I managed to pop in to Shillingstone on the way back from honeymoon yesterday. What a difference a year makes! The shop was open, the station was buzzing with people (and dogs), the building and platform were accessible and unlocked and there's a real working loco sitting on track. They are making fantastic progress for a small team and I'd encourage anyone who lives close to them to get involved with the restoration.
4 comments:
Does anyone know what these guys intend to do ?
Are they going to lay track to somewhere or just the station ?
If so in a direction, which direction ?
Stourpaine would be best i think as it has a halt (not in the best of health)but if you head north there is no station.
At least if they head towards and get to Stourpaine they could do trips along the line.
Looking at the aerial maps on Google, Stourpaine does indeed seem the best option. Northwards, they'd have to buy up some gardens and a tennis court (although the nearest bridge is still intact, unlike Midsomer). Southwards there seems to be huge lengths of untouched trackbed, ripe for use. Have the Trust there been in touch with the Land Registry to find out who owns what and if it's available?
The problem is the trailway own all the trackbed south of the station until the end of the village so and an agreement would have to be made with them. as well as that the enormus amount of infill in cliff cutting would give us quite the bill of spoil removal. But as it stands at the moment we have a long way to go and as usual legal bull shit is getting in the way of progress, like planning permission, and various rules and regulations. But we will get there eventualy.
What we are doing is putting the station back to what it was in the 1950's. The plan is to lay about three quarters of a mile of track with double track through the platforms with a siding into the cattledock. We do have a working diesel a Ruston-Hornsby it was running but not moving at our open day. We do have a buffy bar with tea, coffee and soft drinks open most weekends. We also have flushing toilets running water and electricity. One of our long term plans if everything goes according to plan is to build a two road restoration shed. We are working with the trailay put as with everything it takes time. Please come down and see how we are doing.
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