| |
What's
New
In order to help
you navigate our site more easily, we've added
these 'quick links' to the latest features:
Along
These Lines was an eight-part television series about
disused railways and railway walks in the south of England.
It was made during 2007 and screened during 2008 on Meridian,
the local ITV station covering Medway to east Dorset – but
now it is
about to get a national airing. Discovery Real Time is showing
the
series, with transmission commencing on Wednesday
17th June (repeated on Saturday 20th June). Two episodes will
be
shown
'back to
back' on Wednesdays
at 11:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. Shown in this format,
the series will run for 4 weeks. We are indebted to Jamie Barratt
of Platform 14 Ltd for this information; this company made
the series.
Gazetteer
Updates.
In January and February, the webmaster added grid references
to another batch of entries in the online gazetteer. The whole
of England and Wales
is now
done, with only Scotland requiring attention.
(Most of the Scottish entries already contain grid references,
although they do need to be checked.) In addition, details of all
railway walks in Devon have been sent to the county
council for checking – the first of many such
checks, if all goes according to plan. Please remember that the
gazetteer is an extremely time-consuming project,
which
is why
there
have been
no
additions
to the Photo Gallery since late last summer.
'Railway
Walks' – the TV Series. During 2008, a series of
six half hour programmes entitled 'Railway Walks' was made
by Skyworks
and
broadcast
on BBC4 during October
and early November. The episodes were presented by Julia
Bradbury, and superbly produced by the Skyworks team; a notable
feature was the amount of aerial photograph. (That, of course,
is why the company is called 'Skyworks'!) The series was
repeated on BBC2 from Monday 9th March to Monday
13th April, and the
viewing figures were about four times those for BBC4 last
autumn – in fact, the series was the
third most popular on BBC2 during its run. As is the way
with modern television, we feel bold enough to guarantee
that further repeats will follow, possibly on BBC1 and eventually
even the Yesterday
channel.
The Skyworks
team hopes that a second series will be commissioned, and
we will announce details here if this happens.
Railway
Walks – the
Books. The
History Press re-published Railway
Walks: Wales by Jeff Vinter on Monday 13 April
2009, and has advised that the other three titles in
the series (Railway
Walks: SR & GWR, LNER and LMS)
will follow in June. The publication of the Welsh book
coincided exactly with the ending of the 'Railway Walks'
TV series
on BBC2,
which was a superb piece of timing! The first reviewer
on Amazon has given the book 5 out of 5 stars and described
it as 'sad but good' – 'a facinating book, so good
for people who like to see something of our past and
get some exercise'.
Strawberry
Line Project Goes Online. In Somerset, the Strawberry
Line project now has its own website, which can be accessed
from our Links page. The project
aims to create a railway path from Cranmore to Clevedon via
Wells and Cheddar, with spurs to the north and south, often
using other old railways such as the Blagdon branch. The project
is supported by Sustrans Ltd, Somerset County Council, and
all the local district councils, which is a good start. Have
a look at the website and add your support using the
online petition.
Recent
Site Updates. During summer 2008, the webmaster
added eleven new batches of photographs (groups 24 to
34) to the Photo
Gallery in a belated attempt to catch up
with the huge amount of material waiting to go on the
site. Hopefully,
few if any members are still waiting to see their work
appear on screen. More recently, he has updated the News
2008, News
2009 and Publications pages
with new reports and book details, while thinning out
old material from the Home Page – although the
reports on guided busways (see below) remain in place
due to their
unrivalled potential
to undo 30 years' good work in re-using the country's
abandoned railways. Finally, club members might like
to take a look
at our online gazetteer,
where each section now reflects all known new path openings
to date. The next steps are to include six
figure grid references
for all entries (due for completion this summer), and
then write to every local authority in the British Isles
to
identify
any
routes
that we have
missed – although this job will be
delayed if more TV and book work comes along. |
Here
Comes the Concrete ...
Bath-Bristol
Railway Path Still Under a Cloud. Contrary
to previous reports, Bristol City Council has not abandoned
but merely
postponed plans to turn the Bristol end of this immensely popular
rail trail, built by Sustrans in the late 1970s, into a guided
busway. Click here and here for
further details. On 19th June, Bristol
became one of Britain's 'Cycling Capitals', although the BBC
failed to mention how much the city owed to Sustrans for this
accolade;
but what, then, is Bristol doing in promoting a scheme that
will spoil one of the company's (and the country's) flagship
cycle routes?
Guided
Busway Planned for the Comber Greenway. This route
in Northern Ireland, part of NCN99, re-uses the old railway
line from Belfast to Comber via Dundonald. The first 2½ miles
from Belfast to Belfast Lough are already open, with completion
of the remaining 4½ miles due in September this year.
