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Saturday with Interflon

A compact gang of 6 assembled to continue the Interflon-ing from Hayles further northwards.

Waddaya mean new jacket? Bought this for my Zoom meetings!

It was good to see old friends again. One feels slightly more courageous, now that the vaccine is starting to have effect.

You got my sandwiches in there? Have you?

We piled the gear into the back of the Landie and set off for where the last lot had left off - the 10 1/2 MP under the Hayles bridge.

Using two Bances / Animals we had a team loosening fishplates, one man on the backback greasing the plates, and a second team doing the plates up again with a second Bance/Animal.

Lunch - al-very-fresco, at Didbrook.

We got to Didbrook 1 bridge by lunch time, then it was look around for a sheltered place to have your snap. There was none... The wind blew hard as we sat behind the parapet.

After a short lunch in was onwards and upwards towards Toddington. Somewhat weary by now - the backpack was heavy and leaking grease, the two Bances were heavy and so were the spanners to which we had to resort at intervals. We agreed we would make for Toddington signal box and stop there for the day.

Huddled on the PermaQuip, we waited for the Landie to arrive.

Having got to the box, we thought, why not make one last effort and get to the first turnout at the end of the straight. That would leave as the next section the bit through the station and over the viaduct - after that, it's CWR all the way to Broadway.

Wednesday - twice, weakly.

A second team went out today to continue the Interflon job.

Unfortunately we were a bit under strength, making progress rather slower than on Saturday

Martin had the bright idea of bringing a wheelbarrow to move the heave Bance from joint to joint.

It keeps our sandwiches too!

We worked our way along the loop at Toddington, the main line being occupied by a rake of carriages.

Just look at the rust on the rails, a witness to how long we have had to be closed.

Lunch was 'al fresco' as on Saturday, but in much more benign circumstances. It was still windy, but the temperature went up to 15 degrees, and we had benches to sit on this time.

To our frustration the backpack pump failed once again, only tiny spurts could be enticed from the nozzle after lunch. It meant the end of the day's efforts, sadly.

More cheering was the sight of Foremarke Hall undergoing a steam test. We are clearly getting ready!

Derek's steam pictures

Some pictures from a visit to Somerset on 23 September 1963.

Standing at Evercreech Standard Class 4 4-6-0 75007 on the 1:30pm for Bath and Collett 0-6-0 3216 on the 1:15pm for Highbridge.

The Collett 0-6-0 is of the 2251 class, one of which was once stationed at Honeybourne to act as banker to trains going up the bank to Campden tunnel. The one in the picture, No. 3216, was built in 1947 and lasted only 15 years, being withdrawn in November 1963, shortly after Derek took the picture.

No. 3205 is preserved, the only one of 120 produced.

75007 was a Riddles Standard 4 shedded at Templecombe at the time of the picture, and it was withdrawn in 1965 after a short career of 13 years.

Derek then set off on the 1.15pm for Highbridge, down the original S&D line, in the train headed by 3216.

3216 and train approaching Glastonbury

 

S & D map. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4479185

The old S&D line can be seen on the map running west from the junction with the N/S line at Evercreech Junction, to Burnham on Sea on the Bristol Channel. The line was a victim of the Beeching cuts and closed in 1966. The stub to Wells closed even earlier, in 1951 after a brief revival due to the war.

… and then at Glastonbury.

Here the crew of the little Collett pose proudly beside their engine. Neither engine nor station would last very much longer. Note the southern green running in board on the left, for GLASTONBURY and STREET. At the time of the picture the station fell under the control of BR Western Region.

The station canopy survives as a shelter in the market area car park.

… and having now arrived at Highbridge. Also in view is another Collett 0-6-0 2247 waiting with the 2.20pm for Evercreech.

In the background they are loading parcels, but the loco crew have also organised something for themselves, as a basket can be seen in the tender and there is a large packet waiting on the platform to be lifted in as well.

Derek took the picture from the SR concrete footbridge that you can see in the next picture below.

… and another view of the same two trains but with 2247 and train as the main focus.

Collett 2247 was a 1945 built example and at the time of the picture at Highbridge was based at Templecombe. Within a year of Derek's picture the little 0-6-0 would be scrapped.

2247 is seen next at Evercreech with the 3:22pm for Templecombe.

 

A general view of Bristol Temple Meads with Hymek D7004 on 25 September 1963.

