What inspired you to become interested in the railways of the Forest of Dean?

[Arthur]

Fascinating photos, especially the one looking across the gap. Somehow I don't that you'd be allowed out on such a structure today.....

[marc smith]

Yes, lovely photos

Initially, I wasn't particularly interested in the FOD
But years ago, I visited thew preserved railway - when they were at Norchard
Me & a couple of pals used to walk the old trackbed & look out for anything to do with the railway,
where old lines used to run etc

My visits led me to do some more research on the railways in the area
and I have to say, it's now a fave location of mine
and one I'd like to set a layout in........ one day....

marc

[trainingcone]

With my grandparents living in the area, when I used to visit them as a boy i remember seeing all sorts of railway stations that were derelict just after the beeching axe, I have had a passion over the years on the history of the railways in the Forest of Dean and also the Ross and Monmouth Railway and Hereford Ross and Gloucester Railway.

[Icknieldrobin]

I've just posted a note on another thread about Ross on Wye and I thought here was also an appropriate place to make reference to Neil Parkhouse’s highly informative book entitled West Gloucestershire & Wye Valley Lines [iSBN 9781899889 76 1]  Lightmoor Publications as no reference has been made to date on this string. It is packed with colour photographs and detailed commentary for each image and with 279  pages of colour photos of Gloucestershire in the early ‘60’s it was an absolute must for me. I understand there are 4 more editions planned on various parts of Gloucestershire so that's Christmas sorted for the next 4 years at least!!! I should point out have no connections with Lightmoor other than being a very satisfied customer.

 

I worked in the Forest of Dean for two years in the late 1990's and found the many derelict railway lines a constant distraction when out in the car visiting clients.

 

Doug

[F-UnitMad]

 

I worked in the Forest of Dean for two years in the late 1990's and found the many derelict railway lines a constant distraction when out in the car visiting clients.

 

Doug

They were a constant - and possibly worse - distraction in a truck, as well....    

[Captain Kernow]

I've just posted a note on another thread about Ross on Wye and I thought here was also an appropriate place to make reference to Neil Parkhouse’s highly informative book entitled West Gloucestershire & Wye Valley Lines [iSBN 9781899889 76 1]  Lightmoor Publications as no reference has been made to date on this string. 

Hi Doug, I did actually start a thread on this book in the 'Books' section of the forum - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/76140-west-gloucestershire-wye-valley-lines-lightmoor-press/, but you are quite right, it is a superb book. I'm sure we're all eagerly awaiting the next volume in the series, which will be on the Forest of Dean.

[Donw]

 

 

I worked in the Forest of Dean for two years in the late 1990's and found the many derelict railway lines a constant distraction when out in the car visiting clients.

 

Doug

Add watching out for Sheep and Deer to that. Much better walking.

Don

[F-UnitMad]

Add watching out for Sheep and Deer to that. Much better walking.

Don

The sheep used to be all over the place... as far as I can tell, they're not quite so spread around as before the Foot & Mouth outbreak a few years ago.

The only times I've seen Deer & Boar in the Forest is Silly-O'clock at night, when they venture out by the roads - especially New Road (B4234) near Cannop Ponds.

[Arthur]

Plenty of sheep around today, especially around Parkend. Deer too, common in the evenings and my wife sees them frequently whilst out riding.

 

Boar? Loads of them. They'll plough up your garden overnight and have ruined a couple of sports pitches. Horses, naturally fearful of pigs, are spooked by them.

 

The Forestry Commission admitted last month that the population, they estimate over 800, is out if control and that their culling programme is too conservative and will need to be increased. Ironically, local hotels and restaurants canot get enough Wild Boar as much of it is shipped off to London.

 

Wild Boar sausages, highly recommended.

[br2975]

Wild Boar sausages, highly recommended.

 

Finding a copy of H.W.Paar's - "History of the Severn & Wye Railway" on the shelves of my local library many moons ago.

