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The railways of Ben Ashworth country.

Forest of Dean Lines and the Severn Bridge


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  • RMweb Gold

Next one should be 'Midland lines in Gloucestershire', according to what is written in the Forest of Dean volume. Another fascinating topic.

Thanks Captain. That had slipped under my radar - too busy looking at the lovely pictures I guess?

 

 

Regards

 

Dan

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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Captain. That had slipped under my radar - too busy looking at the lovely pictures I guess?

 

 

Regards

 

Dan

May well be!

 

Having enjoyed this book almost to the exclusion of any other railway books for the last few weeks, I've found my interest in my existing Forest of Dean books has also been rekindled.

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  • RMweb Gold

I received this as a Christmas present and it's a really excellent book and well worth the price.

 

Well written by the author and the the colour photos lift it to another level.

 

About a third of the way through and beginning to wish I'd not sold my stash of Bachmann Berry Wiggins tank wagons!  

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  • RMweb Gold

I received this as a Christmas present and it's a really excellent book and well worth the price.

 

Well written by the author and the the colour photos lift it to another level.

 

About a third of the way through and beginning to wish I'd not sold my stash of Bachmann Berry Wiggins tank wagons!  

If you'd only sold them to me, Mark, I could have very politely declined to sell them back to you!! Been wondering where to get some of these for a while.

 

But the book is rather special, isn't it? One of the best railway books of all time, in my view, as was it's predecessor. The next one 'Midland Lines in Gloucestershire' looks to be a really good one, too.

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  • RMweb Gold

Out of interest, has anyone noticed the caption to the bottom photo on page 72, showing 1627 at Cinderford station. It refers to the allocation history of the loco and then goes on to state that the loco was repainted into green livery prior to being moved to Oxford in 1963.

 

I thought all 16XX panniers remained in black livery throughout the BR period?

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  • RMweb Gold

If you'd only sold them to me, Mark, I could have very politely declined to sell them back to you!! Been wondering where to get some of these for a while.

 

But the book is rather special, isn't it? One of the best railway books of all time, in my view, as was it's predecessor. The next one 'Midland Lines in Gloucestershire' looks to be a really good one, too.

 

Those Berry Wiggins tanks are very rare on the second hand market aren't they?

 

I'm surprised Bachmann have not revisited these or someone like the Hereford Model Centre haven't commissioned a set.  I think they'd be on to a winner.

 

The other one missing is the South Eastern Gas Board tar wagons.

 

POWSides do a lovely set of rub on decals including the white shields on the Berry Wiggins with the 'Liquaphalt' logo. I did do a few in the past but there's a knack to applying them on a curved tank wagon.

 

The other option is from Modelmaster but these don't have the 'Field House, Fetter Lane' address.

 

I'm now two thirds into this book and it really does build on earlier publications on the area with the colour photography bringing the Forest railways alive.

 

I'm so impressed with this publication I've just used a book token my daughter gave me to buy Volume 1.

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I got mine at Christmas too, have read it cover to cover. Even better than the first one in my opinion, very much looking forward to the third now.

 

Incidentally the Lionheart 0 gauge Air Ministry tankers in Berry Wiggins should be available soon... you could always move up a scale ;)

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I noticed this as well and would agree it is an error. I have not seen any earlier references to any of the class being painted green. Bearing in mind their short lives and use mainly on goods workings, then it is highly unlikely. 

 

Perhaps a polite enquiry to the author may reveal his source on this matter. 

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  • RMweb Gold

I will need some Berry Wiggins tanks for the Drybrook Road layout. 3 or 4 should suffice.  I need to keep a lookout at shows!

I'm going to be really pedantic here and suggest that the Berry Wiggins traffic would only ever have come via the GW Forest of Dean branch from Bullo Pill, unless of course, that line was blocked for engineering work.

 

Ah, just gone and justified it then!

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Naas House; page 123

 

This morning I had the car booked in at Lydney Tyre and Auto on the road down to the docks. Knowing I'd have an hour or so to kill I had visions of taking the dog, Poppy, for a pleasant walk down to the docks. The weather had other ideas and Poppy was even less keen than I was as we set off under grey skies in a downpour.

