Dean Forest’s double development plans to boost capacity
THE Dean Forest Railway has announced two separate developments which will boost capacity on the line.
Firstly, a new carriage shed and restoration shed have been earmarked for Lydney Junction.
Once constructed, the sheds will free up capacity at the intermediate station of Whitecroft, where several BR Mk.1 carriages are currently stored under tarpaulins on a truncated siding.
Once moved, the siding will be reinstated as a passing loop, opening up new possibilities for more intensive train services, especially at galas and other special events.
The line’s development director Adam Dickinson said that at Lydney Junction, the overall aim is to represent the 1960s transition period between steam and diesel traction.
Short-term improvements include the refurbishment of the station building, the provision of platform lighting for additional evening running, an improved platform surface and entrance path for visitors and watering facilities for steam locomotives.
However, bigger projects now subjected to detailed planning include a carriage shed to protect coaches from the weather alongside a new restoration shed that will be more than double the size of the current one, with greatly improved facilities, plus the completion of Albany Pumps sidings.
At Lydney Town, the railway is aiming to represent the station as it was in the 1950s, with the BR Western Region colour scheme, with Middle Forge Junction improved to boost operational flexibility. At the railway’s headquarters of Norchard, the starting point for most visitors, the new goal will be to represent the ‘heyday’ 1920s/1930s period.
Whitecroft
Whitecroft will be given a facelift to represent a 1920s joint GWR/LMS country station. A Dean Forest Railway Society member has offered to sponsor the foundations for the restored Midland Railway signalbox for the site.
Larger projects planned for Whitecroft include the reinstatement of the second platform and platform shelter – and potentially the loop behind the platform which existed in much earlier times. The reinstated loop would also provide additional siding capacity for the line’s growing fleet of restored goods wagons.
“It is anticipated that Whitecroft will become a key crossing point for trains when the railway extends beyond the current northern terminus of Parkend,” explained Adam.
Under the development plans for the line, it is intended that Parkend will represent a joint GWR/ MR country station as in the 1910s, with the completion of the current signalling scheme with the scope to handle a future northern extension.
The railway has long hoped to push north from Parkend.
Adam said: “We’re working diligently in the background to extend our railway, but the challenges should not be underestimated, particularly crossing the B4234 ‘Fancy Road’ north of Parkend station.
“We’re working to ensure that any extension will be supportable, and allow the business side of the railway to grow sustainably.”
The first target of any extension, if and when the delicate issue of a level crossing at Parkend is solved, will be the site of the former Speech House Road station. Because the original site of the station is not available, it likely that a new station will be located on the site of Wimberry Junction, and it is proposed that it will represent a GWR country station from the 1930s.
It is planned to re-erect the former GWR Panteg & Griffitthstown station building at the site. As reported in issue 207, the building, which once housed the closed Griffithstown Railway Museum, was offered to the railway free of charge when the site was needed for a modern housing development.
The station had closed to passengers on April 30, 1962 and to goods on May 3, 1965. Torfaen Council had indicated that it was keen to see it removed to an alternative site, rather than demolished, and the railway raised the money to dismantle it brickby-brick for re-erection in the forest.
Cinderford in future?
The railway has long harboured hopes of one day rebuilding the original branch to Cinderford, where a housing estate has been built on the station site. Current thinking would see a new station recreated in the style of a 1950s Western Region branch line terminus.
Adam was keen to stress: “This project is only at the very outline planning at this stage, because the engineering and economic feasibility study of an onward extension past Speech House Road is yet to be completed.”