Re: Central Railway plan

IN reply to the two letters from Mr Weller and Mr Doughty of Ilmer (July 21). They are way off line with their predictions. First of all, the track gauge will not be altered in any way. It will stay at four feet 8.5 inches.

The Brunel Broad Gauge Society are quite interested in your letters, and wondered where the information came from. It was back in the 1890s that the broad gauge was converted to standard gauge, as it did not work then, and won't work now, as it was out of step with everyone else.

There won't be four tracks through Ilmer. The only place there are room for four tracks are through the stations where they were before and would be used as passing loops, which makes the trains only as long as the shortest passing loop on the line.

The Channel Tunnel of which these trains will pass through have a ruling by the Health and Safety Executive of one train every 30 minutes max. It takes roughly 27 minutes to pass through the tunnel. With the Eurostars passing through, plus the drive-on drive-off shuttles from Folkestone, how can there be 12 trains an hour?

That's the trouble with people like Bucks Central Railway Action Group - they clutch figures from the air then add 100 per cent.

Trains passing under electric wires only have to have a maximum height of 13 feet one inch. This includes any preserved steam locos.

Talking of steam engines, when Robert Stephenson's Rocket took part in the Rainhill trials which began on October 6, 1829, what were the forecasts of the pessimists of that day? How fast would they go? How strong were they? What weight could they pull? They would turn a cow's milk sour. And the best one yet: these trains would induce mass hysteria. What's new?

Have we learned nothing since 1829? Bucks Crag seems to think not, as these questions were answered 160 years ago.

Mr Weller states in his letter no freight trains pass through Ilmer at present, yet Mr Doughty can feel the floor shake when one goes by and can tell the difference between a freight and passenger with his eyes shut. Yes I am still trying to work it out.

I started my footplate career back in 1949. How things have changed since then. I am now retired, but still keep active with what's going on on the railways.

R J Lane

Crowbrook Road

Monks Risborough