BATH RAILWAY SOCIETY

President: Pete Waterman OBE DL

Chairman: John Froud    

 Email: bathrailwaysociety@gmail.com

JUNE  2025  NEWSLETTER

Dear Member, 

SOCIETY MATTERS

On Thursday May 1, Julie Gregory talked about Network Rail’s ‘Western Route Resilience Programme, covering the South and South West of the country. I hope you found this interesting, together with the questions and answers section in the second half, and we thank Julie for coming to Bath

Our next meeting will be our Annual General Meeting on June 5. As previously stated, we always try to keep this as short as possible. If you have any nominations for the committee, or you wish to raise any points to have discussed at the AGM, please send them in straight away to the Secretary at the address above.

After the AGM, member Robert Howes, will be taking us on a journey from Scotland to Weymouth with steam in the 1960’s. His journey will start with black & white photographs in Scotland, and we will go to colour slides in the north east of England, followed by the London area and a trip down the South Western Main Line. This should be a very nostalgic presentation of steam.

 Thank you to those of you who have indicated that you wish to participate in the Society’s visit to the Western Locomotive Association Traction Maintenance Depot at Kidderminster on Wednesday June 11. You will have to make your own arrangements to travel to/from Kidderminster but on arrival please meet at 1215 on the forecourt of the SVR station where WLA member Paul Finch will be waiting to take you down to the TMD for the tour. Our treasurer Richard Blunden will be looking after our party, and the tour will probably take about an hour. The SVR is open that day and there is a diesel departure at 1405, or steam at 1545 from Kidderminster, running to Hampton Loade. If you have any questions regarding the visit, please do not hesitate to contact us via the links above.

NEWS ITEMS

At the West Somerset Railway there will be a Summer Diesel Festival from June 5 to 8 with visiting locomotives D1015 Western Champion and Class 45 Peak 45108 plus home fleet locomotives. Other attractions include brake van rides and tours at Washford Yard. Go to www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk for further details. The Friends of Minehead Station has provided £40,000 for roof repairs to the main station building which marks its 150th birthday this year.

The Ffestiniog Railway will be holding a Platinum Jubilee Gala from Friday June 20 to Sunday 22 to celebrate seventy years of restored passenger services. There will be an array of recreated passenger and freight trains and more. Further details can be found at www.festrail.co.uk/fr70

MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION 

Early train spotting days in Swindon by Geoff Ayliffe-Fletcher

Being born into a railway family (my great grandfather, grandfather, father and mother), it was inevitable that I would follow the family tradition and become a railway man. My mother saw service during the war years when they filled the occupations of the men who had gone to war. My mother was located in the boiler making activity, which was a heavy and noisy environment carrying out strange sounding tasks such as tap catching and holding up and frequently being told off for melting the rivets in the coke fires.

From a very early age I remember going train spotting, being lucky to have the choice of two places to visit nearby, one being the London to Bristol mainline and the other the Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) line. The busiest and most frequently visited was the first mentioned and armed with sandwiches and lemonade made out of crystals would spend the whole day there.

Seeing no danger at that age we would on occasions place pennies on the line and after the train passed go searching for them in the ballast, frequently being spotted by the signalman in the box at Rushey Platt who dispatched his relief on his moped to give us a severe telling off. In later years with two other school mates whose fathers also luckily worked “inside” (a term used locally for working in the railway workshops and not being detained at His Majesty's pleasure) were able to travel further afield. Reading to catch some of the Southern locos, Gloucester to catch hopefully some Midland locos and all the London terminals, but never Bath Green Park. Two highlights were returning home after spotting 60022 Mallard and in later years some of the mighty Deltic diesel locomotives.                                                    

A memorable date to remember was Friday, March 18th, 1960 when on that afternoon 92220 Evening Star was named within the works. My parents would not give me permission to skip school that afternoon and I attended a half empty school and had to be content on visiting the works the next day. Long summer school holidays allowed for long days out train spotting and open access visits around the railway workshops on Wednesday afternoons. Two queues formed either side of the main tunnel entrance, the one to the right-hand side facing the entrance was known as the VISITORS and the one to the left as the SPOTTERS.

