Cholsey & Moulsford (Change for Wallingford)

[Nick Gough]

Always good to see steam at Cholsey.

[Nick Gough]

The latest copy of 'Great Western Echo' dropped through the letter box a couple of days ago.

Inside was mention of two interesting and relevant videos on Youtube.

 

Firstly - "1466 goes to Wallingford".

Film of the Great Western Society's Autotrain operating on the branch in 1968:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7GmwmrDbZo

(this one won't embed in my post)

 

Secondly - "Last day on the Wallingford Branch"

Nine years earlier - the final day of normal passenger operation:

 

I do have a DVD copy of the second one which I bought, about 12 years ago, from the shop at Wallingford station.

 

Nice to see sequences both at the two stations and along the branch.

 

[Metropolitan H]

Thanks for the link to video of 1466 on the branch on 15 April 1968. Somewhere I have one or two 35mm colour slides taken that day - on Mother's EXA camera -  having ridden across from Bracknell on my BSA D10 Bantam. Happy days.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nick Gough]

3 hours ago, Metropolitan H said:

Thanks for the link to video of 1466 on the branch on 15 April 1968. Somewhere I have one or two 35mm colour slides taken that day - on Mother's EXA camera -  having ridden across from Bracknell on my BSA D10 Bantam. Happy days.

 

Regards

Chris H

You're welcome.

Unfortunately I missed that day, but being just ten at the time, and not being aware of it, is my excuse.

It was another two years before I had my first contact with the GWS - at Didcot.

[Nick Gough]

A little bit of work on the Up Relief platform foundations;

 

Firstly, building up around the flap hinge, with some ply, to the level of the adjacent areas:

I don't intend to cover/bury the actual hinge - as it might be necessary to access it in the future. When I create the actual platform surface I intend to have a small removable section to cover the hinge.

 

Secondly, creating a small extension at the rear of the platform for the access to the Gents WC:

 

As seen on the real station - with a brick retaining wall:

Edited March 21, 2023 by Nick Gough

[RJS1977]

Interesting, I hadn't noticed that the platform wall and the station building were built at separate times - there isn't a clean join. That said, as I normally arrive at and leave Cholsey by train, I don't see it from the outside very often (unless I've gone to Tesco for lunch!)

 

Though I've always wondered what the archway on the ground floor was for.

[MrWolf]

I always found it interesting to dissect old buildings. It's clear that the retaining wall has been rebuilt, probably quite recently too. The archway is very interesting, particularly as to the purpose of the hefty corbel above the cable trunking to the left of the arch. A canopy over an entrance perhaps? Whatever may have matched it on the right has been obliterated by alterations.

[Nick Gough]

I would guess that the wall was rebuilt on the original footprint as it appears to match the  1911 plan:

 

This is what that area looked like in the 1950s:

Edited March 21, 2023 by Nick Gough

[MrWolf]

That's interesting. I didn't think that the retaining wall was a modern addition, more of an emergency repair. The brick corbel appears to support a cast iron duck foot at the base of the toilet stench pipe, which makes sense looking at the scars on the wall from telegraph pole nails used to secure the pipe visible in the modern view.

[RJS1977]

Come to think of it, I do seem to remember some work going on on the slope below the wall at one point - all the shrubs were cleared. I assumed it was just for installation of the OHLE portal slightly to the east, but the wall could have been repaired at around the same time.

[RJS1977]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

That's interesting. I didn't think that the retaining wall was a modern addition, more of an emergency repair. The brick corbel appears to support a cast iron duck foot at the base of the toilet stench pipe, which makes sense looking at the scars on the wall from telegraph pole nails used to secure the pipe visible in the modern view.

 

That seems to be an odd place for the stench pipe, as it's right behind the toilet door. As you go in, the washbasin is to your left (platform side), and the "thunderbox" also backs on to the platform in the far corner from the door, so I would have expected the stench pipe to have gone up in the corner near the chimney.

[MrWolf]

More of a mystery. It does look like an iron pipe with sleeved joints and a bird mesh on top. I have seen a few with a remote external breather and a flushpipe serving several thunderjugs. 

It's got me thinking now. Was the lavatory moved? Or does that pipe go through the wall at 45 degrees where the corbel is and serve some purpose in the room where the archway is?

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

I don't intend to cover/bury the actual hinge - as it might be necessary to access it in the future. When I create the actual platform surface I intend to have a small removable section to cover the hinge.

You'll have to do something like that, to make sure that nothing is higher than the hinge pin.

 

Don't ask how I know that.

[Nick Gough]

3 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

Come to think of it, I do seem to remember some work going on on the slope below the wall at one point - all the shrubs were cleared. I assumed it was just for installation of the OHLE portal slightly to the east, but the wall could have been repaired at around the same time.

My 'modern' photo dates from the early 2000s, so the wall was probably done in the '90s.

[Nick Gough]

31 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

You'll have to do something like that, to make sure that nothing is higher than the hinge pin.

 

Don't ask how I know that.

Agreed. I've left gaps next to the hinge pin to avoid fouling when the flap's raised.

[RJS1977]

Thinking about the toilets a bit more - if that pipe really was a stench pipe, wouldn't it still be needed now?

 

However I'd agree that the current fittings in the Gents don't look as if they've been there until 1892, so possibly the Gents has been reconfigured at some stage.

 

I've always had the impression that the Waiting Room was originally separate Men's and Ladies' rooms (hence two doors on to the platform. The Ladies' loo is accessed off what I would imagine was originally the Ladies' waiting room, so maybe the Gents' was accessed off the Men's waiting room at one time but at a later date was reversed to have access through the end of the building. However that seems a somewhat retrograde step, and having the Gent's accessed through a door on the end of the building is a common railway feature so unlikely that it wasn't designed that way to start off with.

