Newsletter

BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY

President: Pete Waterman OBE DL

Chairman: John Froud    

 Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER 2021

Dear Member,

Here we are again in lock down, but let’s hope this will be the last one as the vaccines are given out to combat Covid 19. Hopefully relative normality won’t be too far away and we might be able to meet again later this year. We now wait to see how things progress with our fingers crossed!

The answer to the quiz in the last Newsletter was Ribblehead Viaduct. I do hope you have enjoyed working out the answer? A new quiz is included with this newsletter.

The information on the Stowe family continues to come in. (See previous newsletters). You may recall that we gave a link to a film of Freshford and Bath Spa stations, and asked if anyone could put names to the employees shown. Tim Hughes kindly came up with the names, and one of these was Albert Stowe who was the Station Master at Bath Spa. It was also thought that a member of the Stowe family had worked at Blandford Forum. Mike Ware then found reference to an Alex Stowe in 1937/38 that he worked as a junior booking clerk, at Montpelier station (see January Newsletter). Neil Butters has now provided information that he knew an Alex Stowe who was a Clerical Officer in the Training Office in the West of England Divisional Office, in Bristol in the early 70s. He was formerly the Station Master at Evercreech Junction, and is possibly shown on film with level crossing gates there? I also recorded in my book ‘Somerset and Dorset Swansong that on the last day of public services, March 5th, 1966, Alex Stowe and staff turned out smartly dressed for the departure of the final ‘up’ train from Evercreech Junction to Bath. It is of course possible that Alex Stowe was at Blandford Forum, before Evercreech Junction, and then moved to Bristol after the Somerset and Dorset closed. Going back to Albert Stowe, he retired from Bath Spa station in April 1965 at the same time as George Robertson retired as Station Master from Bath Green Park. Does anyone know what the relationship was between the Stowe’s, if at all? If you can fill in any gaps do get in touch, and thank you to those of you who have passed on information once again.

The reopening of the line to Portishead is now expected to happen in December 2024 following a delay to hearings on the Development Consent Order application. The reopening scheme is in Phase 1b of the MetroWest project to enhance train services in Bristol and surrounding area. It is hoped to improve services on the Severn Beach line, and between Bristol and Westbury from the December 2021 timetable change. This is also part of Phase 1 of the plans. The longer term Phase 2 plans, include the reopening of the Henbury line to passenger traffic with stations at North Filton and Henbury. It will also see improvements to services to Yate and Gloucester and a new station at Ashley Down on Filton Bank, (although this could be implemented sooner), with the potential of a reopened station at Charfield.  The original stations at Henbury, Ashley Down and North Filton Platform all closed to passenger traffic in 1964, but workman services continued to the latter until 1986.

The confectionary firm Cadbury has donated Hudswell Clark 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical shunter No. D1012. (Cadbury No. 14) to the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon museum.  The shunter was built in 1956 and worked at the Cadbury Moreton Factory site until 1977. It is to be returned to operational condition. The Museum was founded in 2016 with special reference to the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited. At the present time it does not have a base and every effort is being made to acquire a plot of land or premises to set up operations. The Museum Collection is currently available to view online at https://grcwm.jimdofree.com

Network Rail has been contracted by Cornwall County Council to look into improvements of the frequency of services on the Par to Newquay line. Under the study, NR have been requested to look at the possibility of the installation of a new loop near Roche, bringing a second platform back into use at Newquay and the installation of axle counters to replace the token signalling. This will be part of the Cornish main line signalling up grades which are currently being undertaken through to 2024.

Another item of news from Cornwall is that freight traffic, in the form of cement, has finished at Moorswater. This was situated off the Looe Valley Line from Liskeard beyond Combe Junction and Combe Station, the least used station in Cornwall. The section of line may now be mothballed.

Fifty years ago this month on February 27, the Bristol Group of the Great Western Society and the Wirral Rail Circle ran a joint rail tour from Bristol Temple Meads using a 3 car Class 120 DMU. The route taken was via Bath Spa to Swindon and then up onto the remains of the MSWJR to Swindon Town. It then went back via Chippenham and Melksham to Westbury taking the Cheddar Valley line to Cranmore at Witham (East Somerset Junction). The train was due to run to Dulcote Quarry, but this was curtailed due to unsafe track. – It then ran from Witham to Taunton before heading back east to cover the line to Wapping Wharf at Bristol and the Portishead branch before terminating back at Bristol Temple Meads.