It's a nice shot of Temple Meads and a Hymek. Amazingly these steam replacement diesels sometimes had shorter lives than the steam Standards - D7004 managed only 10 years and 10 months, from construction by Beyer Peacock in 1961 to demolition at Swindon in 1972. Their hydraulic transmission was deemed non standard and that sealed their fate. Of the 101 produced, no fewer than 4 survive, quite a high ratio. D7004 spent all its life based at Bristol Bath Road. In 1970 it suffered a small engine fire, cause by leaking hot exhaust gases, but it was repaired and carried on for another 2 years.

On the same day Standard Class 5 4-6-0 73012 is seen at Bath Green Park waiting for departure with the 1:10pm to Templecombe.

Bath Green Park, a Midland station, was also the terminus of the Somerset and Dorset line. When that closed in 1966 as a result of the Beeching report, the station closed as well. Luckily the building and train shed survived, and they are now grade II listed. The booking hall is a now a brasserie, the train shed houses a market and the track area in the foreground of the picture is now occupied by a supermarket.

Derek then boarded the train, headed by Standard 5 No. 73012.

… and then a view taken from on board this train at Radstock.

Radstock station closed in 1966 along with the rest of the S&D line. Only a green space exists today where the rather diminutive wooden buildings with their bright red fire buckets used to stand.

Arriving at Yeovil Junction with a train is Merchant Navy 35004.

This is CUNARD WHITE STAR, then shedded at Salisbury. The loco looks in fine fettle, with a nice shine along the boiler. It was launched into traffic in 1941, rebuilt in 1958, and lasted until withdrawal in 1965, after which it was scrapped at Eastleigh, where it was also built. It ran up 1.131.417 miles in its 24 year career, something which can be classed as pretty successful.

 

Finally, still on 25 September, the signalman at Yeovil Town is seen having just collected the token and the 4:08pm is ready to depart for Taunton.

This is a lovely picture. Look at the parcels piled up on the trolleys, and the signalman in his tank top and tie, cloth hanging out of his pocket and the token in his hands. He is walking back to his box behind the camera on the left, a journey he must have made many, many times. Yeovil town was a busy station, but it closed to passengers in 1964 and is now a car park.

BTW Derek has allowed us to sell electronic copies of these pictures for the benefit of GWSR heritage, so if there is one that takes your fancy, get in touch with breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk

 

Lockdown Quiz

As we may be coming out of lockdown one of these days, we better finish off our lockdown quizzes. We have a couple more in storage, from Jim H. 

Here is the next one then:

Lockdown Quiz No. 4

1. What is the connection between Nos 2329 and 5529 (BR Nos 32329 and 45529)?

2. What is the name and number of the main line steam locomotive “sectioned” at the NRM?

3. Why were some GWR Hall class locomotives renumbered in the 39xx series?

4. Nos 92020 to 92029 differed from the rest of the BR “9Fs” in what way?

5. What were the names and numbers of the West Country class locomotives that were scrapped by Woodham Brothers at Barry?

6. What was common to both Jubilee class No. 45641 and A3 class No. 60039?

7. What was the class and loco. number of the final LMS designed steam locomotive to be put into service by BR?

8. What nickname was bestowed on the LMS “Patriot” class locomotives when first introduced in 1933?

9. The very last ex-GWR pannier tank in industrial service remained in use until which year?

10. When did the Brighton Belle, the only electric multiple-unit Pullman train in the world, make its last run between Victoria and Brighton?

11. The National Railway Museum is home to which GWR 2-8-0?

12. City of Truro has carried which two numbers during its existence?

13. What was the Kings power classification on BR?

14. No. 7000 was named after the last chairman of the GWR. Who was he?

15. What was the name and number of the GWR’s only Pacific locomotive?

16. Which former railway-owned paddle steamer is still in Service?

17. In what year were the first Ian Allan “abc” books published?

18. In BR days brake vans were painted in either grey or bauxite. What was the difference between them?

19. How many wheels are there on a Co-Bo diesel?

20. What was the BR power classification of the “County” class?

 

Answers next week!

Amazon Smile update.

You might recall previous pointers on this blog (and other areas) to Amazon Smile. It looks as if readers have indeed responded to the call, because receipts are now coming in, and are rising. Great stuff, as it's free money! The effect can be seen in this quote below from an announcement to our volunteers:

..... they will donate 0.5% of your purchases from Amazon to Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust. We receive quarterly payments; in October, we received over £80 and in January we received over £120, so this is a worthwhile source of funds.

