unravelled

I was back in Oxford recently, and took these photos on the 6th of April. I guess they are reinstating the road at the existing level to get traffic moving again, and will dig out to the fimal depth after the new bridge is installed. It looks as if most of the services which were outside the trench at my last visit have now been reburied. As well as the services in individual small (100/150mm) ducts, it looks as if corrugated ducts are being installed for the shallow run services which can be seen in the last photos. Or perhaps the smaller ducts have been run in further corrugated ducts below those vsible. Hopefully there is space in them to future proof the setup too. I do wonder whether it would have been easier to replace the bridge first, and relocate services in the extra space alongside the existing carriageway, which might have allowed light controlled traffic on one lane for most of the work. Dave

I think there may be another Oxford station thread, but I haven't found it, so I am posting here. I was back in Oxford this weekend and made a quick visit to the station to see the works. For now the footbridge makes a good vantage point, and the only two high viz'd people I could see were also there looking at the site. There is one deep excavation of the westbound lane, which seems reasonably dry considering its depth and the rain we've had. I got the impression that they hoped all the surprises had been found, and it will just be a matter of getting on with it when revised plans are agreed.

A mixed bunch Thanks Dave

73068 at Evercreech Junction and Windsor Hill tunnels. Mid 1965 82041 runing round at Binegar, also mid 1965 And at Evercreech, probably November 1965 Dave

Around that date I only saw the hoppers on a couple of occasions, hauled by 56xx 0-6-2T's.

I find that for a lot of emails the message title is enough information, so don't need to open them. Only one group is moaning that I don't read them. Dave

12/5/65. 7920 rescued D1593 somewhere north of Ardley Station. At Adley it was replaced by 6823, presumably sent out from Banbury For those of us interested in such things, the leading vehicle appears to be W111W, a K41 brake. Thanks Dave

Now rails in the towpath. These are long gone, and were on the south bank of the Thames near Crossness. I think they disappeared in the tidying up after the completion of the waste transfer facility, which was then under construction. A scan of NLS shows a possible stretch of unconnected track leading from Belvedere mills (Bovril, disused) on the 1897 map. Some distance upstream, still on the South bank, between Vauxhall and Chelsea bridges, this bullhead rail is seen. Possibly reinforcements for the wall, or fixings for timbers ob the river wall. On the river Lea, an improvised bollard/cleat And finally for tonight, some real rails in the ground. This time at Railway Fields Nature Reserve in Haringey, a repurposed goods yard. Thanks Dave

I did a search on S J & R Stockton, ( I thought Stackton, but Google suggested the correct spelling), and they were making rails for New Zealand's railways in 1874, the date on this gatepost, so would know what a rail looked like for these castings. Incidentally I think it should be read as S J & R of Stockton, as another later supplier was S J R & Co Stockton. Looking again, I can see there is a full stop before Stockton on the casting. For info, a bit found in Graces Guide "The Moor Ironworks, situated upon the west side of the borough, and erected upon land purchased from Messrs Wren, are now in active operation. We take the following description of the works from the Iron and Coal Trades Review : — The proprietors are Messrs Shaw, Johnson and Reay. The works are laid for the manufacture of puddled bars and plates, though the addition of a sheet mill and rail mill is contemplated."

This is a section of bridge rail in a stream, somewhere near Blaenavon, taken a few years ago. There was no sigh of a structure it might have come from And in Brentford, not quite in the road, is a fair length of Barlow rail, being used as a kerb. Also, to add to my erroneous identification more, presumably cast, rail styled posts. This time in the beer garden of the George, in Southwark. There is a railway connection here, as this former coaching in was used by The GNR as a parcels office, as were other coaching inns by other companies. Whether the posts date from then I don't know Thanks Dave

That's interesting, thanks, I will have to reconsider some intended future posts (!). But I have plenty of genuine recycled rail photos to add. Incidentally, are there genuine cases of old rails being cut and reformed like this for neatness? I think that the thing which fooled me is that there looks to be a blobby join at the top. Did they intend to fool people, or did the castings copy an older version where recycled rails were used?

A section I photographed about 5 years ago, but Google maps suggests it is still there. It is near Hayes and Harlington station, and would have extended to a Brewing sugar works next to the canal. It's near the centre of this NLS map. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.7&lat=51.50450&lon=-0.42525&layers=168&b=3 View across Blyth Road into Pressing LaneLan I'm not sure if these qualify for this thread, as they aren't exactly abandoned, more recycled. They are the gateposts at what used to be the Brockley Lane Station master's house. Thanks Dave

I have recently started selling on ebay, and payments so far have been held for a while, I'm assumng until the buyer has a chance to leave feedback. I did notice the markup on postage, but consider it worthwhile. The convenience of having addresses autofilled, and consequent saving of time and reduction in mistakes. I would hope that using their integrated system provides a better audit trail in case of problems.

I have some track and points, but I'm not sure what types. I'll look them out in the next few days. Dave

I'm glad I included it although it strictly falls outside the era I was asking about. It is tantalising that NLS reference two earlier 25 inch maps, but don't have copies. Thanks Dave