 

I was keen to see the docks with new eyes, comparing today's arrangement with the photos in the book. Fascinating. There are a few bits of the Forest I plan to revisit with this in mind.

 

One of these was Naas House which I hadn't previously seen. So we ventured down Naas Lane, alongside the derelict but largely intact Pine End plywood works, to have a look at the house. Okay, it was a grey, dismal and rain lashed day, and the house stands on the edge of flat waterlogged fields, but if ever you wanted a setting for a ghost story.....

 

It's a Jacobean house, standing largely as it was in 1720 and from the rear, the aspect shown in the book, the house looks in need of a good bit of renovation though the weather probably made it look worse than it actually is. The front, more difficult to see clearly, is a good deal better and the interior has apparently been renovated to a high standard in recent years.

 

The frontal aspect from the drive, not public access;

 

post-6861-0-48333600-1451939501.jpeg

 

 

......and yes, it does have a ghost. In 1771, Mary Jones, a daughter of the owners was returning one evening after having had dinner at Lydney Rectory. On Naas Lane, near to the house, she was attacked, murdered and her jewellery stolen. After a hue and cry a local labourer named Morgan was arrested, the jewels found in his house, and after a trial he was hanged.

 

A ghostly figure is often seen on the lane near the house. Some say it is Morgan wandering in eternal damnation for his crime, others that it is Mary Jones still finding her way home.

 

No ghosts today, I guess they didn't have GoreTex in 1771 and wisely left the wind and rain to a man and his dog......

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I'm going to be really pedantic here and suggest that the Berry Wiggins traffic would only ever have come via the GW Forest of Dean branch from Bullo Pill, unless of course, that line was blocked for engineering work.

 

Ah, just gone and justified it then!

Ah, and don't forget that I am rewriting history with this layout so anything could happen!  Perhaps the FoD line was closed rather than the S&W in my little world.

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Hi M.

 

I think that the house is done (see link below) but just the other side of the golf club from the house, before the railway line, is Naas Court Farm. That was clearly undergoing some renovation but it's an enormous task. A small part looks reasonably complete but they've barely scratched the surface. Massive stone barns, roofless and on the verge of collapse. A whole wing of the main house has just fallen away. Seems to have sold for £157,000 in 2010, I don't know, multiply by ten for renovation costs? Huge potential to develop four or five houses I should think.

 

 

Undated but Naas House was on RightMove, photos here

 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-26061812.html

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  • RMweb Gold

Ah, and don't forget that I am rewriting history with this layout so anything could happen!  Perhaps the FoD line was closed rather than the S&W in my little world.

How about an exhibition sequence where the FoD line is closed for relaying works, so everything is diverted via Drybrook Road. The coal trains from Northern United would have struggled up the gradient from Bilson Jct, so why not have double-headed panniers, perhaps with the pilot loco being taken off at Drybrook Road, to return to Bilson Jct to pilot the next Berry Wiggens tank train (think of the double-headed ICI ammonia trains that ran via Torpantau for a few years)?

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  • RMweb Gold

The Pannier Papers make no reference to 1627 or any other 16XX pannier being repainted into green, so I'd be fairly confident that this is an error.

I cannot recall ever seeing any sort of reference to or contemporaneous magazine note about a 16XX being painted green.  They certainly didn't qualify for green paint and I don't think (without even bothering to check) that even Caerphilly ever painted one green.  I only saw about 60% of the class in traffic or dumped pending withdrawal and none of them were green - including 1627(yes, it's definitely underlined in my 1962 Combined Volume).

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  • RMweb Gold

......... and none of them were green - including 1627(yes, it's definitely underlined in my 1962 Combined Volume).

 

Thank Heavens for that Mike! Mine has a real 'professional' paint and weather job and any repaint would be unthinkable!

 

Whoops...error alert....mine is 1608. There was me thinking otherwise. post-6728-0-54441400-1451998302.gif

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