Old Dalby

Signpost in 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".

The Crown Old Dalby

Cottages Old Dalby

St John the Baptist Old Dalby

Village

Old Dalby has its own village school, church, Scout Hut, Hunters Lodge a retirement home, a pub called 'The Crown' and the Belvoir Brewery. Villagers unfortunately failed in campaigning against the closure of their post office [1]. However a new village shop has been opened mon-sat, located at the edge of the industrial estate.

Once a year, on the August bank holiday Monday, the village holds a fete known as "Old Dalby Day" to raise money for charities connected with the village.

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 here where the weekly Sunday papers are sold together with a monthly full English breakfast, providing ample opportunity to have a good old gossip! It is available to hire for various village functions. For more details follow this link: here).

Railway Test Track

Main article: Old Dalby 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 25kV 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 25kV 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.

External links

• Old Dalby test track web site
• Preceptory of Dalby and Heather
• The village website

Coordinates: 52°48′N 0°59′W / 52.8°N 0.983°W / 52.8; -0.983