be a fascinating journey through some of the prettiest countryside in the UK. So I shall keep checking their website and when I see a spot of real ambition popping up I'll be the first in the queue to join up!

Swansea and Mumbles

A line that strangely has still not been restored is the Swansea and Mumbles, the first passenger line in the world. This would be an absolute gem of a line running along the promenade of Swansea Bay and drawing visitors to the Mumbles peninsular.

Criminally closed in 1960 - whilst still profitable, its huge articulated tramcars could take 100s of passengers off the roads at a time. It ran on a flat mainly roadside track and was of course electrified. There have been attempts to restore the line in the past, though this really is one that should never have closed, even without Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Spa Valley progress

(Groombridge in BR days 4.7.1977)

The Spa Valley is now making the push back to Eridge to link back to the network. It will involve laying a second line alongside the network route to allow the Spa Valley access to Eridge station.

There were some daft things about the original closure. The line remained open until 1985 and was the last real railway closure in the UK. The excuse was the cost of replacing pointwork at the junction with the Hastings line in Tunbridge Wells on electrification. For about six months after closure empty trains continued to run into Tunbridge Wells West as the depot was there. Houses were built right up to the trackbed at Groombridge - amazing as there was already at that time a preservation group. There is now a kink in the line and there's a new halt built for the trains.

June's Steam Railway carries a piece on the line, with the extraordinary conclusion that '[t]here is sadly very little prospect of reinstating the eastward link via Grove Junction to Tunbridge Wells [Central] because West station has been converted into a restaurant. The trackbed has also been breached by a Sainsbury's supermarket and its car park'.

Er ... why not just BUY the restaurant and, eventually, the supermarket and reinstate the link? It is actually essential as without it real trains will be running the wrong way! And real trains will grace this line again in the not too distant future, particularly when the Uckfield-Lewes and Groombridge-Three Bridges lines are restored.

Get some lead in your pencil Steam Railway and stop talking railways down!

Plym Valley progress

A line I've not yet visited is the Plym Valley Railway near Plymouth. They are about to double the length of their line, to bring it up to almost a mile. Their 'ultimate' destination is Plym Bridge Halt, a mile and a half from Marsh Mills.

This area had an interesting selection of lines including the 4 foot 6 inch gauge Lee Moor Tramway. Eventually the Plym Valley hope to almost reach the point where these two lines crossed.

Yes, I know, this should be on 'Heritage Railways UK' but to be honest the distinctions between heritage and community routes is become more blurred every day, and it's often a job to decide which to post to! So I've made the decision, with the current upsurge in interest and hits on this site, that I'm going to merge the two blogs and in future post all railway news - heritage or community - to Rail Revival. I'll try to keep the two different strains separate on the sidebar! I'll gradually bring over the old heritage railway posts to this site too, so there's more to read!

Expect other features such as message boards etc soon.

lynton and barnstaple supporter

The Lynton and Barnstaple has a friend in high places - the leader of Devon County Council expressed his support for the line when he officially opened the extension to Killington Lane on 12 May 2007.

He supports the railway's medium term aim of reopening from Wistlandpound to Lynton. The new station at Lynton is planned to be close to the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway, offering easy interchange and bringing modern transport back to this magnificent part of north Devon.

The Lynton and Barnstaple, particularly when it returns to Barnstaple (Pilton), will become the major tourist attraction on Exmoor as well as an important transport link. In time no doubt the line will be extended even further, across the Taw back to Barnstaple Junction on the network or to Barnstaple Town (even if on a diversion) when the Ilfracombe line is reinstated. And imagine an extension of the line from Lynmouth or Lynton along the savage North Devon coast to Minehead! That would be a journey of world class standard ...

GWR revival - about time!

The transport lobby group Transport 2000 has called for Stratford-Cheltenham to be reopened as part of the network. This important cross country route was closed back in 1976 after a derailment left track damaged - how often are roads closed permanently when some stupid lorry has ripped up the surface (and probably killed a few people in the process)?

A good deal of the 29 mile long route has already been restored by the Gloucestershire-Warwickshire Railway. Hopefully both a heritage and ‘real’ service could be run over the line.

'green' diesel for virgin

Ever the showman, buck-toothed ex-hippy Richard Branson - planner of the world's first commercial spaceflights and airline owner - has made one more great meaningless (and guilt ridden) gesture to the environment - fuelling one of his Virgin trains with biofuel.

