CHINNOR AND PRINCES RISBOROUGH RAILWAY NEWS
(Registered Charity Number 1016237)
CPRR has taken a major step forward towards ‘independence’ – no we are not declaring UDI!! 900 tonnes of ballast was laid on the 800m long Chinnor Independent Line just outside the town during March. The track had recently been re-laid with the aim of re-opening the Chinnor Independent Line before the Summer, which runs beside the current Thame Branch Line which CPRR ‘borrows’ from Chiltern Rail every time we run.
This was Part four of the major logistical projects bringing in materials for the line. Parts 1 and 2 involved small track panels, previously cut up, sections of track from 15 to 30ft long moved to the railway by large lorries in 2023, craned across and taken to site on CPRR wagons. Part 3 brought 60ft track panels in by train in July 2024, which were craned into position alongside using the railways track relaying machine. Since then, the track has been laid, and now Part 4 has delivered a trainload of recently quarried granite ballast to go on top – ballast has to be new, whilst CPRR can safely utilise second-hand panels taken up from the mainline, as we run slower trains.Bringing the ballast in by train has avoided some 30 full-length articulated tipper lorry movements and removed the challenges of transferring the load into rail wagons for the final move from a road access point to the locations along the railway.
The ballast arrived in an 18-wagon train, 300m long, at breakfast time on 11th March, possibly to the surprise of commuters waiting on Princes Risborough station and were then taken on to CPRRA track by our trusty class 08 shunter (08825 for the train geeks!). The unloaded ballast was extracted from wagons, spread and levelled by an excavator, while volunteers recovered the remaining ballast from the corners of the wagons. It’s difficult to extract with large excavators, but traditional methods came to the fore: blokes with shovels! Check out https://www.chinnorrailway.co.uk/section.php/17/1/buy-tickets for all the events currently available to book.