The Telford Steam Railway has released an update on the redevelopment of Ironbridge Power Station.
On the 22nd of May 2019, stakeholders were invited to see and witness Harworth’s suggestive plans for the Ironbridge power station site. Paul Hughes, who is the railway’s chairman, attended the site on Telford Steam Railway‘s behalf.
The railway is one of Harworth’s priorities and has been kept for both potential network and heritage passenger use. The plans shown below are the outline of the development plan.
Harworth hopes to work alongside with the Network Rail to remove 1 million tons of crumbled fly ash and up to 2 million tons of sand and aggregate from the site via the railway.
The low condition of the Albert Edward bridge is the major stumbling block of the development. Network Rail has completed an assessment on the conditions in the last few days which are going to be reviewed as to what the options are moving forward from here. If this traffic does happen trains could be running for a time period of 5 to 6 years.
Telford Steam Railway has a meeting planned with Network Rail within the next week to have a discussion about the ways forward including accessing the now redundant ‘up’ line. This means that both the Telford Steam Railway and Network Rail trains could operate, an option Harworth is very interested and hopeful to witness happen.
The railway from the Albert Edward bridge to the coal drops will be kept. The coal drops will be used as the base for the new station. We know this because it can be seen from the plans. This sits right in the local new centres heart.
Overall these plans are an excellent fit with the aspirations of Telford Steam Railway. Telford Steam Railway has suggested to Harworth that an opportunity may be being missed by them not continuing the railway to the Much Wenlock road and Buildwas Abbey, talks will continue as the developments progress about this thought.
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Responses
Good idea to link Muck Wenlock Road and Buildwas Abbey what about going south and link north of Bridgnorth Station up again? Use it by Network rail and steam loco’s ?
Hi Andrew,
We are not sure whether Network Rail will use it or not at this stage
Regards
Michael
RailAdvent
Albeit with lower emissions, new diesel rolling stock is being introduced today onto the mainline railway. – These trains will be operating beyond 2050! In terms of coal use by heritage railways, it will probably come down to a supply issue, rather forthcoming DEFRA plans.
Pie in the sky project that will never happen as DEFRA are planning to ban the use of the burning of household coal by 2025 along with the phasing out of the use of diesel as a fuel which will see the demise of heritage railways.