Dursley Branchline footbridge - Is it still standing?

[Blackthorn]

Basically just as the title says, is it still standing?  I have looked on google earth but can't seem to find it.  I remember standing on it after cub nights at the scout hut a short distance away and when going bell ringing at St. George's church. This was in the seventies after the railway was lifted.  I have thought about making a model of it for a layout in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if its been removed, I seem to think it was closed off as a bridge the last time I saw it which would be about 1997 or so.....

 

Thanks.

 

Mark.

[6959]

Basically just as the title says, is it still standing?  I have looked on google earth but can't seem to find it.  I remember standing on it after cub nights at the scout hut a short distance away and when going bell ringing at St. George's church. This was in the seventies after the railway was lifted.  I have thought about making a model of it for a layout in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if its been removed, I seem to think it was closed off as a bridge the last time I saw it which would be about 1997 or so.....

 

Thanks.

 

Mark.

 

By chance we were going to Dursley today to meet family and take the grankids to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre so they could see the Lego animals on display amongst real birds.

 

I took a detour to the Cam & Dursley station to see if there was a footbridge. I took some photo's but suggestion was made that you probably mean the Dursley Donkey that branched off at Coaley Junction. Since getting home I have looked at my 1947 OS map and '50 Miles Around Bristol' map of unknown date that has a price sticker of £1.65.

 

Another visit will be needed to locate your bridge but here are the recent mainline pictures anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

And the Lego...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Blackthorn]

Many thanks for those pictures 6959. It was the old branchline i was referring to, but I spent hours sitting on the road bridge in your photos trainspotting, how I didn't fall of I'll never know!! 

[brianthesnail96]

Yes it is- if you mean the one between Cam & Dursley stations (not Cam & Dursley Station, which really is near enough Coaley Junction of course).

 

I've just moved to Cam and we were on a bit of an explore on Sunday- I'd just made a comment about how little evidence of the branchline there is (I didn't really know where it ran, but we encountered The Railway pub and Station Road so we knew we must be close) when we passed it! Very overgrown, there's a footpath under it now (crossing the railway- unusually most of the surviving trackbed doesn't even look to have a footpath along it) so I'll go back and take some photos when I get a chance.

 

Having moved from Stonehouse, where most of the branchline to Nailsworth (and the Stroud branch) is fairly easy to trace & with a fair amount of architecture left, it surprised me how completely the Dursley branch has disappeared. Can still work out where most of it went on Google maps though, by following the trees!   

Edited August 18, 2015 by brianthesnail96

[JelleJan]

I like the NLS website for this kind of research, containing historical 6 inch Ordnance Survey maps of the whole country, projected on Bing Maps.

So I took a look (is that correct english?).

Is this the footbridge?

 

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=51.6926&lon=-2.3560&layers=171

 

Playing with the transparancy, Bing Maps shows the current satelite photo, then looking for the same spot on Google Maps gives a June 2009 Streetview, with a nice footbridge on it:

 

https://www.google.nl/maps/place/Dursley,+Gloucestershire+GL11,+Verenigd+Koninkrijk/@51.6925086,-2.3560698,3a,75y,117.73h,77.76t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGpb66cAtb_qzNIOs4aLY9Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DGpb66cAtb_qzNIOs4aLY9Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D100%26h%3D80%26yaw%3D133.43102%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x48710a63f1f3824f:0x20fb40ce3d0ef022!6m1!1e1

 

But, of course, thats is 6 years ago...

 

Kind regards from the Netherlands, Jelle Jan

[F-UnitMad]

 

....it surprised me how completely the Dursley branch has disappeared. Can still work out where most of it went on Google maps though, by following the trees!

 

After several years of delivering to Listers at Dursley in the 1990's (now also a shadow of it's former self by the look of it) I was amazed to find, once I bought the "Past & Present" series of books covering Glos; that Lister's Goods In was on the site of Dursley Station!!!

I'd wondered why I couldn't place the photos by Ben Ashworth properly...

[brianthesnail96]

Difficult to pick up any features to identify where the station was now, the Lister's building it was adjacent to (indeed, the reason it was so compressed) isn't there any more either!

 

Cam station location isn't much better, just a grassy area and an industrial building the other side of the level crossing- I had to look it up on Google as despite looking when we drove through I could see no evidence of a railway at all from the ground- despite the obvious hints in the name of the pub & road!

 

Jelle Jan's google streetview link is the bridge I was thinking of, still looks very much like the google pic.

