Newsletter
BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY
President: Pete Waterman OBE DL
Chairman: John Froud
Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com
JUNE NEWSLETTER 2021
Dear Member,
You will be receiving all the reports and committee nominations for our online AGM this month. Online voting will be on June 3, so please do respond on that day. This is the same system that we used last year using survey monkey. For those who use the postal system for the Newsletter, please return your votes by June 3 to the address above.
It is at least 12 or more years ago that Anne Meddick joined the Society, and over that time she has been so supportive to us and our committee. She was the first lady member of the Society and through her perseverance she did much to bring us ‘up to date’ including introduction of refreshments during our time at Green Park - not without a little chaos amongst the members of course! Sadly Anne has now decided to stand down from the committee, and we must thank her for the fantastic contribution she has made to the Society. We still hope to see her at our future meetings and she has kindly agreed to support the audit of the accounts this year. Thank You Anne.
For your information, the Newsletter will continue during July and August to keep you updated on our future plans and of course, news items.
The answer to the competition in the last Newsletter was Camelford station in North Cornwall.
Thank you to those of you who continue to send me information and news for the Newsletter, and also for your kind comments about it. It is good to know that the efforts are appreciated.
Two LSWR carriages that possibly took passengers to Southampton for the infamous maiden voyage of the ‘Titanic’ in 1912, have been found in South Wales. The carriages were built at Eastleigh Works and are in a very poor state having been sitting in a yard at Blaenavon for 30 years. The coaches are due to be scrapped at the end of this month if their current owner does not move them. However, the British Titanic Society would like to acquire them as there is a "strong possibility" they were linked to the White Star liner, and the Swanage Railway’s T3 563 Group has also stated an interest in them to run with the T3 when it is restored to running condition. Hopefully more on this subject in due course.
Herefordshire Council has denied Highways England planning permission for the infilling of two former railway over bridges spanning the proposed route of a 20 mile greenway on the route of an old railway between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye. This line closed on December 31, 1962, with the tracks lifted the following year. Council officers made it clear that the infillings were incompatible with the Council's adopted policies on heritage, ecology and sustainable transport. Highways England had wanted to infill the structures stating – “to prevent an emergency arising". This was despite the fact that both bridges are in a fair condition, and showing no signs of being overloaded. Highways England wish to infill or pull down many more former railway tunnels, bridges and viaducts, but there is mounting opposition to their plans with several petitions to the Government being mounted.
The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway will be celebrating the revival of Wallingford station, with the grand opening of their new, 150 year-old canopy on June 26 and 27. The newly erected canopy at Wallingford station has come from Maidenhead station, and had to be removed due to the Cross Rail project. To co-inside with the grand opening, the Railway will be welcoming visiting Pannier Tank 6435 for the weekend. Tickets to travel must be booked in advance, and they are currently selling well.
The branch from St Erth to St Ives will be closed from June 7 to 14, with replacement buses provided. This is due to the G7 summit taking place in Cornwall and security issues. It is likely that some delegates will be taken to St Ives by train, as a test of a top ‘n’ tailed loco hauled formation took place in April on the branch. This was using a shortened set of the Northern Belle stock.
30 years ago this month on June 7, 1991, Network SouthEast ran a special train from London Paddington to Paignton. The train ran via Reading, Basingstoke, Salisbury, Templecombe and Exeter St Davids. Whilst having a 30 minute stop at Templecombe, the train locomotive, Class 47 – 47 708, was officially named after the Somerset village by Old Oak Common fitter, Joe David. The return journey from Paignton to Paddington behind the newly named loco was via Exeter, Taunton, the Berks and Hants line. In July 1993, the plates were removed from 47 708 and transferred to 47 315. 47 708 was cut up in August 1995 and 47 315 lasted until May 2000 before being scrapped.
It was 50 years ago this month that the then London Transport finally finished with the almost daily use of steam locomotives on their systems. They had a small fleet of ex- GWR Pannier Tanks based at Neasden and Lillie Bridge depots for use on works trains, trip workings with rubbish, and also for shunting duties. To mark the end of their use, a commemorative working was run from Moorgate to Neasden on June 6, 1971. (Steam has run after this date on several occasions carry passengers on special occasions, organised by the London Transport Museum/London Underground. This is not likely to be repeated in the central-west London sections of LU due to new signalling systems).
57 years ago on June 7, a rail tour ran over the Somerset & Dorset line. It was hauled from Evercreech to Highbridge by 44558 & 53807. It was quite rare for a 7F (53807) to be on the ‘branch’!