.

Then finding  "GWR Branch Line Album"  (by Ian Krause ?) on the same shelf - and seeing for the first time Ben Ashworth's tree top photo of the 2251 at Kerne Bridge clinched it for me.

.

The FoD interest stayed on the back burner until I secured a copy of "BR Steam in Dean" when first published - probably my most thumbed book, and if that book hasn't provided the spark for a few FoD layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 

 

Brian R

 

Oh !

 

And last Father's Day I was treated to roast boar in a pub at Llanharry in the Vale of Glamorgan - recommended.

Edited August 4, 2014 by br2975

[Donw]

I would recommend the Ian Pope Wild Swan books however there are quite a few Severn and Wye and Forest of Dean.

Don

[Branwell]

For me, it was a move to Cheltenham from Barrow-in-Furness. Up until then I'd been a staunch Midland and Furness man, but hadn't actually realised that the Midland had made it that far south west.

 

Then I discovered that the place where I parked my car every day used to be Cheltenham St. James station and it went from there - regular visits to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway and to the Forest and I was hooked.

[F-UnitMad]

.... Then I discovered that the place where I parked my car every day used to be Cheltenham St. James station and it went from there - ....

It took me a while to work out that a Builder's Merchants I regularly delivered to at one time was the site of Cheltenham's Malvern Road GWR Engine Shed.... to be fair, the original depot gates were rather neglected at the time - took me ages to notice the "GWR" letters on them....

[Branwell]

It took me a while to work out that a Builder's Merchants I regularly delivered to at one time was the site of Cheltenham's Malvern Road GWR Engine Shed.... to be fair, the original depot gates were rather neglected at the time - took me ages to notice the "GWR" letters on them....

 

I know the very Builder's Merchants!

[ParkeNd]

Living just outside the Forest boundaries and working in the Forest for 10 years means the area is very familiar. But the interest in the trains comes from visiting Parkend regularly and reading the books I bought from the brilliant bookshop in the DFR museum at Norchard. Standing at the crossroads in Parkend I realised that the village used to be the ideal model railway layout. There was no need to invent anything fictitious since it had all existed for real and was either perfectly documented or DFR had restored parts of it. N gauge is perfect for recreating the village landscape as well as the railway. Several people who live and work in Parkend have helped me to fill in the gaps.

[Mr_Tilt]

Way back in the '50s I used to read 'Meccano Magazine' regularly and one particular railway article stuck in my mind, entitled 'Great Western Railways in Dean', note the lack of the '...Forest of...' bit. As I'd only ever travelled on the SR electric stuff and some WR and ER main line trains at that age a railway that went wended its way round a large forest with branches everywhere and that only seemed to carry freight seemed decidedly odd, but interesting nonetheless.

 

After that I forgot all about it until my work deemed it sensible to move to Gloucestershire somewhere and my employers rented me a house in Longhope while I figured out if the idea worked OK, which it did so I started looking for a place to buy. For various reasons I ended up in Lydney, where you can't help but notice the DFR as it runs straight across the centre of the main road through the town!

 

That was back in 1982 and I've been here ever since, but I still wish I'd been here before the Severn Bridge and Lydbrook Viaduct had been demolished, especially as my early days at BR in 1969 and '70 involved testing bridges.

[johnarcher]

I don't know a lot about this, but isn't the Forest of Dean part of what was the Severn & Wye, and didn't they have locomotives named after characters in the Robin Hood legend?

As an archer for many years, a maker of long-bows and interested in Mediaeval history that interests me (if I'm right). I remember keeping a drawing from an old RM for one of those for many years, never got round to using it though.

I'm starting to feel interested again.

Edited November 25, 2014 by johnarcher

[malcolmcelyn]

HI All,

 

well i use to take kids mountain biking around the forest for over 6 years whilst working for PGL and living in Ross-on-Wye.