Not many signal boxes exist today with lines now controlled by signalling centres covering many route miles of track. Fifty-four years ago this month two local signal boxes at Melksham and Corsham were closed, while slightly further afield one at Churchdown (Gloucestershire) succumbed to modernization. Even the newer ones (the panel boxes), which replaced the mechanical boxes, are going or have gone. An example of this is the Swindon Panel Box which closed five years ago this month. Happily the fittings from this box have been preserved by the Swindon Panel Society and moved to the Great Western Society Depot at Didcot. Here it has been reconstructed and refurbished in its 1980's form and displayed, and it can be realistically demonstrated with a simulator.

A new arrival to the Gwili Railway is 75T Breakdown Crane ADRC 96714. The crane will increase the lifting capacity of the Railway and will also be crucial in the track laying for the northern extension of the line towards Llanpumsaint. The crane was built by Cowans Sheldon in Carlisle and entered service with BR in 1980, and operated across Britain, but was based in South Wales from 1983 until 2008. It was operational until 2017. The donation of the crane to the Railway is thanks to the Science Museum Group and Network Rail. The Railway is hoping to get its Robert Stephenson & Hawthorne 0-6-0T No. 47 – ‘Moorbarrow’ into operational service as soon as possible after its boiler was reunited with its frames.

The roof renovations at Temple Meads, as previously mentioned in the newsletter, have now commenced. A safety screen is to be installed first before repairs to the glazing start. The works are due to last until 2023.

The Swindon & Cricklade Railway have started work on Phase One of their extension towards Cricklade, which they intend to do in four stages. Contractors will now start clearing vegetation and recover and refurbish the trackbed and embankments on the next 600 yards of former MSWJR trackbed from their current railhead.  For Phase One, a culvert under the formation will have to be repaired before track is laid to reach North Meadow Farm Crossing, which will be re-instated. The railway needs to raise £100,000 for Phase One to buy ballast etc., although the work by contractors is being done as a training exercise for their staff. Before they can reach Cricklade a bridge will have to be reinstated in Phase Two, while a single platform station will be built at Fairfield Lane in Phase Three. Phase Four will see the railway reach Cricklade where a two platform station will be built after repairs to the River Key Bridge. Donations towards the extension are most welcomed, and details can be found on their website. https://swindon-cricklade-railway.org/return-to-cricklade

With construction underway and debate still going on about HS2, ‘down under’, in Australia, plans are progressing in a study for their own High Speed Rail (HSR) routes. The HSR network would comprise approximately 1,748 kilometres of dedicated route with four city centre stations, four city-peripheral stations (one in Brisbane, two in Sydney and one in Melbourne) and 12 regional stations. It would require a dedicated network to deliver the required service levels and journey times for both express and limited stop services. Typical express times would be Brisbane and Sydney (2hrs 37mins), Sydney and Canberra (1he 4mins) and Sydney to Melbourne (2hrs 44min).  Construction could start in 2027, with the first route opening in 2035. If approval is given to go ahead. It would take 30 years to complete the whole project. It is possible that start times could be brought forward to 2022, at the earliest, for the Sydney to Canberra route with services starting in 2030.

Tytherington Quarry, on the branch from Yate in Gloucestershire is providing aggregates for the construction of HS2. DB Cargo will be running at least 180 trains from Tytherington to a railhead at Calvert in Buchinghamshire. The materials are being used on the central section of Phase one of the High Speed route.

In Blandford Forum, the Railway Arches Trust, which campaigned for the restoration and enhancements of the former Somerset & Dorset line arches, has become part of the Town Museum’s new Railway Heritage Group. The arches once carried the railway over the River Stour south of the town’s station.

The Vale of Berkley line in Gloucestershire has acquired two Class 143 Pacer Units. These are 143603/612, which were owned by Porterbrook Leasing. The units will be stored before transfer to the Railway.

GBRf’s Class 69 diesels, rebuilds of the old Class 56’s, are likely to be tested shortly on the Severn Valley Railway. No dates have so far been announced, and details are not likely to be made public.

A new feature for the Newsletter now:

Member Mike Dodd has kindly sent in the following article, which I hope you will enjoy reading:-

An interesting survivor built by Stothert and Pitt at their Newark works in Bath is under restoration and hopefully will return to the new development on the old site in in due course. It is a rail mounted hand crane built in 1864 and as far as can be ascertained is the oldest surviving crane built by S&P in the world. Manually operated it will lift 6 tons at a fixed radius of 15 feet the king post, slewing frame and jib are mounted on a large timber frame with 4 flanged rail wheels. It ran on 9 feet gauge track probably Bridge rail on longitudinal timbers, priced at £250 when new