 

All you have to do is to log in to smile.amazon.co.uk instead of amazon.co.uk, change the preferred charity to Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust and we will automatically receive 0.5% of what you spend, without costing you a penny. You use the same password as your normal account.

 

The website looks the same as the normal one except that there is a box under the search box which tells you what charity you are supporting. If you use the link below it will take you straight there and ask you if you wish to change your charity to the Trust.

 

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1133186-0

 

Please help to generate some extra funds for your railway.

 

Thank you to all those who made this small change to their Amazon buying habit, and who are now adding to this regular and rising source of funds for us.

Question on everyone's lips: when will we re-open?

No reopening news yet, after the government announcement on Monday. Other railways are mulling a date of April 12th... we can't be far behind. Patience then.

 

Jab-Jab

Thursday at Toddington, and in a surgery

Back on the unloading road, the end of which has to come down 20mm. It's not much, but the effort is huge. We had to dig it out from underneath.

A mini digger came in to dig out the last section of the final third of the unloading road. At this point it rises 5ins to meet the level of the car park, while respecting the floor level of the future loco shed extension, sketched in on the left.

After digging down the side, the mini digger scooped out the gaps between the sleepers. Tricky on Thursday, as the ground was frozen solid. It hacked and hacked, until finally some slabs of frozen type 1 came loose.

In the background the laser level is in use to determine where the track is relative to where it should be.

In true mini digger fashion two conduits and a water pipe were breached. We breached 4 of them at Broadway one day!

 

This fishplate joint was exposed. The joint is not exactly flush, but in defence of its builders, it is what was there before, and the track here being built entirely out of reclaimed material, what we have here is a transition from 00 type rail ('ought-ought') to 95lb, the latter having a much thinner head. For that you need a special fishplate, expensive to buy.

 

 

Yours truly then left mid afternoon for  - his covid jab! At last.... There's another to follow in 12 weeks. It all looked rather well organised, give the NHS credit where it's due.

The next day was a less happy one, with a feverish side effect that lasted all day. This was from the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. Mrs. Blogger was done a week earlier, and she got Pfizer. Her after effects were different - a painful arm, and very sleepy in the evening, but no fever the next day.

Monday.

Warmer at last, and being the best of the next several days, we thought we'd put in a day's work to dig out the batons in the area already concreted, and start packing the lowered track.

The wooden batons were inserted into the flange grooves in the newly poured concrete. Once the concrete had gone off, all we had to do was to pull them out. But they would not be pulled. Even a crowbar and a short fulcrum wouldn't do the trick.

After much hammering and splintering we had to resort to a circular saw to cut a slot down the middle, to relieve the pressure from the sides.

One way or another we eventually got them all out, after two earlier days of failure. The splintered remains in the foreground told the story. The battens were once 8ft long...

During lunch John mentioned that his screen wash pump had given up the ghost.

Did you hear a squeak?

We popped the bonnet, and who was more surprised - Neal and John, or the two mice that scampered away! They had built a nest of leaves in the fuse box, and during the boring winter months had chewed on the insulation of some of the wires.

After lunch we started packing the panel of the unloading road that we had dropped.

Strange to say, but the loco department has a PWay Kango, so we used it, as it was intended. 

Next is a visit from a heavy loco over this panel, to see what happens. Something tells us: More packing!

Wednesday - Essential fishplate greasing

Having now grasped the essentials of the new Interflon process, we have been out twice in the last week to get on with doing the whole line, before trains start to run again.

 

 

Today a gang of 6 started from mile post 11 1/2 (which is on the Defford Straight between Winchcombe and Hayles Abbey halt) and worked their was northwards towards Toddington.

 

We had a little self propelled trolley out to transport our stores and any heavier items.

At least we think the PermaQuip was self propelled (it must be a new model, we hadn't seen this option before) as it suddenly shot off on its own to the next fishplate.

Handy.

 

 

 

 

 

We did a mile of track today, adding to the mile done previously. That took us to mile post 10 1/2 (from Honeybourne of course, not Broadway)

We had our lunch in a handy PWay shelter that we found along the way. There was just room for two people sitting, socially distanced, and with the door open to afford a healthy, clean breeze. Others had to sit on the platform.

