BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY

President: Pete Waterman OBE DL

Chairman: John Froud    

 Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com

JUNE  2023  NEWSLETTER

Dear Member,

SOCIETY MATTERS

Former signalling engineer Stuart Isbister took us on a tour of the ‘Branch Lines off the Salisbury to Exeter Line’ at our last meeting. Stuart has a great interest in signal and track plans, and these featured when he took us to Axminster, Chard, Sidmouth, Tipton St Johns and Exmouth to name just a few locations along the route. We thank Stuart for coming from his home at Seend to give his presentation.

As notified in the May Newsletter, our Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday June 1, at the Bath Museum of Work starting at 7.30pm. If you have any nominations for positions on the committee or if you have an item you wish to be discussed at the AGM, please send these to the Secretary prior to the meeting.

The AGM will be kept as short as possible and will be followed by a Members Night. This will be an evening of presentations by members with subjects including: A historic poster depicting 4472 "Flying Scotsman", End of BR steam in the Bournemouth area, Aldwych Tube Station, Steam Around the World (pictures from Roger Stillman's collection) with visits to Spain, Portugal, West Germany, Italy, Turkey, Kenya, India and Japan, and 37 railway related photographs which will be a surprise! If time permits there may be other presentations, overall giving a very interesting evening. We thank Mike Dodd for putting it together, and especially those who have come forward to give the presentations. This will be our last meeting of the season, and we will next meet on Thursday September 7.

Regrettably we have not been able to organise a summer outing this year, despite efforts to do so. We will be addressing this again in 2024!

The name you had to find in the competition in the last Newsletter for the diesel locomotive on the Talyllyn Railway was Trecwn.

NEWS ITEMS

You may already be aware that the well-known railway photographer Brian Morrison, sadly passed away on April 30, at the age of 93. Brian’s photographs have appeared in magazines and books over many decades with his first picture being published in 1951. He also played a significant role in establishing and the production of the weekly online magazine - Railway Herald. Another recognised person in the world of railways has passed away at the age of 91. Ron White, the founder of the business Colour Rail, died on April 23 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Ron gave presentations to the society on several occasions and was certainly a very interesting and knowledgeable presenter. His wife Cecily died on April 7, age 91.

On Saturday10 & Sun 11 the Shepton & District Model Railway Society hold the ‘Mendip 2023’ exhibition. This takes place at Shepton Scout Hall (Adjacent to Shepton Mallett FC), Old Wells Road, West Shepton Open Saturday 1030-1630 & Sunday1000-1600 with 10 layouts on display and three trade stands in attendance. Admission: Adults £5.00.  On Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 in Wiltshire, the Mere & District Railway Modellers are holding their exhibition at the Mere Lecture Halls, Salisbury Street, Mere. Opening times for this are 1000 – 1600 both days, and again admission is £5. There will be 14 layouts on display and three trade stands in attendance.

A new book has just been published by Simon Castens telling the story of how, where and why "The Titfield Thunderbolt" film was made. It is in large format and a hardback with192 pages, and features 320 photographs and 9 plans. The book is priced at £28.95 and is available by mail order from The Titfield Thunderbolt Bookshop, Studio 4 Tollbridge Studios, Toll Bridge Road, Bath, BA1 7DE. The shop is open to customers on Thursday 10:00 to 17:30. Tel. 01225 462332. https://www.titfield.co.uk/index.htm

Great Western Railway is splitting up two of its three car 158 units. The units being split are 158956 and 158957. These will be formed into 3 x 2 car units numbered 158 -748, 768 & 771. These were the original numbers of the units before they were formed into three car sets.

LOOKING BACK

40 years ago on June 4, 1983, the Wrexham - Birkenhead Rail User's Association ran a special train called the ‘Bath Spa Limited’. This originated at Bidston on Merseyside, and ran via Oxford, Didcot North Junction, Foxhall Junction, Swindon and the GW main line to Bath Spa. After the passengers had disembarked, the empty stock was sent to Bristol’s Malago Sidings for servicing. The train was hauled throughout by 47 221 which carried two headboards. One was for the Users Association, while the other bore the train’s name. The return journey was the reverse of outward route. The Wrexham - Birkenhead Rail User's Association is still very active today.