Bath Stone firm Pictors of Box, were the first owners and based it at Box Wharf where it loaded main line wagons (broad gauge until 1874) with Bath Stone block from the various quarries locally. Pictors’ siding ran alongside the UP main up to Box Tunnel and was in place for some time after closure. Around 1940 Bath and Portland Stone Firms Ltd. who succeeded Pictors had sold the crane to Hibberds timber yard in Biddestone, strangely it was never used and remained a kit of parts. In the late 1950s the Kingpost on the Derrick crane at Clift Quarry, Box Hill broke and was deemed unrepairable, Bath and Portland purchased the crane back from Hibberds where it was used to unload stone block from the quarry tramway onto road transport until closure of the quarry in 1968. Clift quarry is still visible today on the right hand side as you drive or walk up Box Hill a very cramped site.

Local GP Dr Davey bought the crane and re-erected it in his garden at Ashley, Box. Our late member David Pollard was donated the crane by Dr Davey in 1982 for David’s proposed Bath Stone Quarry Museum at Pickwick Quarry, Corsham, arriving there in 1984.  It remained on display despite the fact that the museum sadly closed in the late 90’s the quarry reopening for stone production in the early 2000s. The bulk of the museum is stored In Corsham but not open to the public, however David was keen to restore the crane which was becoming unsafe with age.

Sadly David passed away before plans for restoration were in place however a chance meeting between David’s’ widow and Peter Dunn, an ex Stothert and Pitt engineer who had already restored a number of cranes happened.

Peter agreed to take on full restoration of the crane with the intention of it returning to its’ birthplace. Following a full survey the crane was dismantled at Corsham in 2018 and transported to Peters home in Southwick where restoration began, Peter being joined by his friend and also ex S&P workmate Arthur Feltham and a small band of volunteers. To date the whole truck frame has been rebuilt with new Oak timbers, the axles and rail wheels refitted and all of the iron work shot blasted and repainted grey. Still to be sourced are a replacement jib which is in hand and a replacement hoisting chain. Funding has been provided by the Association of Industrial Archaeology, Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society and the owners- Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust who are donating the crane to the City of Bath for display. Good progress has been made despite the attempts of Covid 19 but we are always on the lookout for practical and financial help if anyone is able to assist please contact Peter Dunn on 07719911421 or at petendunn@aol.com

David Pollards book “Digging Bath Stone” is hopefully to be published before the spring which has a lot of fascinating information on the railway side of transporting Bath Stone as well as a wealth of information on the whole industry. David finished the book shortly before he died, and it will be a lasting tribute to him. We will advise when the book is published.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Studies are well underway for the new station for Devizes on the Berks & Hants line. The Devizes Development Partnership (DDP) is leading the planning along with Wiltshire Council. They are proposing an hourly service in each direction and are working on an ambitious plan to have construction completed, and the station open in 2025. It will be known as Devizes Gateway

The Blue Pullman liveried HST trip from Bristol and Bath this month on February 6, to the Settle to Carlisle line, has been postponed due to the covid restrictions. It is now hoped to run it on June 12.

The founder of The Middleton Press, Vic Mitchell, passed away at his home on Monday January 18 after a short illness. He was 86. I’m sure most of you may own one of his books, or at least read one. He was well known for his ‘Branch Line to …….’, and his ‘Country Railway Routes’ series, such as Bath to Evercreech Junction. This title was first published on November 1, 1998, and it is due to be reprinted and released again on March 27 this year. (Orders are now being taken at the Middleton Press). Vic produced numerous books over the years, and his knowledge will certainly be sadly missed.

You may be aware that Highways England are planning to remove or infill several hundred former disused railway structures, some of which will not require any form of consent or without any public consultation. There is now an online petition "Highways England: Protect our railway heritage from Highways England's wrecking ball". If you are against what Highways England is doing, you can find and sign the petition at http://chng.it/Qy7RbfXwry Please pass this on to others if you can.

Looking ahead, in our March Newsletter, member Colin Maggs will be reminiscing about two journeys he made over the Somerset & Dorset line, one in a freight brakevan and the other on the footplate, plus lots more news. Stay safe and well.

Bob Bunyar – Vice Chairman

Please note:    All events and special trains etc are mentioned in good faith and hopefully details are correct at the time of publication of the Newsletter.      Please however, do check before travelling or attending events as things can change

<<<<<<<< COMPETITION >>>>>>>>


Take the first letter only from each answer (first word unless indicated otherwise), and then unscramble them. These letters will make up the name of a heritage railway. It’s just for fun, no prizes given. Hope you enjoy it? The Answer will be given in the next newsletter.

Re-arrange the scrambled first letters.

Answer is the name of a heritage railway:-

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