Wednesday 30 December 2020

Last one for 2020

Well, as you may have read, Gloucestershire is now in tier 3 as we write, so trains stopped running again after Christmas and there is no volunteering that we know of. At least we got the Santa trains done, and to great passenger acclaim too. A few extra £s after Christmas to early January would have been nice too, but it was not to be. We must be grateful for what we were able to do. 

In fact, just before this blog post went live it was announced that Gloucestershire has been 'upgraded' to tier 4 from Thursday. Inhabitants of the county are now advised to stay at home. Well, unable to volunteer, we were doing that anyway.

You can look up on-line a tool to estimate when you will get your vaccination jab. For yours truly that came out as mid-March. Ho-hum, it could have been sooner, but at least there is a horizon now. Hopefully we will be able to slowly get back into gear next yer, but before that more patience is required.


 

Luckily we have Derek Palmer's slides to look at to while away the time.

For these next ones, Derek says:

On 5 June 1963 the Oxford University Railway Society made a tour of Wolverton Carriage and Wagon Works and some local lines in the area.

 The first picture is of 46256 Sir William A. Stanier F.R.S. on the Up Mancunian at Bletchley.

This big Pacific was one of 38 produced between 1937 and 1948. 46256 just made it into service in 1947 under the LMS while the final one, City of Salford, actually entered traffic as a BR locomotive in 1948. They were stationed along the West Coast main line between Euston and Glasgow. They were withdrawn between 1962 and 1964, with 46256 in the picture being the last one. In its 16 years of service the loco carried 3 liveries: Black, Brunswick Green and Maroon. It was withdrawn from Crewe on October 1964 and scrapped by Cashmore's of Great Bridge. Three examples are preserved: Duchess of Hamilton, Duchess of Sutherland, and City of Birmingham.

 The next picture is of Black 5 45044 passing Wolverton with an up fitted freight.

The Black 5 was a very successful mixed traffic locomotive, evidenced by the large numbers produced (842), its long life (1934 - 1968) and the large number preserved - eighteen! This one was new in 1935 and made it to 1966, a 31 year career. It seemed to move annually from shed to shed, finishing at Chester shed. It was also scrapped by Cashmore's of Great Bridge.

Then in Wolverton Works 'Jinty' 3F 47396 is seen shunting carriages.

This 3F was a very successful Midland railway design whose production was continued by the LMS until 422 had been built between 1924 and 1931. 47396 was built by Vulcan Works, one of several outside contractors roped in to ramp up production. It had a 39 year career, finishing as the Wolverton Works shunter, until withdrawn in 1966 and being scrapped by Cohens of Kettering. A goodly 9 have been preserved.






Back at Wolverton Station Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T 41222 is waiting to depart with the 4:30pm branch train to Newport Pagnell. As you can see we persuaded the crew to mount our headboard on the locomotive, albeit temporarily for photographic purposes.










Now having arrived at Newport Pagnell. [Note the lamp has now changed]

This LMS designed Ivatt tank was actually built by BR at Crewe in 1948. With 130 built up to 1952 it was quite a successful class, and is said to have been the basis for the BR standard class 2 tank (84xxx). Four have been preserved. We don't know to which shed 41222 was allocated when it did the OURS tour, but it ended its 18 year career at Carlisle in 1966. By enlarging the picture we can see a '1' on the shed plate, but the letter is unreadable, and the shed code '1' was associated with a large number of sheds north of London, reporting to Willesden e.g. Bletchley.


The scene at Newport Pagnell and 41222 is awaiting departure with the push-pull 5:17pm to Wolverton. This loco with train at Wolverton appeared in the Railway Magazine September 2020 article on push-pull trains.


And, finally, a picture of the spotter's delight at copping a Coronation Pacific:


 Oh, Yessssss....!

A number of Duffel bags suggest that he was not alone, and that possibly sandwiches were eaten on that bench.




Lockdown Quiz

With thanks to Robert of the PWay gang, who always supplies such excellent quizzes for the PWay Christmas lunch. Although not this year, though hardly his fault.


1. What are the four stations on the Rail Network which are at the most North, South, East, & West points of the compass?

2. Which of the above is the odd one out?

3. Which preserved railway offers you a “trip over the Alps”?

4. Which is the longest standard gauge preserved railway in England and how long is it?

5. What was unusual about Standedge Tunnels in the days of steam?

6. 76077, which is being restored at the GWSR, lost it’s tender whilst at Barry. However this survives but which locomotive is it currently attached to?