A new item in the shelter was a rubbish bin, which we had not placed ourselves. It was brimful, a useful place to drop your picnic waste when you've eaten in the shelter. We emptied the bin (as we were passing through Toddington, where there is a Grundon bin) and replaced it empty in the shelter, but with some misgivings, as we felt that it actually attracted waste.

Another item for discussion was the new running in board, made only a season ago. The paint is already peeling off wholesale; the whole bottom strip was bare. It looked to us as if the primer was not doing its job.

Derek's 1963 steam in colour.

 

The REC Chiltern 200 tour.

This was booked to run from Oxford to Bicester, then Oxford Road Jnc, Kingham, Chipping Norton, Kingham,  Honeybourne, Stratford S&MJR, Banbury, Hook Norton, Banbury, Buckingham, Verney Junction, Calvert Junction, Princes Risborough, Chinnor, Princes Risborough, Oxford.

In those days colour film and its development were expensive, so Derek took a select few pictures, which we are sharing with you below. Those of Buckingham and Verney Junction have already appeared on this blog. 

Derek comments:

The Chiltern 200 Rail Tour on 14 September 1963 started from the former LNWR station at Oxford Rewley Road. 6111 is seen waiting to depart with the train for the first part of the tour. 

GWR 6111 at Oxford Rewley Road, at the start of the tour. The train shed is visible in the distance.

 

The station was built in 1851 on the site where Rewley Abbey had once stood and the remains of which were pulled down when the site was sold to the LNWR.

The station building was constructed by the same engineers, Fox and Henderson Ltd., who were involved in the building of Crystal Palace. Both used bolt together cast iron sections. As a small boy I can remember standing on the island platform in the train shed with my grandmother for a train journey to see her relatives who lived near Islip. This must have been at the latest in 1951 because that was when passenger services were transferred to the main station. For a long time after this the forecourt area was used as a tyre and exhaust centre. I can remember the oval wooden office there that must have been the former ticket office. Fortunately, after the sale of the site for the construction of the Said Business School, the unique train shed was dismantled, and rebuilt at Quainton Road.

On the left, GWR 6111 at Bicester, London Road, and on the right, the north end of Chipping Norton tunnel, looking somewhat disused already. The final passenger train on the line ran in 1962, a year earlier, and freight services were withdrawn in 1964.

 At Kingham 6111 ran round its train while spectators stood on the footbridge.

 

 Later the REC tour reached Stratford Old Town station (a bypass today) where water was taken on.

 

The train then paused at Kineton, where there was time for a photograph, albeit with everyone spilling out around the train, and the camera pointing into a blistering sun.

The last picture of the Chiltern 200 tour was taken during a stop at the pretty little station of Hook Norton, famous for its brewery and its viaduct. The viaduct was behind the camera, and the loco drew up on to it in order to run round.

There's a useful summary of this rail tour on the six bells junction site, with some extra photographs:

https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/630914re.html

 

Next, Derek looks at an interesting swing bridge at Rewley Road:

During some lunch times at secondary school I would take myself to the GWR station, The lunchtime arrival of the through train from Cambridge would be the subject of an interesting loco from the Eastern Region. From a vantage point at the main station overlooking the Rewley Road site I can recall the time when a pannier tank was charging up from the far depths of the curved sidings with regulator open just as a freight was trundling over the swing bridge and past the signal box. At which point the signalman came out of his box and stood at the top of the stairs with his arms aloft to attract the attention of the crew of the tank. Luckily they saw the problem and did a massive slide to a halt stopping short of disaster.

When the railway line from Bletchley to Oxford was opened in 1851 it passed over a short stretch of water known as the Sheepwash Channel linking the Oxford Canal with the Thames. The adjacent Great Western line to Banbury had a fixed bridge which was high enough above the water to allow river traffic to pass underneath. With the LNWR line being much lower, a swing bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, was incorporated into the line. This bridge was hand operated, and was in use until the closure of the Rewley Road goods yard in 1985.

 

Bridge in the open position

Narroboat passing the open bridge in the Sheepwash Channel.

Side view of the bridge

End view of the bridge.

