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Highworth Branch


KeithMacdonald
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http://highworthhistoricalsociety.org.uk/2020/01/30/haunted-level-crossing-of-cricklade-road/

 

As Keith pointed out with the above link, several stories abound.

 

The talk of a blackspot may have some merit. There are several similar stories whereby 'leys' have been cut with the building of modern roads etc. I've always felt railways didn't have such an effect, until a few years back I came across another local line - several deaths, some bizzare in the same area, also severe 'un-neighbourlyness', there was talk of black magic in that case. Several esoteric groups were asked to 'heal' the area, and they did with varying levels of success, but the issue kept circling back - often months later (just when people started to feel at ease). The trigger appeared to be the railway cutting through a 'ley' then there was the first fatality there - iirc a navi - others soon followed.

 

On the Highworth Branch, playing near to Black Bridge or Hannington Station at dusk, did, very often feel VERY eerie! Not recommended!!

 

Edited by CME and Bottlewasher
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I don't know who exactly to blame but the track plan for Highworth has been set out in Templot to fit in 8ft x 1ft with a gentle curve so the tracks are not parallel to the baseboard edge. It will be in EM ( to the original Manchester EM standards of 18mm gauge and 0.8mm flangeways) and will, I hope, be a "quicky" project to test how my locos and stock behave on this with narrower check rail gaps. The maths says they should do very nicely as long as I don't use steam roller flanges. Gibson/Sharman/Ultrascale all fit the dimensions nicely.

 

Looking up the North Lindsey Light Railway, there are some lovely photos of GCR period trains, with 4 wheel carriages and either N5 or J9/10 types hauling them. They had a proposed branch to a place with the rather grand name of "Burton Stather" which was (and pretty much still is) a sleepy little North Lincolnshire village. There was a small landing wharf there on the River Trent used up until 1914. Steamers from Gainsborough to Hull called there, so that was probably what justified the construction of the railway in my little world. 

 

It is strange how inspiration for a project can come from all sorts of unexpected places.

 

I hope this one progresses better than a couple of other schemes that started and then spluttered to a halt. 

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1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

I don't know who exactly to blame but the track plan for Highworth has been set out in Templot to fit in 8ft x 1ft with a gentle curve so the tracks are not parallel to the baseboard edge. It will be in EM ( to the original Manchester EM standards of 18mm gauge and 0.8mm flangeways) and will, I hope, be a "quicky" project to test how my locos and stock behave on this with narrower check rail gaps. The maths says they should do very nicely as long as I don't use steam roller flanges. Gibson/Sharman/Ultrascale all fit the dimensions nicely.

 

Looking up the North Lindsey Light Railway, there are some lovely photos of GCR period trains, with 4 wheel carriages and either N5 or J9/10 types hauling them. They had a proposed branch to a place with the rather grand name of "Burton Stather" which was (and pretty much still is) a sleepy little North Lincolnshire village. There was a small landing wharf there on the River Trent used up until 1914. Steamers from Gainsborough to Hull called there, so that was probably what justified the construction of the railway in my little world. 

 

It is strange how inspiration for a project can come from all sorts of unexpected places.

 

I hope this one progresses better than a couple of other schemes that started and then spluttered to a halt. 

Please post a link and/or photos. I always thought that EM was a great gauge to work in too. Good luck.


Inspiration, inspirato, in-spirit, to be of breath/breath in (meditation/mindfulness), from heaven sent to inspire. Always something magical about railways and model railways. For me model railways have nearly always been more than the sum of their parts, a vehicle for charity and brotherly/sisterly love. Even if, sometimes, we argue passionately about different aspects from time to time.

 

 

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2 hours ago, t-b-g said:

It will be in EM ( to the original Manchester EM standards of 18mm gauge and 0.8mm flangeways) and will, I hope, be a "quicky" project to test how my locos and stock behave on this with narrower check rail gaps. The maths says they should do very nicely as long as I don't use steam roller flanges. Gibson/Sharman/Ultrascale all fit the dimensions nicely.

 

Hi,

 

Called EM-SF in Templot.

 

Some discussion here: https://85a.uk/templot/archive/topics/topic_3380.php

 

Check rail chairs for 0.8mm flangeway are available from Exactoscale.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

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15 minutes ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Hi,

 

Called EM-SF in Templot.

 

Some discussion here: https://85a.uk/templot/archive/topics/topic_3380.php

 

Check rail chairs for 0.8mm flangeway are available from Exactoscale.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

 

Thanks Martin,

 

I found that a while ago and started a slightly more ambitious project. That has stalled slightly as I need to reorganise the railway room before I can set it up and get around it to work on it.

 

This is what they look like.

