Councillor proposal for steam train base at Melksham

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Melksham Independent News (here}:

Steam trains would boost tourism, says councillor

A LOCAL councillor has suggested running a steam train from Melksham as the town looks forward to more years of railway improvements.

Following the huge success of more frequent trains stopping in Melksham, town councillor Richard Wiltshire has suggested adding a steam train in future to boost tourism.

Cllr Wiltshire said, “Congratulations to the TransWilts rail partnership and the Melksham railway group for their promotion of local train services resulting in the proposed enlargement of Melksham’s  station.

“With the lengthening of the platform and loop rail works, could there be an opportunity to provide a base for a steam heritage train operating from Melksham?

“The interest in steam trains has grown over the years since they were replaced by diesel and electric engines on the main routes. There are now over 170 active heritage rail and tramways in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), with several in Somerset and Gloucestershire but only one in Wiltshire at Swindon.”

Recent efforts by local railway campaigners, transport organisations and government have seen an extra 90 trains per week and 48,000 more journeys per year since 2013.

Plans are now in the works to extend the platform and make the station bigger, with the hope of adding more services in future.

Cllr Wiltshire added, “Some of the existing heritage rail sites offer a wide range of tourist attractions from dining car events, rail museum trips, special trips for children and much else.

“With the coming of the Wilts & Berks canal link through Melksham, the addition of a steam railway would greatly add to tourism attraction.

“Although Melksham does not have any heritage rail buildings, it does have track and standing space and an historical link with railway engineering through Spencer Moulton.

“Any heritage railway can only exist through support from enthusiastic volunteers; perhaps this article will generate interest from such enthusiasts.”

This article comes "left field" to me - out of the blue. The question is asked "could there be an opportunity to provide a base for a steam heritage train operating from Melksham?" and I think the answer is "no" - which is not to say there couldn't be other tourism / heritage gains - in fact a steam train has already stopped a couple of time and (contrary to what the article says) there are still a couple of old buildings around.   Where huge care is needed is to avoid any risk to the successful day to day used and growth we have being diluted or sidetracked by trying to add heritage to it; I'm aware of the success of linkage at Whitby and Mallaig - but also of the effect of trying to square the circle to Minehead and to Radstock.

[trainer]

Suppressing the unseemly thought that the suggestion is simply about some local press coverage for a nice-sounding, but wildly impractical plan, let me assume that this is simply a case of muddled thinking (apparently not unknown to politicians at all levels).  To get the Trans Wilts to where it is a functioning public transport link in a complex network of modern railways has taken years of careful, frustrating negotiation.  Those involved in the negotiations educated themselves in the detail of what is involved in running a railway and presented plans which the professionals responded positively to.

To confuse a heritage railway operation and the modern railway helps neither.  Look at the woes of West Coast Railways over the past year (apparently now resolved) and one can see how just one aspect of access to the network by heritage traction demands huge resourcing and planning by professionals and actually has little to do with volunteers.  I commend the councillor for his obvious desire to support the new trains and the local community, but perhaps taking advice from those who have experience with such things would be good before launching pre-baked ideas to the press.

[Chris from Nailsea]

... Melksham town councillor Richard Wiltshire ... said, “Although Melksham does not have any heritage rail buildings, it does have track and standing space and an historical link with railway engineering through Spencer Moulton.

Erm: where is that 'standing space' - and what is Spencer Moulton's connection with Melksham, specifically? 

[grahame]

... Melksham town councillor Richard Wiltshire ... said, “Although Melksham does not have any heritage rail buildings, it does have track and standing space and an historical link with railway engineering through Spencer Moulton.

Erm: where is that 'standing space' - and what is Spencer Moulton's connection with Melksham, specifically? 

See http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk/heritage.html ... Spencer Mouton sold out to Avon Rubber of Melksham, and Spencer's engineering (heavy equipment on the site that's now Leekes) was him.  There's still Spencer's social club.  Need to know more - ask Lisa ;-)

It's about the one thing that Richard Wiltshire didn't get totally wrong ;-) ... there' no standing space but there ARE two heritage buildings when he says there are none.   You can't expect accuracy from the former mayor.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Oh.  I thought Spencer Moulton was rather more towards Bradford-on-Avon, according to their museum page. 

[grahame]

Oh.  I thought Spencer Moulton was rather more towards Bradford-on-Avon, according to their museum page. 

