Bollington: a new era!

[steam for ever]

In 1972 the macclesfield,Bollington and marple railway closed.
Now the line has been turned into the middlewood way for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.
An observation I made whilst doing this walk is that it was a double track alignment (it had two paralel tracks) .

Heres the big picture: A single track line that leaves room for the path running the whole 11 miles of beautiful scenery from Macclesfield (first main line connection) to Rose hill marple (second main line connection)
Along this journey will be many challenges. These will include raising the original trackbed out of bollington to build a unique bridge over the macclesfield bypass, and rebuild an enourmous river Bollin stadling viaduct, which was unique in design and shall be improved to include iron work to create a victorian style magnificant, intricate and over designed crowd pulling bridge. This shall be a steam railway (with heritage deisels) and revive a struggling part of Cheshire.

Remember what Kennedy said. "We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard". Only we are not quite trying to reach the moon.
This can be an appeal in the style of those of magazine readers appeals, such a Steam railway magazine readers appeals which against the odds restore our herritage.

In many of your threads and posts I see good people with ideas. Here is a chance to put some of those ideas into action. There are times when you feel no one will listen. Well I and other supporters are willing to listen.
Heres my advice: take a deep breath and jump.
Someone has to start, so why not you?
This subject shall now be a regular subject of mine.
PS: What can we do that is totally new and amazing that will make the line stand out and a hub of special interes of many different types.
Support is growing steadily, but remember that it is early days.
Your thoughts and opinions please.
Questions will be answered.
(please note that later it was decided to run from marple to Bollington only and this is explained later in the thread)

[steam for ever]

Good news regarding this subject.
Again local support has been given and there is a dinner that will bring together some of the major supporters.
Regarding the line itself, it has been decided that a guage of 2 feet will be sufficient and we are also hoping to gain the support of the national trust at Lyme park (1 mile away) to sort out how they can be involved.
Now there is also support being given from his lordship Lord Millett, who is giving his full backing and is now a business partner.
Hopefully the first track should be laid very soon.

[Midland Compound]

Originally Posted by steam for ever

.
Regarding the line itself, it has been decided that a guage of 2 feet will be sufficient .

It's only going to be a toy railway then, is it ?

[60159]

I don't know if I can believe everything I read. Sorry if I've got this wrong but is this realistically about a railway at Bollington or is it just bollocks?

[steam for ever]

This is serious stuff.
The reason for the two foot guage is that we want to leave enough space for the footpath and to ensure that no objections linked to this can be put forward.
When you say toy railway, you make it seem like a bad thing.
Think of the ffestiniog, welsh highland and bala lake railways for example.
These provide a great day out.
Standard guage has not been ruled out, but we want to have something special for this part of england. We do not want to encroach on the east lancashire railways territory.
It is early yet but we have our eyes on a south african garrat! It won't be such a toy railway then.
Whatever the outcome i will keep you posted on this.
Something I should mention is that the vintage pln flights at woodford came to nothing. I can't argue with BAE systems and the RAF.
Getting the national trust on our side however, is making progress. The vintage bus service from Higher poynton station into lyme park should be fine.
I have checked their terms and conditions regarding this on their website.

Some more good news is that there should be a meeting soon for supporters and representitaves. Nothing has been finalised but letters are going to be sent and we are hoping that it shall take place at one of the wilmslow methodist churches meeting rooms, one of which can seat 50 people. At this stage we are still rooting around for support and I and my colleague Lord millett are goning to walk the whole route from Rose hill marple to Bollington to assess structures and the condition of the trackbed.
After this has taken place we can give more information, but in the meantime if you have questions for me you are more than welcome to ask them.
PS dont ask the methodist church for information as the room has not been booked and so unless they have read this, don't know anything about it yet.

[steam for ever]

Now I have found four more locos of a german design (Orenstein and Koppel)
as well as a quarry class hunslet. I havn't bought them. This is a great project to get involved with so I am open to suggestion and membership which will start soon. A letter is now being sent to cheshire east council to put forward the proposal. Our arguement is that the preservation industry has not been affected by the economic downturn and is one of the few industries not losing money. We say that it will greatly improve the local economy attracting tourists to a picturesque area that just needs a push.
Secondly, it has been mentioned that we propose a narrow guage railway on a standard guage trackbed- this leaves plenty of room fot the footpath as it was a double track alignment and we are having a single 2 foot guage track on one side.
Finally we mention that the railway when built was ordered by an act of parliament which was never repealed so still stands today.
We also mention that more and more people are becoming entusiasts (finding their feet) and wishing for more projects like this to become a reality.
A similar letter is going to be released a the same time to the national trust (regarding the vintage buses that will take people from higher poynton to lme park) to say how this can benefit them. Of course a meeting shold follow to negotiate terms if all goes well.

[JEB-245584/2]

Go on then I will be the first to ask the obvious questions,
1, What sort of budget do you envisage for this scheme assuming you go for the NG option?
2, What sort of a time scale are you working too?
3, Have you opened dialouge with the local authorities/landowners/highway agency etc.?
4, Have you appointed somebody to do a feasibility study into the project?

Observing the project from a distance,but knowing the area reasonably well I admire your ambitions but I'am sorry I just can't see it taking off on the scale you want it to, just to bridge the river and the by-pass would put the cost into the mid teens of millions(just look up the road at the Peak with the A6).
Anyway I will watch with interest and good luck.

Cheers John

[swisstrains]

This is potentially the most exciting thing that has ever happened on the Railwayforum. It's not every day that you get invited to be part of such a truly dedicated team. I can't wait for all the legal formalities to be completed so that I can start to send my donations. Would £50 a month sound reasonable?

[steam for ever]

Ok
We are aplying for a heritage lottery grant to get us going. We are also in the process of registering as a charity (we are only putting a definate yes if the plan is approved) We have no major earthworks to work on as the footpath maitanance people have been looking afetr it. Bridges are all used by the walkers so have to be maintained and some cross NR railways and are maintained to a good safety standard. Also we need to remember that as a 2 foot gauge line the track and trains are no where near as heavey.
The time scale we are using was something i worked on for hours with my co-founder Lord Milett and we have decided that we are going to deal with negotiations and gather support while launching an appeal as people join ( remember we are applying to become a charity). In the second year we will put the money from the heritiage lottery grant into our first locomotive which has been found (I should mention that the locos have been found and with no restoration required to most) while using the money we have raised from the public to begin laying track and securing our station and shed site at Bollington. The land owner is cheshire east council which is lucky as they are already bent on bringing money in and our argument is already posted in an earlier part of the thread.
When you mention the road difficulties we plan to go no where near it. We are only using the stretch from Bollington to rose hill marple, the road is in macclesfield.
I hope this helps. PS I did mention the act of parliament which opened the railway in the first place which explains that situation in an earlier part of the thread.

[steam for ever]

A note to everyone.
I shall notify you of when the negotiations start and finnish.
Tell you what, when the meetings start, you may of course come along so you can meet who you will be working with and your experience can be put to use. I will give the date and place of the meeting when it is finalised.
IMPORTANT: There is a limit to the amount of people to turn up, so we can't have thousands in one meeting. What we might do is have the meetings over several days so more people can see whats happening.
On the days there will most likely be a small charge to pay for the rooms and start our funding operation going. At the meetings there will be a chance to make a donation. Now then, the main fuction hall at the church can seat 150 people. In the main section of the church (which is modern and multi use) the seats are in a horseshoe shape around a stage where there is a projector system. One of the opportunities here is the magnificant 24-28 (lots but some trees in the way) arch viaduct that toweres above the town. This would be the largest viaduct with a heritage railway over it.
I keep you posted.