The accompanying pictures show a view of the bridge remains in 2003 and then in more detail as they were in 2012. A narrowboat is seen passing the open bridge in the Sheepwash Channel. In its closed position the bridge would have butted up to the pier on the opposite bank where the line led into the former LMS Rewley Road station. The bridge in the background carries the former GWR line north from Oxford station. The close ups show the remains of the bridge and the winding gear. The houses in the background have been built on the route of the line to Rewley Road station. The Oxford Preservation Trust was leading a project of restoration but I am not sure if anything has come of this yet.

 

Here is a link to film of the bridge being operated: http://vimeo.com/47233273

There was also a brief shot with part of the bridge in view in an episode of Lewis: 'Fearful Symmetry'.

Finally, sacrilege perhaps for some who think he should have kept his powder dry for GWR engines, a shot of a VC10 from Gaydon taken by Derek above Kineton. Remember the VC10derness slogan?

New ways

Essential maintenance - Bishops Cleeve

A small team went out on Friday to deal with a frequently used foot crossing at Bishops Cleeve. This had become uneven, and was judged a hazard.

 

It's a slightly unusual crossing, in that it is double track, albeit with the second track only 10ft long. It was this second 'track' that was causing the problems. Some pads had risen, and a space had opened out between two concrete sleepers used as part of the footway.

 

It was decided to replace the rubber pads on the second 'track' with tarmac. This also allowed the removal of the two sleepers in the 6ft, which had a gap arising between them.

The surplus mats we carried to one side, and were later taken back to store in Winchcombe. 

Those rubber mats were surprisingly heavy, but they did have the benefit of giving us some healthy exercise after all the sitting at home in a fug. It was good to be out in the healthy open air again.

In the background is the old Bishops Cleeve goods yard, now a childrens' nursery. The station site itself (further along) is all housing now, except for our double trackbed through it.

Once the second 'track' area had been cleared it looked like this. the area was now ready for resurfacing with tarmac.

 

A little later a large Tarmac lorry arrived - excellent coordination. We had only just finished.

It upended itself like this, right up against the crossing. Our fears that all the tarmac would come out at once were allayed - just a little hatch opens, and it slowly pours out into wheelbarrows.

Picture with thanks to Andy Young.

Taken at the end of the day, this picture shows the finished job. Nice and smooth again.

Picture with thanks to Andy Young.

This is Friday's little gang: Mike, Andy S, Chris and Jo. Andy Y is behind the camera.

Got some essential maintenance? We're up for it!

Essential maintenance - Fishplate greasing

As mentioned in the previous blog, we were up for trying a new method of fishplate greasing. The old method involved getting out of store very heavy equipment (TB2s and a compressor) and getting it to site in a fleet of vehicles, where a struggle unloading it and getting it on the rails ensued.

 

 

The new method involves a new type of lubricant called Interflon. This is sprayed along the tops and bottoms of the fishplates using a backpack, which is much simpler. The fluid has a high penetrating ability and creeps into the spaces between the fishing surfaces and the rail.

Drawbacks are that it is certainly not cheap, and needs to be done more frequently than with classic opening of fishplates and applying grease.

On the positive side, it's quicker, and can be done by just two people.

 

 

 

So this is the gun? Yes, and don't point it at me, Tim!

 

 

 

 

The backpack was Swiss made, while the pistol was made in the USA. We were new to the kit, and spent a long time trying to assemble it. Five, normally intelligent, people bent over it and scratched their heads. It could have been designed to be more user friendly...

 

 

 

 

 

Because of a situation peculiar to us, we needed to undo the fishplates one more time, on this first application. We did this using our impact wrench.

Some refer to this machine as a Bance, we prefer to call it the 'animal' Which is the correct term? Well, as long as it works.

Rattlerattlerattlerattlerattlerattle....

 

Pull, prime, pull, squirt. I think.

Fishplates loosened, now comes the application of the Interflon. It's supposed to come out in measured doses, supported by the pumping action of the left arm. Or right arm, if you are left handed. In which case, assemble the other way round.

 

One of the main reasons for loosening the fishplates is that we would like to achieve a constant torque on the nuts. To this end, we have acquired (sound of bugle): a torque wrench!

This can be adjusted to let go at so many foot pounds, or newton metres. Take your pick, the strength is the same.

Once the lubricant has been applied, one of us followed with the new toy and pulled, until each nut was on with the same torque applied. Although this is a ratchet wrench, we quickly learned (this being a trial session) that doing the nuts up was very slow, even with the ratchet. So the Bance (or animal) was used to do the nuts up again as well, and after some experimenting we set the machine's torque to No. 4, which worked out at not quite strong enough. Ratchet man then followed and gave it the final pull to the correct torque.