7. What is the connection between A3 2563 (BR 60064) and A4 4462 (BR 60004)?

8. What is the purpose of the Gibson ring?

9. What nickname is associated with the GWR 47XX class of locomotives?

10. The unique 71000 Duke of Gloucester was specifically authorised as a replacement for which other locomotive?

11. What name was carried by Jubilee 45700 Amethyst until 1951?

12. Which LMS Royal Scot loco toured the USA in 1933 masquerading as 6100 Royal Scot?

13. What name was given to the Castle built at Swindon in 1924 and which incorporated parts from loco 111 The Great Bear?

14. Four Black 5 locos 45154/6/7/8 were named. Loco 45155 also carried a name between 1942 and 1944. What was it called?

15. In 1951-2 ten standard class Clan Pacifics were built nos. 72000-72009 for use on the Scottish Region. How many more were planned and for which Regions, before the order was cancelled?

16. What locomotive was the 7000th one to be built at Crewe in 1950?

17. Between which two cities did the Mayflower express operate?

18. Which class of GWR engines were nicknamed “Matchboxes”?

19. What do you understand by the term “XP64”?

20. Where and how high, in feet above sea level, is the highest summit on British Railways?

 

Answers next time.


In the meantime, batten down the hatches and try not to get yourself infected before the vaccine comes.


We wish our readers an excellent new year 2021 - it has to be better than the last one!

See you all again next year.


Wednesday 23 December 2020

Last blog before Christmas

Thursday at LMS

Another useful day at Locomotive Maintenance Services, where our own 76077 is having its frames repaired. 

While LMS engineers are doing the specialised work, GWSR volunteers are welcome to assist with the more mundane tasks, such as cleaning, painting and rubbing down. This will save the project money and help the donations go further.


 

 

Here's Andy rubbing down - isn't that spot where the worksplates go?


Only just visible is Ian at the back, with a much larger patch to do.



Although the driving wheels were shotblasted at Toddington those pockets for the counterweights are not yet clean, and it was our job to empty them out and tidy up the rest of the wheels for a topcoat of black.





This is one of the drivers. Four pockets are filled with lead here, and the two outer ones are nominally empty and particularly deep. At the bottom - ash, mud, oil, rust.....

This picture gives you an idea of the depth of a driving wheel pocket, and the damp at the bottom. You can't really get in with the needle gun. Nor even with a hand clutching a screwdriver. A fist was too big, you needed to put your hand through that gap at the top, then push down the screwdriver behind it, and then scrape around the bottom to loosen what was there (see above....)





This was the catch - large flakes of rust, and a damp pudding of detritus.


We had a debate about how to protect the pocket, after cleaning as much as possible. Primer, followed by WaxOyl, is probably the best solution.






We hope to resume volunteering on 76077 after the Christmas break. Once the wheels are clean, LMS intend to re-wheel the chassis in January.





Tuesday around the loco shed

It's a normal (Santa) running day, so lots of steam and atmosphere about.

 

 

 

Here's Dinmore Manor just reversing off the shed.






 

 

From behind a large cloud of steam a Great Western steam locomotive slowly emerges...

 But it's not Dinmore Manor, it's...


... Foremarke Hall. Taken a bit out of sequence, as this one was actually the first off shed. There are two locomotives running, providing 4 trains of happy Santa visitors.

Once the loco has done a run to Winchcombe and back everything has warmed up a bit, and there is less steam. This apparently mighty leap forward by Foremarke Hall is actually just a short hop from the token exchange with the box, and the end of the platform. If you stand in the right place, you get this shot of the loco accelerating (a bit).

Indoors there was, sadly, no fabricating today, but Neal was making a replacement pipe to take the compressed air from the loco shed to the machine shop (goods shed) across the unloading road, soon to be concreted in.




Here we see him with an amazing pipe cutting machine, one of the many wonderful pieces of equipment you can get when factories close down or replace their machine park.




Having cut the new galvanised pipe to length, Neal gave it a new thread, which he can be seen lubricating here.







 

The galvanised pipe was then wrapped in sticky Denso tape, which will give it an extra layer of protection against the damp it is likely to encounter below ground.


We also laid a new conduit for it, the brown plastic pipe here. Neal explained that when he originally laid the connection between the shed and the machine shop it was only a 'temporary' connection as the loco shed had no floor. Well, you know how long 'temporary' is. About 20 years in fact.


