Oswestry to gobowen.

[Exiled Oswestrian]

Thing is i look at the Welsh Highland railway up here and it makes me think anything is possible!

[joshuaethan]

Aaaaaa The difference there my friend is........The Welsh Highland is in Wales and the Cambrian is in Shropshire, and as long as Oswestry remains the poor man of Shropshire, as it always has been! then things will remain the same.
In the early years Oswestry Town, Borough council, call it what you like, and the Shropshire county council did little to help the cause and its only now that they have seen the benefits a heritage railway can bring to Oswestry and West Shropshire.
You only have to look at the Station building in Oswestry if the railway was so important to the council then why did they not get funding for the platform instead of half finishing job and leaving the railway approaches in a complete mess.
what where they thinking? Who on earth would want to go for a meal in a restaurant or go to a chocolate shop looking out to a derelict waist ground or a Job centre?
The Llangollen railway back in 1972, Then called the Flint and Deeside Railway leased the old station from Denbighshire Country Council because they could see the benefits the railway could bring to the town. Incidentally, 1972 was the same year the Cambrian Railway Society was formed. The margin between the two railway organisations are like a premiership and non league football club, since then the welsh assembly have ploughed millions of pounds into Llangollen Railway getting it, to where it is today.
And another thing I find disturbing is the whole Richard burbridge development thing, if this thing goes a head and the site gets the green light for development which way would the Councils for Oswestry swing? regarding the old works.
My bet is, that parts of it wont be there for very long.

[Talerddig]

As merely a heritage railway my guess is that the link to Buttington is impossible. Not so, however, if European, national and local government take an interest.

Things have changed dramatically since the early years of preservation - Welshpool council certainly regrets its decision not to allow the W&L to use the town section, and no Shropshire County Councillor would dare suggest that "we should buy them a shed and put a Hornby railway in it" as one idiot did in the early days of the Severn Valley! We've seen what can happen with the WHR and major extensions happening on the Bluebell and likely to happen at Loughborough. And NOT funded by rummage sales, folk evenings, rail trips, paper recycling and raffles as in the early days of the CRS!

With the green agenda getting ever more important never say never!

[joshuaethan]

looking at the welsh assembly's web site there is talk that a north south link may be on the cards some time in the future utilising the existing formations from Rhyl through to Corwen then using the Llangollen line as far Ruabon then on to Gobowen through Oswestry to Buttington junction , main line to What was moat lane junction through to Brecon on the mid wales line what was, and down the valleys to the coast.. Pipe dream yes but that is the talk with the powers that be in Cardiff
joshuaethan

Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:59 pm

[Talerddig]

I'd also heard of a coastal being examined i.e. Bangor, Caernarfon, Afon Wen, Mach, Aber and down the coast to link with the main line. Also a huge undertaking but, as I said in the previous post, " Never say never" - especially where governments are concerned!

[Ian Nicoll]

As thoughts are partly on a service of some type between Oswestry and Gobowen, how would this work?
would we use The 2nd DMU set from Llynclys?
Would we use the fish docs platform or would the main platform in the station itself be restored? (as it will one day be restored obviously )
How would we get around the new dead end we have about at the end of the run around loop that the wood trains use just south of gobowen? would there be a new line built down the side of it? I imagine we would use the old Oswestry bay platform in Gobowen?


What's everyone's thoughts?

Who owns that DMU set that has appeared at Blodwell jct ?

[Exiled Oswestrian]

the TVLR mate.

[Guy Nicholls]

As far as I'm aware the plans include reinstatement of the bay platform in Oswestry station, allowing trains to continue as before to Gobowen. At Gobowen various plans are being considered, all of which would require consultation with Network Rail at some point. We could perhaps lay our line on the existing formation, next to the currently used 'spur', or we could perhaps negotiate with the adjacent landowner for use of a strip of land leading onto our land at Gobowen and into the current platform at Gobowen. As you can see, both require a Network Rail agreement. Once up and running the service could be run by one of the DMU sets, but if we could attract the relative motive power, then some sort of steam service could occasionally be substituted. But lets get across the A483 first and get to Oswestry, so we can show that we mean business !!

According to the late Councillor David J Lloyd, the line from Oswestry to Gobowen was last renewed in 1949, a time of austerity following the Second World War. Materials were generally in short supply and were not necessarily of the highest quality. Regardless of the state of the underlying fabric of the line, this means that where it previously hasn't been done, most if not all of the sleepers from Oswestry to Gobowen will probably need to be replaced.

There is also the condition of the bridge over the Whittington Road to consider - this is the responsiblity of the railways' leaseholder and not of the local road highways' department.

In addition, the Network Rail limit/boundary is not the only place where this section of the line has been severed.

All in all, it's recognised that there would need to be a relatively-hefty financial investment in this section.

These are several reasons, therefore, why it would seem sensible to tackle the more constructurally-sound (and achievable sooner) sections of the existing infrastructure first, in order to extend and secure operations (in addition to those at Llynclys South) and thus generate income to invest in the remaining (and more costly) sections of the railway to reconstruct.

[Exiled Oswestrian]

Arent most of the sleepers between Os and Gobowen concrete? I know that the rails look verry worn after my last walk down there many moons ago!

Also where else is it severed apart from the end of the line by gobowen?

I agree that this section should be looked at AFTER we have got from Oswestry to Blodwell and or Llynclys running.

[Meiriongwril]

Aaaaaa The difference there my friend is........The Welsh Highland is in Wales and the Cambrian is in Shropshire, and as long as Oswestry remains the poor man of Shropshire, as it always has been! then things will remain the same.

Clearly we need to campaign to get Oswestry (Croesoswallt) and immediate environs ceded back to Wales!!