Biofuel is one of the greatest environmental threats to the planet and should be avoided wherever possible. As well as needing huge fossil fuel inputs (often more than the energy got out) it also is already competing for land with food. It is purely a publicity stunt, showing just how worried people are about Peak Oil - even if they pretend it's a response to climate change!

For a superb critique of biofuel from someone who knows what he's talking about, click here.

If he really wants to do something belatedly for the environment Branson needs to look at wood-burning steam, ground his hideous aircraft and cancel all plans to export pollution to outer space.

devon reconnection?

This month's Heritage Railway has a feature on the possible reinstatement of part of the Exe Valley line, closed in 1963. This is a bit of a no-brainer, the line ran through glorious Devon scenery and started near to Exeter. It also served the large town of Tiverton. It could hardly fail, particularly as its USP would be to use small engines in a branch line style. A small part of the line already sees trains, the Devon Railway Centre at Cadeleigh (pictured above). These are however 2 foot and 10 1/4" gauge, though there are several standard gauge railway carriages in the station with model railway layouts inside.

Alternatively the Tiverton to Tiverton Junction line may be restored. Why not both - a 'real' train service connecting to the main line at Tiverton Parkway, and a heritage route towards Exeter, the best of both worlds?

It is insane that a town the size of Tiverton is not currently on the network. Parkway stations will be clear losers in a post Peak Oil world as they are designed to be used by that endangered species, car drivers.

wow - dinosaur watch!!

Just for a laugh I googled 'Railway Conversion League' to see when they vanished. The League were a very strange bunch of people back in the 60s and 70s who - quite seriously - suggested converting railways into roads. Yes, you read that right! Amazing ...

Anyway, the League have of course vanished, but I did find this - Transwatch! I assumed this was a spoof site, as they're very effective these days. But I'm not sure. There are links to modern sites - TfL, Greenpeace etc, but there seem to be links to other propaganda set ups that are pro-road. Yes, you read that right - pro-road! In 2007.
There again there are still people who believe the world is flat, is run by a secret society or even that believe that oil is spontaneously generated! It's what makes the world an interesting place, if a little mad at times!

Transwatch seem to consist of one person, with a long list of letters after his name. They seem to relate to engineering. Perhaps he runs a road construction business that's in trouble. Or perhaps lost a friend or family member in a rail accident - let's not be too harsh!

It's a really sad site because you can hear the sound of empty vessels fighting the zeitgeist, like a lone commie crying at the felling of the Berlin Wall (these people are always lefties). Saddest thing is the advertised forum (which doesn't exist) and the letters section which consists of dozens of badly-written (and mainly unpublished LOL) letters to various rags, ALL FROM THE SAME PERSON!

Had there been a forum I may have suggested that rail will always be superior to road because of energy efficiency, life of vehicles, improved environmental conditions for residents, ability to use sustainable fuel (solar/wind/nuclear electricity, wood-burning steam etc) and its ability to carry huge amounts of passengers and freight just using 1 or 2 workers.

But of course the biggest point is if we did convert our precious railways to roads (at what cost!) we'd have to reconvert 'em all in 10 or 20 years time once the oil runs out. I wonder if this character will still be going in 10 or 20 years time? I somehow doubt it!

But as I said it made me laugh, and that's really what their role is these days.

helston revival continues

Liskeard 29.8.1972

Tracklaying was due to start on the Helston branch in early May. The first couple of panels are already down. The Cornish rail revival is currently in its infancy, but the Bodmin and Wenford have led the way and there are still a few lines that are empty trackbed rather than transport links.

Other Cornish lines have fared much better, with Looe, Falmouth, St Ives, Newquay and Gunnislake still having (often very busy!) passenger trains. But Padstow and Bude and Helston still await their trains, as well as other large Cornish towns such as Launceston and Wadebridge.

back soon?

A particularly crazy closure was Lewes-Uckfield in 1969. This seemed, even at the time, to make little sense. For the sake of a few miles not only did the large town of Uckfield lose its rail link to the county town of East Sussex, but it also meant that there was no practical diversionary route for trains from Brighton to London, particularly as a few years before the Shoreham-Horsham line was closed. These were both double track routes serving reasonable-sized communities.

Ever since it closed there have been calls for the reopening of this essential link. In the 70s perhaps the dinosaurs were hoping the whole Oxted to Uckfield line would close - the link from Eridge to Tunbridge Wells really did close in 1985, the last real rail closure in southern England. How times have changed. Now rail is in the ascendant and lines and stations are reopening everywhere. How much longer can this link remain broken?