According to a 2006 survey, the trail is already generating
122,000 walking and cycling journeys at a single town along
the route, but – before it is even complete – the
government has announced that it intends to establish a guided
busway (called Eway) along part of it. Sustrans is keen
to prevent this important route being compromised, but seems
not yet to have an official voice in the proceedings.
Comment. This
is Sustrans' response in the latest edition of The Hub, its quarterly
magazine for supporters: 'While Sustrans fully supports plans
to improve public transport, we do question whether bus routes
should be built at the expense of walking and cycling paths.
It seems counter intuitive to develop public transport in direct
competition with walking and cycling when the aim is to tackle
road congestion and greenhouse gas emissions [and rising levels
of obesity - Webmaster]. What this trend seems to show is how
under-valued walking and cycling are as transport choices in
their own right.' Many share this view. Many also question the
wisdom of building guided busways in the first place. Not only
are they visually intrusive structures that deploy vast amounts
of concrete, but the example now being completed between Cambridge
and St. Ives has cost millions of pounds more than reinstating
the railway which it replaced.
|
Meridian
TV Series.The long-awaited series, 'Along
These Lines', featuring eight old railways in the south
on England,
was broadcast between Sunday 13 April and Sunday 22 June.
Click here for
the official website which supported the series, and here for
details of how to order the programmes on DVD. The production
company has kindly provided a selection of stills from
the filming, which have now been added to our Photo Gallery – click here to
view them.
Full Colour Brochure. We
have large stocks of our new brochure in place, in case the BBC
TV series creates a lot of interest
in the
club. Click here to
access the electronic version. Note that the brochure is in PDF
form, so you will need Adobe Reader, which can be downloaded here. North
Dorset Trailway Continues to Grow. By
the end of August, the North Dorset Trailway (which seeks to
re-use the old Somerset & Dorset Railway as a long distance
multi-use path between Templecombe and Poole), will have established
a continuous route from Blandford Forum to just south of Spetisbury.
Click here for further
details.
New Railway
Paths in Wales. Earlier in the year, member Bob
Morgan supplied details of two new railway paths
in Ceredigion.
Previously,
we had
reported on the
proposals for these routes, but now they are open. Read the
full story by clicking here.
Sustrans'
Connect2 Project Wins National Vote! In December
2007, Sustrans'
Connect2 project won the 'People's £50 Million', gaining
42% of the
overall vote. Huge amounts of research and planning had already
been completed, so work started in earnest from January
2008.
We have left the link here in
place, since it contains further details of Connect2, including
a list of those projects which involve the re-use of old
railway infrastructure. Connect2 will bridge significant
gaps in 79
communities throughout Great Britain with safe, traffic-free
routes. It
was the only project in the final shortlist of four which
offered significant benefits for Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland.
Want
to Walk or Cycle Into Bath via the Somerset & Dorset Railway? It's
on its way! The Connect2
project (see above) includes a scheme
to
re-open the old
S&D
from Midford to Bath. This provides for opening up both Combe
Down and Devonshire Tunnels, which will have street lighting
installed.
The result will be of great value to residents
in the Midford area, since it will make Bath accessible via
a level 4 mile route instead of a very hilly 7 mile route.
The project, known as 'Two
Tunnels', will also support
long term plans to develop the S&D
as a cross-country cycling route between Bath and Bournemouth.
|
|
| Above: Cwm
Prysor viaduct was the main engineering feature on the Great Western
Railway's line from Bala to Blaenau Festiniog via Trawsfynydd,
although the whole route was heavily engineered with the track
at times running on shelves hewn out of mountain sides. The line
closed to passengers on 4th January 1960, although the section
from Trawsfynydd to Blaenau Festiniog remained open until 1998
for the transport of nuclear waste from the power station at Trawsfynydd.
According to Dave Sallery (whose excellent website on
this line is well worth a look), the viaduct can 'be crossed on
foot by following a permissive path which leads from the main road
at the head of the valley.' This wintry scene from 2005 affords
a better view of the viaduct than is possible during the summer
months, when foliage hides much of the structure. (Richard Lewis) |
Viaducts,
Viaducts! Two viaducts now carry plaques commemorating
the contribution of Railway Ramblers to important restoration
projects. These are at Midford in Somerset, and Haltwhistle
in Northumberland. This is a tremendous achievement for the
club, and an endorsement of the decision to set up a 'Footpath
Fund' to help finance projects like this at a time (1983 or
thereabouts) when a few doubters reckoned that it wasn't worth
bothering with. So, many thanks to all those who have supported
the Footpath Fund over the years – what a difference
we've made! Click here for
further details.
Message
Board. Our message board can be accessed by clicking
the link here.
Would area organisers and club officers please consider making
greater use of this facility, in order to justify what we spend
on it? The Webmaster does not have time to maintain area walk
programmes on
the main
site, but you can do this very easily by making a posting on
the message board. Honestly – it really is easy! If
you have forgotten your username and password, just get
in
touch via the e-mail link on our Contact page.
