Telford Steam Railway, looking after our Heritage??
I walk a lot (wouldn't guess it to look at me), with my camera in my pocket and an eye with what is around me, much of Telford was heavily industralised but as is the way with the UK in general over the past few decades all the industry has disppeared and many of the former sites have either been demolished, built on, returned to nature or an attempt (sometimes fruitless) has been made to "preserve" what is there.
One walk takes in part of the route of a former branchline railway, what track is left (about 1.5 miles) belongs to Telford Steam Railway Trust, they apparently have plans to relay the track and run the line into Ironbridge, however at the current rate of progress I can't see that happening inside the next four decades, much of the former track bed has now been a public footpath for over 30 years and houses have been built nearby.
My understanding is that once a public footpath has been in use for over 20 years then due to various laws it is nigh on impossible to get its use changed to anything other than what it is, a public footpath, getting its use change to that of a working railway line is going to be an up hill struggle(often in cases like this the Home Secretary has to get involved), a struggle that quite frankly is way beyond them!!
They can't seem to look after what they do have and their main site, the former Dawley and Horsehay Railway Station is referred by many as "The Scrapyard" much of what they have is in very poor condition. Unfortunately they do have the excellent Severn Valley Railway as near neighbours a fine example of how a Heritage Railway should be run, in fact I'd say the benchmark for the whole country. Telford Steam Railway might have Severn Valley Railway aspirations, but unfortunately a Hornby Model Railway organisation and mentality, to busy playing with their trains on their 3/4 mile piece of track that is actually operable.
The following photographs, are indicative of the general state of decay and all-round air of neglect of what Telford Steam Railway Trust have and supposedly "look after" on the nations behalf, the railway wagons abandoned on a line to nowhere and over grown with weeds just about says it all.
Difficult to see in these two photographs but many of the sleepers are so rotten you can push uour fingers into the and some of the brackets bolted to the sleepers are broken!!
Literally 20 metres from where these wagons stand abandoned, the line finishes, Telford Steam Railway Trust and their "The Line to Nowhere".
One walk takes in part of the route of a former branchline railway, what track is left (about 1.5 miles) belongs to Telford Steam Railway Trust, they apparently have plans to relay the track and run the line into Ironbridge, however at the current rate of progress I can't see that happening inside the next four decades, much of the former track bed has now been a public footpath for over 30 years and houses have been built nearby.
My understanding is that once a public footpath has been in use for over 20 years then due to various laws it is nigh on impossible to get its use changed to anything other than what it is, a public footpath, getting its use change to that of a working railway line is going to be an up hill struggle(often in cases like this the Home Secretary has to get involved), a struggle that quite frankly is way beyond them!!
They can't seem to look after what they do have and their main site, the former Dawley and Horsehay Railway Station is referred by many as "The Scrapyard" much of what they have is in very poor condition. Unfortunately they do have the excellent Severn Valley Railway as near neighbours a fine example of how a Heritage Railway should be run, in fact I'd say the benchmark for the whole country. Telford Steam Railway might have Severn Valley Railway aspirations, but unfortunately a Hornby Model Railway organisation and mentality, to busy playing with their trains on their 3/4 mile piece of track that is actually operable.
The following photographs, are indicative of the general state of decay and all-round air of neglect of what Telford Steam Railway Trust have and supposedly "look after" on the nations behalf, the railway wagons abandoned on a line to nowhere and over grown with weeds just about says it all.
Difficult to see in these two photographs but many of the sleepers are so rotten you can push uour fingers into the and some of the brackets bolted to the sleepers are broken!!
Literally 20 metres from where these wagons stand abandoned, the line finishes, Telford Steam Railway Trust and their "The Line to Nowhere".
posted by Whitey in Telford at
13:25
1 Comments:
At least the track is still there! They're working on an extension that takes them through the tunnel. Obviously it will be many years until the line is relaid to Ironbridge. For such a small railway as it is at the moment, maintaining the current line must be labour intensive enough.
The TSR don't have permission to run down the laid track, not with passengers at least. I know how hard it is maintaining track. I used to volunteer at a Steam line, only 2 and a 1/2 miles long, and we only had a P-way gang of 6 people. :-)
Some good pictures here though, no doubt one day the TSR will get there, it all takes time, and A LOT of money.
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