BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY

President: Pete Waterman OBE DL

Chairman: John Froud    

 Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com

JANUARY 2023  NEWSLETTER

Dear Member,

A Happy New Year to you all, and we hope you had a good Christmas?

SOCIETY MATTERS

Unfortunately our December meeting on Thursday December 1, had to be curtailed at the interval, but speaker Simon Foote did give a nostalgic visual/audio presentation beforehand. This included sounds & photographs of locomotives at work at Oxford and Heyford, and then with 35006 ‘Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co’ departing from Sherborne. We will be inviting Simon back to finish off his excellent show - ‘An Evening of BR Nostalgia’. Our thanks go to Davina for providing the seasonal refreshments.

Our first meeting of the New Year will be on Thursday, January 5, when we welcome Mike Dodd (another Mike Dodd from the Gloucestershire area, and not our member) presenting ‘Branchline Byeways and Railtours – 1950/1960’s’. A nostalgic look back in time using his father’s photographs! As usual the meeting commences at 7.30pm at the Bath Museum of Work. Doors open at 7pm.

Apologies to those of you on the postal mailing list. Your Newsletter for December was sent out in time, 1st class post, but I understand some were late arriving. This must be due to Royal Mail strikes, and I hope they eventually arrived?

In last month’s competition, you had to work out the name of a now closed station in North London with a vague Christmas connection! It was Noel Park and Wood Green. (See also Looking Back).

NEWS ITEMS

The restored Dean Forest Railway’s signal box at Parkend has been nominated and short listed for a National Railway Heritage Award. The signal box was commissioned during March this year.

The Bluebell Railway is recreating past times at Horsted Keynes as it is to relay track on a stub of the branch line to Ardingly. However, this short section of re-laid line will also feature a ‘dummy’ third rail to replicate the fact that electric services ran into Platform 2 at the station until October 28, 1963 when the Seaford to Horsted Keynes, via Haywards Heath services ceased. The Bluebell Railway had already commenced operating services at the station from the last day of December 1962. The electric services over the branch had originally started on July 7, 1935, and the Bluebell Railway is now progressing long term plans to re-instate the branch to Ardingly where they would link into an existing Network Rail freight line. 

At the Didcot Railway Centre the foundation slab for the Heyford station rebuild was completed on Tuesday November 29.  This was the first major milestone in the rebuilding of the former station building. Once the surrounding site has been levelled, backfilled and cleared, the reinforcing steelwork and stone should have arrived for the walls to be started as soon as the risk of winter frosts has abated.

Devon County Council has applied to the DfT for £3m funding, as part of ‘Restoring Your Railway’ programme, to develop a business case into the reopening of the line from Bere Alston to Tavistock.

Also down in North Devon, the heritage Tarka Valley Railway, based at the former Torrington Station, has taken delivery of a Class 143 two coach Pacer Unit from GWR. The unit 143 617 was moved from Bristol’s St Philips Marsh Train Care Depot to Torrington by road. Alleys Heavy Haul had a challenging time moving the Pacer, particularly at the Devon end! The Pacer, which is in working order, has local connections with Devon, as it was based at Exeter TCD near the end of its working life.

The Great Central Railway are holding a Winter Gala on January 27 -29 with three days of action on the double track featuring passenger and goods trains. Visitors include Class S15 506 and BR Cl 5 73082.

LOOKING BACK

Our competition in the December newsletter featured Noel Park and Wood Green station in North London.  The Palace Gates line, on which the station was situated, was unprofitable; and the line and the station were closed for passenger services 60 years ago on January 7, 1963.  The line did linger on for freight until December 7, 1964 before complete closure took effect. Following closure, the embankment that housed the station and the bridge over The Broadway was removed, and nothing is left of the station site today. The area is still well served by the Underground’s Piccadilly Line, which was one of the reasons of the demise of the line.