Started in B-o-A and moved to Melksham when it outgrew the mill there.   Like Knorr Bremse moved from Chippenham and Herman Miller from Chippenham and Bath.  Good dynamic town.

B-o-A and Melksham also ... nah, you don't want a history epistle

[grahame]

Letter to the press - deadline is tomorrow for the next edition.   Comments welcome over the next 24 hours

Dear Sir,

I applaud Councillor Wiltshire's enthusiasm to make more leisure and steam heritage use of Melksham Station in the future (Melksham News, previous edition).

The Melksham Rail User Group meets at the Town Hall on 24th February at 19:30, and I am writing to invite the councillor to introduce us to his ideas. The meeting is an open one - everyone is welcome.

The Melksham Rail User Group works with the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership and the local transport authority and rail industry, including the organisation who already schedule steam trains to call at Melksham. Further leisure and tourism promotion of Melksham's trains is planned for this year. We look forward to learning about the councillor's proposals, and to joining in working out how his proposal could be taken forward.

Yours failthfully

Graham Ellis
Vice Chair, Melksham Rail User Group
http://www.mrug.org.uk

I have struggled long and hard over this ... the gentlemen is a former mayor of the town, and has done a cry great deal in terms of promotion over the years.  Some of his ideas are considered controversial, and some considered impractical.

[grahame]

Agreed strategy is to look to channeling the enthusiasm raised into existing projects rather than starting off new ones of questionable practicality.  Steamdreams schedule steam trains to call at Melksham occasionally (and some have actually run as planned ) ... Steam Museum and the Didcot Railway Centre are both easily reached, and through tickets are already available to Steam ... the Swindon and Cricklade railway could do with some more help / volunteers / wants to push towards Swindon ... at Melksham, we're planning a community cafe that will need staffing and volunteer support.   It would be a dilution at the cost of all these others to start something that would need

Space for Depot
Safe access to said Depot
Rail and signal interface with Network Rail
Supply of good steam locomotives
Supply of coal and water and other depot facilities
Supply of maintenance volunteers
Supply of Carriages and parking space
Supply of qualified drivers and firemen
Supply / manufacture of spares
Attracting enough customers and enough general volunteers
Ongoing supplies (stock and human) as worn out equipment becomes life expired
Lack of paths on single line, and for sloe trains on fast main line
Lack of turning point capacity at the other end
Interfacing capability with main line - mix in at end junctions(s) and beyond to turning station
Quality trains needed if mixing on main line
Robust coaches without slam door or dump toilets needed
Customer facing space even at new station for special events
Customer safety issues with high speed trains around tourists
Financing the above and making it an effective business
Getting buy-in from National Rail and other rail bodies

I don't see the proposals as written in the paper being able to be more than a dream.  The author of the dream has a history of being very much an ideas person rather than a detailed implementor - let's see if we can redirect any enthusiasm to implementation onto the more solid and immediate projects which we know are practical.

[grahame]

Interesting independent view in this week's paper:

[grahame]

Interesting independent view in this week's paper:

The author of that letter and and myself met with Richard Wiltshire a couple of weekends ago and as a result Richard is going to give a 10 minute presentation at the Melksham Rail User Group meeting this Friday evening (19:30, Melksham Town Hall) to which all are welcome.   Richard will be using an updated version of the presentation I used on that day - copy at http://atrebatia.info/rgw.pdf .

[grahame]

Issue explored at MRUG^» (Melksham Rail User Group - site) meeting on Friday last, but much concern at how a steam service operating from a local base could be fitted in and work in with the service, and just one extra person / volunteer at the meeting as a result of the call in the paper.    Generally agreed that the best way forward with regard steam operation on the TransWilts is to offer support and appropriate encouragement to main line steam operators to make use of resources, and to consider growing their calls once we have a longer platform.

Offshoot heritage ideas such as having an old coach parked up as a cafe garnered little favour with maintenance, heating and damp issues, length of life, and where to put it causing concern.   The MRUG supported building towards the master plan for the station, and thanked Richard Wiltshire for bringing his ideas to the table so that the group had been able to consider their practicalness at this stage.

[trainer]

Thanks for the report of the meeting Graham. A bucket of cold reality was obviously poured over the more extreme flights of fancy, but it's good that some positive and achievable goals were suggested and I hope folk went away feeling that some more railway-oriented activities in the station area would be possible within the resources available.