Also 40 years ago, during the night of Sunday June 26, 1983, the redundant Romsey Signal Box was removed from its position by the Salisbury to Southampton line having been purchased by a nearby school. Firstly the wooden floor, weighing about a ton, was lifted across the tracks to a temporary position in the school grounds on the other side of the embankment, followed by the 23-lever frame, weighing over 3 tons. A strip of waste land between the railway and the school was purchased, a new brick base constructed, and in April 1987, the frame was lifted onto the new base, followed by the original first floor. The box still stands in the school grounds today and is now a working signal box museum. It is normally open to the public during the afternoons of the first Sunday of every month and the third Saturday of every month. This year it will also open on Thursdays during the school summer holidays and the summer and autumn half-term breaks. It is run by the Friends of Romsey Signal Box and full details are at https://romseysignalbox.org.uk/

MORE NEWS ITEMS

On Friday June 9 and Monday June 12 to Sunday June 18, and on Sunday June 25, there will be no trains between Bristol Parkway and Newport with a limited service between Bristol Parkway and London operating only at peak times. Those passengers wishing to travel between South Wales and Bristol are advised to travel via Gloucester/Cheltenham Spa using Transport for Wales & Cross Country services. GWR rail tickets will be valid on these services. A replacement bus service is due to operate between Bristol Parkway and Newport but the national shortage of bus drivers means that there may be a smaller number of replacements services. On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 June, the diversionary route between South Wales and Swindon is also closed, and buses will again replace trains between Bristol Parkway and Cardiff Central. No trains will stop at Newport, Patchway, Pilning or Severn Tunnel Junction. Do check if you intend travelling on these routes during these engineering works.

Something for your children or grandchildren! Paddington Bear will be making guest appearances on the platform of Cranmore Station, East Somerset Railway, at 10.10am, 11.10am, and 12.10pm, 1.10pm, 2.10pm & 3.10pm. There will also be a Paddington trail and Punch and Judy to entertain when Paddington is having his marmalade sandwiches. The Miniature Railway will be open all day and steam trains will be running to Mendip Vale. See https://eastsomersetrailway.com/events/view/paddington-bear for details.

The Severn Valley Railway is staging a Real Ale Festival at the Engine House Visitor Centre, Highley on Friday 9 & Saturday 10, June. This is in partnership with CAMRA and the Bewdley Brewery with a selection of 20+ cask ales from breweries located throughout the UK for sampling. Entry is free to the Engine House with the purchase of a plastic SVR pint glass for just £2. A revised timetable ‘B’ will be in operation on the railway during the festival. See the SVR website for full details.

The Museum of Bath at Work is running a series of historic films – with contemporary resonance- as part of the Bath Fringe Festival, and light refreshments will be available. On Tuesday June 13 @ 7.30pm Eric Ravilious: ‘Drawn to War’ will be screened at the Museum. This is the first documentary ever made on the visionary English artist/illustrator Eric Ravilious and it will be introduced by Dr Ann Sumner. Tickets are priced at £15. See the Museum’s website for more details/bookings.

At the Avon Valley Railway on Friday 9 (1800 – 2200) & Saturday 10 June (1200 – 1600 & 1800 -2200), they are holding the ‘Bitton Beer Bash’. There will be a wide selection of beers from around the country with over 25 beers available.   You can enjoy your drinks on our station platform, or purchase a diesel train ticket and enjoy them on board a diesel service hauled by a Class 31. Admission prices are: Beer Festival Entry only £4.00.  Beer Festival Entry + Train Ride£12.00. Tickets are available to book online. Go to https://www.avonvalleyrailway.org/events/bitton-beer-bash/ for full details and bookings. A Hunslet built Austerity called Wimblebury, a 0-6-0 ST built in 1956, has arrived at the Railway.

MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION

At our April meeting we were treated to the Lost Railway – Woodhead by Stephen Gay. For this Newsletter, Alan Price has a story of a trip with the old vintage Great Western Society rolling stock which took in the Woodhead route and tunnel. Our thanks to Alan once again for an interesting article.