50 years ago on January 20, 1973, British Rail ran a ‘Merrymaker’ excursion from Derby to Plymouth. The train was hauled by Peak D165 and picked up at stations to Nottingham. It then continued via Loughborough and Leicester to Bristol Temple Meads, using avoiding lines in the Birmingham area, and not going through New Street station. At Bristol D165 was replaced by D169 to Plymouth. This locomotive that worked the train throughout back to Derby, but this time running via Birmingham New Street. It was rather a long day out for anyone joining at Derby. The 11 coach train, formed of Mk I stock had departed at 0800 and didn’t arrive into Plymouth until 1445. Departure back was at 1801, and the final destination of Derby was not reached until 0120 the following day!

MORE NEWS ITEMS

A Strategic Outline Business Case was submitted to the Department of Transport for the reopening of Corsham station in mid-November. This will set out more details on the proposed project and the case for building a new station. A decision is expected from the DfT this year, and the estimated costs could now be as much as £15m if it gets the go ahead.

Robin Owen is an Accessibility Mentor for Great Western Railway and he seeks out groups and individuals (including children) who might have some challenges with using the trains and takes them on short train trips to help them get over any fears or practical challenges. It might be around wheelchair use, sensory disabilities or other mobility and physical access concerns.  Great Western Railway will pay for link taxis to an accessible station if the platforms of your local station are not wheelchair accessible? Robin often gets a poor response from his offers of service because his emails may go to generic addresses when he doesn’t know a direct contact in an organisation. He wants to reach more people and help them use the railways safely. If you know anyone who might benefit from his services or if you have any ideas for how he can access his target audience more efficiently, please do get in touch with him.  Contact details are Robin Owen, Accessibility Mentor Great Western Railway, 4th Floor, Milford House, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 1HL Email: ROBIN.OWEN@GWR.COM or mobile 07894 819231. Please do pass this on to anyone who you feel might benefit from the services Robin offers.

There are several fairly local model railway exhibitions this month. On Saturday January 7 & Sunday 8 the  Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust hold their 48th Annual Model Railway Exhibition at the Edington Village Hall, Lippetts Way, Edington, NR Bridgwater. They are reverting back to their usual slot of the first full weekend of the New Year and the big attraction for this show will be a superb O-Gauge model of the Somerset & Dorset Rly station in Bridgwater set in 1904. There will be at least 10 layouts and five trade stands. On the same weekend the Wessex Association of Model Railway Clubs are holding the   Frome Model Railway Exhibition at the Cheese & Grain, Market Yard, Frome. There are at least 13 layouts booked for displaying plus six trade stands. On Sunday 15, the Burnham and District Model Railway Club are holding the Weston-Super-Mare Model Railway Show at Winterstoke Academy School, Beaufighter Road, Weston-Super-Mare. 20 layouts and 12 trade stands are booked for this show.

Network Rail will be undertaking engineering work between Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads over the weekends of January 14/15, 21/22 and 28/29 closing the line with replacement buses in use. Some trains will run between London Paddington and Bath Spa, with shuttle train services also running between Swindon, Chippenham and Bath Spa. Services to Portsmouth and Weymouth will also operate from Bath Spa and terminate there. On the weekend of January 7 & 8, engineering work will close the line between Didcot and Swindon with services diverted via the Berks & Hants line. The Westbury to Swindon services will terminate/start at Chippenham. On Sunday January 8, Bristol Parkway will also be closed and South Wales services will be diverted, calling at Bath Spa and Patchway. Do check if you intend travelling during these dates as things can change.

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MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION

A Fatal Journey by Bob Bunyar

On September 7, 1950, an M7 0-4-4 Tank locomotive set out bunker first from Halwill Junction station, in North Devon, on the 5.08pm service to Bude. The train was formed of just two Maunsell coaches, one of which contained the guard’s compartment behind the engine.

On the footplate that night were driver S. Jones, an engineman with many years of experience and very familiar with the Bude branch, and fireman P. Solman. On the train, in the Guards van was Porter/Guard A. Abbott, and about a dozen passengers. The weather was fine with dry rail conditions.

