Those refuges were a necessity and still are today in all railway tunnels, i have had to duck into one or two during my many years employed by BR. Sometimes they were picked out with reflective white paint. Fascinating stuff, keep up the good work.
Whenever i head south out of Buxton, you keep seeing the railway running parallel with the road, and you cant help but think what a fantastic heritage railway it would make, trouble is like the Monsal trail you get the cant be bothered to pedal crew dont want it to be returned to permanant way, even if there is a good economic sense in doing so.
About 20+ years ago I travelled there and back on fine afternoon. It was rather too fine, Cycling north past Thor's Cave there was a feeling of not being alone. Looking up a USAF A-10 was flying IN the valley below Thor's Cave. All markings like NO STEP where readable as it past. There is the tea rooms at Wetton Mill which is popular as well as Grindon, Butterton, and Alstonefield. The lights in the tunnel are only about 20 years old and before was no light. Once had to help a family on cycles through with the lights of my motorbike. There is a really bad gated road runs round the tunnel on the other side of the river. Ecton quarry and underground mine had been used for 3500 years and copper was mined
Hi. Im quiet well educated on the Ecton Mines but on this occasion we stuck to the Railway. In fact the gated road you mentioned, which used to be the road through from Wetton Mill before the road was routed on to the disused and lifted trackbed, goes right past the old Swainsley Wood mine which is visible from this old road and is pretty much now an outlet for water coming down from the hills above.
Another great vid Wobbly. I've never actually been along that trackbed, but I have a couple of the books - so I can see it's so overgrown as to be unrecognisable. There's a great old postcard picture of a train at the bridge at Wetton Mill Station with the ford in the foreground and with what's now the tea-rooms in the background, but these days it looks more like a rainforest and from the ford you can hardly see the line even, let alone the old Mill. Very interesting to see your shots under the bridge, which show they just put a wide concrete roadway on the original girders which would have carried the rails directly. I suppose you couldn't do that these days - the Alishan railway in Taiwan ( another 2'6" line ) has had to change all their bridges to have a footpath and a parapet. If you look at the St. Kitts scenic railway in Wikipedia though, there are some pictures of what it was like back in those days. Shame we don't use narrow gauge anymore - trams would be cheaper to build and no slower than standard gauge in windy places. And transporter waggons are a good technology. All about staffing costs I suppose.
Talking of St Kitts, i was there in the summer and we stopped off on a bus tour at a sort of Plantation Cafe and i was gobsmaked to find a small metal trestle bridge opposite with a narrow gauge track still on it and some old trucks in the yard that were on show.
Great video, really enjoyed that, I didn’t know much about this light railway, it looks a nice afternoons cycle ride out. It looks like it served very sparsely populated villages that are still not much bigger even in 2024, I can see that once the milk traffic ended then there was very little to keep the line open. Lovely countryside and a well maintained path, I was suprised to see cars and bikes on it but I imagine that’s only on part of it. Thanks again wobbly cyclist.😁
Beautiful area here Paul. Great the route can be followed on foot or bike not great for cars though! Very interesting leftovers from the old milk train line lovely tunnel as well. Fab video! 😊❤👍
Another interesting video Paul. As the railway seemed to have tourist traffic its a shame the council didn't help to save it rather than buy the trackbed
Those refuges were a necessity and still are today in all railway tunnels, i have had to duck into one or two during my many years employed by BR. Sometimes they were picked out with reflective white paint. Fascinating stuff, keep up the good work.
Thanks Frank.
Such a lush green and beautiful trail. It would have made quite the heritage line if someone had had the vision.
Whenever i head south out of Buxton, you keep seeing the railway running parallel with the road, and you cant help but think what a fantastic heritage railway it would make, trouble is like the Monsal trail you get the cant be bothered to pedal crew dont want it to be returned to permanant way, even if there is a good economic sense in doing so.
Great video, lots of points of interest.
Thank you. It's a fascinating railway isn't it
About 20+ years ago I travelled there and back on fine afternoon. It was rather too fine, Cycling north past Thor's Cave there was a feeling of not being alone. Looking up a USAF A-10 was flying IN the valley below Thor's Cave. All markings like NO STEP where readable as it past. There is the tea rooms at Wetton Mill which is popular as well as Grindon, Butterton, and Alstonefield. The lights in the tunnel are only about 20 years old and before was no light. Once had to help a family on cycles through with the lights of my motorbike. There is a really bad gated road runs round the tunnel on the other side of the river. Ecton quarry and underground mine had been used for 3500 years and copper was mined
Hi. Im quiet well educated on the Ecton Mines but on this occasion we stuck to the Railway. In fact the gated road you mentioned, which used to be the road through from Wetton Mill before the road was routed on to the disused and lifted trackbed, goes right past the old Swainsley Wood mine which is visible from this old road and is pretty much now an outlet for water coming down from the hills above.
Another great vid Wobbly.
I've never actually been along that trackbed, but I have a couple of the books - so I can see it's so overgrown as to be unrecognisable.
There's a great old postcard picture of a train at the bridge at Wetton Mill Station with the ford in the foreground and with what's now the tea-rooms in the background, but these days it looks more like a rainforest and from the ford you can hardly see the line even, let alone the old Mill.
Very interesting to see your shots under the bridge, which show they just put a wide concrete roadway on the original girders which would have carried the rails directly. I suppose you couldn't do that these days - the Alishan railway in Taiwan ( another 2'6" line ) has had to change all their bridges to have a footpath and a parapet. If you look at the St. Kitts scenic railway in Wikipedia though, there are some pictures of what it was like back in those days.
Shame we don't use narrow gauge anymore - trams would be cheaper to build and no slower than standard gauge in windy places. And transporter waggons are a good technology. All about staffing costs I suppose.
Talking of St Kitts, i was there in the summer and we stopped off on a bus tour at a sort of Plantation Cafe and i was gobsmaked to find a small metal trestle bridge opposite with a narrow gauge track still on it and some old trucks in the yard that were on show.
Great video, really enjoyed that, I didn’t know much about this light railway, it looks a nice afternoons cycle ride out.
It looks like it served very sparsely populated villages that are still not much bigger even in 2024, I can see that once the milk traffic ended then there was very little to keep the line open.
Lovely countryside and a well maintained path, I was suprised to see cars and bikes on it but I imagine that’s only on part of it.
Thanks again wobbly cyclist.😁
Haha wobbly cyclist 😆
Beautiful area here Paul. Great the route can be followed on foot or bike not great for cars though! Very interesting leftovers from the old milk train line lovely tunnel as well. Fab video! 😊❤👍
Thanks Carol. It's a beautiful part of the world. 👍😀
Another interesting video Paul. As the railway seemed to have tourist traffic its a shame the council didn't help to save it rather than buy the trackbed
Cheers Russ. It sure is. In that part of the peaks, it would have made a great little tourist attraction.
Top man quality as always 🚂🚂👍
Thanks Andrew