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The railways of Ben Ashworth country.

Old abandoned line in deepest Gloucestershire


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Hello,

 

I explored an old cutting yesterday and I wonder if anyone can guess which railway company built or rather excavated it?

 

f9Lad43ilZHH.jpg

 

rMgNHkLa3juQ.jpg

 

9T6T4i8OmkuI.jpg

 

x4aTzmUeLt0a.jpg

 

S0zAhAVv5ExW.jpg

 

Larger versions of the above:

http://250kb.de/u/160422/j/yIkgNNpuBOnf.jpg

http://250kb.de/u/160422/j/5onpBXqInZNc.jpg

http://250kb.de/u/160422/j/GvORBVKyufMX.jpg

http://250kb.de/u/160422/j/HU0PkJuMUsnB.jpg

http://250kb.de/u/160422/j/K12yhIfECxQ6.jpg

 

I think identifying which part of Gloucestershire is not that difficult.

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"I think identifying which part of Gloucestershire is not that difficult."

 

If you'd told me it was Buckinghamshire, or Sussex, or ..... Well, almost any County that has trees, mud, and dead-leaves in it, really, I would have been none the wiser.

 

Is it that true locals possessed of good eyesight will be able to spot an example of the Twelve-Spotted Scrunging Beetle, which only lives in one acre of woodland in the entire universe, somewhere in one of those photos?

 

K

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I didn't see a Twelve-Spotted Scrunging Beetle but I spotted a Great Spotted Woodpecker!

 

Not much guessing so far. As I'm a kind person I'll tell you the location is west of the River Severn, east of the River Wye and it is not the Hereford, Ross & Gloucester Railway.

 

 

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OK, based purely on that clue, and because I've been there, and it was interesting: the wire-works branch, off the line through Tintern, which used to cross the Wye on an iron bridge.

 

K

 

(Actually, I'm not even sure that's in Gloucestershire, because it is west of Offa's Dyke, by a very short distance.

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The wireworks branch leaves the Monmouth-Chepstow line, which at that point is east of the Wye, and it therefore starts in Gloucestershire. It runs over the Wye to the west side which, along with the wireworks, is in Monmouthshire.

 

I don't think that the bit of the branch east of the Wye, to fit in with the described location, is that densely wooded.

 

Other than that there are a few derelict lines in the Forest resembling those in the photos, I cannot see any clues to a specific location.

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Just guessing purely on the basis that they run through woodland,

 

Between Parkend and Cannop Ponds on line to Speech House Road,

 

or between Blakeney and Cinderford on the Forest of Dean Central Rly.

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The photos were the best I could do.

 

Not the Severn & Wye Railway.

Not the Forest of Dean Central Railway.

 

Also not a tramway or tramroad.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Lines ruled out:

  • Over Junction - Ledbury
  • Grange Court Junction - Rotherwas Junction
  • Awre Junction - Blakeney and beyond
  • Lydney - Lydbrook Junction
  • Coleford Junction - Coleford
  • Serridge Junction - Cinderford
  • Tufts Junction - Drybrook Road Junction (Mineral Loop)
  • Wye Valley Junction - Monmouth
  • Branches serving quarries and mines
  • Tramways and tramroads
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Some of the guesses have been very plausible but alas not correct.

 

Not the Severn Bridge Railway.

Not the Mitcheldean Road & Forest of Dean Junction Railway.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Lines ruled out:

  • Over Junction - Ledbury
  • Grange Court Junction - Rotherwas Junction
  • Mitcheldean Road - Whimsey (Cinderford)
  • Awre Junction - Blakeney and beyond
  • Lydney - Severn Bridge
  • Lydney - Lydbrook Junction
  • Coleford Junction - Coleford
  • Serridge Junction - Cinderford
  • Tufts Junction - Drybrook Road Junction (Mineral Loop)
  • Wye Valley Junction - Monmouth
  • Branches serving quarries and mines
  • Tramways and tramroads

 

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Perhaps if WG could mention where roughly he was exploring, near which, town, village or hamlet he was near to when the pictures were taken, it might help.  A GPS location would be even better!

 

Brian.

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  • RMweb Gold

I explored an old cutting yesterday and I wonder if anyone can guess which railway company built or rather excavated it?

 

Can you still remember where it was?

 

Because there is nothing in any of those pictures to give the remotest clue.

 

Here is another picture. Is this:

 

a. the same place, or

 

b. somewhere else?

 

post-1103-0-45118300-1461440236.jpg

 

Martin.

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