BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY

President: Pete Waterman OBE DL

Chairman: John Froud    

 Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com

DECEMBER 2022  NEWSLETTER

Dear Member,

SOCIETY MATTERS

It was very pleasing to see so many of you at our November meeting when Richard Heacock, presented:- ‘From the Midland & South Western Joint to Swindon & Cricklade’. Richard gave us a most informative talk from the beginnings of the M&SWJR, nicknamed the 'Tiddley Dyke', and through its life to closure, with some fascinating old photographs along the way. His talk concluded with the heritage Swindon and Cricklade Railway where he is a volunteer, and it was amazing to see what work went into recovering the rails from the old Didcot Power station! Richard also mentioned about having a Society visit to the Swindon & Cricklade Railway, and we will certainly be looking into arranging something for next year.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday December 1, when we welcome back Simon Foote presenting his visual/audio presentation:  ‘An Evening of BR Nostalgia’. This will be Simon’s third visit to us and his presentation will be of sights and sounds of steam covering 50 years. Those of you who have seen his talks before may recall that he puts sound to slides taking us back in time! It’s another show not to miss, and as usual it commences at 7.30pm at the Bath Museum of Work. Doors open at 7pm.

In last month’s competition, the well-known name associated with steam locomotive design and building that had to be found was Fowler. There is another competition this month for you.

We give a warm welcome to Andy Hazel, David Lees, David Moss and Roy Osborne who joined the Society at our November meeting.

NEWS ITEMS

North Devon District Council has granted Exmoor Associates permission to build a workshop store and staff room at Bratton Fleming station as part of the rebuilding of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway.

Pannier Tank 9681 is very close to working once again on the Dean Forest Railway. It last ran in 2015 and has now received a complete overhaul. It has been turned out in BR black livery and it will now be undertaking testing before re-entering service on the railway next year.

The Severn Valley Railway has had a good start for its appeal to replace track at its Bridgnorth MPD. Just over £182,000 of the £500,000 required has so far been raised.

The Rewley Road swing bridge, over the Sheepwash channel of the River Thames in Oxford, has been removed from Historic England’s ‘At Risk’ register. The bridge served the London North Western Railway’s Rewley Road station in the City, and it was designed by Robert Stephenson and built in 1850-51. It is one of only two moveable bridges over the River Thames, the other being Tower Bridge. It was last used by passenger services in 1951 and finally closed to freight traffic in 1984. The scheduled monument was in a very poor state of repair and work commenced in 2020 to restore it. Ownership of the bridge passed from Network Rail to the Oxford Preservation Trust in 2019. The restoration project was supported by Historic England, Railway Heritage Trust, Network Rail, Chiltern Railways, CPRE Oxfordshire and Oxford City Council.

Construction of two new train stations in the Bristol area could begin more than a year after the new entertainment arena opens at Filton. The new Brabazon station was due to be completed before the YTL Arena opens, but has suffered long delays. A new station is also planned at Henbury, and this will be built where the railway line crosses Wyck Beck Road. A third station is also planned at Ashley Down. Trains would run just once an hour from each station to Temple Meads. The opening of these stations may also coincide with the reopening of the Portishead line which was finally granted planning permission by the DfT on November 15. It is hoped all will open during 2026.

If you are looking for an idea for a Christmas present and you like trolley buses, then this might be for you? A new book on Brazilian trolleybuses co-authored by the Society’s Secretary, Robert Howes, has just been published.  Written jointly with Jorge Moraes, the leading expert on the subject, the book covers the fourteen systems which have existed in the country (three of which are still in operation) and is lavishly illustrated with historic black & white and colour photographs, maps and tables of routes and fleets.  Brazil’s Trolleybuses, by Jorge Moraes and Robert Howes (Trolleybooks, 2022, 388 pages, ISBN 9780904235333) is available from NTA Sales for £49: National Trolleybus Association - Sales Page. Go to www.nationaltrolleybusassociation.org

One more publication you may be interested in is ‘The Story of the Big Four Railway Companies’ ISBN 978-0-7509-9901-4 which was published on the 10th November. This outlines how the GWR, LMS, LNER, and SR came into being a century ago in 1923, and it relates the relatively brief era of the Big Four, with its great changes and achievements in those 25 years. These include streamlining, speed records, electrification, diesel power, railway owned buses and aircraft.  The book is by our member Colin Maggs and it is his 108th publication! It is hard back with 256 pages and 50 illustrations and costs £14.99. Congratulations to Colin on yet another publication, and we now await his 109th!