The train made its first stop at the small hamlet station of Dunsland Cross before continuing onto the market town of Holsworthy where it was met by Station Master Mr. T. Kingdon, who had worked on this branch line from 1913. At 5.24pm and precisely on time, Mr Kingdon gave the ‘right away’ to the guard who in turn showed his green flag and blew his whistle, this being acknowledged by driver Jones.

On departure from Holsworthy the line crossed the Derriton Viaduct before rising gradually for 1½ miles, then falling on a 1:82 gradient. The train was travelling at between 45 and 50mph and the journey time to the next stop at Whitstone & Bridgerule from Holsworthy would be eight minutes, but on this particular evening it would not be arriving there.

Fireman Solman was standing and looking out on the left hand side in the direction of travel, and he was not firing at the time. The train was now in a shallow cutting and on a slight left hand bend approaching Hopworthy Farm Crossing and about 100 yards from it, a tractor and trailer suddenly appeared on the fireman’s side crossing the line!

Fireman Solman shouted a warning to driver Jones, who immediately applied an emergency brake application, but there was no chance of stopping, and avoiding a collision, and the M7 struck the trailer and split it in two sending debris over 100 yards along the track, and under the train. This then stopped 400 yards beyond the point of impact. Guard Abbott felt the severe brake application looked out of the left-hand side window where he saw debris flying about. He did not know if the train had hit anything, or if the engine had become derailed and was throwing ballast up.

Driving the Fordson Major tractor, which weighed 1T 19cwt, was farmer Mr L. Cawsey, who knew the crossing well, and had made numerous journeys over it that day. He was thrown off the tractor by the impact and went over a hedge, sustaining serious injuries. However, very sadly, his mother, father and sister were riding on the trailer and they were killed instantly by the impact. The relevant signalmen were informed together with the police, who quickly attended, and the line was closed for investigation. Two doctors arrived on the scene just after 6pm but they could only assist the tractor driver.

Hopworthy Farm Crossing did not have any ‘Whistle’ boards on its approaches, lamps or any other form of warning of approaching trains and at a subsequent inquiry, tractor driver Cawsey admitted that he made the mistake of thinking that the 5.8 pm train from Halwill Junction had already passed. He drove on to the crossing not ascertaining if it was safe to do so, and he did not stop to look up and down the line after passing through the gate.

Damage to the M7 was relatively light, with the buffer beam and a step slightly bent, and there was just minor damage to the undersides of the two carriages. No railway workers on the branch had ever heard of any incidents at the crossing previously, but it was believed that if the engine had actually struck the tractor, instead of the trailer,  the train would probably have been derailed and consequences may have been even more severe.

After the accident, trains would always sounded a warning when approaching the crossing. Today parts of the formation of the line have been removed near the crossing, and put back to farm land, but the gates of it are still in situ. One gate even has an original notice on it ‘to close the gates after use’!  There is also a strange ’stillness’ at the crossing site, where three people tragically lost their lives back in September 1950. Tractor driver L. Cawsey did recover from his injuries, and he passed away in 1998, aged 67. The Bude branch was completely closed in October 1966, but following the success of the return of regular passenger services to Okehampton, a group called ‘Connect Bude’ has started campaigning to reconnect Bude and Holsworthy to the national railway network.

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

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COMPETITION

 Mention has been briefly made in this Newsletter about the Underground’s Piccadilly Line, and in this month’s competition you have to find the name of one of the stations on its route. As usual all you have to do is find the name of this station by taking 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!

• Station which the Spa Valley Railway shares with ‘Southern’s’ Oxted line services

• Name carried by LNWR Whitworth Class 1164 and also by Class 47 D1666

• Name of a new station due to open on the Reading to Basingstoke line early this year

• Preserved Battle of Britain Class 34067

• 0-4-2 steam locomotive, ‘Lion’ carried this fictional name in a famous railway themed film

• The Bulmer’s Cider Train was once based at this Cathedral City along with King 6000

• Station between Portsmouth Arms and Chapelton, served by GWR services on the Tarka Line

• A loco shed 1.2m from Wigan North Western station, still in use today, which once had the code 8F

• A closed station and branch line on the Piccadilly Line, now used for filming purposes and tours

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