'On Tour'. If
you haven't had a look already, why not visit the page which
gives a flavour of one of our occasional special events? Click here to
take a look – the event was based on a visit to
sites
on the former Somerset & Dorset Railway between Templecombe
and Blandford Forum.
Search and
Site Map. These features can be accessed by clicking here.
The site is now too big for more than a part to fit into the
site map, but the search feature is really useful if you are
looking for information on a specific route.
Access. Our Access page
contains guidance on which old railways can and cannot
be walked,
as well as a brief history of how we lost our
railways, and how some came to survive as walks and cycle trails.
This page also includes a link to our Non-Trespass policy.
|
|
|
| Above: A
selection of photographs from Cornwall's Mineral Tramways Project,
which runs from Devoran (near Truro) to Portreath. The southern
part of the route is based on the Redruth and Chacewater Railway,
but later the Portreath Tramroad is used to reach the north coast. Top
Left: When you drive west along the A30 through the village
of Scorrier, near Redruth, there's no mistaking the location of
the Portreath Tramroad thanks to this sign, situated on the north
side of the road at grid reference SW 722446. Right: The
Portreath Tramroad as it looks today, about a mile inland from
Portreath where the trackbed adjoins the B3300. Bottom Left: The
trackbed of the Redruth and Chacewater Railway passes underneath
the Truro-Falmouth branch, just after it has left the GWR main
line west of Truro station. The masonry stumps behind the viaduct
are the piers from Brunel's original viaduct, which was built with
a timber superstructure. The Falmouth branch was the last GWR line
to have its timber viaducts replaced, this work taking place during
the 1930s. January 2004. (Richard Lewis) |
New
Railway Paths. All new railway paths are reported initially
in our News pages, after which
they are added to our online
gazetteer. This is a members' only area, which is a good
reason for joining the club – click here for
details. If you would prefer a printed copy, Vinter's Gazetteer is
correct as at April 2000 and still covers the majority of railway
paths
in
the UK; see our Publications page
for further details.
Site Re-Design
and Statistics. Our
site was re-designed in 2004. Our objectives remain to
make it run quickly,
for narrowband as well as broadband users; to keep it simple
to navigate; and to provide well written and interesting content.
At the time of writing (2 May 2009),
the tally
on our 'hit counter' had just reached 69,250, and the number
of visits had risen from 1,000 per month in December 2007 to
a peak of
over 4,000 in April 2009. Currently, 86% of
our visitors
are
new
to
the site,
as can be seen from the table below:
| Period |
New Visitors |
Return Visitors |
Total Visitors |
| 1-30 June 2008 |
860 (80%) |
221 (20%) |
1,081 |
| 1-31
July 2008 |
985
(81%) |
224
(19%) |
1,209 |
| 1-31
August 2008 |
1,055
(84%) |
198
(16%) |
1,253 |
| 1-30
September 2008 |
1,314
(87%)
|
196
(13%)
|
1,510
|
| 1-31
October 2008 |
2,637
(90%) |
306
(10%) |
2,943 |
| 1-30
November 2008 |
2,363
(86%) |
385
(14%) |
2,748 |
| 1-31
December 2008 |
1,195
(82%) |
254
(18%) |
1,449 |
| 1-31
January 2009 |
1,373
(83%) |
291
(17%) |
1,664 |
| 1-28
February 2009 |
1,015
(81%)
|
237
(19%)
|
1,252
|
| 1-31
March 2009 |
1,892
(87%) |
282
(13%) |
2,174 |
| 1-30
April 2009 |
4,156
(92%)
|
383
(8%)
|
4,539
|
| 1-31
May 2009 |
1,659
(84%)
|
303
(16%)
|
1,967
|
| Totals |
20,504 (86%)
|
3,280
(14%)
|
23,789
|
|
|
Above: Visitors
to the website during the last 18 months. The yellow line shoots
up from nothing because the statistics service
was installed
at the
end of
November 2007, during which month only a few days were monitored.
Numbers climb dramatically during October 2008 and April 2009
due to
the 'Railway
Walks' series being broadcast, first on BBC4 (Oct-Nov 2008)
and then BBC2 (Mar-Apr 2009). The series gives the club a name
check
in episode
5.
Generally,
visitor numbers increase after the introduction of new content,
which
is hardly
surprising.
Similarly,
they usually decline between March and May annually, when
the Webmaster's teaching commitments generate a lot of coursework
marking, which
reduces
the time available
for voluntary activities such as maintaining the club's website.
|
| Thank
You. Finally, it is only right and proper that this
introduction to our site should conclude with a huge 'Thank you'
to all those members who keep the information and photographs
flooding in. Without this constant stream of intelligence from
around the country, the content of this site would be nowhere
near so varied and interesting. So – thank you, one and
all! |
|
|