1960ts Cravens unit to Ongar

20 years, good grief. I was on that last train.

It would be great if the connection could be reinstated for an overnight stock move, but presumably everything will be going by road?

Was the abandonment of the electrification a short-sighted preservation choice, or were other factors involved?

LUL will have disconnected the power feed soon after the line closed. I also recall reports of lineside cable thefts after the closure too. The conductor rails lasted a bit longer but were removed during the period when the (then) EOR management seemed more interested in property development than running trains.

Yes, LU disconnected the power after closure, and cut many of tbe cables that fed the conductor rails. There was never really an option to keep the lne electrified after closure.

It would cost a lot of money to run and maintain an electrified heritage railway,

How does the Volks railway in Brighton manage? Or for that matter the various tram/trolleybus museums such as Crich, Beamish, Sandtoft?

A live wire suspended 20 feet above the ground is a lot safer than an electrified rail at ground level. Even museums have some grandfather rights, Crich has been operating electric trams for more than 50 years and Sandoft has had electrification for more than 40 years.

When I first heard of the purchase of this line, I was pleased that someone had the foresight to preserve an electric railway, and thus establish a full-time base for the running of electric stock. What a disappointment when this so-far unique opportunity was lost, and the line turned into another 'general-purpose' railway.

Is any other electrified line liable to come available for preservation in the near future? Perhaps we should be assembling a team of people with more vision earlier rather than later.

Apart from the difficulties in obtaining a safety case, that 'alternative source' is also a major difficulty in its own right. To take power from the grid at 630vDC requires transformers and rectifiers, both of which are expensive. The LUL and NR systems employ economies of scale with groups of substations being fed from a single grid supply point. The least cost-effective form of electrification is a single grid supply point feeding a single substation. (Except on 25kVAC systems, where the loadings and distance between feeder stations makes this feasible, one of the reasons why 25kVAC is preferred).

Assuming the safety-case hurdle could be overcome, I'd suggest that the only cost-effective way of providing 630vDC to the Epping-Ongar line would be to take power from LUL, however this assumes LUL would be prepared to enter in to any agreement, and as a minimum it would involve the additional cost of feeder cables from Epping Substation to the Ongar line (expensive, and vulnerable to theft if only live when the railway is operating), a set of DC circuit breakers, and almost certainly additional transformer plant to meet the increased power demand on the substation as a whole. Then you have to address the voltage drop on a 6-mile single-end-fed section, depending on how many and what type of trains the system is specified to handle, a second substation may still be required, along with cables to supply power to it. Once all this is in place, there would then be an issue that enhanced lineside fencing would likely be required in order to meet modern standards.

It was this single end feed which limited operation on the Ongar line in the first place. I understand two trains starting from the passing loop at North Weald simultaneously could overload the system.

I agree that, whatever may be more interesting to enthusiasts, it is steam which holds the interest of the general public and they make up the greatest proportion of visitors. Also it was a steam line for most of its history, surely!

I have always thought that the Aldwych branch would make an ideal operation, although I can see the problems of a deep level station. It's good that the LTM are now doing regular tours down there; perhaps one day they will include an operating shuttle?

This is a good point. Electric trains only ran for 37 years between Epping and Ongar, and then only in an extremely limited and ultimately non-viable way. Whilst I'd agree with brigham that anything is possible, it doesn't necessarily mean it's practical. The Aldwych idea however is a far more realistic possibility in my view as the line is short, easily policed, more easily fed with power and is of far greater heritage value being nearer to the tourist capital and, as it's actually underground, what most of the punters would expect from an underground railway. Alternately put the 38TS and the Cravens on it and away you go! 

Has anyone applied to operate the Holborn-Strand (Aldwych) shuttle?

I have a recollection of reading that a double train (16 cars) of 1992 stock reached Ongar as part of the testing programme, but can't remember where I read it.