Newsletter
BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY
President: Pete Waterman OBE DL
Chairman: John Froud
Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com
JANUARY NEWSLETTER 2021
Dear Member,
A Happy New Year to you all and hopefully these coming twelve months will be a vast improvement on the last! With vaccines now becoming available the future is looking brighter and hopefully it won’t be too long before we can get back to some normality. The committee has taken the decision to cancel at least the first three meetings of 2021 (January to March inclusive) and we will be monitoring the situation as we obviously want to re-start meeting as soon as possible.
The answer to the quiz in the last Newsletter was General Steam Navigation (35011 which is now under restoration at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway). By all accounts this was the only locomotive to ever have the word ‘Steam’ in its name. Is this true?
There will be changes in management at First Great Western Railway this month. Mark Hopwood will be returning as Managing Director from January 4. He has been acting Managing Director at South Western Railway. Matthew Golton who has been in charge at GWR whilst Mark Hopwood has been at SWR is to take up a secondment to the First Rail leadership team to focus on the development of FirstGroup’s future rail businesses and contractual arrangements. Claire Mann has been appointed as the next Managing Director of South Western Railway, and will take up the post in early 2021.
Due to engineering works this month there will be changes in the timetable on the Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour route operated by GWR. From Friday January 1 until Sunday January 3 services will start and terminate at Fareham. This will also apply on Sundays January 17 & 24. From Monday January 18 to Saturday January 23 trains will start and terminate at Portsmouth & Southsea. On Saturday & Sunday January 30 & 31, GWR services will be diverted and call additionally at Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh and will not serve Southampton Central. Buses will be used to complete journeys. These works are part of repairs to a viaduct in the Portsmouth area, and also of a major upgrade of lines in the Southampton area. This latter work is part of a programme to improve freight traffic handling at Southampton Docks. Longer sidings have now been installed and alterations to track work undertaken to increase the length of freight trains from 520m to 775m. New signalling is being installed and this work will continue into February. Most of the re-signalling work is taking place at night.
Radical changes are being proposed by the Welsh Government for rail services between Cardiff and Severn Tunnel. These include the alteration of the existing four track line to form two northern lines for stopping passenger services and two ‘fast’ southern lines for nonstop services. Also included in the proposed schemes are two new stations, one on either side of Newport at Cardiff Parkway and Newport Road. A further two stations would be built between Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction at Llanwern and Magor. Newport station would also have track and platform alterations and some services from Ebbw Vale would run into this station. The frequency of services to Bristol T M and London Paddington from Cardiff may also increase.
The North Dorset Railway have now submitted a planning application to Dorset County Council for consideration to extend the railway line northwards from Shillingstone station to Cattle Creep Bridge. This bridge is just beyond Bridge Number 180 - Hayward's bridge, and it is still in situ.
Two wagons originally on the Swanage Railway have moved to the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust at Midsomer Norton. These are Walrus Ballast Hopper DS62070 and Pal Van B779696.
The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway are offering a special season ticket to become a ‘Friend of the Bunk Line’ costing £30 (£60 Family). This will then give you free travel on all trains for at least a year (excluding evening food trains and Santa specials). Every ticket sold will help with the railway’s station revival plans. A normal day return trip costs £10. Photo I.D is required with tickets purchased. Full details www.cholsey-wallingford-railway.com/friends-of-bunkline
It is hard to believe that it is 50 years ago this month that the line from Taunton to Minehead was closed by BR. On the night of Saturday January 2, 1971, the final train left Minehead station bound for Taunton formed of DMU’s. Progress on this last train was extremely slow due in part to a band playing the last post at stations on the way and the communication cord being pulled. This final train, which departed to detonators exploding, did not reach Taunton until the early hours of Sunday morning and connections back to Bristol were lost. However, BR did allow people to travel back to Bristol on what was supposed to be an empty stock working of the DMU from that last train, but it had to be done with the lights off! I was on that last train and ECS working and remember it well. Where any of you also on it? Of course the line has been saved as the West Somerset Railway but it has experienced problems along the way. Let’s hope 2021 is a much better year for it.
It is also 50 years ago this month that the Isle of Wight Steam Railway was formed. After four years of storage at the closed Newport Station, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway was founded on January 24, 1971. Preserved stock was hauled by rail, using their own locomotive which were driven by volunteers, from Newport to Havenstreet Station. Within a few weeks trains were operating a limited service on the 1½ mile section between Wootton and Havenstreet. Today services run between Wotton and Smallbrook Junction where there is an interchange with SWR’s Isle Line Services. These SWR services are currently suspended from this month until March to allow works to take place to upgrade the line from Ryde to Shanklin, and for the introduction of new trains. One of the old Class 483, 80 year old ex-underground units, is likely to be preserved by the IoWSR, while another unit is going to the London Transport Traction Group at the Epping and Ongar Railway. It is intended that this unit will be fitted with batteries so it can still be used.
