midford again

The above is for those people who claim that it will be over 100 years before track returns to Midford so what's the point ...

This is the codicil in the lease agreement that requires Susrans to relocate the cycleway when we relay the line. Bear in mind also that as a public railway we will have full compulsory purchase powers so it's not an issue in any case. It's really up to us when we put the line back in, though personally I don't see a lot of point in laying track until we run real trains, so we're looking at a 20-30 year timeframe for Midford, though not of course on other sections of the line.

Of course the intention is to build a railway AND cycleway between Bath and Bournemouth, and along any other stretch of line we rebuild, so there won't be any conflict, no matter how much some dinosaur types try to talk it up LOL!

midford sunday

Members Stuart and Tom were up at Midford yesterday and the main job was burning a lot of the cut undergrowth that has built up over the last 5-6 weeks.

There was a lot of interest and support shown by walkers and cyclists during the day.

It's usually quite quiet on a Wednesday so I'd like to actively encourage members to go up at the weekend whenever possible to work. If you are planning to go up please ask me  to send you some of our leaflets so that passers-by can see what we're doing and hopefully join!

midford progress

15.9.2010 - first clearance day.




Today, just over a month later, the work is beginning to show results!

There have been work parties on four of the last five days, which is pretty good going! Remember that any member is entitled to go up at any time to do work on site.

We've now started moving all the cut vegetation and scrpaed earth from the platform, which is being dumped at the far end of the platform, where hopefully most of it will compost down in time. Most of the back wall has now been cleared, as has almost all the floor of the station building site.

It won't be long before we put in for planning permission to put the buildings back.

midford - Saturday, Monday and Today!

February 1986 - the sensible way to move loads - by narrow gauge skip! I do have a skip and some track but it's 7¼" gauge and perhaps a bit too easy to steal! So it'll be a wheelbarrow today ...


1986 - replica Midford sign and seat.

(Above 2 photos © Brian Clarke)



(These two photos © Kevin Brettell.

This Monday - before and after.

I'm going up to Midford in a few minutes for my usual Wednesday afternoon work out. We've now had people up there three out of the last five days, which is excellent going. We're getting quite a few Midford locals joining now and of course it's easy for them to just walk down and do some work.

I'm particularly pleased with picture four as it shows just how clear the station's becoming!

midford saturday work

The first rail revival presence at Midford on a Saturday for many years took place yesterday with more of the retaining/back wall being cleared.

I'll be up Wednesday with the main aim of moving the cleared material by wheelbarrow to the north end of the platform to improve the access.

Remember that members are permitted to go up to Midford at any time to do clearance restoration work! Don't be shy ...

switzerland - ahead of the game as always ...

The Swiss have today just completed the tunneling for the world's longest tunnel. It's the 35 mile long Gotthard Base Tunnel, which avoids the steep bad weather-prone climbs up the ramps to the existing tunnel, which will no doubt be retained. This will more than double capacity on the route which links Switzerland to Italy. Of course it's a rail tunnel - Switzerland is trying to force ALL through freight traffic off the roads and onto the rails, and realise that to achieve this they need to invest in infrastructure. The line won't be open for another 6 years by which time capacity constraints will no doubt be creeping up again - but I'm sure the Swiss will deal with that problem when necessary.

This is the future. Notice that all long tunnels are rail tunnels - even the backward Brits realised that the Channel Tunnel needed to be rail rather than road!

midford today

Unfortunately pressure of work means I won't be able to get up to Midford today but don't let that stop any of you lot going up! I was planning to clear more of the back wall - platform edge needs clearing and of course the platform surface too.

saving the past

(All Dawlish Warren 10.9.1984)

I've been having severe computer problems, with my Dell just about dead after about seven years. So I've been saving all my picture files, uploading them to the web. These are from Dawlish Warren, where I took my very first railway photo on 9 July 1971. These were a few years later though not a lot had changed.

My lovely new Vaio laptop has just arrived so hopefully everything I do will be speeded up by a factor of about three from now on!

hardly a surprise ...

... it is the 21st century after all!

Wednesday, October 6th 2010 14:00

27 local jobs have been lost with the closure of George Taylor Limited.

The firm based in Bedminster will no longer carry out any haulage work after over a century of doing so throughout the city.

Bosses have blamed the effects of the current economic climate for the business' decline.

The company employs 17 drivers and 10 other staff. Managing Director Roger Scarrett said: "It is with great regret that after over 100 years in the haulage business the company will realign itself and completely withdraw from all its haulage related activities. The company will continue to manage its property and other resources.

"We have taken the decision because demand for our quality service has declined in the global recession and we did not want to compromise on that quality, which the George Taylor name has been associated with for so many years."

"Sadly the loyal and dedicated workforce who over a long period of time have continuously produced service levels of the highest standard through their commitment and professionalism are the innocent victims in this. They are all friends as well as work colleagues."

"In the current economy customers are putting low prices above value and we are not prepared to compromise our service levels."The company was originally started by George Taylor and his horse and cart over 100 years ago.

All of the firm's equipment and vehicles, including some historic pieces will be sold at an auction this weekend.

This is happening all the time. Perhaps they should go back to the horses and carts - at least they have a future!