 

cheers

Simon

Parents Get Lost? I know someone who works for them still, Mr. Hougham?

[Captain Kernow]

I don't know a lot about this, but isn't the Forest of Dean part of what was the Severn & Wye, and didn't they have locomotives named after characters in the Robin Hood legend?

As an archer for many years, a maker of long-bows and interested in Mediaeval history that interests me (if I'm right). I remember keeping a drawing from an old RM for one of those for many years, never got round to using it though.

I'm starting to feel interested again.

John - the Severn & Wye (which became a jointly-owned line between the GWR and MR) ran from Berkeley Road Jct to Cinderford, via the Severn Bridge, Lydney, Parkend, Serridge Jct and Drybrook Road. There were other company lines in the Forest as well. The S&Y also ran to Coleford and Lydbrook Jct. They did have a couple of 0-6-0 side tanks (can't recall maker) named Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck. There was a feature on them in the Railway Modeller back in the 1970s, and I re-drew the loco to 4mm scale at the time, as I recall, although I never actually built anything from said drawings.

[Donw]

John - the Severn & Wye (which became a jointly-owned line between the GWR and MR) ran from Berkeley Road Jct to Cinderford, via the Severn Bridge, Lydney, Parkend, Serridge Jct and Drybrook Road. There were other company lines in the Forest as well. The S&Y also ran to Coleford and Lydbrook Jct. They did have a couple of 0-6-0 side tanks (can't recall maker) named Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck. There was a feature on them in the Railway Modeller back in the 1970s, and I re-drew the loco to 4mm scale at the time, as I recall, although I never actually built anything from said drawings.

Fletcher Jennings

Don

[johnarcher]

My thanks to the last two for the information. It was just the two Robin Hood-named locomotives, I thought there were more?

I'm impressed that Captain Kernow is so expert on things in the far North.

[APOLLO]

We have been staying in a holiday cottage in Lea (just outside the forest, near Micheldean) every other year for the last 10 or so years, though last year stayed in Goodrich. All our family love the area, the walks, pubs, castles etc in the area and especially the railways (for me). There are also many interesting towns & places nearby to visit also. We have booked again for next July.

 

If you go to Ross on Wye then I recommend the Yaks N Yetis Gurkha restaurant, run by an ex Gurkha and his wife - lovely food & owners- but don't dare run off without paying !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Brit15

[Donw]

I have not given you the full gen of S&W locos  I bleieve there were 3 Fletcher Jennings 0-6-0t  Will Scarlet , Little John and Alan-a-Dale There was one or more 0-4-0t Fletcher Jennings Maid Marion may have been one of them. There were 5 Vulcan foundry locos Sabrina, Sharpness, Severn Bridge, Forester, Gaveller. I seem to remember that Friar Tuck was Broad gauge and converted to  narrow (possibly Maid Marion too) and I think 6 coupled. I would really need to get the book out.

 

 

This is Ian Pope with his fictious Knockley Gate at Reading 2013. Ian built a number of version of Knockley Gate inspired by various forest scenes. Ian is a grand chap I was lucky to get to know him when I first moved to the forest.

 

Don

 

[F-UnitMad]

I was amazed when I first found out that the S&W was originally broad gauge!! I always thought of the broad gauge as Brunel's London - Bristol Racetrack, not the province of sleepy branches - but it obviously made sense at the time!

If tbe GWR had stayed with the broad gauge, it's interesting to speculate if the S&W would ever have become a Joint line between two Railways with different gauges!!!

[Donw]

You only need to walk along the old lines to find bridge rail pieces used here and there in the fencing. The tramway was 3ft 6in guage the Broad gauge largely ran along side the major routes this was then narrowed. There is a photo of Bix Slade in the 1940s with a horse drawing a loaded stone wagon down the tramway headed either for the United Stone Works or the Interchange with the railway. Quite a lot of the tramway blocks were still in place  during the 1990s they may still be there now.

Don