[Blackthorn]

Thank you for the responses, good to know it's still standing.  Jelle Jan, thanks for the link to google street view...it is pretty overgrown, that's my excuse for missing it and that Bing map site is addictive!!   

 

brainthesnail96, I did some exploring of the Stroud and Nailsworth branchlines in 1991 and too was surprised about how much of the lines remained, the station building in Nailsworth, the station ad Dudbridge and the stretch of bridge leading to where the Stroud station site..although I think Dudbridge is now part of a new roadway??

 

F-UnitMad, I understand Listers has now gone and the site has been (or is being) redeveolped for housing......more of my childhood memories gone....it's a real shame as Listers was so much a part of Dursley.

 

The willingness to share information on this site always amazes me. 

[flubrush]

I recce'd the Dursley station area several times in the 1980s for my layout of the station and the only original feature you could see then was the edging of the passenger platform which was apparent.   The whole area of the station had been levelled to provide a warehousing and a manoeuvering/parking area for goods traffic and the edging stones were flush with the surface.   Listers original sawtooth roofed buildings were still standing then - i believe they burned down later on in the 1980s.   I also think I remember a small road under bridge to the west of the station which was still standing.     I meant to try and walk the track bed,  but I never got the time to do it.

 

Jim.

[brianthesnail96]

It's just a very peculiar coincidence that I'd happened to spot it (while not aware that I was next to the railway formation until I did!) the day after you made your request- I wasn't specifically looking for the railway, we were just exploring a corner of our new home town that we'd not been to before (and I hadn't spotted this post at the time).

 

There was a road bridge (adjacent to a road junction) a little way up the branch from the station, it's most definitely not there any more and I couldn't see any evidence of it whatsoever the other day although I admit I wasn't looking.

 

As for the Nailsworth branch, a brief(ish) summary:

- Some buildings (but not all) at Stonehouse Bristol Road survive, it's in use as a training centre now and looks in reasonable order from what you can see from the road. There's some trackwork left from the coal depot that was built on the old junction, and the footbridge over the main line between Old Ends LC & the station is still there and still in use.

- The trackbed from the station curving around to head towards Stroud has gone under houses, but the shape can be seen in the way the estate is laid out (from Google). After this it becomes a footpath for a bit, and there's an overbridge hiding beside a newish roundabout on the adjacent road, mostly infilled. It then disappears under more houses, and I suspect road widening- I've not been able to find anything much of it or the canal transhipment wharf until you get to the bridge over the canal just North of Ryeford, which survives.

- No sign of Ryeford station, it's under the new bypass- completely flattened.

- Most of the trackbed survives adjacent to the bypass, including the very low bridge over the river. Disappears under the road again as you approach Dudbridge.

- Dudbridge itself is now gone under a roundabout, and a realignment of the road down from Selsley. However the large mill (which had a short NG line feeding it from the branch goods yard) still stands, as do the retaining walls and part of the platform.

- From here to Nailsworth it's mostly intact, although the A46 has encroached in a few places (widening/ realignment), there's a housing estate at Woodchester and a few access roads to other estates cutting across at various locations. The sawmills at Woodchester have vanished on the railway side of the road, but the Brown family are still cutting timber on the other side (and still with steam power on occasion). Woodchester station is gone but what I believe is the crossing keeper's cottage survives.

- Nailsworth station is still there and I'm told in good condition, although I've never seen it. Not sure what happened with the goods yard, which was at a lower level of course.

- From Dudbridge to Stroud, the initial curved embankment from the junction is gone (more houses) but once pointing more of less towards Stroud it's pretty much intact (with multiple road overbridges) until just shy of the viaduct on the approach to Wallgate.

- As you've seen, the viaduct at Wallgate (on a sharp curve) is still partially still standing- the infilled arches of what was the middle portion still in use for garages etc. Wallgate itself has vanished under an small trading estate.

[Blackthorn]

Thanks flubrush and brianthesnail96 for the additional information.  I certainly know where and where not to look again in the future when I'm back in the UK, although, there will likely be more development between now and then.  It's kind of funny that I know more about the railway now than I ever did when I lived in Cam, in my defence I was only 13 when we came to Canada in 1981. 

 

Oh great, this has now got my mind going for a layout....especially with the Bachmann 1F and 2P locomotives available....now if I can find the time I will finish the model of Dursley station building I made quite a few years ago, but I think it will have to wait until colder weather....

 

edited for last (long) sentance.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Blackthorn

[Johng]

Hi Blackthorn,

 

Just picked up your thread.

