BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY

President: Pete Waterman OBE DL

Chairman: John Froud    

 Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com

NOVEMBER  2023  NEWSLETTER

Dear Member,

SOCIETY MATTERS

We were certainly taken on a journey at our last meeting travelling from Swindon to Saigon and beyond! Guest speaker John Sreeves did an astounding job working out the route and train times, which saw him and his wife use 43 trains to pass through 12 countries and 10 capital cities. From modern clean electric trains to coal dust covered trains, which had coal stoves in each carriage. They certainly experienced a diversity of rail travel. John also included history and politics in his talk, and it was certainly a most interesting and enlightening evening.

Our next meeting at the Bath Museum of Work will be on Thursday November 2 starting at 7.30pm. There is a slight change to the printed programme card as instead of the advertised speaker, Ian Cowling, we will welcome Mark Bladwell presenting ‘The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway since 1979’. Mark is the Chairman of the L & B Somerset & Bristol Area Support Group and his talk will be about the work of the Trust / Association since its incorporation in 1979 and will include a brief history of the line pre preservation. We hope you will be able to attend.

In the competition in the last issue of the newsletter you had to find the name of an A4 Class locomotive. This was Merlin, BR number 60027. (LNER 4486). This locomotive was allocated to Haymarket shed on March 13, 1937, and withdrawn from St Margaret’s shed on September 3, 1965. It was finally cut up at Campbell’s scrapyard at Shieldhall during December the same year.

ADVERTISMENTS/OFFERS

Question: What was the longest railway bridge entirely in England? The answer is the Severn Bridge with a length of 4,161’ which crossed between Sharpness and Lydney, and although probably less than 25 miles from where you’re reading this, very few people in Bath, when it was extant, had ever seen it.

You can’t see it today because in 1960 two oil tankers struck it causing two spans to collapse; these were never replaced and the bridge was dismantled in 1967.

This was probably a good thing as over the years quite a few vessels had struck the 21 piers when out of control due to the strong tides, and had a span collapsed while a passenger train was crossing, the death toll could have been horrendous.                                       

The branch from Berkley Road to Sharpness is still in existence and used almost entirely by atomic waste trains operated by Direct Rail Services (DRS), but the Vale of Berkley Railway is also developing it as a preserved line.

If you are interested to find out more about this bridge and line, then the 111th book written by our member Colin Maggs entitled ‘The Severn Bridge Railway’ has just been published by Oakwood Press, ISBN 978-0-85361-769-3. At £24.95 it is lavishly illustrated, its 144 pages having 178 pictures including 5 in colour. Very readable it covers the history of the bridge, its locomotives and rolling stock right up to the Vale of Berkley today.

Are members wondering what to do with all those old photographs?  I have spent too long scanning old prints, but how do you deal with slides?

I bought a scanner that will scan 35mm slides and negatives at very high resolution, 22mp.  (My flatbed scanner is 1.2mp).  It will also scan 110 and 126 sizes negatives.  I have been surprised at how quick and easy it is to use.  Black and white negatives are simply remarkable!

I have now scanned all my colour slides and all my negatives, at least 25 films a year each year since about 1970. They are stored on OneDrive and so are accessible and can be shared.  All my negatives and slides have now gone to the tip!

So, I have now finished and am happy to make the scanner available to other members for a modest ‘rental’.  I have in mind £20 for a month’s use and I plan to use the money towards a more expensive scanner to do my 120 roll film negatives.

The scanner makes a .jpg file of each picture at a resolution of 22mp in a second or two.  The images are stored on an SD card.  I used a 4gb card and it takes about 700 images at a time.  If you are well organised it is possible to scan 500 slides or negatives in a couple of hours. 

The scanner will also support an HTML cable connection to a laptop in place of the SD card, but I have not gone down this route.

The scanner has full instructions and there is an SD card with it.  I will be happy to show how it works.

If you are interested, please email me, richard@blunden.org.uk  or call me 07929 548038.

LOOKING BACK

60 years ago this month, in 1963, GWR 2-8-0 3803 arrived at Woodhams Scrapyard at Barry in South Wales. It had been withdrawn from service on July 4 that year from Severn Tunnel Junction  shed (86E) having completed 24 years, 5 months  and 27 days in service, and after covering 726,770 miles. It was purchased from Barry by individuals for use on the Dart Valley Railway, and moved there exactly 20 years after its arrival at the scrapyard. It was subsequently moved from the DVR (South Devon Railway) to Tyseley for restoration, but this was completed back at Buckfastleigh in 2005. In 2015 it was withdrawn from service and stored by the SDR, having been purchased by them, before being sold in 2022 to the Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company. They intend returning it to steam in the not too distant future as it is ideally suited to that line as it will be able to make light work of their heaviest trains!  The sale of 3803 also included the frames of GWR 2-8-0, 2873.

