The Ashover Light Railway

This could have been quite an interesting line had it survived. I doubt it would look anything like (as it would have been commercialised) and detoured??? Around Woolley moor res.

I don’t know if a deviation would have worked here..

Mind you, we still have Peggy Lane.

 

Did you know they had the transporter wagons for carrying standard gauge wagons from the Leek & Manifold when it closed?

They were regauged, but as the Peggy was a narrower gauge, the test run proved them unstable, so they remained stored.

 

A young friend in my village is now one of the Trustee's of the Ashover Light Railway society, and it was He who rekindled my interest in railway modelling five or so years ago. The Society now has a base on the "Peak Rail" site at Rowsley near Matlock (Pete Waterman also now has a base there too) with the intention of creating a small line there as a prelude to eventually recreating part of the original Ashover Light Railway. It isn't possible to recreate all of it as part of the original line is beneath Ogston reservoir, and to my knowledge, little of the original infrastructure remains with the exception of most of the bridge parapet to the west of the main A61 road between the villages of Clay Cross and Tupton just down the road from me, which I recall in my youth used to have a tyre advert (Pirelli I think!) on it. I'm taking the liberty of posting a couple of pic's of the current ALRS leaflet (I'm sure my Trustee friend won't mind!) for information which, since Bachmanns introduction of some of the loco's, might well interest some potential modellers of the line.
Keith.

 

......and t'other side.

 

Some parts of the line exist at Ashover Butts, the rails that cross the bridge into the Butts. The bridge pillars in the stream that crossed to the station.
The Rainbow cafe building is in storage awaiting rebuild.
At Milltown there is still, or was, some buildings from the original railway, offices for the Tarmacadam plant. A little further back towards Ashover there are some rails set into the road way that led to the smaller quarry, that was worked by horses. Plus by one of the cottages up there is a short bit of fencing built from light rail, possibly from the original line.

I can't say for definite that all the stuff I saw is still there as I haven't been for years, but I don't see why not.
I believe the Milltown pub is now gone, or at the very least, demolished.

I may have a trip there to see what still remains when the weather is a little warmer as the railway is a particular favourite of mine. I have built the Tarmacadam plant in 7mm for an abandoned project, it's still in my shed but its looking a little battered now .....

Pete.