‘Great Western Electric’ Vintage Train to Manchester                                                              

On the April 21, 1979 the Great Western Society took its rake of vintage coaches from Paddington to Manchester and back via Banbury, Birmingham, Chesterfield and Sheffield. Besides the pleasure of travelling there in chocolate and cream rolling stock, the principal railway attractions of the journey were to traverse the Pennines and visit the Dinting Railway Centre. Little did we know but it was to be quite an eventful as well as memorable day.

The train was made up of Collett 3rd.1111 (1938), Hawksworth Brake 3rd.2202 (1950), Collett 3rd.536 (1940), Collett Brake Composite 7371 (1941), Collett Excursion 3rd.1289 (1937) and Collett 3rd.5952 (1935) and was taken to Old Oak Common behind a ‘Peak’ diesel the previous day. On the 21st. the train was headed by Class 31 diesel 31 273 Paddington to Rotherwood Sidings both ways or at least that’s what should have happened. Crews changed at Chesterfield and at Orgreave Sidings Box in Rotherwood we changed to 1500v DC EM1 B-B electrics 76022 & 76029. These took us through Woodhead Tunnel to Dinting before going on to Manchester (Piccadilly).The stock was taken to and from Longsight Carriage Sidings by Class 40 D203 and the return to Rotherwood was headed by 76046.

Everything went well and we were ahead of schedule on the return when at Saltley 31.273 shut down for the first time with a faulty oil level indicator. Eventually the loco was restarted but the next failure at Fenny Compton was more permanent. A freightliner following us passed using the up loop and took the crew into Banbury from where they returned with a Cl. 47 which took the whole train plus dead 31 to Paddington arriving only 90 minutes late.

For the journey (as usual) my group commandeered a compartment in 5952 which was the oldest and in our opinion, the most comfortable vehicle with a splendidly antiquated appearance having a door to each compartment on one side. I recall going through what remained of Sheffield (Victoria) station which had been closed to passengers in 1965 (briefly re-opened in 1973 while Sheffield Midland was re-signalled), the huge viaduct at Penistone on the route to Huddersfield and the 1954  Woodhead Tunnel with which we had grown up as the face of Britain’s Railway future. The infamous old tunnels (1845) were clearly visible alongside carrying high tension electricity cables. The passenger service had been withdrawn beyond Hadfield in 1970 and we knew that the whole route was due to close imminently, as indeed it did, two years later.

At Dinting we all got out to go to the small ex GCR loco shed while those interested in the delights of Manchester remained on the train. In the heady days of early railway preservation people (including the NRM)  had acquired steam locos without much thought of what to do with them and Dinting was one of those places hastily leased (1968) from BR where these could be gathered and where groups of young men toiled to restore them to their former glory. The highlights that day were the Midland Compound 4-4-0 1000, A2 4-6-2 536 ‘Blue Peter’, LMS 4-6-0 6117 ‘Scots Guardsman’ and LMS 4-6-0 5573 ‘Bahamas’ and LNER V2 2-6-2 4771 ‘Green Arrow’ passed on a rail tour to Newcastle. Dinting as a railways centre, was at its peak at the time and for such a small site was well- organised with a signalled demonstration line and 2 areas of covered accommodation. Sadly it closed in 1990.

I still think the GWS ‘Vintage Train’ is one of the great achievements of railway preservation. Even though the testing and registration regimes of BR were nothing like as rigorous as they are today, it still amazes me that between 1972 and 1980 a group of enthusiastic amateurs (with some professional help) were able to restore and maintain a rake 12 vintage carriages and 4 steam locomotives (5900 and 5051 having spent many years in a scrapyard) in working order and run them on several occasions as far as Kingswear, Stratford-on-Avon, Tyseley, Bridgnorth, Weymouth and Hereford.

I have many memories of the Vintage Train but the most vivid is one of the Stratford trips on which we took the Bristol Group sales stand. This meant a very early start from Frome and much hard work getting the stock from the Didcot forecourt up to the train in 20 minutes. During the Leamington stop, Mick Dean, our Locomotive Manager, came back and asked me if I’d like a footplate pass on 5051 to Stratford? It remains the only time I have ever been on a steam locomotive at speed and I was amazed at how much the machine bucked and rolled. Through Harbury Cutting I stood in the coal space enjoying the approach to the tunnel, only to be grabbed by the fireman and hauled back under the cab. He didn’t need to explain why when on entering the tunnel the blast dislodged a brick which landed with a thud in the coal dust where I’d just been standing – another of my nine lives gone!