LOOKING BACK

60 years ago on the evening of December 26, 1962, snow in and around Crewe had caused points to become frozen and trains were stopped at signals. Midway between Winsford and Crewe, the 13:30 Glasgow Central to London Euston ‘Mid-Day Scot’, hauled by D215 ‘Aquitania’, with 13 coaches and 500 passengers on board, was stopped at a signal. The driver tried to telephone Coppenhall Junction signal box ahead, but the phone was out of order. Seeing the next signal ahead he decided to proceed towards it and use the telephone there, but in the darkness he didn’t notice the 16:45 express from Liverpool Lime Street to Birmingham New Street, formed of eight coaches with 300 passenger’s on-board, standing forward of him.  He collided with it at about 20 mph resulting in the deaths of 18 passengers, with 33 other passengers and one railwayman being seriously injured. All the casualties were in the two rear coaches of the Liverpool train, which were telescoped after a coupling fractured. D215 was from Liverpool’s Edge Hill shed and it suffered collision damage which was subsequently repaired. It was withdrawn from service on November 13, 1984, and cut up at Swindon Works by November 1, 1986.

50 years ago on December 30, 1972, the Bristol branch of the RCTS ran a rail tour from Bristol to visit the Teifi Valley Milk Branches in Wales before their closures. The tour ran to Carmarthen before heading through Bronwydd Arms, Pencader Junction and Glantwelly to Newcastle Emlyn. It then retraced the route to Pencader Junction heading through Lampeter and Aberayron Junction to almost the end of the line at Green Grove. It headed back from Green Grove, Lampeter, Pencader Junction, Bronwydd Arms to Carmarthen and back to Bristol Temple Meads. The train was formed of a Swindon Cross Country DMU set. Part of the route covered that day is now a heritage railway. The Gwili Railway operates from Abergwilli Junction through Bronwydd Arms to Danycoed Halt. They do have aspirations to continue north to Llanpumsaint, but numerous bridges on the old track bed are in a very poor state, and will require expensive refurbishment, which is currently beyond the railways finances.

MORE NEWS ITEMS

The re-opening of the Leicester to Burton–on-Trent ‘Ivanhoe Line’ has taken a step closer after Network Rail agreed to fund a feasibility study into the work required to bring the current freight-only line up to passenger standard with the provision of stations. If it is viable to go ahead, full design work would commence in 2024 with a possible opening in 2026. Meanwhile, in Northumberland, work is continuing on the reopening of the line from Newcastle to Ashington. This is expected to see passenger trains serving the route from late 2023/early 2024. Currently work is taking place demolishing the old station platforms at Ashington which closed to passenger services from November 4, 1964.  A new station and single platform is to be built in the town centre on the site of the former northbound platform. Trains would also serve Northumberland Park, Newsham and Bedlington. In the South West a Class 37 with an inspection saloon, recently worked down the Lostwithiel to Fowey freight line, carrying councillors and railway officials, to assess the potential for its reopening for passenger traffic.

Works on providing new stations at Marsh Barton (Exeter), Portway (Bristol) and Green Park (Reading) are nearing completion. It may be early/during 2023 before these open, with no official dates so far given.

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MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION

Going Underground by Mike Dodd.

During September 1992 I was fortunate to visit Monks Park Quarry in Corsham, Wiltshire with my late friend and Society member David Pollard. Monks Park was the last underground quarry in the Corsham/Box area with an operational two feet five and a half inch gauge tramway or trolleyroad used to transport Bath Stone.

The quarry was originally connected by surface tramway to the GWR in Corsham until 1939 and also had sidings and a turntable at the top of the shaft- all removed by the early 1970s. By the 1990s the rails ran just to level ground at the top of the shaft to allow for unloading of stone block.