 

If you contact the Heritage Centre in Dursley, they sell a DVD called 'End of the Line', I bought one last year from there,it was  £5 and was a seven minute silent home cine film, in colour of the Dursley Branch, the last passenger train complete with carrots on the engine, a footplate ride and shots of Dursley, Cam and Coaley Stations and the bridge you mention, It is a gem, a nice bit of photography and a mine of information for a model and well worth the money.

 

Trust this helps,

 

John

[Blackthorn]

Thank you Johng!  I will get in touch with them, I think my DVD player will do PAL format. That would be a great bit of film to see.  I've only ever seen a few short clips of Dursley on DVD, I think they might have been from the Railway Roundabout series, surprisingly bought for me by my girlfriends mother who lives in British Columbia!!

 

Now I have to get hold of the Heritage Centre.........

 

Thanks again.

 

Mark.

[F-UnitMad]

Hi Blackthorn,

 

Just picked up your thread.

 

If you contact the Heritage Centre in Dursley, they sell a DVD called 'End of the Line', I bought one last year from there,it was  £5 and was a seven minute silent home cine film, in colour of the Dursley Branch, the last passenger train complete with carrots on the engine, a footplate ride and shots of Dursley, Cam and Coaley Stations and the bridge you mention, It is a gem, a nice bit of photography and a mine of information for a model and well worth the money.

 

Trust this helps,

 

John

Bold added - reminds me that a Ben Ashworth photo taken in that area shows a bunch of bamboo canes on the loco's tender. One of the local Crew men must've been a keen gardener!!!

[KeithHC]

Yes its still there at least earlier today when I drove past. The gallows bridge as it is known is over grown but there is a footpath that crosses the old railway right next door to the bridge. I will get a few pictures in the next couple of days if it helps. Also have a look on this page:

 

http://www.dursleyglos.org.uk/html/dursley/railway/cam_dursley/cam_dursley.htm

 

Keith HC, Just round the corner from the gallows bridge, Dursley

[KeithHC]

Hi Blackthorn,

Going back to your first entry. The scout hut is still there and the bells of st Georges rang this morning as I was having Breakfast. As for the Listers factory it has all been demolished and slowly being replaced with a brown field housing estate. There is a modern cottage hospital that now stands on the site of the former gas works.

 

Keith HC, Dursley

[Blackthorn]

Hi Keith HC.

 

That's quite the site in that link....a good way to while away an evening.  Glad to hear the footbridge is still there, I'm trying to figure out what materials I need to make a model so any pictures would be greatly appreciated.  The model won't be strictly accurate as there will have to be a lot of guesswork for dimensions, but so long as it captures the look of the real thing then I will be happy. 

 

It sounds like Dursley is changing a lot.  I saw the new Rednock school online, nice and modern now.  It was pretty tired when I left in 1981!!

 

Mark.

[KeithHC]

Photos soon waiting for some good weather.

 

Keith HC

[Blackthorn]

Thanks Keith HC,  No rush.....I hope you and everyone else here have a great holiday season!!

[KeithHC]

Glad you said no rush! At long last passed by Gallows bridge with a camera today:

 

Keith HC

Edited March 31, 2016 by KeithHC

[Blackthorn]

Wow!  Many thanks Keith HC, that is just the picture I needed.  It brings back a lot of memories.  It gives me a good idea of the construction of it, now to see if I can re-create it in 4mm......

 

I'm glad its still there and looks to be in reasonable shape but I wonder how much longer it will be around.  If it is ever under the threat of demolition, I wonder if it could be used by the vale of Berkeley Railway at Sharpness, rather that being sent for scrap.  Just a thought......

 

Thanks again for the picture.

 

Mark.

[kirtleypete]

Wonderful seeing that....I used to go to cubs in the scout hut nearby and clearly recall the branch goods passing by each evening in the early 60's. It's about all that is left of the branch these days other than Coaley goods shed.

 

Peter

[Blackthorn]

Well...I finally got to see the footbridge 'in the flesh' last Sunday but I was pretty ticked off that the battery in the camera had run out (thanks again KeithHC for that picture).  We also drove around the site of Dursley station....rather depressing that Listers has been swept away.  On the plus side I got my girlfriend up Cam Peak, the steep way, she wasn't too impressed when I said we would take the easy way down.... Also picked up the DVD recommended by Johng, 'End Of The Line', I'm not sure that I had seen any colour footage of the line before.  I wish I had more time in the Heritage Centre, but I had to go in on Tuesday as we were trying to pack to come home!!!

 

Thanks again for everyone's help and suggestions.

 

Mark.