midford today

If you can please try to get up to Midford this afternoon (between 2pm and 5pm) to help clear the site. This will be the third Wednesday working party at Midford and it is beginning to show! The sun's out, it's warm and what better way - and place - to spend a few hours on a Wednesday afternoon?

influence ...

A big part of what the New S&D will be doing over the next decade is influencing decision makers to regard rail as the primary mode of travel for the future, in tandem with cycling, walking and horseriding. Whilst the biggest influence will be the rising cost and falling availability of fuel we all also have our part to play in changing the mindset of the people in 'power'.

The following is from Sustrans, a group we'll always be working very closely with.

Influencing local transport plans in England
English local authorities outside London are currently preparing their Local Transport Plans (LTPs), which will influence how people travel for years to come. Looking forward to potential local transport budget cuts of between 20 and 40 per cent, and a shift in power towards local communities, this is an opportunity for cost effective sustainable transport solutions to be put in place. Local authorities should be prioritising value for money initiatives that get more from existing transport networks, whilst extending travel choice by investing in smarter travel, walking, cycling and public transport.

The evidence is that, with the right investment, travel choice can be significantly increased. In the Sustainable Travel Towns, car driver trips per resident fell by 9% between 2004 and 2008, whilst cycle trips increased by 26-30% and walking by 10-13%. Research in 2004 showed that the potential for change is even greater: nearly two thirds of all journeys could be made by foot, bike and public transport under existing conditions, and even more with better infrastructure and integration with public transport. The greatest potential for change lies in increasing cycling, providing a viable alternative to nearly one in three local car journeys.

Many of our national transport challenges could be tackled if local transport spending was focussed on enabling people to make smarter travel choices. In Sustrans view, an LTP that is fit for purpose will set ambitious targets for changing travel behaviour, doubling the number of local trips being made by foot, bike and public transport to 4 out of 5. This means focusing transport investment on low cost, high value measures:

area wide 20 mph zones so that people feel able to walk and cycle more from their own front door

smarter choices measures including personalised travel planning to give people at home the information and advice they need to leave their car behind

high quality walking and cycling networks to provide local routes to everyday destinations and public transport hubs

programmes to give children and young people the knowledge, skills and confidence to travel independently to school and for other local trips

better public transport, including demand-responsive services in rural areas, and improved integration between buses, trains, walking and cycling.

The new LTPs have to be in place by April, and although consultation is ongoing in many areas, detailed plans are unlikely to be finalised until the outcome of October's comprehensive spending review is known. Sustrans local staff are monitoring the development of LTPs. To get involved keep an eye on the transport section of your local authority website and let your local authority know what you think.

1970s - this is how stupid it got ...

Ford.

Barnham.


Littlehampton.


Hove.

My teenage stamping ground was Littlehampton in Sussex. Unusually we had - and of course still have - our own branch line with two different routes to London available. You could also go west to Portsmouth and east to Brighton. This was all double track, and all electrified. The stations - and there were a LOT of them - were always busy, taking commuters to London and carrying a lot of local traffic to Portsmouth, Havant, Chichester, Worthing and Brighton. The route along the coast was branded as Coastway West.

Yet for much of the early seventies there were serious plans to CLOSE this route. This shows how low morale had got within the railways for such madness to be even considered. The roads were, and still are, atrocious along the coast. You get a whole different sense of time down there - a 20 mile road journey can easily take an hour. Just imagine how much worse things would have been had the line closed!

Yet the S&D DID close, the towns along the S&D are in some cases as big or even bigger than as Havant and Chichester, and Bath and Bournemouth are every bit as important as Brighton and Portsmouth. Had the S&D survived into the 70s, even with the anti-rail mentality that was still everywhere then, there is no way it would have been closed.

Are we really going to let the fact that the S&D fell just short of the era when railways never closed stop us getting the line up and running again? Of course not. It is ridiculous that every town along the route isn't absolutely up in arms that every councillor, MP and professional in the area isn't yelling for the return of their trains.

