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PHOTO
GALLERY GROUP 23
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Above: Hadlow
Road station on the Wirral Way (from Hooton to West Kirby) is
a showcase for this former railway, which was the first old
line in the country to be converted into a railway path – thanks
largely to Capt. Laurence Beswick, who was the driving force
behind a local campaign launched in the 1960s to have the
old line re-used.
The wheels started to turn in the campaign's favour when Cheshire
County Council published a report in 1968 entitled 'Cheshire
Countryside – A Scheme for a Wirral Country Park'. Five
years later, the line's conversion was complete. Note the new
multi-use surface in the foreground. March
2007. (Bob Prigg)
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Above: The
major engineering work on the Wirral Way is Neston rock cutting,
seen here. When the old railway was converted into a railway
path, Neston Urban District Council had started to use the cutting
as a landfill site, which required twenty lorry-loads
of rubbish to be removed to get back to trackbed level. Unfortunately,
NUDC also managed
to
install a concrete sewer (seen here on the left), although the
local rangers covered it in mosses which disguise it rather well.
The walls of the cutting now host a wide variety of unusual plant
life. March
2007. (Bob
Prigg) |
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Above: Railway
Ramblers' Family History Division. While walking the Wirral
Way, our party stopped off in one of the local churchyards so
that member Larry Smith could visit his grandmother's grave,
seen here. (She was Mary Smith, named in the unleaded inscription
half way down the stone.) We understand that Larry was punished
for this detour with a number of dire wisecracks about
'Granny
Smith'.
March 2007. (Bob Prigg) |
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Above: Barrow
Hill Roundhouse. When the club visited this last surviving roundhouse
in 1992, it was in a ruinous state, but now the preservationists
have got to work and turned it into a major railway preservation
and restoration centre. And, yes, that is an advert for Deuchar's
IPA in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, for this
was the scene on the occasion of Barrow Hill's 6th Annual Beer
Festival. Beer and trains – a railway rambler's dream!
Incidentally, the locomotive is no. 506, Butler Henderson,
the only preserved passenger locomotive from the 19th century
Great Central Railway. May
2007. (Ivor Sutton) |
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Above: 0-6-0T
'Terrier' no. 662 from the former London, Brighton
& South Coast Railway (formerly no. 62, Martello),
seen in action at Barrow Hill. The engine was visiting the roundhouse
from its home at Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk to operate
steam-hauled shuttle services. We felt that a picture of some
live steam was necessary in order to cheer up visitors depressed
by the gloomy pictures of
the
Cambridge
to St. Ives line on the previous page. May 2007. (Ivor Sutton) |
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Above: Railway
rambling, Peruvian style – health and safety regulations
do not seem to concern this bunch of backpackers overly much!
This is part of the 3 ft. narrow gauge line from Cusco to Machu
Picchu, which is considered to be one of the great railway journeys
of
the world. If you get the bug to explore the past, which is part
of what railway rambling is all about, there is no telling where
you will end up. September 2007. (Ivor Sutton) |
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Above: One of the 'backpacker' trains to Machu
Picchu. These are designed for 'adventure passengers or for those
seeking comfort and security, without all the frills' (Peru Rail).
By contrast, the luxury train to Machu Picchu, the Hiram Bingham (named
after the American historian who 're-discovered' Machu Picchu in
1911), is so luxurious that it would do the old Pullman company
proud.
The
journey
from
Cusco to Machu Picchu takes
3½
hours. There are no roads to this ancient site, and helicopter
visits have been suspended indefinitely, so the train is the only
way
to get there. September 2007. (Ivor Sutton) |
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Above: Machu Picchu, the destination of the
Hiram Bingham and local 'backpacker' trains. The 'lost
city of the Incas' (as Bingham called it) is situated at 7,970
ft. above sea level on a mountain ridge. It was built in about
1450
and abandoned
less
than a hundred years later at the time of the Spanish invasion,
although its remote location prevented the Spanish from finding
and destroying it. The buildings are made of polished dry stone,
a technique whereby building stones
are cut finely and assembled without mortar. The workmanship is
so good that often not even a knife can be slid between the blocks.
Machu Picchu was declared a Unesco
World
Heritage
Site
in 1983.
September 2007. (Ivor Sutton) |
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