Outside, the Santa trains ran back and forth, and always drew an audience from the loco people whenever they set off with lots of hissing and happy, waving children in the misted up windows.

Photo thanks to Mike (an elf)

At Winchcombe the elves report an excellent season (apart from the fact that COVID has obliged us to run at half capacity) and we are receiving lots of favourable comments back from our customers. It's good to have something positive to report for the railway, and that a bit of money is coming in.


We had asked Santa on our Christmas list for locally named 4920 Dumbleton Hall to come to Toddington, but he explained sadly that while we have the experience, we didn't have the money to buy, and then restore such an expensive toy. So it's gone somewhere else. Oh well, we'll go for chocolates then.




Derek Palmer's 1963 slides.

Here is another treat from Derek's treasure trove of previously unseen slides. They're something for you to enjoy over the Christmas holidays, so don't look at them all at once!

6980 Llanrumney Hall leaving High Wycombe with a down train on 09 April 1963.

6980 was a modified Hall that entered traffic in 1947, and was withdrawn in 1965 after 18 years. It was scrapped by Cashmore's of Great Bridge. At the time of the picture the loco was shedded at Oxley and finished its service life at Banbury shed.

Llanrumney hall the building is located in the Cardiff suburbs and has Elizabethan origins, dating back to 1450. The building fell into disrepair in the 1980s but was refurbished by a local businessman in 2019, and is Grade 2* listed.

Replacing of the railway bridge over the B480 at Cowley to widen the road on 13 May 1963. 

Derek explains:

This is near the one time Morris Cowley Station, so named because of its proximity to the then BMC, formerly Morris, car works, latterly BMW. The station, on the line from Oxford to Princes Risborough, closed to passengers in January 1963 and the station sign had the ultimate humiliation of being used as a barrier to protect construction personnel. (See under the bridge!) 

The bridge is also next to the then Pressed Steel Company factory that made car bodies for a significant number of British car manufactures in its day. The person in the foreground of the picture is a Pressed Steel Company employee in charge of one of the factory gates. I worked at Pressed Steel (Fisher) for three years from 1965. At that time the production ranged from CKD (completely knocked down) Super Minx kit of parts oiled and crated up and sent abroad for assembly, to fully painted and trimmed MGB GTs. Also represented were Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Austin/Morris, and even Ford, where the Capri body was built (that curved bit of chrome round the rear side windows was always causing trouble). With such varied production, designing systems to fit the environment was something that was a feature of our work. Something that has for ever stuck in my mind from that time and has served me well throughout my career is what the boss would say when we showed him a proposal for a system. He would say “What about the YST”. That was his way of testing to see if we had covered every possible eventuality, however rare. 'YST' stood for Yellow Singapore Taxi, yellow because very few cars were painted yellow, Singapore because the body would have badge holes for a little used unique model name, and taxi because very few cars had bench seats. It was a fascinating time and I lament the fact that the country's manufacturing base is a now a fraction of what it was then.

 A Paddington to Worcester train passing Wolvercote on 13 May 1963. 

Unfortunately the number of the locomotive is not recorded, but it looks like a Hall. Steam has just been shut off, as a result the safety valve is feathering and the fireman has put the jack on to counteract the rise in pressure. It's a very homogenous maroon rake too.















 

 

Two views taken on 16 May 1963 of the trackbed of the Watlington branch at the site of the former bridge at Lewknor. The first looking north-east, and the second looking south-west.

Lewknor Bridge was a halt just before the terminus at Watlington. The line was built in 1872; a later proposal to extend it to meet the Wallingford branch was not proceeded with, as the branch was already loss making. Passenger services ceased in 1957, with a short stub to the Chinnor cement works remaining in place, and that became the nucleus of the Chinnor and Princes Risborough railway. The section from Chinnor to Watlington closed completely on 30.12.1960, so when Derek took the pictures the line had been closed for over two years already.

Then the end of the line at Watlington with what is left of the station on 16 May 1963. The Watlington branch was featured on an Argo Transacord 10in LP in the late 1950s and Derek still has a copy. Along with general recordings of trains on the line it includes recordings made on the the last day of passenger services on 29 June 1957.

According to Wikipedia remains of the station buildings continue to exist, heavily overgrown, on private land.


Flying Scotsman heading a southbound excursion from the Banbury direction passing Wolvercote Junction on 18 May 1963. 

