For more information about the railway featured in this film please visit www.foxfieldrai... For more information about the producer of this film please visit www.markfound.com
Yes, this is from the mainline up to the station - very rarely used so I was lucky in being invited onto the footplate. I filmed this a couple of years ago (2006). Great railway - really friendly - one of my favourites and yes, the section up from the pit head is steeper than 1 in 20 - it's actually 1 in 19- the steepest adhesion worked railway in the country.
It looks like the line had to be cleared to some extent to make the event possible. Some of the line looks like it has had re-sleepering and new ballast.
The best part of the line, a shame it is never used. I have walked the footpath (locally known as Barley Mow crossings) since 1977 and never seen a train there. This rare working which collected old stored trucks from the Exchange sidings, and the famed Cranford filming which sped under the Caverswall road bridge, are the only trains to use that section to my knowledge since the early 1980s. The trackbed has deteriorated since this video was made, with many rotten sleepers and missing chairs, as well as sleepers missing in places and the rails suspended in mid air. A shame.
I worked there as a volunteer in the early 70's, and this section was certainly in use then. Also remember seeing " Hawarden " working in and out of the huge Shelton steel works complex in the 1960's.