So whilst the towns along the Sussex coast have modern trains offering 2 or 3 trains an hour at dozens of stations Shepton, Radstock, Blandford and several other large towns in Somerset and Dorset have empty trackbeds running through them. It is crazy.

next stop spetisbury

Great news for our Dorset members - now we've safely saved Midford as a railway location for ever we are now in negotiation with Dorset County Council to take over Spetisbury. Aim here is to restore the station to 1950s style and, as at Midford, set up a shop and information office for the whole route. There is of course ample opportunity here to lay a single line of track, perhaps to demonstrate a Parry People Mover at a later date.

The two currently most important sections of the S&D are Midsomer Norton to Bath and Blandford to Poole. Both routes should really already be operating regular passenger and freight trains, with a catchment population well over 100,000 excluding Bath and Bournemouth. Hopefully soon both stretches of line will have a magnificently restored station acting as an information centre for the route. This will help bring about the restoration sooner rather than later.

We'll shortly be launching a Spetisbury Appeal to raise funds to restore the buildings, and hopefully set up work parties in the not too distant future, once we have secured the site.

how low can you go ...

We were staying in Exmouth last week and from the hotel room you could just see the GW main line from Exeter to Plymouth through the binoculars. I think this unusual shot emphasises the fragility of this spectacular route. It also underlines the total madness of 1960s/1970s transport 'policy', a policy dominated by arrant stupidity, ignorance and craven submission to the 'road lobby'. The S&D closure was, of course, part of this idiocy. ANY transport decisions taken in those crazy decades were invariably wrong.

Back to the GW main line. This is currently the ONLY link from the rest of Britain to places south of Exeter. Those places include the cities of Plymouth and Truro, the seaside resorts of Torquay, Paignton, Teignmouth, Newquay and many others as well as numerous large towns, industries and businesses. All linked by a narrow thread which between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth is incredibly vulnerable to the weather, global warming and the sinking of this part of the UK.

There were of course various other rail routes at one time. It would have been extremely unlikely that all would have been made inactive at the same time. The Teign Valley route bypassed this vulnerable route between Extere and Newton Abbot and the SR has a superbly engineered route between Exeter and Plymouth which skirted Dartmoor. There was also another route via Halwill Junction to Wadebridge, reconnecting with the main line to Cornwall at Bodmin Road.

The Teign Valley route closed in 1958, the Halwill Junction route in 1967 and, almost unbelievably, the Southern main line in 1968. This was organised vandalism. The last closure was the maddest of all, as the sections from Exeter to Meldon and Plymouth to Bere Alston remained open in any case, and still do. The large town of Tavistock was actually cut off (and in winter that can mean totally) despite the line being kept open to Bere Alston, just 6 miles to the south.

Now the line to Tavistock is, at last, being restored. But why on earth aren't there solid proposals to continue the line back up to Meldon, giving an alternative route when the Dawlish route is closed and, more importantly, taking some of the trains off the coastal route to improve capacity and efficiency?

Again this just shows not only how stupid we were back in the distant days of the 60s, but just how long it's taking people to realise that those days are over, or soon will be.

In a few years' time all this madness will be seen for what it is. This is the world into which we are all being propelled, the one in which restoration of the UK rail network becomes absolutely essential to our survival as a first world economy, a fiercely logical world where large towns like Midsomer Norton, Radstock, Blandford, Shepton Mallet and Glastonbury have proper, regular and extremely busy passenger and freight services, and where empty trackbeds suddenly become the most valuable real estate in the UK.

brilliance!

Well Midsomer Norton have finally done it and are running trains on a regular basis, starting tomorrow at 11am. (Details in the superb poster above).

(There were a couple of earlier running days in September but these were kept deliberately low key, to get the feel for things).

Midsomer Norton was always the inspiration for the New S&D and the whole site is fantastic, a real credit to everyone who has helped it happen.

It really is a historic day as this is the first time the public have been able to travel on a standard gauge train on the S&D since the Radstock group moved to Washford in the 1970s. It's been a long time coming, and everyone deserves to travel on this fantastic route. This is yet another one of those small steps at different locations that proclaims loudly to the outside world - the one that still sits complacently and firmly in the 20th century - that the ridiculous closure of the S&D in 1966 was only temporary and that the line is coming back, yard by yard, mile by mile, town by town. The S&D is no longer a dead route but a living, breathing icon for the 21st century!

musings ...

