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WALKS As one would expect, the club organises walks over disused railway lines. These are split roughly 4:1 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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Who Can Join the Club's Walks? Our walks are open to all members from any area of the club. Additionally, our Civil Liability Insurance covers non-members participating in up to 3 walks as 'tasters', but they must have the intention of joining the club. This arrangement does not cover friends, family or other casual participants. Civil Liability insurance 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 non-member comes on three club walks and wants to participate in a fourth, they need to join and become a member in their own right. After all, if they've done three walks with us and want to come back for more, one can assume that they like railway rambling. The hobby does offer a unique mixture of exploration, lost views, and the pleasure of discovery – which might include some half forgotten relic from the past. The winter months are usually the best time of year for this, when the lack of vegetation often exposes old trackbed fittings and occasionally something larger. On one walk in Hampshire a few years ago, members of our Southern Area found an LMS signal arm buried in the leafless undergrowth. (Please don't write in if you think we have got the railway company wrong – this artefact really was stamped with the initials of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway!)
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:
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. (As an aside, we are investigating the potential of email as a distribution medium following the 38% price increase imposed in April 2012 by the Royal Mail on the price of a second class stamp: at a stroke, this increased our postal costs from 30% to 41% of our income.) On the plus side, the club will add at least one past magazine to this website, but any such 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. We have prepared a set of resources to help walk leaders design and plan railway walks ranging from straightforward events over official railway paths to walks which require negotiation with landowners. The latter are often the most interesting walks, but it takes a lot of time, effort and skill to arrange them. Even with a walk over an official route, there's a lot to consider, including lunchtime arrangements (you do not want to reach the pub after the kitchen has closed) and transport arrangements (you do not want to reach the end of the walk after the last bus has departed). We do not publish these resources on the Internet, but they are available to walk leaders from our Secretary, who can supply them on a CD. We are very grateful to those walk leaders who shared their expertise at a seminar in Newport in 2012, where these materials were collated. We also offer a walks template in both Word and PDF format (see below), which has been designed to help walk leaders 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 can help to prevent things like that happening.
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