 

[RJS1977]

Looking at the photos I took of the drawings which used to hang in our Museum at Wallingford (the Museum's currently empty while the Cambrian coach is restored, lifted, and moved under the canopy overhang) it appears I may be right!

 

Those drawings show a row of urinals facing the platform, and what appears to be a door between the Gent's and the (Men's) Waiting Room. No sign of where the 'Thunderbox' was but at a guess it would be close to where the Gent's door is now, and over the stench pipe.

[RJS1977]

 

Or is the door (left hand drawing)  the door to the cubicle?

[Nick Gough]

A couple of extracts from older photos;

 

This one, from 1919, appears to have two vent pipes. One on the platform side of the roof and one forecourt side. The entrance to the gents is at the end of the building with, I think, the appropriate sign on the corner:

 

This one dates from around 1905 and shews the two pipes, the 'Gentlemen' sign and the side entrance, but no modesty screen or, I think, rear extension to the platform. The platform pipe seems to be sited around the partition wall between the gents and the general waiting room. I can't see a vent pipe near the 'Ladies' room, but perhaps that wasn't necessary?:

On 05/02/2021 at 12:30, RJS1977 said:

 

Or is the door (left hand drawing)  the door to the cubicle?

I'ts difficult to make out but, it looks to me that, there seems to be some underfloor, interconnected pipework  in the right hand drawing - maybe connected to a remote vent pipe? Can you make out the text below in your original photo? There seems to be a cubicle and bowl on the right side of the room?

Edited March 21, 2023 by Nick Gough

[ChrisN]

17 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

A couple of extracts from older photos;

 

This one, from 1919, appears to have two vent pipes. One on the platform side of the roof and one forecourt side. The entrance to the gents is at the end of the building with, I think, the appropriate sign on the corner:

 

This one dates from around 1905 and shews the two pipes, the 'Gentlemen' sign and the side entrance, but no modesty screen or, I think, rear extension to the platform. The platform pipe seems to be sited around the partition wall between the gents and the general waiting room. I can't see a vent pipe near the 'Ladies' room, but perhaps that wasn't necessary?:

I'ts difficult to make out but, it looks to me that, there seems to be some underfloor, interconnected pipework  in the right hand drawing - maybe connected to a remote vent pipe? Can you make out the text below in your original photo? There seems to be a cubicle and bowl on the right side of the room?

 

Nick,

This is very interesting that there were no modesty screens in 1905, so the chances that they were there outside gents in 1895 are pretty slim.  Note taken for when I build my station.

 

Thank you.

[Nick Gough]

3 hours ago, ChrisN said:

 

Nick,

This is very interesting that there were no modesty screens in 1905, so the chances that they were there outside gents in 1895 are pretty slim.  Note taken for when I build my station.

 

Thank you.

No doubt, back in 1905, ladies were delicate creatures and not expected to wander that far along the platform, from the sanctuary of the 'Ladies Waiting Room', and there would be no danger of them accidentally espying anything unmentionable.

[Nick Gough]

A slight diversion for Grandad's repair shop - a broken wheel on a radio controlled Christmas present:

A bit tricky with broken and missing bits of spokes.

 

First get rid of six weeks worth of accumulated hair and fluff:

 

Then a one inch washer and some glue:

 

Not as pretty as it was:

 

But it works and there's a happy three year old!

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

Back to the railway.

Working on the island platform, this time, where the signal box will go:

 

And - it fits!

There are cut outs in the platform, front and rear, for the point rodding and signal wires.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Nick Gough

[MrWolf]

Top job with the car repair. I like to be able to save things from going into the bin. Even nicer job with the signal box. The half level access to the operating floor is interesting.

[Nick Gough]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

Top job with the car repair. I like to be able to save things from going into the bin. Even nicer job with the signal box. The half level access to the operating floor is interesting.

Thanks.

 

When I was first handed a broken wheel I thought there was no way to successfully repair it. As my grandson's current pride and joy I was under pressure to do something though!

 

There's a surviving signal box at St Blazey, with similar access:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfrombedford/34995939176/in/photolist-VjtktE-2b9jkmG-2cizXyN-bsujSW-VTHfnm-2idSi4k-2absMnX-2iV5mJq-Nh8UWk-2d8mQw1-2cwHcX4-23Pn8Fs-WDrSeM-vRoSFu-2jQ9jqm-2d8mQxJ-TzdTM8-QhEL2Z-2cE9hPF-2heYBQ6-Qt5Q2V-q5Ba1o-mfMbQP-sECsr2-doipCF-yqM9tb-q5YDLY-2e3Ys4c-NMjFGw-fXPM9K-J5zq82-nz4tSY-qJjk1Y-2iRCMWK-2iR6jae-JLh1EL-xo9MKc-wqGP5k-x5Xuh7-eYXHYv-wqGNuc-8biGFv-eYXGyr-26Kc9nw-A1zoRV-DKBrAA-29Ku9pW-FiVuG9-fhhFvb-ZgbGkU

 

I think the operating floor was fairly low, at Cholsey, to allow the signalman to have a view, along the line towards Didcot, under the canopy of the adjacent island platform building.

 

For the same reason, I suspect, the signal box was unusually wide at 16 feet. It was 46 feet long with a 75 lever frame and replaced the two original boxes in 1908.

Edited February 7, 2021 by Nick Gough