The VISITORS did a tour of the workshops taking in most of the activities on site whilst the SPOTTERS concentrated solely on the A E Shop (A Shop Erecting) later known as 5 shop, then let loose gathering as many numbers as possible. Not many health and safety rules in those days! Prior to the visits starting the head watchman, a gentleman called Mr Bert Stratford; a very tall and upright man would walk slowly along the long queues looking for children under 12 years of age and not allowed entrance. Having not attained that age, once spotted him approaching we would stand with backs against the wall, go up on tiptoe to increase our height by several inches and after he had passed returning to our correct height. The system must have worked because we were never refused admission.

Visits around the works on Sunday afternoons were allowed for special groups or parties by Permit Only which had to be applied for prior to the visit. On a couple of occasions, we skipped Sunday School and mingled in with the groups and gained a free trip around the works.

Regularly on Sunday afternoons we were sent off to Sunday school in our Sunday best clothes with a threepenny bit for collection money (a multi-sided yellowish coloured coin). The tin Baptist chapel we attended was located the other side of Bruce Street bridge, a small hump back bridge which did not allow the passage of buses or large vehicles under it. Consequently, the small group of shops nearby were all called The Terminus (Something or other). I clearly remember "The Terminus Fish Shop" and "The Terminus Café".

 On another occasion we decided to skip Sunday school and go train spotting at the railway station. Not a good idea as it turned out to be. The saying "Be Sure Your Sins Will Catch You Out” proved to be very true. We spent our collection money on a one penny platform ticket and two pennies on sweets. It was a very hot summer’s day and on the arrival of a Hawksworth County class locomotive (distinctive by their long straight nameplates and loud bark when pulling away from the standing start) walked along the platform to cop its number only for the fireman to start hosing the coal in the tender down to minimise the coal dust. We were splattered in black all over our Sunday best clothes and had a lot of explaining to do back home, especially as trying to remove the evidence made it worse. Canon Brian Arman a fellow Swindonian suffered a similar fate skipping Sunday school and if and when he makes a return visit to continue his varied and interesting talks will ask him to explain how he got caught out.

Geoff collected all the named Western Region locomotives excepting the Manors, which for some reason very rarely came into the works for overhaul.  With those preserved he could now underline a further 5.

Another pocket money earner was a Saturday morning visit to the railway gas works site, situated at Iffley Road. The GWR were well known for producing everything on site to include gas, water piped in from Kemble and even their own grease.

Living and being brought up in Rodbourne where the local rubbish tip was situated along with a vehicle compound and various reclaimed items were kept (an early version of recycling I suppose). Regular, out of hours, over the wall visits were made to obtain any type of wheel that was available to enable us to build hand carts for our Saturday morning visits to the gas work site. The purpose of our visit was to obtain bags of coke (a by-product of making gas), creosote another by-product which lasted for years when applied to fences and briquettes comprising of compressed coal dust. If our family did not require anything we did it for neighbours and friends.

I recently contacted a friend of mine and a local Swindon historian to see if any photographs existed of the Saturday morning queues at the gas worksite and sadly none appear to do so.            

Happy Days!

Thank you, Geoff, for a most interesting article about your memories of Swindon

LOOKING BACK

 This month we are going right back in time as 160 years ago on June 7, 1865, a passenger train ran into the rear of another near Keynsham, and an empty stock train ran into the wreckage. At least three people were injured. 

Ten years later on June 11, 1875, a passenger train was derailed at Bathampton Junction. One person was killed and six were injured, three seriously. The 1000 train from Bristol to Salisbury left Bath at 1023 and as the train passed Bathampton junction the engine and front brake van derailed and ran forward in the direction of the main line for a short distance. The engine turned over on its right side with the brake van following. The next vehicle, a third-class carriage passed along the branch line but also derailed and overturned onto its right side; the two next vehicles both came off the rails but remained standing on their wheels. A report into the accident found that the driver had approached and passed over the junction at too high a rate of speed, causing the accident.