This has ended up buried in the 'comments' section so I've promoted it to the main page!

2 Items, firstly to all supporters who can't make the mid week working parties, let's set up some weekend ones. Best use the Midford Facebook group for this here. I live in SW London and am happy to give others a lift down to the site, it will be more cost effective. Please comment on my message there or reply to this comment here.

2nd Who owns the adjoining land and how do they feel about selling, particularly the old goods yard through Long Arch bridge? Because if we owned that?? Who knows what we could set up :)
Yes, let's get weekend work parties set up. Not only is it convenient for most members, but also there will be far more passing visitors who may well then take an interest in the route. I think this would be a huge publicity boost for us and hopefully Brett can quickly get a team together. I'll certainly do everything I can to make it up on the first occasion!

On the question of land ownership I'm sure Mick Knox, who has taken on the 'portfolio' of land ownership, would welcome help with getting this information together. The goods yard to the north of Long Arch Bridge would be an excellent base as there's a reasonable amount of land, there's access from the minor road and, most importantly, it's clear of other users ie the cycleway.

We certainly don't plan to sit still now Midford's under our belt, and further land purchases are inevitable - though it does depend on lots of good sized donations coming in!

our first tiny step

This picture shows the extent of the land now owned by the New S&D. Everything within the red line is ours and is now set aside - for ever - for the use of the railway. As well as the platform and trackbed to the Long Arch Bridge we also own woodland on either side of the railway. We even own a tiny piece of the old canal!

Although a forward looking organisation we are also very aware of the huge historical significance of the S&D and ownership has led to us inheriting a lot of old paperwork going back over 100 years. I'll put this on this site over the next few months, and use this as the basis for an article in the 'past' section of Right Lines 3.

Over the next few weeks I want to put together a 'Midford Team' that will clear and rebuild the station area. This set up will be copied all along the route as we buy more and more parcels of land.

unsentimental sentimentality

A two parter today - I'm getting a huge build up of articles, ideas etc, which has to be a good thing!

Top photo is a superb atmosphere shot of Blandford in the last few weeks before temporary closure in 1966. Night photography back then was a real challenge and the photographer (Joe Robbins) is a real hero of the S&D. We've all seen the classic S&D shots, double headers hauling the Pines through Midford etc, but I love the atmosphere shots most of all.

I know, I'm a hard-headed business person, so this shouldn't appeal to me. But, to me, it taps into memories of waiting around on stations at night. There's no sense of threat here, not even one of foreboding which could be excused due to the circumstances! It's the solidity, the sense of quiet purpose, more importantly the sense of connectedness. You don't get this with roads - an empty road at night is a spooky place ... and even 'modern' railway stations lack a lot of this.

Think of Blandford today. Remarkably rail-less, even if just for a few more years, bland and characterless, with nothing like the above to make it stand out. Just waiting really, for the New S&D's time to come.

Sentimental? Not at all. To fill our trains in the future, and there will be an awful lot of them, we need to make the railway environment as comfortable, friendly, familiar and, yes, English, as the above shot. We don't want bus shelters, trains where the seats don't match the windows, services stopping at 9pm rather than 1am and starting again at 7am rather than 4am. There'll be almost as many trains at night as in the day, possibly more when you factor the freight trains in. We deserve a pleasant environment to do our stuff in. The harsh brutality of 60s architecture offers nothing to us 21st century types. The pathetic haste in which ESSENTIAL railways were closed under the most crooked circumstances should never be forgotten - or forgiven. This photo, to me, has the same redemptive - and predictive - power as the 'Perchance it is not dead' wreath at Barnstaple Town.


And completely unsentimentally here's the lean-to oil store at Midford as it was in September 1961 (photo © John Eyers). Had this survived, or been rebuilt, I'd have been up there today in the rain - but sadly the oil store will not reappear for a little while yet! This is a particularly nice shot as it shows all our trackbed up to the Long Arch Bridge.

Both these photos appear in the superb S&D Telegraph number 36, available to members of the SDRHT at Midsomer Norton and usually available at their shop, as well as other back issues.

midford ...

Some views from the future railway around Midford - all courtesy Mick Knox.