 

20200325_111915.jpg.460d5f87ba4dbf437dbbd9316e108599.jpg

 

I did get some 0.8mm Exactoscale chairs but whether they were wrongly packed or a dodgy batch but they did not set the gap at 0.8mm. They were slightly under, enough to make it too tight. If I opened Gibson or Ultrascale wheels up to just over 16.5 back to back to clear them, they were tight between the running rails. There isn't much to play with in these standards. You need consistency in flange width and back to backs of 16.5mm plus or minus not a lot to make them work.

 

So I ended up splitting them with a scalpel and widening the gap by a tiny amount.

 

I wonder how many others are actively working to these standards. My tests were very encouraging. I don't use any RTR vehicles and found that even modern Markits wheels work as long as the B2B is right, which required some shim behind the wheels on their EM axles.

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2 hours ago, CME and Bottlewasher said:

Please post a link and/or photos. I always thought that EM was a great gauge to work in too. Good luck.


Inspiration, inspirato, in-spirit, to be of breath/breath in (meditation/mindfulness), from heaven sent to inspire. Always something magical about railways and model railways. For me model railways have nearly always been more than the sum of their parts, a vehicle for charity and brotherly/sisterly love. Even if, sometimes, we argue passionately about different aspects from time to time.

 

 

 

I will do. Post some photos that is. I have worked very happily in EM for over 40 years now and wouldn't change. I while ago I was lucky to end up with a good collection of wagons and carriages that belonged to the late Sid Stubbs. The engineering on them is top drawer stuff and they really opened my eyes as to what can be achieved in terms of losing the potential for a wheel to drop in a crossing nose if their standards are adopted. It looks better than conventional EM too but still allows any EM vehicles with half decent wheels, gauges correctly, to run without modification.

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10 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I will do. Post some photos that is. I have worked very happily in EM for over 40 years now and wouldn't change. I while ago I was lucky to end up with a good collection of wagons and carriages that belonged to the late Sid Stubbs. The engineering on them is top drawer stuff and they really opened my eyes as to what can be achieved in terms of losing the potential for a wheel to drop in a crossing nose if their standards are adopted. It looks better than conventional EM too but still allows any EM vehicles with half decent wheels, gauges correctly, to run without modification.

Wheel drop through 7mm FS proprietary crossing nose V's is a pet hate of mine - thus far, for the small garden section of our/my line, I've rebuilt them.

 

Some wag once suggested that I try S7 for my garage-garden/loop/U-garage line. With a small urban garden that has a fall in three directions and being able to barely achieve 6' radius? Hardly a chance. My best effort to date is 5' 6" - 6' radius. 
 

That layout too is a stalled project for a myriad of reasons. I stuck with 7FS standards as I thought it would make life easy - I was wrong. Poor running is a pet hate of mine, 'O gauge with it's weight and mass, runs well even with proprietary models' - err not always. I was hoodwinked - too late to turn back now though.

Edited by CME and Bottlewasher
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5 minutes ago, CME and Bottlewasher said:

That layout too is a stalled project for a myriad of reasons. I stuck with 7FS standards as I thought it would make life easy - I was wrong. Poor running is a pet hate of mine, 'O gauge with it's weight and mass, runs well even with proprietary models' - err not always. I was hoodwinked - too late to turn back now though.

 

Building to 0-MF standards cures all that (and is the reason for its existence). No change needed to wheels, track gauges are available from Roxey Mouldings.

 

Martin.

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4 hours ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Building to 0-MF standards cures all that (and is the reason for its existence). No change needed to wheels, track gauges are available from Roxey Mouldings.

 

Martin.

Hi Martin,

 

Thanks - very true, however I'm not sure if my hands, eyesight etc is up to track building, since the gift of Long Covid. I'm 'working' hard to remedy such however it's rather like wading through treacle up hill.

 

I am hopeful.

 

With thanks,

 

M.

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  • 1 year later...
On 26/05/2021 at 02:07, Halvarras said:

D2195 seems to have been a regular. I've also seen a photo of D2143 at Highworth. The WR had Drewry Class 04s D2200/03/19/35/38/40 in the Worcester/Hereford area from 1964 to 1966 and although D2238 showed evidence of a Swindon Works overhaul during that time it's highly unlikely this one or any of the others ever ventured up the Highworth branch.

 

Thanks to @montyburns56 for finding this on Flickr - can we add D2185 to the list?

 

Quote

Ray Viney - Highworth, 7 Sept 1961  - D2185 with an empty workman’s train. Although the branch from Swindon closed to passengers in March 1953, it continued to be used until 1962 for conveying Swindon works staff.

