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In order to help
you navigate our site more easily, we've added
these 'quick links' to the latest features:
Recent
Site Updates. During 2009, the Webmaster
added ten batches of photographs (groups 35 to 44)
to the Photo
Gallery, some of these being taken during a working trip
to Kenya when he managed to explore part of the now closed
branch
line
from Leseru to Kitale. Despite some
demanding work commitments – including 3 weeks in Africa – he
has kept the News
2009 and Publications pages
consistently up to date with new reports and book details.
In addition, the online
gazetteer is now complete, following a full re-check
and revision of all the entries for Scotland.
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
it has now received its first national airing. Discovery
Real Time showed the
series, two episodes at a time, from Wednesday 17th June to
Wednesday 8th July, with repeats on the following Saturdays.
We are indebted to Jamie Barratt
of Platform 14 Ltd for this information; Platform 14 made
the series.
Gazetteer
Updates.
Jeff Vinter's magnum opus is now complete and is being
kept up to date as the latest news comes in. The most recent path
opening
was part
of the Great Northern Greenway, which starts just north of Derby
and will eventually link Derby with Ilkeston via 13 miles of the
GNR's former Egginton Junction to Nottingham line. Click here to
visit this part of our site, but note that this area is for members
only.
'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 2009, and the
viewing figures were about four times those for BBC4 – in
fact, the series was the third most popular on BBC2 during
its run. We are sure that
that further repeats will follow, possibly even on BBC1 and
eventually the Yesterday
channel.
The Skyworks
team hopes that a second series will be commissioned, but
this could not happen in 2009 because Julia and the team
were away filming a series of African walks. This will
have been a very expensive undertaking in the current economic
climate, so there are hopes that a second series of 'Railway
Walks' will be commissioned in 2010. It will be a lot cheaper
than flying everyone to Africa again!
Railway
Walks – the
Books. The
History Press has now re-published all of Jeff Vinter's
Railway Walks books, namely Railway
Walks: Wales, Railway
Walks: GWR & SR, Railway
Walks: LNER and Railway
Walks: LMS. The first of these (Wales)
sold out very quickly but the good news is that more
are being printed with delivery expected in January 2010.
The
publication
of the
Welsh
book
coincided exactly with
the ending of
the 'Railway
Walks'
TV series
on BBC2,
which was superb good timing. The first reviewer
on Amazon gave this 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' – sentiments which can be applied
to the whole series. For further details, see our Publications page.
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.
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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 for
further details. On 19th June 2009, Bristol
became one of Britain's 'Cycling Capitals', although
the BBC failed to mention how much the city owed to
Sustrans for this
accolade;
so 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 a recent 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 recently completed example between
Cambridge and St. Ives cost millions of pounds more
than reinstating
the railway which it replaced.
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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
2008. 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 kindly provided a selection of stills from
the filming, which have been added to our Photo Gallery – click here to
view them.
Full Colour Brochure. We
have good stocks of an excellent brochure which can be accessed
in electronic form by clicking the link here.
Note that the brochure is in PDF form, so you will need Adobe
Reader (available here)
in order to view it. Stocks of the printed version can be obtained
from the club's Membership Secretary in the first instance (see
contact details inside the front
cover
of the
magazine). Several walk organisers have found the brochure to be
very useful when approaching landowners for
permission
to
walk
privately owned trackbeds, since it sets out clearly what the
club is about and helps to convey the professional and responsible
impression that we wish to project. 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.
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| 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.
Any club member can update this by entering the username and
password that are published in each quarterly magazine. The
Webmaster does not have time to maintain area walk programmes
on
the main
site, but area organisers can do this easily by posting
their programmes on to the message board. Similarly, ordinary
members can use the message board to get in touch with each
other (remember to include your e-mail address) so as to arrange
local walks and shared transport. Honestly – it
really is easy, so give it a try!
'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. We have a further batch of S&D pictures which
we hope to post during the course of 2010.
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.
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| 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
out of print but is expected to be re-launched by a major
publisher in an enlarged and updated edition during the course
of 2010. Keep
an
eye on
this and our Publications page
for the latest news.
Site Re-Design
and Statistics. Our
site was re-designed in 2004 but we 'carried over' the hit counter
from the original version, which was launched in 1997. Our
objectives remain to make the site 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 (6 February 2010),
the tally
on our 'hit counter' had just passed 85,750, and the number
of visits had risen from 1,000 per month in December 2007 to
a peak of
over 4,500 in April 2009. Currently, 85% 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%)
|
1,962
|
| 1-30
June 2009 |
1,342
(82%)
|
295 (18%)
|
1,637
|
| 1-31
July 2009 |
1,298
(84%)
|
254 (16%)
|
1,552
|
| 1-31
August 2009 |
1,317
(86%)
|
216
(14%)
|
1,533
|
| 1-30
September 2009 |
1,527
(86%)
|
246
(14%)
|
1,773
|
| 1-31
October 2009 |
2,305
(87%)
|
330
(13%)
|
2,635
|
| 1-30
November 2009 |
1,357
(84%)
|
255
(16%)
|
1,612
|
| 1-31
December 2009 |
1,073
(80%)
|
265
(20%)
|
1,338
|
| 1-31
January 2010 |
1,434
(81%)
|
335
(19%)
|
1,769
|
| Totals |
32,157
(85%)
|
5,476
(15%)
|
37,633
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Click here to
see how visitors to the site found us.
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Above: Visitors
to the website during the last 26 months. The blue 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.
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| 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! |
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