MORE NEWS ITEMS

A final reminder that we have been invited to join the Bristol Branch of the RCTS’s to visit to Somerset & Dorset Railway at Midsomer Norton for, ‘The Wickham Wanderer’ on Friday June 20 from 18.00. From 18.30 rides in a Wickham Trolley will be running @ £5 each. The Emporium & Museum should be open, and the Buffet will serve drinks & snacks. Details from Paul Udey, Tel: 01225 427779, e-mail: bristol@rcts.org.uk. Please advise Paul directly if you would like to attend.

The Swanage Railway is staging its annual Roads to Rail Steam Rally adjacent to Norden Station from June 27 to 29 inclusive. This will feature traction engines, vintage cars etc., trade stands and refreshments. A regular train service will be in operation from Swanage to Norden throughout the event. See the Railway’s website for further details and prices.

MORE NEWS ITEMS

Network Rail will be undertaking essential track renewal and maintenance work in the Severn Tunnel from Monday 9 to Friday June 20, as well as Sunday June 29. Passengers travelling between Bristol and South Wales can change at Gloucester or Cheltenham Spa, where trains will still be running to and from South Wales via Chepstow. Customers can also check before they travel at www.gwr.com/check and information on the works can be found at www.gwr.com/bristol

 On June 7/8 and 14/15, the Severn Valley Railway will be a holding forties-themed weekends, with music, dancing, food, displays, vehicles, costumed re-enactors and more, to take visitors back in time.  The SVR will be operating along the 12 miles between Kidderminster and Hampton Loade, with a busy timetable in operation. Activities will be taking place at stations along the line.   

I’m seeking help with this photograph (left). This is Ashchurch station in Gloucestershire but can anyone identify the class of engine in the picture (Is it a GW or LMS loco?) or give a rough date it might have been taken. Please get in contact with me at bob.bunyar@outlook.com if you can help. 

On June 21, the East Somerset Railway is offering a ride in a DMU along with a 100% Beef burger and chips plus a drink (Beer, cider or soft drink option available) prepared by the Station Cafe while travelling up and down the line. The train departs from Cranmore at 1800 and the evening finishes at 2000. Prices are: Burger & Diesel Evening £21.50, Burger & Diesel Evening + Beer/Cider £22.50 or you can just have a ride - Evening Return - No Food for £5.00. See the ESR website for details/bookings. These trains will also run on September 12 and October 25.

The Yeovil Railway Centre are currently extending their running line by 400m on the formation of the Clifton Maybank Curve. They are using track from a former RAF fuel depot and the line will terminate by the Heart of Wessex line to Weymouth where a station called Clifton Maybank Junction will be built. The centre is appealing for funding of £100,000 to complete the work.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway have been refused planning permission to extend their current running line at Killington Lane to a new halt at Cricket Field Lane, a distance of 0.6 of a mile.

We have been made aware of some late news regarding Steve Hampton. He was the son of our longtime late secretary John Hampton and I’m sure some of you knew Steve.  Sadly Steve, who lived in Saltford, passed away in late February aged 61. He was heavily involved with the Diesel Traction Group based at the Severn Valley Railway, being a shareholder and their sales manager. The DTG ran a memorial train on the SVR on March 22 hauled by Warship Class D821. Steve always received our Newsletter by email after his father died, and he had worked for GWR as a guard in the Bristol area but later became a driver delivering high end cars around the country. 

LOOKING FORWARD

Our next meeting will now be on September 4 when Bob Tiller will talk about GB Railfreight, Locomotives and the Future of Diesel Traction. More details in the September newsletter. There will be a newsletter in July, but there will not be one in August.

Bob Bunyar

Newsletter Editor

More stories required for our MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION section. Please do send them in.

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