On the day of our visit we descended down the 1 in 2 slope shaft via 212 steps dug out in 1877, the tramway adjacent to us. At the foot of the shaft trolleyroads ran off into various headings. A number of empty trolleys were stabled here these being of traditional design dating back to the 19th century mainly of timber construction with iron wheelsets. Apparent was the fact that the equipment and working methods were a throwback to the early 1950s

Our transport awaited us in the form of Loco No.8, an 0-4-0 battery loco built in 1958 by Greenwood and Batley of Leeds. A faded blue livery was just visible through layers of stone dust and muck, enormous headlights at each end completed the simple loco. Seating was restricted to the driver only, we had 4th class seats perching atop the battery box covers- a slightly precarious location! With a "hold tight" from our driver we were off- our photographic equipment in a death grip as the little loco launched itself almost silently into the gloom.

The distance between light fittings in the heading was lengthy in places giving a twilight feel which accentuated the feeling of speed, coupled with the undulating track and dogleg curves- we were hanging on for grim death! After a bone jarring 5 minutes bright lights ahead signalled the end of the line, here a 1952 built electric crane was situated, the area being worked was at right angles to the trolleyroad. A 1950 vintage Dreadnought arc shearer was at work cutting out stone block, the workforce consisting of just three quarrymen. The only concessions to safety gear being helmets and safety boots- no hi-viz or ear defenders!

After the 5 ton block was free from the face it was dragged by the crane down the heading to the trolleyroad where an empty trolley was waiting, the loco now coupled to it. Three "gobs" of waste stone were arranged in a triangular pattern on the trolley bed. These "squats" as they were known were placed to allow the block to move when in motion- if placed directly on the bed the weight of the stone would stop the unsprung trolley flexing and could lead to a derailment.

Having photographed the action we decided to walk back to the slope shaft hoping to capture the loco and trolley returning. Finding a suitable elevated spot we captured the train, with headlight blazing sweeping past us the loco and trolley dwarfed by the block of stone, the quarrymen crowded on the loco! After refreshments in the underground canteen we bade farewell to the gang before the climb up the 212 steps to the surface.

The loco and tramway were to give another 9 years’ service before safety requirements and rising costs saw the system abandoned and lifted, save for the slope shaft. A telehandler and scoop tram road vehicles replacing the tramway. The loco which had given over 40 year’s reliable service was dumped in a worked out area with other redundant equipment, where as far as I know it remains to this day.

The quarry carried on until closure in 2005 with the slope shaft still in use, a small number of all steel trolleys replacing the old timber trolleys. The old trolleys were dumped in in a large pile at one end of the site, happily one was saved. Now restored it is displayed complete with stone block on a small section of tramway outside of the Springfield centre in Corsham.

However all is not gone! Hartham Park Quarry in Corsham reopened in 1999 and to this day uses the original slope shaft with two feet five and a half inch tramway to carry block to the surface on a daily basis. A steel trolley is used carrying up to 10 tons it differs from the original trolleys by having brackets on one end for the block to rest on negating the need to chain the block when ascending the shaft.

In the near future two more trolleys and the turntable from Monks Park will form part of a display in Corsham in a tribute to the industry in the area. These items have been donated by the Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust set up originally by our late member David Pollard.

Thanks Mike for a most interesting article about a local subject.

If you have a story to tell and would like to share with the members, please do send it in via our email address.

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COMPETITION

For this Newsletter there is a slight connection with Christmas! You have to find the name of a now closed station in North London. The station has two names in its title. All you have to do is find the names of this station. Take the first letter of each answer, then re-arrange the scrambled letters to find the names. There are no prizes, it’s all for fun!

• S & D junction for the Bridgwater Branch on the Evercreech to Highbridge line

• Current day station between Leominster and Craven Arms

• Film starring Will Hay, who became the station master at Buggleskelly station

• Levisham station is on which heritage railway

• Name of preserved Class 50 – 50021 (D421)

• Preserved steam locomotives 6000, 6023 & 6024 belong to this class

• The heritage Chinnor Railway now runs into Platform 4 of this Chiltern Lines Station.

• Bitton is the headquarters of this heritage railway

&

• Current day SWR station between Whitchurch and Basingstoke

• Former London steam shed 1A

• Pudding Mill Lane station in Stratford, London, is on which TfL Light Railway

• The first name of the designer of the West Country Class

• Current terminus of a GWR branch line from Par in Cornwall, known as the Atlantic Coast Line

• First name of a famous singer who’s hobby is building American model Railways. Wife’s name is Penny

• Name of Hall Class 7902

• The destination of a ‘Midnight Train’ by the group - Gladys Knight & The Pips

• The name of the new line from Reading through central London tunnels to Shenfield and Abbey Wood

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