And once this is restored lets look at the Hailsham-Eastbourne, Shoreham-Horsham and Three Bridges to Eridge lines. The rail revival in Sussex will soon begin.

the greatest white elephant of all?

This insane government is wasting £92.5 million (of OUR money) on a totally impracticable solution to transport needs in the Cambridge-Huntingdon RAIL corridor. This is simply politics, there is no economic sense behind it at all. This government is committed to slowing this country down to a crawl, probably in the hope of collecting more petrol taxes from idling cars and lorries! They also are anti-tram and a successful interurban tramway or railway does not set them (just everyone else) a good precedent.

So the excellent and essential rail route between Cambridge and St Ives is being ripped up (however temporarily) to be replaced with MORE concrete. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so wasteful. They don't have a clue.

All forward thinkers should support CAST.IRON who are locally based and really know what they're doing. And sign the petition to stop this idiocy in its tracks! No 10's server is down (what a surprise) so I can't give a link!

it's about time ...

As always the Somerset and Dorset Railway down at Midsomer Norton is innovative - the current buzz is around the petition lodged with number 10 to release funds to reopen the line as a vital transport link. Signatures after just three days are already 77. Just 250 and the government have to reply.

Wording is - The Somerset and Dorset Railway was, and will be again after Peak Oil, a vital sustainable transport link across Wessex. The government should release funds and simplify the planning and construction process to allow local people to build, own and operate the line in preparation for when our oil runs out.

Whilst the set-up at Midsomer Norton is currently an embryo heritage line, the constitution of the Trust includes the aim to reinstate real trains with a real purpose. In the medium term this means reinstating the most important sections of the line between Bath and Midsomer Norton in the north, and Blandford and Bournemouth in the south, with the route in between being protected for future rail use. Norton-Radstock has a population of around 25,000, far too large to not be rail served even today, let alone in the future. And the fact that a large town like Blandford is currently rail-less beggars belief!

Like the Waverley route in Scotland the S&D has refused to lie down and common sense is beginning to reassert itself. Closure of the S&D, like the Waverley, will be nothing but temporary!

To sign up please click here - and tell all your friends!

Sign the petition to restore the S&D

After just two hours of being live and on-line the petition to restore the S&D has already received 14 votes! With 364 days left to run our aim is to reach the top of the petition chart! Please help us by signing today!

return to tavistock

At last there is talk of restoring at least part of the essential Okehampton to Bere Alston line. This was always a mad closure - cutting off a large town like Tavistock from the outside world yet keeping the station at the village of Bere Alston just a few miles away. And even back in 1968 there were issues with the sea wall and erosion at Dawlish, well before Climate Change became an issue.

Really this is stupid - of course this route should be restored and as quickly as possible for three reasons - towns the size of Tavistock can't survive without a rail connection after Peak Oil hits, the existing route along the sea wall at Dawlish is in real danger of vanishing beneath the waves and the expected increase in rail traffic EVEN WITHOUT PEAK OIL will soon require a second route between Exeter and Plynmouth in any case!

another nail in the car's coffin

Even without Peak Oil and Global Heating roads will never compete with rail. A few days ago a French TGV broke the world record for a conventional train when it reached 575kph (357mph). These days cars have a job maintaining a tenth of that speed!

The high speed network is spreading throughout Europe and will still be there when the last cars and aeroplanes splutter their last in an oil-free future. And if the power supply is sustainable - using hydro, sun or wind power - they'll still be running ten thousand years into the future.

a new way forward?

This is a video of the new line in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This is a sort of monorail tramway, with the trams being guided on a single rail, taking power from overhead cables, and running on tyres. It may well be that this is a far cheaper way of introducing tram type vehicles in smaller towns, and it will be interesting to see if this system develops elsewhere.



As if to prove there's nothing new under the sun check this site out!

to padstow ...

It seems amazing now that car-blocked towns like Padstow ever lost their trains. Padstow hung on until 1967, then the whole North Cornwall line closed, together with the Bodmin branch, depriving Padstow, Wadebridge and, incredibly, Bodmin of trains. Stupidly the route stayed open for freight until 1978 to Wadebridge - surely even the blinkered idiots in government back then were aware that the line would have to be rebuilt some day?

Much of the line has already been restored by the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, giving sensible and sustainable transport a foothold in this part of Cornwall. Plans to restore to Wadebridge are well under way, giving two of these towns cross-platform interchange at Bodmin Road station on the network. But the real final destination has to be Padstow, bringing proper transport back to this important seaside town.



