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WALKS
As one would expect, the club organises walks over disused railway lines. These are split roughly 3:1 between walks over official railway paths and walks over old trackbeds which are privately owned. The reason for the privately owned trackbeds being in the minority will be obvious – we do not trespass on private land, and it is very time-consuming to arrange access with sometimes dozens of separate landowners. There is no national registry of who owns old railways and so our volunteers have to find out the hard way – by research, letters and visits to find out who owns what, followed up by personal requests which, of course, have to be handled with some skill. Railway Ramblers is very fortunate to have voluntary walk leaders who are prepared to undertake this work for the benefit of its members.
How are the Club's Walks Publicised? Our area groups publish periodic local newsletters which set out what is happening in each area. Practice varies from one area to another, with some producing a massive newsletter which covers an entire year in advance, while others issues newsletters more frequently. Most send out two newsletters per year. All of our railway walks are also published quarterly in advance in our magazine, 'Railway Ramblings'.
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| Above: This delightful study of Downton station on the former LSWR branch line from Salisbury to West Moors (for Wimborne, Poole and Bournemouth) was taken by member Tim Chant shortly after closure of the line, which took place on 4th May 1964. This is just the sort of place that Railway Ramblers re-visit in their explorations of Britian's lost railway heritage. Where stations are now privately owned, permission is always sought beforehand from the owners. (Tim Chant) |
Who Can Join the Club's Walks? Our walks are open to all members from any area of the club. Members are also welcome to invite guests along, although this has to be restricted to 3 walks per guest per year (see next paragraph) in order to comply with the terms of the club's Civil Liability Insurance. This should not be confused with accident insurance: it does not cover members for accidents, but for things such as any damage that our visit might cause to private property, unlikely though that is. Theoretically, a group of 20 or so walkers passing over an old railway bridge might, just conceivably, weaken the structure, e.g. by dislodging some masonry or mortar from the arch below. You can see that this type of risk is remote, which is probably why CL insurance usually attracts such reasonable rates. However, in the past, having CL insurance has been an important factor in persuading some official bodies, such as the Army, to let us walk old trackbeds which they now own. (In the current political climate, with acts of terror seen as an ever-present danger, walks over military land are now virtually impossible to arrange for groups over 5 in number.)
If a guest comes on three club walks and wants to participate in a fourth, they need to join up and become a member in their own right. After all, if they've done three walks with us and want to come back for yet more, one can assume that they like railway rambling! It does offer a unique mixture of exploration, unseen views, and some excitement at discovering half forgotten relics from the past.
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| Above: Members visiting Powerstock station on 30th April 2011. In years gone by, intending passengers walked this way to catch the branch line train to either Bridport or Maiden Newton. Until goods services were withdrawn in the 1960s, the area to the left of the driveway was occupied by sidings. Powerstock station was not brilliantly situated for its village, which lies on the far side of a deep valley; the residents of smaller but nearer Nettlecombe were the ones who most benfited from the railway's presence here. Nowadays, the station is privately owned, so this visit was arranged specially by the walk leader. (Mike Rutter) |
Does the Club Publish its Walk Programmes on the Internet? We will never do this. There are many reasons, the most important ones being as follows:
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Under this country’s data protection legislation, each area organiser would require permission from every walk leader for their personal details to be published in this way. It is unlikely that all, or even most, walk leaders will ever consent to this.
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Even if the walk programmes were encoded and protected by a username and password, the encrypted information could still be broken into by a determined hacker.
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Publishing walk leaders’ personal details together with the dates when they will be away from their homes is extremely foolish in an age when an address can be obtained from something as simple as a telephone number. Even the publication of an email address is enough to end up on a spammer's mailing list, with potentially offensive spam messages the result.
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Landowners grant access to their land to the club's walk leaders on the basis that the visit is private and not advertised to members of the public via an international medium such as the Internet.
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No other national club, e.g. the Ramblers’ Association, publishes its programmes in this way.
The Club Publishes a Quarterly Magazine Containing Walks Details – Does it Publish the Magazine on the Internet? We will never do this, for the reasons set out above. Additionally, publishing the magazine online would remove one of the main reasons for people to join the club – namely, the receipt of a specialist quarterly magazine delivered to their door. On the plus side, the club will add at least one past magazine to this website, but these editions will be 'sanitised' before publication so as to remove all personal data from their pages. They will be added to the Membership page, and will give intending members an example of what they can expect if they join.
Services for Walk Leaders. In time, we hope to add to this page a guide which will help walk leaders to design and plan simple walks over official railway paths. This may sound obvious but there's a lot to consider, including lunchtime arrangements (will you reach the pub before the kitchen has closed?) and transport arrangements (will the walk end after the last bus has gone?) We may also convene a short conference in 2012 to share ideas about planning the more demanding type of walk, which includes access to privately owned trackbed and visits to privately owned former stations. Guidance on this type of event will not be published on the Internet, but should – in time – be available to walk leaders from our Secretary. Please be aware that these are medium term aspirations and will take some time to implement: our officers are all volunteers with other demands on their time, including work and family commitments.
At the moment, we offer a walks template in both Word and PDF format (see below), which has been designed to help walk leaders to ensure that they do not miss out any essential details when planning and publishing their walks. It is surprisingly easy to do something daft, like missing out the meeting place or time, so these documents will help to prevent things like that happening.
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How to Use the Walks Template. Click here for an example, in PDF format, of how to complete the template, just in case it isn't obvious!
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Free Download for Adobe Reader. If you need to install Adobe Reader, the free program which allows you to read PDF files, please click here.