 

Then on the same day travelling north with the returning excursion, Flying Scotsman is seen passing under the 'Red Bridge' just south of Hinksey.


***********


This will be the last Heritage Herald before Christmas, so this blog, and the crew of 76077, wish you all a:

(With thanks to the Toddington Standard people)

PS 76077 is on the right - the smoke is make believe, as we haven't got enough money for all of the restoration yet.

To support 76077, click here



Wednesday 16 December 2020

A trip to (the) LMS

Thursday's day away at LMS.

This was nothing to do with the London Midland & Scottish, but a working day on 76077 at Locomotive Maintenance Services Ltd in Loughborough. Readers will recall that this is where our Standard's frames are at the moment, where they are being worked on by this contractor until - well, until we run out of funds. We're OK at the moment.

 

 

The loco is now close to re-wheeling. GWSR volunteers are invited to attend and help (by appointment) to save on costs, and there were 3 of us on site on Thursday.


Our jobs were to fill / rub down the frames, and to clean and paint the drivers.

 

 

The wheels were already shotblasted at Toddington, but minor deterioration needed attending to, as well as the cleaning out of these pockets, which are designed to be filled with lead to act as counterweights.

In our view this is not a good design, as only some of the spaces are used, and the unused ones fill up with water. But that was what the Standards had.

 

 

Ian here is filling and rubbing down the frames. Although the engine had only a short life, some pitting has taken place due to years of storage outside. A common complaint, but we want our loco to look good.

This is a picture of the inside of the frames. The black bit is a completely new, large rear drag box, already fitted.

Curious are the lower frame stretchers, which look mobile as they are secured by pins and not the rivets you might expect. Again, a standard feature.

The 76077 project is being handled by LMS at this stage so that it doesn't take another 30 years before the loco is ready, so some professional help has been sought. But combined with volunteer input. 

Most recently the funding effort has been on parts sponsorship, which has gone well. On this link you can see what has already been sponsored - like the two worksplates - and what is still open:

https://standard76077.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FULL-Phase-1-list-showing-sponsors-2.pdf




 

Here for example is one of the new worksplates.

Yes, 1956! The loco is not that old, so it is in a sound, basic condition.




One item that is still well short of its sponsorship requirement target is the £10.500 reverser gearbox. We mentioned this in our last update, when 14 out of the 75 parts needed had been sponsored. This has now risen to 22, almost a third.

Below is a cutting from the parts list that you can download:

The story is that this reverser was still on the loco at Barry until a parts stripper took it out without Dai Woodham's permission (we heard). Luckily he was stopped at the gate and the reverser was retrieved. Unfortunately Woodhams was not a parts warehouse but a scrapyard, so the reverser was not reinstalled on the loco, but eventually went for scrap as well. It has proved impossible to find a replacement, so a new build is our only option. We have had some help from another project with some patterns, but the expensive part is the cutting of the bevel gears and screws. So that comes to £10.500 in total, which we hope to raise from 75 sponsors at £140 each.

If you want to help we'd love to hear from you. Please do help. You can get all the details from the Toddington Standard website: https://standard76077.com/support-76077

Let's see if the number of sponsored shares has gone up next time.




Saturday, banging away at that unloading road

Why do we go back for more punishment? Why, oh why?

Because the loco dept. keep trundling the class 45 over it, and then all is ruined again.

So here we go again, for another day's hand tamping.




At the gate at Winchcombe we had been left a gift. And Merry Christmas to you too, that dog walker.






Then we went to chose our weapons of war.


Fed up with shovel packing, we selected larger calibre guns from the armoury, to wit, these four Kangos.




A day earlier, Neal and yours truly volunteered to repair the compressed air pipe that runs from the loco shed to the workshop. The troughs and their lids had been smashed by the mini digger excavating the trackbed.

Our planned replacement of the troughs was put into the 'too difficult' box as we were reluctant to bury the pipe permanently in concrete, where it could never be reached again, and it was already showing some signs of corrosion. To be looked at again at a later date.

On the apron outside the shed the loco dept. had dressed 3 locomotives for Santa Special duty. Which two would be used on Saturday?

Has it moved any yet?

Then we set to work. Just 5 of us today, but enough to do the job. Due to advancing years the PWay department has lost several stalwart members over the last year or so, and we could do with some new blood. Fancy joining us?

Good exercise, better than sitting at home with a cactus and looking out of the window. A sense of humour is essential.




The first job was to remove a kink, which had mysteriously appeared at the southern end. Well, it wasn't there last week, has somebody got a supply of them?