A few points about Midford - so that everyone knows what's going on there!

Midford will be restored - subject to planning approval - to 1950s condition. It will serve as an information office for the WHOLE route, and will have an office, some sales items (books, souvenirs etc) and perhaps models of the area, plus a full information point for the station, line and area.

EVENTUALLY it will become a wayside station on the New S&D with regular passenger services to Bath and Bournemouth.

Until trains are viable (possibly 10-20 years' time) track will not be laid except for cosmetic purposes. The cycleway will continue as before and is fully supported by the New S&D.

Volunteers are welcome to go up to Midford at any time to do restoration work - but please bear the following in mind!

Please under no circumstances park in the Hope and Anchor car park at any time, even when the pub is not open. There is plenty of car parking on Twinhoe Lane, by the gate that gives access to the cycleway. From there it is a very pleasant walk to the station over the viaduct! Please carry tools etc by hand.

Please email or phone me first just so I know there is somebody there and to give you an idea of what work needs to be done.

Within a few weeks we will have New S&D reflective jackets available. Please wear these whenever possible.

You are an ambassador for the line. Please talk to anyone who is interested in the line and if you have them please hand out leaflets. Be friendly and professional at all times!

Please keep the cycleway clear of tools etc at all times.

Please take ALL litter etc home, including cigarette ends.

Please respect all the wildlife in the area, always check if clearing that you are not destroying a nest etc. If in doubt please leave well alone.

Please use the Hope and Anchor pub for drinks and food!

midford restoration 90s style!

The first picture was taken in 1984, probably early in the year and I think was the first one I took there. It shows the platform swathed in foliage and the trackbed thickly layered with green turf all over the ballast. Nobody had yet chopped or dug at anything since 1960's.


The second picture was taken in June 1985 and shows my Honda CG125 parked up where the lamp hut used to be (probably what you refer to as "oil store"). This had only just been cleared, was invisible in jungle.


The third picture was taken in June 1990 from the same viewpoint and shows a derelict incomplete hut where the original lamp hut used to be. The people are Henry Allen and his son David visiting from Basingstoke. Five years before Henry hauled many tons of materials onto site here, and a few tons away, driving hired lorries.


The fourth picture was taken in September 1990 and shows the platform with foundations for station building scraped clear. A total of twelve visitors were in this picture taking as great an interest then as you describe your effort attracting now.

Above 4 pictures + text are © Brian Clarke - all rights reserved.
The third picture is the most emotive for me as I'm currently spending one afternoon a week trying to get Midford back to this position! I was aware of an earlier preservation attempt at Midford, and hopefully most of you that were involved in it back then will come up and get it restarted. Of course the idea back then was to simply restore the line from Midford to Tuckingmill with a DMU shuttling back and forth. We have a direct link with this scheme as it was Laurence Skinnerton who personally purchased the site in 1997 and has now sold it on to us. The earlier attempt has also persevered in a way as Midford is now nowhere near as overgrown as it was in some of these shots!

Midford restoration part 1 was probably years ahead of its time, and also suffered from the lack of vision - a working modern freight and passenger railway - that of course the New S&D offers. This meant, sadly, that the locals didn't support it 100%.

We will be putting in for planning permission for the whole site very soon, with restoration of the infrastructure and a commitment to relaying the track as soon as we can. I've already noticed quite an increase in memberships and donations over the last few weeks since restoration started!

Do try to come along and help restore/rebuild this most iconic location! Simply email me at leysiner@aol.com for more info, or just keep checking this blog for the latest news. Members can of course go up at any time and do some clearance work but please email me first, or phone on 0117 3738973 to let me know that you're going and also to let me give you an idea of what needs to be done!

midford today

Excellent afternoon up at Midford, clearing back some more of the undergrowth in the station building area. I found this concrete foundation which is almost certainly the base of the parcels office. It's nice to think that the rebuilt station building should be able to utilise some of the original structure!

One of the passing cyclists was Rupert Crosbee, area manager for Sustrans, and we had a nice chat about the plans for the station!

midford tomorrow

I shall be up at Midford (virus permitting!) from about 2pm to 4pm. Work plan tomorrow is to scrape back the undergrowth at the south end of the platform, and perhaps a little more cutting back.