Prairie Tank 5199 is moving from the Llangollen Railway to the West Somerset Railway for the 2021 season. It was due to arrive on WSR metals just before Christmas and it will steam at the WSR for a minimum of 35 days during the hire period.
In the last newsletter we asked if anyone knew if Albert Stowe had a brother who worked for the railways and may have been based at Blandford Forum. To date no answers from this question, but Mike Ware has now come up with the name Alec Stowe. Mike’s Dad mentions him in his journals that he worked as a junior booking clerk, at Montpelier station in Bristol in 1937/1938 and that he lived in Wick. Could Alec Stowe be a relation and part of a larger railway family over the generations? Anyone into family research? Do get in touch if you know anything.
Could Kemble in Gloucestershire become a junction station once again? The application to re-instate the railway back to Cirencester has passed through to the next round of the Government’s ‘Restoring your Railway Fund’. If successful it is intended to build a single-track line which will follow the old route of the five mile branch line as far as possible before terminating near the centre of Cirencester. The bay platform at Kemble still survives and some of the stations car parking spaces there would be lost if the plans come to fruition.
Also in Gloucestershire it has been confirmed that the outline business case for the re-opening of Charfield Station has been given the green light, allowing the project to go to the next phase. The station will be on the Gloucester – Bristol main line. Plans to re-open Stonehouse – Bristol Road station, also on the main line, have been backed by the local authority. It originally closed to passengers in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts. Stroud District Council authority's environment committee has recently unanimously agreed the station should be reopened.
In Devon, plans were finally approved in December for a new station at Marsh Barton in Exeter with construction now likely to start and with the possibility of it opening by the end of this year. This station will be part of the Devon Metro service. Another station to be approved as part of this project is Okehampton East Parkway which will be sited close to the A30 bypass. Daily services are due to commence running to Okehampton this year operated by Great Western Railway, and Ian Mundy has been appointed as the Dartmoor Route Project Manager for GWR. DCC is also looking closely at re-opening Cullumpton station between Taunton and Exeter as part of the Devon Metro. This latter project has gained ‘Restoring your Railway’ funding.
South Somerset District Council is launching a £20,000 feasibility study to see if part of the old Somerset & Dorset line track bed between Cole/Bruton towards Wincanton can be reopened, not for trains, but as a footpath/cycleway/bridleway. The council have stated that the path would use in part ‘pre-existing infrastructure’.
Tyseley based Vintage Trains has acquired three Pacer Units from Northern Rail. These are 3 car Class 144 Units numbers 144014, 144023 and 144019. They are all reported to be in very good condition after being withdrawn from service early due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It is planned to use the units on the main line, but route clearance will be required, as currently they are not passed to run in the West Midlands area.
Wiltshire County Council had applied for a £50,000 grant from the DfT “Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund”. This would have gone towards yet more studies into re-openings stations at Corsham, Wootten Bassett and a completely new site at East Swindon. 75% of funding would have come from the DfT with the council making up the rest. However, the Council were unsuccessful with the bid on this occasion, but they will continue to work with Network Rail and other bodies developing Local Transport Plan Rail Strategy during 2021 and 2022. Wiltshire CC were successful in gaining funding in the next round to look at the possibility of a Parkway station for Devizes at Lydeway, between Westbury and Pewsey on the Berks and Hants line. No progress has so far been made on proposals to re-open a station at Wilton which would also be a parkway station.
Bob Bunyar – BRS Vice Chairman
<<<<<<<< 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 railway landmark and piece of infrastructure. 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.
The terminus of a short Midland Junction Railway line which linked the town to the Midland Railway’s Bristol to Gloucester line at Coaley Junction.
The name of Peak Class 44 – D7 later 44 007
This station was on the GWR main line situated between Challow and Shrivenham, and once the junction for Faringdon
The surname of the designer of the Class 412xx steam locomotives and other classes.
The once Oxfordshire terminus of a branch line from Radley
This place in Hampshire once had a stations called town and junction, but today just has one carrying the single name of the town.
Battle of Britain Class 34067
The name of a Blue Engine and friend of Thomas the Tank, and which is numbered 2
The station between Montpellier and Clifton Down on the Severn Beach Line.
The operator of passenger services through the Channel Tunnel
The Company that is converting former London Underground stock such as for the Isle of Wight
A junction originally east of Taunton where the lines to Bristol and Westbury diverged
This shed had the code 82A and later BR
A famous electric Pullman train that ran from London to the south coast and which may soon return.
A station on the Bristol and North Somerset Railway where a line from Camerton joined it.
This line is coloured green on an LU tube map and serves Wimbledon and Upminster
The operator which has painted an HST into Nanking blue like a former Pullman Unit
Answer is a name of a railway landmark and piece of infrastructure:-
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