Old Dalby
Old Dalby is a village in the English county of Leicestershire. It is located to the north-west of Melton Mowbray. It was originally known as "Wold Dalby" or "Dalby on the Wolds".
Village
Old Dalby has its own village school,[1] church, Scout Hut, a retirement home,[2] the Belvoir Brewery.[3] and, from August 2015 after a closure lasting over a year, the old but newly refurbished pub called 'The Crown'. Villagers failed in campaigning against the closure of the post office.[4] Sadly, the village shop which was located at the edge of the industrial estate is now also closed.
Once a year, on the August bank holiday Monday, the village holds a fête known as "Old Dalby Day" to raise money for charities connected with the village. The fête has a thirty year history, features many events and attracts visitors from many miles around. [5]
The Knights Hospitallers owned a preceptory in the village.
The Village Hall
The Village Hall is located at the heart of the village and embodies much of the community spirit in Old Dalby. It is the meeting place of several local societies, with Old Dalby WI amongst these.[6] The weekly Sunday papers are sold there.
Railway Test Track
Old Dalby is the location of the control centre of the former British Rail Research Division's railway test track, which runs between Melton Mowbray and Edwalton and which was universally known in the industry as simply 'Old Dalby'. Following privatisation of the UK railways, the test track was taken over by Alstom and electrified on the 25 kV overhead system in order to test the Virgin Trains tilting Pendolino fleet. During this upgrade phase, which began in 2000, the centre of operations moved from Old Dalby to Asfordby (on the outskirts of Melton Mowbray) where a depot was converted from the former National Coal Board's buildings. However, with the demise of Alstom as a train builder in the UK, the future of the test track looked bleak and there was a real possibility that it might have been closed.
On 12 February 2007, Metronet, the consortium charged with renewing a large proportion of the London Underground's lines, announced that they had taken over the test track for the testing of new tube trains. To accomplish this they will electrify part of the line on the third and fourth rail system but the original 25 kV line will also be retained for future use.
On 7 June 2007, Metronet announced that the contract for operating and maintaining the test track had been awarded to Serco Assurance (formerly Serco Railtest), based at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby.
References
External links
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Coordinates: 52°48′25″N 1°00′04″W / 52.807°N 1.001°W