It is an irony from my train spotting days that the Vintage Train was only possible because of the hated and filthy Swindon Test Train which obscured from passing trains the latest products of the Erecting Shop, was on its withdrawal shared with the SVR. As time wore on BR started to produce more hoops for us to jump through and keeping up to the standards required became increasingly difficult. One of the reasons for producing the train was that it was thought the withdrawal of all vacuum braked rolling stock was imminent. This proved to be unfounded and on January 26, 1980 the ‘Sunset Tour’ with 10 vehicles behind 5051, brought down the curtain on the Vintage Train.

COMPETITION

The LMS/BR(M) had names for many of their classes of steam locomotives, for example ‘Jubilees’. In this easy competition you have to find the name associated with a particular class of LMS locomotive. As usual, all you have to do is answer the questions, and take the first letter of each answer, then un-scramble them to give you the name. There are no prizes, it’s all for fun.

• The name of the replica 2-2-2 Broad Gauge locomotive in Swindon’s Steam Museum

• A word that follows the names of Severn Tunnel and Clapham stations

• The normal colour of London Undergrounds battery engineering locomotives

• A Midlands Traction Maintenance Depot that once had the code 16A prior to TOPS

• A cutting on the Bluebell Railway that had to be excavated to return the line to East Grinstead

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MORE NEWS ITEMS

Reading’s new Green Park station opened on May 27. It will be served by GWR services on the Reading to Basingstoke line. Construction work has now finished at Exeter’s new Marsh Barton’s station, but an opening date is still to be announced. The station is due to be served by hourly GWR services between Paignton and Exmouth, with additional trains at peak times. There is still no updates on the status or  the opening date of the Portway Park & Ride station on the Severn Beach line in Bristol.

The 2’ gauge Gartell Railway at Common Lane, Yenston, near Templecombe, is due to be in operation on Sunday June 25.  Train services operate between 10:30 and 16:00.

A rail connection at Puriton, near Bridgwater, could be restored. The line that once ran from sidings off the main line into the former Royal Ordnance Factory could be re-laid to serve a proposed car battery plant which may be built on the site.  The BR exchange sidings were known as Huntspill (Puriton) and the branch line was latterly carried over the M5 motorway by a bridge. The Ordnance Factory closed in July 2008, and the railway serving it was lifted. There have been proposals for use of the site in the past which may have seen the railway reinstated, but these did not materialise. The latest proposals for the battery plant are being made by Jaguar/Land Rover and are fully support by local councils.

Work to replace to steel plates in a rail over bridge in Bradford on Avon is currently taking place. The work in St Margaret’s Street is already four months behind schedule because of industrial action by Railway workers and extreme cold weather during last winter. Network Rail had hoped to complete the work in April, after starting the project last September, but it is now likely to be August before it is completed. A 130T crane was used to lift the old steel plates from the bridge and contractors are now due to be back again on Saturday, June 24 and then again on Saturday, July 1.

South Western Railway has banned e-scooters from its trains from June 1, due to a potential risk from the lithium batteries overheating. The ban also applies to e-unicycles, e-skateboards and hoverboards.

The West Somerset Railway are holding Summer Diesel Festival between Thursday June 8 to Saturday 10. There will be visiting and our home fleet locomotives in use, and an intensive timetable in operation. Visiting locomotives are scheduled to be Cl. 25 – 7659, Cl. 33 – 33002 “SEA KING”, Cl. 50 – 50008 “THUNDERER”, Cl. 55 – 55009 “ALYCIDON” and Cl. 14 – D9551. The Diesel Electric Preservation Group’s shed at Williton will be open to the public during the gala.

Work on the Swanage Railway’s LSWR T3 Class 4-4-0 is coming to a conclusion. 563 has had a successful steam test of its boiler at the Flour Mill in Gloucestershire and the boiler has now been fitted onto the frames. It is hoped it won’t be too long now before it is moved to Swanage and re-united with its tender which has been overhauled at the Swanage Railway’s Herston works. Once this is completed, running in and testing will take place, before a date is announced of its return to service later this year.

The Llangollen Railway’s Corwen station is due to open with four days of celebrations from June 1 to 4.

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