Businesses should be staying ahead of structural changes in the economy. Transport in the 21st century exclusively means railed transport. The roads are dying, costs are going through the roof and the whole business model is flawed. Transport companies should, like Eddie Stobart is doing, have been realigning themselves for years to switch their business to rail in one way or another. Either by developing rail freight or even by building the vehicles that will be needed in the future - heavy goods locos, freight wagons and industrial and light railway equipment. It's no good crying for a world that is changing before your eyes, you need to make the adjustments before your rivals do. This is the beauty of capitalism, and the underlying principle behind the New S&D.

Me? I left road haulage over twenty years ago as the way things were going was clear to me even then.

caution - may contain nuts

I heard the daftest thing the other day. Apparently a lot of people don't want to get involved with the New S&D - and by extension the S&D revival - because they have heard we're a 'bunch of nutters'!

I'm really sorry to disappoint them, and I know how horrible it can be when the truth hits home, but there's never been room in the New S&D for anyone who isn't as sharp as a knife, well educated and professional. We'd spot a nutter from miles off and they'd never get in.

Not quite sure how this rumour came about, or what mischievous types spread it, but I'm sure the progress at Midford and the rapid development of the New S&D, coupled with an almost universal appreciation that the Beeching cuts now need to be reversed, and quickly, will knock it out of play.

So if you are a nutter, and feel that joining the New S&D will introduce you to a plethora of like-minded friends, forget it. We have a serious nut allergy ... and intend to keep it that way!

the wall emerges

(All © Brian Clarke)

When I left Midford at five on Wednesday new member Brian Clarke was still beavering away and he sent these progress shots, including one after dark had fallen!

Midford really is starting to look like a station again and the actual task of returning it to its proper role is nowhere near as daunting as it once would have been. Just a few Wednesdays and it's already starting to look transformed.

Remember that members are welcome to go up to the site at any time to do clearance and restoration work, providing they follow the rules on the sidebar of this blog. Please try to get up whenever you can!

my first ever visit to midford ...

... was on May 24, 1980, over 30 years ago! Just 14 years after the last passenger trains Midford station back then looked far more forlorn than it does today! It's hard to spot the platform amid the undergrowth. Fortunately two previous restoration attempts have left the job a lot easier than it was at the start!

road trip!

Come on - join in!

I'm thinking of coming down on Saturday 30th October. I've put a message on the 'Wall' of the Facebook group site. If anyone is interested please let me know. I can take 3 others in my car.

midford today

A very good day up at Midford. There were four of us there, not bad for a Wednesday afternoon! Consequently we got a lot done, including clearing the whole of the wall that stood behind the station building. Covered in ivy, the brickwork once cleared looks almost new. We also cleared a good part of the platform edge and I did a little more exploring, finding a lot of varied brickwork, and plenty of work for the coming weeks!


Only downside is the need to get to Midford using 20th century transport - the road is dreadful! It's very ironic that I need to use a dying mode of transport to reach what will become the main way of getting around in the future - but which is currently devoid of track!

even the daily mail is joining the 21st century!

Peter Hitchens - spot on!

Can Beeching be undone?
Under headlines suggesting that the famous Beeching Cuts of Britain's railways may be reversed, we learn that the 'Association of Train Operating Companies' wants to reopen a few closed lines and stations. It isn't sadly, the extensive reversal of vandalism that we need.

This is partly because so many of the lines were destroyed or built over very rapidly after they were closed. Some believed at the time that this was done to make the destruction irreversible. It often looks like it. But this is the kind of suspicion it is impossible to prove.

Even so, isn't it odd how much harder it seems to be these days to get finance or land for new railway construction, while new roads seem to be built , and land found for them, without major difficulty? In my new book, The Broken Compass, I devote a chapter to the curious prejudice of political Conservatives in favour of cars and against trains.

This leads them to a bizarre belief that the enormous subsidies provided for the building of (state-owned) roads, and the tax-breaks given to airlines, are in some way all right whereas it is a crime against Adam Smith to spend money on railways.

I rode my bicycle along most of the length of the destroyed Oxford to Cambridge line last autumn. It has always been a mystery to me as to why this line was ever closed. I remember when it still functioned, an endearing museum piece with gaslamps on station platforms, used until his death in 1963 by C.S.Lewis ( he called it 'the Cantab Crawler' on account of its meandering slowness) to travel between his Oxford home and his Cambridge college.

There is no good direct road on this route, or any viable rail alternative. Even Lord Beeching did not want to shut it, and it was one of the very few East-West tracks in the country, connecting the Paddington, St Pancras, King's Cross and Liverpool Street main lines about 50 miles north of London. Some parts of it seem lost forever. Others could easily be reinstated.

Under BR, though closed, much of the line still functioned for goods, and occasional passenger trains still ran between Oxford and Milton Keynes, a link that would be extremely useful when the Oxford to Birmingham lines are disrupted. Since privatisation - and perhaps because of it - much of it seems to have deteriorated quite badly and so would be very costly to recreate.

But I think the time is coming when this task will have to be addressed. Mass car ownership was never right for this crowded island, and it has just about run its course. The railway, the most advanced and efficient form of ground transport ever devised, is likely to come back into its own.

When that happens, we should consider just how we came to make the huge mistake that was the Beeching report, and teach it to children as an example of how wrong an entire generation can be about the future?Go to the original article for some REALLY silly 20th century dinosaur comments, and also some good ones re heritage railways and the future. I remember when I used to be cutting edge - now I'm mainstream!