Padstow station - slap bang in the middle of town and a prime site for rebuilding.



The bridge across the creek before Padstow - still there and just waiting for the trains to return.


Cars ... not really needed in Padstow!

don valley railway

Deepcar 1983 - the 'last' passenger train.




The Don Valley Railway plans to rebuild the line from Deepcar to Sheffield, as both a heritage and community line. This was part of the famous Woodhead route, another insane closure that really will need reversing sooner rather than later.

bathgate to airdrie - at last

A particularly stupid post-Beeching closure was the line from Airdrie to Bathgate, which is now to be restored. The Bathgate to Airdrie line website has more information. Scotland was particularly badly affected by the Beeching and other cuts, but the new Scottish parliament is pro-rail, one line has already reopened (the Larkhall line) and the Waverley route is - at least in part for now - being reopened after almost 40 years of there being no real transport in the Scottish borders.

interurban rebirth

The Interurban is an idea whose time has come. Once the USA was covered in these electrified lines, which brought modern transport to many towns and villages for the first time.

Unfortunately the rise of cheap oil meant that in many cases they only had a short life span. Amazingly modern, cheap and fast travel was replaced by spluttering and 'cheaper' anti-social cars and buses. With the end of cheap oil the interurban will return, some of the new batch of American tramways and light railways already show interurban characteristics as they edge out of the city centres.

But this line, the Chicago and South Bend, has kept going the whole time. It includes sections of classic street-running as well as fast reserved sections. Soon this will be just one line among many, but for a while it was the only survivor!

street running in eastern germany

This is a little bit of self-indulgence - a nice video clip of the Mollibahn in eastern Germany.

But back on message this is one of many narrow gauge lines from the former East Germany which have survived and flourished under privatisation. Trains operate every hour on every day of the year. Although now owned and operated by a private group and primarily aimed at tourist traffic it does also fulfill an important transport need as it operates to the fairly large and very popular seaside towns of Heilegendamm and Kuhlungsborn on the Baltic.

The most interesting feature is the street running for about a mile through the narrow main street of Bad Doberan. Under communism this wasn't much of a problem as few people had cars, but now it's considered a unique feature and is likely to remain. It's quite an experience sitting in a cafe whlist long steam trains run past, ringing a warning bell as they pass.

german lessons ...

This video shows part of a new inter-urban light rail line that opened in 1989 and is part of the Karlsruhe (Germany) city tramway system.

Much of the extension actually saw the light rail vehicles using (sharing) the tracks of an existing freight line, but to serve the village of Linkenheim a brand new deviation was built.

The video starts in Leopldshafen where the new tram line had to be dovetailed to fit through in an area where housing already pre-existed. It was found that with concrete baffles overgrown by climbing plants it is possible to maintain the householder's privacy in a visually attractive way.

Then there is a short view inside the central section of one of the very comfortable outer-suburban light rail vehicles, showing the spacious 2 + 1 seating and large panoramic windows. Most of the rest of the video is a view out of the front window, showing how the new line serves the village centre, which was traffic calmed.

Ideas which we in Britain would do well to copy. (text accompanies Youtube submission)

llangollen railway

An official video for the Llangollen Railway. Although primarily a tourist route now there is huge potential for this route when it reconnects with the network at Ruabon. How a town the size and importance of Llangollen ever found itself off the network is remarkable!

dublin's magnificent LUAS

Showing it's bigger cousins across the water how to create clean, efficient, profitable and sustainable city transport, Dublin's LUAS is a fantastic and expanding system, bringing modern transport back to the capital of Ireland after a long break stuck in the dark ages!

croydon's tramlink

A video of Croydon's superb Tramlink system. One of the new breed of British tramways, and a tenuous footstep into the maze of London's transport, this is an example to all forward-thinking cities both in the UK and elsewhere. Parts of the track utilised closed railways, some is on street, some were converted railways and there is a completely new section to New Addington which had never previously been served by trains or trams.

cambridge-st ives - time for sense!

This insane government has decided to waste 90 million quid on a totally untried and impractical - not to mention unsustainable - 'transport system.

Rather than creating a guided busway (LOL!) why not, for a quarter the price, build a MODERN, SUSTAINABLE and WELL-USED and PROFITABLE tramway which as well as taking passengers quickly into and out of Cambridge will in the future be able to carry freight traffic once the oil runs out and roads crumble into ruin?

In the meantime the following video will show the line as it is now - just waiting for TRAINS/TRAMS to return ...