With the kink, er, un-kinked, we got out the 4 Kangos, so that soon there would be 4 of us rattling away with one each. We fired up the first one and rattled away, the fired up the second, and both stopped.

It then appeared that we were overtaxing the shed's circuits, and had to reduce our kango-ing plans by 75%.






While Chris rattled away, the rest of us were reduced to doing the packing by hand, using beaters.


The ground immediately below the track was very spongy, and this water appeared out of it after a few packing blows with the beater. Not what you want to see under a section of track that should never move again.

Eventually Steve managed to get us hooked up to two different circuits, so that we could carry on with two Kango hammers.




Just before lunch, working from the south, we were almost done, with one more joint to go. The kink in the foreground is also out, and the curve looks fine now.


During our packing activities Santa services continued, and here is 4270 caught about mid-day while running round its train. It was a lovely sunny day, unlike an awful rainy Sunday which followed.


 

During the day the frames of 2807 were very gingerly pulled out of the shed on the new boiler trolleys and put over the pit.


The white clouds are not steam, but from a high powered pressure washer. Looked impressive though!



 

 

After a pleasant lunch sitting in the sun in the doorway to the shed we finished off packing the last joint. It was agreed not to lift the section nearest the car park by too much, as during a future northern shed extension this area would also have to be lowered to be 30mm below the (extended) shed floor. So there is now a bit of a ramp up to the car park level.

Then it was time to call the 'steamroller' again, aka our 'friend' the class 45.

It was propelled through the site by the 03, backwards and forwards twice. We watched anxiously for any movement, and there was some at the car park end.

The class 45 will never shift it now....


The road held steady and the kink stayed away, but the end nearest the camera, where the track rises to meet the car park, still showed some deflection under the Peak's mighty weight.

As you can see from the picture, we had confidently already put all the tools away, so the heavy Kangos were hauled back off the Landie and we gave the last 5 meters another go. The Peak waited in the background, ready to pounce.

After another round of Kango packing the Peak was trundled over the track again, but still more movement in the same spot was detected.

As we were now tired and it was starting to get dark, we decided that a last packing effort would be made by the next gang. Fingers crossed!




Before leaving Toddington we took this picture of Foremarke Hall returning in the lovely evening light.





Tuesday on the canopy completion

Back to work on that canopy end for Broadway! We had a good day fabricating today. Having made the two boxes for the bottoms of the post (to make them look like castings) we cut 8 pieces of steel strip today, and shaped them to fit the tops of the two boxes. It's new ground, we've never done anything like this before, so there was a bit of experimenting, but we did good.



Here is Neal grinding down one of the 8 pieces to give it a slanted end.


We didn't much like the result though, it wasn't smooth enough. In a great spirit of collaboration workshop manager Steve of the 35006 group offered to trim them for us on a shaping machine in his workshop.


It took a little while to set up (the vice has to be mounted at an angle a precise distance away from the cutting head) but eventually all was ready and in a couple of hours all 8 pieces had an angle cut down both sides.


Here Steve is watching the first cut. No need to worry though, Steve, it was right first time!

This was the result, one of the bars with two sides cut at an angle. One end is already cut to shape, the other still needs a 45 degree cut as well.




As we cut the 8 pieces, we took them over to our working area in the loco shed one by one, and Neal started to fit them around the box.

The upright is not the actual column, but an offcut of it. It was used so the whole thing could stand on a work bench, while Neal cut and filed everything to size and shape, ready for final welding.



Here is the first box finished, at the end of the day. All 4 junction pieces are cut to shape, welded in and then ground down.

This is a trial fit of the first box on one of the actual columns. Just to the left of it is a piece of half round that will be fixed just above it, to emulate what the original casting looked like at that point. The bottom end will be below ground, and as the box is not load bearing we only made it for the area that will be in view.

The whole column will, when finished, be sent for galvanising, so that it won't be able to rust, particularly in the vulnerable area where it emerges from the ground.





Wednesday on the PWay gang.

Wet-wet-wet. No matter, we are the tough gang! Well, if we say it loud enough, it might become true.

 

 

Here we are, braving the rain. Well, why brave it out in the open, when you can brave it in the dry under the canopy?  It would be silly not to.

We're getting a briefing from Robert, and having a few sly doughnuts as we listen.

