Because this project was supported by match funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the value of our grant was doubled, and this has happened many times since. Our first such grant was to the North Pennines Heritage Trust to help repair Alston Arches Viaduct (actually in Haltwhistle), which was made safe for public access during 2006. The restoration of viaducts – the most iconic of all railway relics – was an obvious choice. (Jeff Vinter)Īs the opportunities for trackbed purchase declined, we began to look at other options. The viaduct should be open to pedestrians after restoration in 2020. The changed of view of old railways – from useless wasteland to dormant asset / potential community resource – has meant that, for some years, no trackbed has come on to the market at a price low enough for us to purchase.Ī panaoramic view of Bennerley Viaduct, which carried the Great Northern Railway over the Erewash valley near Ilkeston. If a line is closed now, the local authority will usually be offered first refusal, and in most cases will buy the trackbed and convert it into a trail. Opportunities like these no longer occur because railways are longer being closed routinely. We also contributed to the purchase price of a trackbed link in North Somerset between Yatton railway station and the Cheddar Valley Railway Path this is only 400 yards long, but now walkers and cyclists can access the trail (which connects with many outlying villages) directly from the platform. We have helped to increase the number of rail trails in the UK by raising money to purchase several disused railway lines, which we have ‘gifted’ to Sustrans or other charities to convert into new trails, namely: Government austerity measures from 2008 reduced progress, but with a new administration in office that is no longer austerity-obsessed we should see improvements. As most railway enthusiasts know, Dr Beeching, together with his predecessors and successors (who could be just as destructive), recommended the axing of about 8,000 miles of railways within the UK, but thanks to the efforts of local authorities and Sustrans – the charity behind the National Cycle Network – something approaching 3,000 miles of this discarded network has been brought back into use as public walks and cycle trails. The club’s main purpose is to bring together groups of like-minded people to explore old railways, but it has also done much to encourage the preservation of old railway lines as footpaths and cycleways. We are still going strong and, in September 2018, celebrated our 40th Anniversary with a grand dinner at Sheffield’s Royal Victoria Hotel (ex Great Central Railway), when Nigel was installed as our Honorary President. The response was far greater than he had expected – a big surprise, in fact – and, as a result, he decided to form a club: this is the result. Railway Ramblers was formed in 1978 when Nigel Willis, the club’s founder member, placed a small ad in The Railway Magazine asking if there were others in the UK who were interested in accompanying him on walks along abandoned railways. The opening of the Two Tunnels Shared Path in 2013 extended this route northwards to Bath. This plaque on Midford Viaduct commemorates the club’s contribution to the extension of Colliers Way, NCN24, from Midford to Wellow along the trackbed of the Somerset & Somerset Dorset Railway.
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