Do you speak Dutch? No. French? No. German? No. Italian? No. Well, can you read symbols at least?

We progressed from Winchcombe yard to half way round Chicken Curve (the easy bit, as it was relaid in 120ft lengths) but the powerful measured squirt from the Swiss-American sprayer gradually reduced to a trickle, then stopped altogether. We took it all to pieces again, but this time not in front of the 10T goods van in the yard, but out on top of the Chicken Curve embankment, in a mist and with 2 degrees of near freezing conditions. With numb fingers we tested the fluid supply from the container, through the gun and to the nozzle, until everything was eliminated except the nozzle itself. Finally the problem boiled down to that nozzle, but were were nonetheless puzzled as the fluid was new and we had employed the sieve as instructed when filling.

We are planning a second session, this time with a representative of the supplier to help us. We shall get there!

Wednesday follow up

A cold, but beautiful day. It was minus 1 1/2 when we started, but we wrapped up well and it was almost pleasant when the sun came out. We had an appointment with the Interflon lubricant representatives, and this proved to be very interesting and helpful.

It turned out that our backpack and dosage gun were defective, and they had brought a free replacement, which was also of a slightly different design, which we liked better.

The new backpack had an intermediate pressure vessel, which can be seen in this picture - it's the black tube on the back. This is what you are pumping up with the left arm movements.

Rob Y was the guinea pig with the new backpack. We hoped (ha-ha) that the filler cap was on tight, because if he bent down any lower and it was loose, he would get a Teflon surprise.

This is the new backpack then, with its intermediate pressure vessel.

We had a good trial run with it all afternoon, during which we did find another snag with a recurring leak where the supply pipe entered the dosage gun. This seems to be a design fault (that area rotates every time you change position) and we will be sent a new connector that incorporates a ball joint to cure this.

Are you sure you are turning yours the right way round?

Both our impact wrenches failed today, but thanks to a good team of five we were able to continue manually without too much of a problem. In the picture you can see Rob Y cracking the nuts open (if you see what we mean) while Dave on the left is using the new torque wrench to do them up again at the right setting.

Derek's 1963 colour steam pictures.

 

On 21st July 1963 I went on an RCTS Tour of Avonmouth Docks and Gloucestershire. Firstly S11 0-6-0T with our train in the docks.

Avonmouth Docks were faithful to their local constructors, and used mainly Avonside or Peckett engines in their large fleet. S11 in the picture above was a 1943 built Peckett called BRISTOL. It was vacuum fitted to work passenger trains, like the RCTS consist on this occasion.

Then S12 and S13 at Gloucester Road Junction shed. 

These two identical Pecketts make up a series of three, all built in 1943 with successive works numbers (2036, 2037 and 2038). S12 was CLIFTON and S13 was REDLAND. The 'S' in the number was added when diesel locomotives started to appear, and stood for - let me finish! - er, Steam.

 

 

 

 

 

Back with the special and S11 with train at Avonmouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone took a little home movie of the tour round the docks, which you can see here:

 https://youtu.be/50ade5abBV4

Your blogger recalls happy days when the Broadway gang descended on the port and was allowed to remove the bricks in the turntable pit for re-use at Broadway. We built part of P2 with them - there were 7000 bricks recovered - and some have also appeared in the goods platform being built at Winchcombe. The turntable pit at Avonmouth was a Midland one, but no one noticed the Midland bricks in the GWR platform! So you can fool all of the people, all of the time...

 

 Then Standard Class 3MT 2-6-2T is seen with the special at Coaley Junction.

The loco in the picture is 82036, a 1955 built standard tank which had a 10 year career, and 9 different allocations. That's a lot of different sheds in a short life span. The shedplate in the picture is 82E, Bristol Barrow Road, from where the loco was also withdrawn in July 1965. It was cut up by Cashmore's of Newport.

Coaley Junction - in modern days re-opened as Cam and Dursley - was the junction for the short   Dursley branch. This closed in 1962, before Derek's trip, but it was retained as a long siding to the Lister factory in Dursely until 1970.

 and next at Nailsworth.