 



That little clump of men in the distance on the right is our valiant C&M department. They're filling in a crack that has appeared behind the platforms slabs on P2. One group is raking out the old tarmac, the other is heating up the new one to fill in the crack.



The PWay gang has no nice warming fire, so set out to expose itself to wind and rain on an embankment at Little Buckland. We split into two groups. One to put on some blind fishplates on a number of welds that have been identified as needing to be re-done, the other to continue moving sleepers around about 25 welded joints, where the rail has crept and the weld is too close to a sleeper.

The doughnuts and mince pies were thrown carelessly into the back of the Landie, together with the rest of the tools. In a way they are tools as well, we need them to be able to do our work. Perhaps we can get the railway to pay for them then? Er, no.... dream on!


 

We did one joint in the morning, which meant digging out and jacking along 4 sleepers. If we're lucky we need to move only 3 sleepers, but not this time.

Then we walked on to the next one. We have a list, and are working our way down it to Stanton Fields.




 

The next one turned out to be a bit more challenging still, as 5 sleepers had been marked for moving.


On the left you can see the 5 arrows that tell us the destinations for each sleeper. Usually the welds are opposite each other, but the reason for the quintuple move was that here the welds were slightly off set and had managed to position themselves on opposite sides of the same sleeper - see the two red arrows in the picture on the right. That meant moving the sleeper quite a long way, and all the nearby ones to suit and keep the spacing about equal.



We caught a pretty heavy shower at this point (and so did the doughnuts and mince pies thrown carelessly into the back of the Landie) so having moved a total of 9 sleepers today, and with more threatening clouds on the horizon, there was general agreement to call it a day.





Derek's nostalgia from 1963

A popular vision at the moment is the HST painted in Midland Pullman colours, so how about Derek's photograph of the real thing? Here it is:

Blue Pullman passing Foxhall Junction, just west of Didcot, heading for Paddington on 28 March 1963. Foxhall Junction is where the south to west curve from Oxford joins the main line. A westbound train that was switching from the relief line to the main line came to grief here when going too fast in 1967, and O.S. Nock was on board as a passenger and described the experience. He estimated that the train passed through Didcot station at 70-75 mph and he did not feel any brake application.

 

5380 Mogul on a northbound lengthy freight passing Hinksey on 02 April 1963.

This 43xx Mogul is getting on a bit here. It was released into traffic in 1920, still going and earning its keep in 1963 and only finally withdrawn in September of the same year at the age of 43 years. It was cut into little pieces by Cashmores of Newport in Wales.

75022 Standard Class 4 with a freight heading towards Oxford on the line from Bicester on 02 April 1963. The double track on the left is the link via Stratfield Brake which connects the Bicester and Worcester routes just north of Wolvercote Junction. Keep watching the blog and a after a few more episodes Jo may put up an image of a freight on this link.

This Riddles Standard was built at Swindon at the end of 1953 and started its service life at Cardiff Canton. Over its 12 year service life it roamed around quite a bit, but always in the general area of the South West, until it was withdrawn at Worcester at the end of 1965.  It was scrapped by T.W. Ward.

4964 Rodwell Hall takes the slow line at Wolvercote Junction on a southbound freight from the Banbury direction, leaving the main line clear for the train from Worcester. 02 April 1963. 

This 33 year year old GWR locomotive had only 4 shed allocations during its busy service life. It started, like the Standard 4 above, at Cardiff Canton but in 1928, and finished at Pontypool Road at the end of 1963.

Rodwell Hall the building was a C19th mansion erected at Trowbridge in Gothic renaissance style. It is still there, grade 2 listed, and according to some articles, fighting off housing development of its gardens. Let's hope it manages to fight them off.


7928 Wolf Hall on a Worcester to Paddington train passing Wolvercote Junction. 02 April 1963. 

Wolf Hall was a Modified Hall built in 1950. It started work at Worcester, but no further shed allocations are known. It was withdrawn in 1965 after a relatively short 14 year life.

Wolf Hall the building is a C17th manor house near Burbage in Wiltshire, close to the Kennet and Avon canal. It's actually called Wulfhall, and an earlier manor house on the same site was the seat of the Seymour family, Jane Seymour being one of Henry VIII's 6 wives. The name became the inspiration to Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall. The house is still there, but divided into flats today.

 

A Western Diesel Hydraulic with an up express passing Saunderton on 09 April 1963. Just visible in the distance is a DMU on the down line. 

 Derek feels that this was actually the Cambrian Coast Express - does anyone know more?






Free money for the railway!

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