Jan 2022 – Nottingham.

The city of Nottingham lost its famous Victoria station in 1967 – and a significant amount of railway heritage has been obliterated from the city since then. However, Thurland Street Tunnel, which brought the Great Central Railway into the station, remains intact. A local history group, Nottingham’s Railways Remembered, arranged three visits to the tunnel […]

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Dec 2021 – Co. Donegal, Republic of Ireland.

The main railway walking available in County Donegal is on the former Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway, which operated 99 miles of narrow gauge line from Londonderry to Tooban Junction, where separate branches led off to Carndonagh and Burtonport.  A Google search for  ‘Dismantled railway Letterkenny to Burtonport’ will bring up Ireland’s travel guide (Active […]

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Dec 2021 – Rainford Junction to Rainford (Rookery Lane), Lancashire (Merseyside).

Open to cyclists, walkers, wheelchairs, pushchairs, etc., this trail of 1¾ miles runs from grid refence SD 477025 to SD 486002. The walk is branded ‘Rainford Linear Park’, and passes through woodland managed by St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council. The trail starts within a few yards of Rainford Station, and originally formed part of the […]

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Oct 2021 – Toller Porcorum, Dorset.

In October, contractors working for National Highways (the organisation called Highways England until recently) ‘came in like a tornado, removing everything in their path’, according to a landowner. They arrived on site and entered the property of three landowners, creating an access route up to the former trackbed, felling trees and disposing of the timber. […]

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May 2021 – Kingham, Oxfordshire, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.

It has been reported that a group is commissioning Sustrans to investigate using the former Kingham to Bourton line as a recreational trail. First though, they have to raise funding for a Sustrans feasibility study. They claim the disused rail line ‘is flat, relatively undeveloped, usefully sited and travels through beautiful countryside’, which could be […]

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Apr 2021 – Somerset.

John Grimshaw’s new charity, Greenways and Cycleroutes (GCR), is now working on the ‘Somerset Circle’, a circular network of lines around the county which will build on the existing Strawberry Line (Yatton – Cheddar) to create a county-wide route based largely on old railways. A map of the project and its ‘vision statement’ can be […]

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Jan 2021 – Okehampton, Devon

A year ago things looked bleak for the North Dartmoor line and any reinstatement of passenger trains on the line from Exeter to Okehampton. Heritage services from Okehampton to Meldon Quarry also ceased when the owners went into receivership. However, the government has now included a commitment in its National Infrastructure Strategy to restart regular […]

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