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The following article has been kindly sent in by Alan Price:-
My First Visit to Bath
It was Cardiff Corporation Education Dept. who introduced me to Bath. Until 1965 Cardiff had grammar schools, entry to which was via an 11+ examination which was in two parts. I sat the first part in October 1959. Already nuts about trains my father offered the incentive that if I passed he would take me to Swindon Works for the first part and Crewe for the second. For some reason I now find inexplicable, the train journey from Cardiff to Swindon involved changing at Bath both ways. The trains to and from Cardiff were Portsmouths which changed engines at Salisbury and were routed via the curve between North Somerset and Dr. Days Bridge Junctions, so if you wanted to go to Temple Meads you changed at Stapleton Road. I don’t recall much of the journey to Bath but have a vivid recollection of a lady station announcer with the second most ‘plumby’ voice I’d ever heard. The way she pronounced ‘Baarth Spaar’ I felt sure that all Bathonians must be related to royalty. Standards had somewhat slipped I felt by the late 70s when the announcer enlightened people waiting on the up platform with '.....Der Waymuffs late becuzzer trubble down Malago...'
At that time BR were trying desperately to recruit youngsters onto the railway which was no longer considered to be the ‘cool’ job it once was and they saw the host of train spotters who thronged platforms and annoyed shedmasters as potential recruits if given some encouragement. One scheme was to take parties around Swindon Works on a Wednesday afternoon without prior booking. Two tours were offered – a train spotters tour and a works tour. I opted for the latter. Swindon Works was amazing – the entry into ‘A’ shop never failed to impress – it was like going into the cathedral of steam. I recall about five 9Fs in various stages of construction one of which must have been 92220 which was named there in March of the following year. Opposite them was the new order of ‘Warship’ diesels. I also recall seeing 4005 ‘Lode Star’ in the paint shop and being really confused because I couldn’t find any ‘Castles’ in my ABC with a number that low and how peculiar that a ‘namer’ had managed to go 12 years without acquiring the cycling lion on its tender? Of abiding memory was the carriage works where the dexterity of the upholsterers was amazing and the carriage destination boards all beautifully hand lettered. What skills we’ve lost.
The journey back I remember better. While we waited for our train to Cardiff, I sauntered down the platform to the Bath Station Box down starter and the Bath Goods down distant to look over the river bridge. By this time it was getting quite dark and I was not impressed by the bit of Bath I saw. Everything seemed to be black and the properties sandwiched between Claverton Street and the river looked, even to my 10 year old eyes, rather unsavoury to say the least. I’d heard that Bath was an architectural gem? Unimpressed I turned my attentions to Canton’s 1022 ‘County of Northampton’ as it rolled in to end a perfect day. Crewe was even better, how my poor father managed to sit for 7 hours on a station bench I will never understand – but that’s another story.
I came to work in Bath in 1973 and was relieved to see that Claverton Street had been cleared. It was only as I watched Bath’s honey coloured stone slowly emerge from under the soot that I understood The Guildhall’s bulldozer should have stopped at Claverton St. Unfortunately in the 60s drive for modernity it wasn’t just steam engines that weren’t ‘cool’ any more.
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Mike Dodd has kindly sent in this article about his Dad’s service on the:-
Longmoor Military Railway
My late Father was not a railway enthusiast but encouraged me when I showed an interest in railways at an early age. I believe this was due to his time spent on the Longmoor Military Railway during part of his National Service shortly after World War 2. Like most of his generation he was called up to do his “bit”, his turn commencing on 5/8/48 aged 18.
After initial training at Aldershot he was posted to the Ordnance Corps and sent to the LMR as a Storeman/Technician for further training. He never told me which part of the railway he worked on but it may have been multiple locations as the LMR was extensive. He was trained initially as a Shunter and became a dab hand with the shunters pole fly shunting wagons , he also recalled using brake sticks to assist pinning down the brake levers on wagons if they were being shunted too energetically!
Looking at official records of locomotives on the LMR at the time of his posting it appears that an exotic mix of locos were on the railway , many stored out of use and some quite elderly. Dad however mainly recalled working with Austerity tank locos, not only shunting with them but also lifting them with overhead gantry cranes in one of the large sheds on site. He was also trained as a crane operator and was involved in lifting a variety of equipment, general goods and the odd locomotive. He said that some of the Austerities may have been destined for shipment out of the UK as they were partially crated although he wasn’t always told where items were going.
When travelling on passenger services on the LMR he recalled travelling frequently on the legendary “Borden Bullet”! This train connected with the LSWR at Borden, BR(S) by 1948/9 when Dad was there. It appeared to have been known by this name for many years, Dad thought sarcastically such was its’ snail like progress through Hampshire. He reckoned you probably could have detrained, picked flowers from the lineside and got back on without too much trouble!
Dad enjoyed his time on the LMR but was soon transferred and spent the rest of his National Service in Germany but that’s another story.