50 years ago this month, on November 19, 1973, the remaining section of the Somerset & Dorset line from Radstock to Writhlington Colliery was completely closed. Four days later on November 23, Radstock S & D shed was also closed. This had been used to house a BR Class 08 shunter, (as well as preserved stock), and had come under the control of Bristol Bath Road shed. It was not until August 1976 that track lifting of the Writhlington to Radstock line commenced.

NEWS ITEMS

On November 25 & 26, the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition takes place at the National Exhibition Centre - Hall 5, Birmingham. At least 80 layouts will be on view with 120 trade stalls expected. See full details online.

Passenger figures for the new Worcester Parkway station have well exceeded expectations. The GWR operated station opened in February 2020, and is situated on the North Cotswold and the Birmingham to Bristol lines. In the past 12 months 540,000 passenger journeys were recorded. These numbers were not expected to be reached until 2030!

As mentioned in the last newsletter, Cross Country Trains ran its last HST on Tuesday September 26. This was ‘The Pines Express’ from Leeds to Swanage and return, with a fill in run from Swanage to Bournemouth and back which was ‘The Bournemouth Belle’. The HST had been strengthened to eight coaches formed of power cars 43007 and 43008, with the trip raising funds for the Brain Tumour Charity in memory of Jo Taylor who worked for XC for 14 years at both Leeds and Bournemouth. Jo passed away in 2021 and £50,000 was raised for the charity. On September 27, the HST set worked empty from Leeds to Plymouth Laira depot, where it was withdrawn, prior to be handed back to a leasing company.

The Gwili Railway in Carmarthenshire has reported a 65% increase in passenger numbers this year, recorded up until September 30. The new terminus station at Abergwili Junction, opened earlier this year, proving very popular. Also in Wales, Barry Island, Tenby and Llandudno, Flint and Pwllheli  stations, all operated by Transport for Wales, saw big increases in passengers using them during July and August this year.

On Saturday November 4, the West Wiltshire Gauge O Group will be staging  the Westbury Model Railway Show at The Paragon Hall, Haynes Road, Westbury from 10.00am-4.30pm, admission:- Adults £6.00. There will be eight layouts on display with six trade stands in attendance. The hall is 0.7miles from Westbury station. 

The owning group of Class 52 – D1048 ‘Western Lady’ have gifted the locomotive to the Western Locomotive Association, the charity based on the Severn Valley Railway which already owns classmates D1013 and D1062.  The WLA will be making a full assessment of the condition of D1048 and in the meantime it may make static appearances at some SVR events.

The former SR main line from Salisbury will have two closures this month while various engineering works take place. The line will close from Yeovil Junction to Axminster from November 6 to 10, and this will then be followed by a 16 day closure between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction from October 25 to December 10. Works will include ballast renewals, level crossing barrier replacement and embankment underpinning works at Crewkerne Tunnel. A revised Waterloo to Exeter service will still run being diverted from Salisbury via Westbury and the GWR route through Taunton. Further travel details will be available on the South Western Railway website.

On November 11 & 12, The Cale Rail Society holds the Wincanton Model Railway Exhibition at King Arthurs School, West Hill, Wincanton. Over 20 layouts, along with 6 traders, are expected to attend.

The Bluebell Railway has announced that LSWR Adams Radial Tank 30583, LSWR Adams B4 96 ‘Normandy’ and SECR Wainwright P Class 323 ‘Bluebell’ will all be receiving overhauls and will steam again. The Adams Radial and B4 will be restored at Sheffield Park with 323 ‘Bluebell’ going into the workshop at Sheffield Park in early 2024, and hopefully this will be available in the summer of 2024.

Judges from the Royal Horticultural Society and South West in Bloom have rated the North Devon station at Barnstaple ‘Outstanding’ in the ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood Award’ category. The Station Masters’ Café at Barnstaple, was also a gold winner in the business category as well. Members of the Tarka Rail Association and Barnstaple in Bloom have brighten up the station over the past two years. Templecombe station was awarded ‘gold’ for its gardens this year in a competition organised by GWR, SWR and the Blackmore Vale Community Rail Partnership to celebrate volunteer gardening effort at stations between Pinhoe-Hounslow-Havant-Weymouth. Harmans Cross station on the Swanage Railway entered for the first time winning Silver Gilt, and an RHS ‘Outstanding’ award.

Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway based 7820 Dinmore Manor has been granted an extension to its boiler certificate which will see it running through to the end of 2024. On October 12, engineers from British Engineering Services (boiler insurance examiners) carried out non-destructive testing – die-penetration on the welds and ultrasonic on the stays and passed the cold examination. New tubes are now ready to be fitted before the brick arch can go back, then the washout plugs and mudhole doors will be refitted before a steam test is carried out. While the loco has been stopped, new piston rings have also been fitted and the underside of the loco has received a good cleaning.

MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION

School Days Part One   by Mike Dodd

I started Secondary school at Westhill Boys School, Rush Hill, Bath in 1968. After settling in I was made aware that the school had a large model railway on site. This had been constructed and was operated by Mr. John Fenning, RE teacher and a keen railway enthusiast. The school had opened in 1956 and was a large complex with spacious grounds. Within these grounds and located facing onto Rush Hill was an old Victorian building called "The Rosaries" originally a GPs practice it had been acquired by the school some years previous to my arrival, it looked somewhat out of place surrounded by the "modern" buildings of the school.

The model railway was situated in a large room on the first floor and Mr. Fenning would hold operating sessions on selected days during the school lunch break, which was of a longer duration compared to today’s breaks in schools! I seem to remember that a small donation was required to enter the room to "watch the trains go by", this went towards upkeep of the layout. It consisted of a large Triang TT gauge layout with a double track oval running around the room, operators standing inside, punters viewing from outside. In addition to this there were two branch lines running to small terminal stations, one low level, one high level which terminated over the main line which tunnelled underneath. A loco shed, large through station, goods yard and carriage sidings completed what was a very impressive scene.

Excepting some of the sidings the majority of the system was controlled by colour light signals and electric points. Mr. Fenning always took control operating signals and points from an impressive miniature lever frame. Five operators were needed to control trains on the two branches, main line and various yards. After attending several operating days upon discovering I was an enthusiast Mr. Fenning invited me to operate the high level branch line- a great honour! Most operating days a good crowd of school boys would gather to watch proceedings, and hopefully not witness too many derailments!

Locomotives in use were examples of most of the TT gauge locos produced by Triang between 1957 to 1964. The fleet consisted of 5 Castle class all carrying "Windsor Castle" nameplates! An unrebuilt Merchant Navy 35028 “Clan Line". 7MT 70000 "Britannia"- everyone's favourite! A pair of 61XX Prairie tanks in BR black livery. 5 Brush type 2s or class 31 if you prefer and a class 108 Derby DMU. There were also some white metal kits consisting of a King, Collet 32XX and a Pannier tank. A large collection of coaches in a variety of BR liveries of the 1950s/60s and an impressive range of freight wagons completed things

Sadly about two years after I arrived the layout had to be dismantled as the building was required as an additional staff room. This was because the school was merging with Bath Technical School to become Culverhay School in 1971. New Mathematics, Science and Sixth form blocks were built near to "The Rosaries" and the old building was completely rebuilt internally. Culverhay School is now closed but "The Rosaries still exists now a Preschool nursery.

As a post script after the layout was dismantled it was stored in the old building, one weekend persons unknown broke in and stole a large amount of locos and rolling stock. Weirdly a few days later most of the items were discovered dumped in bags in the undergrowth by the side of Pennyquick Hill, Bath about a mile and a half from the school. One of my pals also an enthusiast approached Mr. Fenning and was able to purchase most of what remained of the collection. This was agreed and my pal asked me if I would like to help him construct a layout at his home. We began work on a new layout and due to the large amount of WR rolling stock started work on a model of Box Station. Unfortunately this coincided with us leaving school, I moved away from Bath with work for a couple of years and our project never came to fruition.

Of course Hornby have recently re-introduced TT gauge models as part of their range, funny how things come around! 

We thank Mike for his article and look forward to Part Two.  If you have a story for future newsletters, please send it in so it can be shared with members. We look forward to hearing from you.

COMPETITION   

There are of course hundreds of railway viaducts in the UK still in use for the purpose they were built, plus disused ones no longer carrying tracks. Some are now being used for cycle ways and footpaths, while others are completely disused and fenced off. In this month’s competition you have to find the name of a viaduct still in use, which is situated in the south west. As usual, just take the first letter of the answer and then unscramble them to give you the final answer. No prizes, it’s just for fun.

• Once a halt between Watergate and Dunsbear Halts on the North Devon & Cornwall Junc. Light Railway

• Preserved West Country Class 34028

• Model train maker that once had a factory in Margate which now houses preserved locos and stock.

• Name of GWR Hall Class 4938

• The name given to the line between Exeter and Exmouth operated by Great Western Railway

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MORE NEWS ITEMS

Following on from the announcement by the Government of the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2, funding has now been made available, saved from this, for several schemes in the South West to go ahead. Projects include the reinstatement of the line from Bere Alston into a new build station at Tavistock. (It is not possible to use the original ‘Southern’ Grade II list station which is now holiday lets). This line will provide a service into Plymouth. Further finance would be available for the Exeter to Plymouth line to make it more resilient to weather conditions, and also to provide stations at Wellington (Somerset) and Cullumpton in Devon. Bristol is set to receive a £100million investment for a mass transit system in and around the City. No start dates for projects have be given. Mention has not been made about restoring the former SR route from Plymouth to Exeter in its entirety, despite the fact that the original track bed from Tavistock through to Okehampton is virtually intact with only Meldon Viaduct being of concern and requiring work to make it fit for use again

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