If you're able to come up best tools to bring are shears, shovel and a wheelbarrow!

resource

A very useful resource for the restoration of the section of line between Midford and the Long Arch Bridge is this excellent work by Mike Arlett, out of print but still available on Amazon.

As well as a comprehensive history of the S&D at Midford there are also numerous photos that will help put things back as they were.

Remember that restoration of Midford is now proceeding and all members are welcome to go to the station and do some work. At the moment we are still at the clearance stage, which will probably take a few months.

Just a few rules if you do go up - please email me first at leysiner@aol.com so I'm aware you are there and can let you know what work is needed to be done. If possible please try to go with at least one other person. All work is currently done at your own risk so personal insurance is recommended. It is a good idea to wear steel toecapped boots if possible. We'll be getting New S&D reflective jackets made shortly - when they are ready ideally we'd like all people working on site to wear them. This makes us look more professional and, more importantly, visible. If people pass and ask what we're doing please take time to let them know what our plans are. You will be ambassadors for the project even if you are shy or just want to cut stuff down! If you have them please take some leaflets to hand out - if you need some please email me. No fires please - just pile up anything that's cut down, clear of the platform edges and, of course, the cycleway. Try to buy a drink or meal in the Hope and Anchor and let them know why you are there. Don't leave tools or anything else on the cycleway - it needs to be left totally clear at all times, this is one of our obligations as landlord. Take home ALL litter, including cigarette ends!

discuss

mid




Recently posted to the National Preservation Forum - thought it might be fun to open this up here as well!

I have nothing against Sustrans or their goals and ideals per se - I'm not complaining about what they do. I just want to make it clear that they are 'lodgers' on railway land.

The trackbeds that rail used to run on was bought with real (private) money from land owners, under Acts of Parliament. Since nationalised in 1948 those trackbeds have belonged to the Government (the British People, really), and Sustrans would do well to remember that the land is primarily still a railway - even if the metals have been litfed - and could revert to being a working railway at any time.

In the meantime, using the trackbed as long-distance footpaths and cycleways is an excellent use - the level or gentle gradients makes ideal route for said activity - but not to the exclusion of one day re-laying the metals which belong there by right.If I see a freight train these days it is a novelty.

When I was a child (around 1960) freight trains ('goods trains' we called them) where everywhere. Successive corrupt governments have removed freight from rail, to satisfy their friends in road haulage, closed down railways, sold off vast swathes of trackbed to property developers and supermarkets in a bid to ensure rail never returns. Interesting move, as the land wasn't really theirs to sell... They only managed it on behalf of the British people.

We must, as a movement, ensure that the same thing does not happen with Sustrans. They must not regard the trackbeds as theirs; they are not - they are railway trackbeds, and I for one are happy to share those trackbeds and routes with Sustrans - but not hand them over.
My own views are slightly at variance to the above. I don't think there was any deliberate sense of selling off railway land to prevent railways being reopened, more to monetise what could be seen as dead land. Whilst some at the MoT may have thought that rail had had its day I'm sure there were just as many who were aware that oil was a finite resource and that the railways would return. This may explain why such a huge percentage of rail routes, even ones closed decades ago, are still clear of all obstructions.

Of course Sustrans was formed to shift the costs of maintaining many of these essential future routes. There's no real love for cyclists at either local, regional or national level, but Sustrans was created purely as a custodian for these future rail routes. We should be grateful to them for this.

I believe that cycling will become a very important transport mode in the future, second only to rail. Ideally there should be a railway and cycleway between Bath and Bournemouth. But obviously rail should have priority at all times and places. This is hardly controversial.

What perhaps is a little more controversial is the suggestion that heritage railways have been encouraged for precisely the same reason that Sustrans has - as a way of shifting costs away from the government and preserving rail routes. Heritage railways will have to morph into community railways offering real trains, passenger and freight, as well as 'heritage' trains, with the real trains taking precedence. This is the agenda, which will become clearer over time, which guarantees the restoration of the S&D together with thousands of miles of other temporarily closed railways. Our aim is to ensure that the S&D is rebuilt as we want it, not some distant bureaucrats.