The RCTS rail tour then moved a few miles up the Bristol & Gloucester line and then up another branch eastwards to Nailsworth. This was a longer branch line with 4 stations, and a short stub to Stroud on the other side of the river Frome.

and finally at Stroud with the inevitable intrusion of fellow enthusiasts!

Stroud already had a station, a GWR one on the Golden valley line, but its citizens wanted a second line to Nailsworth, and this resulted in a second Stroud station, run by the Midland Railway. They did not meet! The MR station started to suffer as soon as buses competed for business, and it closed to passengers as early as 1947. Freight struggled on until 1966, so Derek's picture of 1963 shows a disused station really, with weeds on the platforms as well as between the tracks.

 

 

Last week's lockdown quiz - Answers

Lockdown Quiz 3

1. There were 30 Kings class locomotives built at Swindon between 1927 and 1930. How many were re-named during their GWR/BR working lives and what were the names involved?

Two. 6029 was King Henry II but became King George VI and 6030 was King Stephen but became King Edward VIII

2. Why was Merchant Navy 35019 French Line CGT unique?

It was the only BR steam engine to carry a name in upper and lower case and also in script style

3. What was the original name carried by A4 4469 destroyed in an air raid at York in 1942 when named Sir Ralph Wedgwood?

Gadwall, a common duck

4. What is the difference between a “catch point” and a “trap point”?

A catch point is installed to derail vehicles which are running away out of control on a gradient. A trap point is designed to prevent an unauthorised movement from a siding or branch line onto a running/main line

5. In a mechanically signalled area what does a white diamond on a signal post indicate to the driver?

The section of line is track circuited so the signalman will be aware of the presence of the standing train and the crew don’t have to go immediately to the SB to advise the signalman

6. What is the tallest class of British steam locomotive when measured from top of rail to top of chimney?

A GWR Castle at 13ft 5½ins.

7. Which is the “odd man out” amongst the following and why? (a) A4 (b) Coronation and (c) Merchant Navy

The Coronation class has 4 cylinders the others have 3

8. How many LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0s were built?

842

9. When was 3^rd class accommodation renamed second class on BR?

3^rd June 1956

10. The BR emblem fixed to locomotives and rolling stock consists chiefly of a lion mounted on a crown and holding a railway wheel. Should the lion face the front of the locomotive or train, or to the right or the left?

The lion should face to the left

11. Where were the highest water troughs in Great Britain situated?

Garsdale (Hawes) at over 1100 feet above sea level

12. Where and how long is the longest tunnel on the main BR network?

The Severn tunnel on the WR which is 4 miles and 628 yards long

13. Where and how long is the longest section of straight track in Britain?

Between Selby and Hull and 18 miles in length

14. Which was the first BR locomotive to appear in the rail blue livery in May 1964?

Brush Type 4 no D1733

15. How many Brush type 4 (BR class 47) diesel-electric locomotives were built for British Rail?

512.

16. What indignity was suffered by Stanier class 5 no 5212 on a filming assignment at the K & WVR railway in February 1969?

The engine was covered with red and cream wallpaper to make a commercial for wallpaper paste

17. Which former GWR King class 4-6-0 was the first to be fitted with a double chimney in September 1955?

6015 King Richard III

18. What do the following locomotives have in common? (a) 5086 (b) 61241 (c) 7000 and (d) 111

All are named after Viscounts. Messrs Horne, Ridley, Portal and Churchill respectively

19. Who presented the bell carried by A4 60010?

Presented by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the loco is called Dominion of Canada

20. Which motive power depot was allocated a shed code normally associated with one region whilst being physically located in a different region?

Carlisle Kingmoor was allocated 68A with Scottish Region depots at Dumfries, Stranraer and Beattock despite the other Carlisle depots of Upperby (12A) and Canal (12C) being LMR codes. When Kingmoor became 12A these other Carlisle depots became 12B and 12C.

 

 

EBay item

By the way, we're selling a signal lamp and burner on Ebay, if you are interested:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133658861775?ul_noapp=true

This would go inside the lamp case of a signal, or a crossing gate lamp.

The proceeds will go towards a GWSR heritage project. Have a look, you might like to bid.

Finally, we end on a sad note with the death of PWayer Geoff Bagley, at the respectable age of 92.

Geoff was a PWay stalwart on the extension in the early days, and we see him here laying in the Far Stanley Loop. Geoff is on the left, and if we're not mistaken, that's his son Chris on the right.