Thanks to Alan & Mike for sending in their stories and sharing them with us. If you have a story you would like to share, please do get in touch via our email address.
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The Helston Railway in Cornwall has taken delivery of a Class 127 DMU. This was moved from the Great Central Railway last month, having been extricated from a siding at Quorn after much shunting!
Planning permission has been granted to the North Dorset Railway at Shillingstone for their extension over Lamb House Bridge to Bere Marsh. Once track is laid, it will double the length of the existing track work and give them a run of approximately half a mile from their southern buffer stops. The plan is now to relay the up line northwards on the embankment from the station, rising up to and over Lamb House Bridge across Haywards Lane, before continuing on a gentle downward gradient for a further 150 yards to Bere Marsh. This is part of their Phase 1 plan over the next three years. The railway has also been given, on long term loan, two wagons from the collection of the S & D Trust at Washford. These have arrived on site together with a heritage crane from Binegar. It is intended that the Crane will be installed at Shillingstone as part of a new loading dock visitor display. Also now arrived at Shillingstone is General Utility Van (GUV) 96111. This had been used for many years adjacent to Brockenhurst station, on an isolated track panel, by a bicycle hire company, and proved quite difficult to load up for the move to Dorset!
Construction of the new railway station at Marsh Barton in Exeter has begun. It will have two platforms, with the eastern and western platforms served by trains to Newton Abbot and Exeter, respectively. Each platform will be 124 metres in length, sufficient to accommodate trains formed of up to 5 coaches, and have a waiting shelter with a ticket machine. The station should open in late 2022.
The Bluebell Railway’s Terrier No. 672 ‘Fenchurch’, is now undergoing a 10 year mechanical overhaul, and has been taken to Statfold Engineering in Staffordshire for the work to be carried out. This will also include a thorough boiler repair. The frames should be back with the Railway between the end of the year and next Easter, giving time to re-assemble ‘Fenchurch’ ready for the summer of 2022, its 150th anniversary.
Currently there appear to be no model railway exhibitions scheduled for the Bath/Bristol – South West area for June or July.
The cost for Wiltshire County Council to provide a new station at Wilton, west of Salisbury, has been put at £20m. If built, it will serve a Park & Ride facility and have four platforms. Two platforms will be on the former Salisbury to Exeter route and the other two will be on the Westbury to Salisbury line. The original GWR station, Wilton North, was closed from September 19, 1955 and the former SR station, Wilton South, lasted a little longer closing from March 7, 1966. If a station is reopened at Wilton, in addition to serving a P & R, it would be by a new housing estate being built on the former adjacent MOD Erskine Barracks site, and serve the nearby Wilton shopping complex.
In a first for a heritage line, train information for the Swanage Railway will be available live on the main Realtime Trains website at www.realtimetrains.co.uk The railway will also have live digital displays of train services constantly update on its stations, housed in traditional 1950s notice board frames giving train times. These have been installed at Swanage and Corfe Castle stations, with more to follow at Norden and Harman’s Cross stations. The initiative has been paid for out of a Government grant of £223,200 from the Culture Recovery Fund.
Black 5 - 45305 has been taken out of traffic at the Great Central Rly. The reason, Mrs Blackbird has built her nest amongst the pipe work in the cab, so the loco is side-lined until after the nesting season!
Bob Bunyar
Vice Chairman
<<<<<<<< COMPETITION >>>>>>>>
For this month’s competition you have to find the name of a well-known actor who appeared in a railway film made on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in 1970. A sequel is currently being filmed there for release next year. Just take the first letter from each answer and un-scramble them to work out the answer.
The line from Bere Alston to Gunnislake used to carry onto a terminus here, but was closed on November 7, 1966.
34072 ‘257 Squadron’ is a member of this class.
There are two stations at this Dorset County town, South and West
Southern Steam Shed 70A – 1959 – 1967
The line to Heathfield in Devon goes off from this town, which once had a railway works
The name carried by Battle of Britain class 34057
The colour a signal shows for danger and stop.
This station shares its name with Pontymister and was opened on February 6, 2008 as part of the reopened line to Ebbw Vale
The name given to ex-diesel locomotives (Class 25’s) once used in the formation on steam specials to provide electricity for coaches.
This North Devon village between Barnstaple and Bideford has a preserved signal box and level crossing
Trials were held here in October 1829, to test George Stephenson's argument that locomotives would provide the best motive power for the then nearly-completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway
A four minute film made by the BBC Film Unit in 1953. London to this south coast town
You go from side to side through this station which is between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth
The southern end of the Midland & South West Junction Railway and a Hampshire town.
Station on the KWVR between Damems and Keighley with a loop and tunnel.
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