 

Highworth, 7 Sept 1961 (1)

 

@CME and Bottlewasher

Or is the Flickr author mistaken?

According to BR Database, D2185 wasn't in service until 03/05/1962, and was first assigned to Danygraig (87C).

Another Highworth mystery?

 

https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=D&id=2185&loco=2185

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11 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Or is the Flickr author mistaken?

According to BR Database, D2185 wasn't in service until 03/05/1962, and was first assigned to Danygraig (87C).

Another Highworth mystery?

 

Maybe D2195? It was photographed at Highworth 18/06/1962  https://railphotoprints.uk/p426458760/h4CAFE18A#h4cafe18a

 

D2195 allocated to 82C 23/05/1961

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14 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Thanks to @montyburns56 for finding this on Flickr - can we add D2185 to the list?

 

 

Highworth, 7 Sept 1961 (1)

 

@CME and Bottlewasher

Or is the Flickr author mistaken?

According to BR Database, D2185 wasn't in service until 03/05/1962, and was first assigned to Danygraig (87C).

Another Highworth mystery?

 

https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=D&id=2185&loco=2185

Hi Keith,

 

AFAICT there were fifteen 03s that worked the line. I can't identify D2185 as being one of them. Please read on.....

14 hours ago, Pannier Tank said:

 

Maybe D2195? It was photographed at Highworth 18/06/1962  https://railphotoprints.uk/p426458760/h4CAFE18A#h4cafe18a

 

D2195 allocated to 82C 23/05/1961

I could concur with that, the loco was photographed on the line a fair bit, certainly part of the roster for the HB. However...

 

D2182 worked the last train on the branch - perhaps Flicker photo is a typo?

 

I hope that helps guys.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Does anyone know why the "Workmen" train was timetabled as such and not just an ordinary Passenger service?

i.e. the 07.35 from Swindon, arriving Highworth at 08.05.

But it comes back from Highworth at 08.17, arriving Swindon at 08.44.

Especially if there was only one engine in service, would they have changed carriages just for a "Workmen" train?

Or was it just timetabled that way so the couth gentlefolk of Highworth knew not to mix with the uncouth Swindonians?

 

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36 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Does anyone know why the "Workmen" train was timetabled as such and not just an ordinary Passenger service?

i.e. the 07.35 from Swindon, arriving Highworth at 08.05.

But it comes back from Highworth at 08.17, arriving Swindon at 08.44.

Especially if there was only one engine in service, would they have changed carriages just for a "Workmen" train?

Or was it just timetabled that way so the couth gentlefolk of Highworth knew not to mix with the uncouth Swindonians?

 

 

Hi Keith,

 

Cheap fare Workmen's Tickets could be used on them. Originally half-price. There was a restriction on how much luggage you could take with you on a Workmen's Ticket.

 

"Worker or workmen’s tickets had existed on Britain’s railways since the 1840’s, as part of the 1844 act. These were cheap fares on early morning workmen’s trains. By the 1950’s they were re-named as ‘early morning returns’ and abolished completely in 1961. The term ‘workman’ having become socially unacceptable."

 

See:  https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/fares-fare/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Trains_Act_1883

 

 

 

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On 30/10/2022 at 18:04, martin_wynne said:

 

Hi Keith,

 

Cheap fare Workmen's Tickets could be used on them. Originally half-price. There was a restriction on how much luggage you could take with you on a Workmen's Ticket.

 

"Worker or workmen’s tickets had existed on Britain’s railways since the 1840’s, as part of the 1844 act. These were cheap fares on early morning workmen’s trains. By the 1950’s they were re-named as ‘early morning returns’ and abolished completely in 1961. The term ‘workman’ having become socially unacceptable."

 

See:  https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/fares-fare/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Trains_Act_1883

 

 

 

In addition, allowing for shift patterns too?

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  • 9 months later...

A late addition. I've just found the 1941 OS Map that has a better plan of the South Marston Siding, with its own little halt. That was presumable for Workers Special trains to & from Swindon, for the workers at the hidden Vickers/Supermarine factory, to the right.

 

image.png.a12df99fb3fd0dae7019e8da9b9a6946.png

 

Ref: https://maps.nls.uk/view/106026154

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

@CME and Bottlewasher - a Sit.Rep.

 

Guy Richie has made a film of the book "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Said to be due for release in 2024.

 

Will it be historically accurate? Probably not, as Guy Richie is famously the producer of over-the-top caper movies like "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". Highly entertaining but not believable.

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  • 5 months later...

I think that in the 1940s one asked at the Post Office in Highworth for that Department, and lo, transport would arrive.  They originally taught the Auxiliary Unit folk for the UK and after that  the SOE folk for all over Europe

House now totally demolished I believe. . .

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