Parkend track to Marsh sidings

[Jenny Emily]

I’m trying to find out when the tracks from Parkend to Marsh sidings were lifted, and why the first level crossing still remains with its rails in the road but nothing past it (except a small piece now reinstated with a coal wagon on it - was this relayed or did it get excavated from being buried?) 

 

 

I have seen a picture of rails still in situ in around 1983; was there a reason that the sidings were not preserved as part of the Dean Forest railway? Did the tracks get lifted, or just buried? The tracks in the station yard look to be original but well buried.

 

thanks in advance. 
 

 

[F-UnitMad]

The bit of track with the Parkend open wagon on it is a recent addition. The rails definitely ended on the 'far edge' of New Road in the 1990s when I was round that area regularly with one driving job I had. The almost-buried rails in the yard are original as far as I know.

Not sure just when Marsh sidings were lifted, or why only to New Road. The D.F.R. had set up at Parkend in the very early '70s and even stored stock at Marsh for a bit, but had moved to Norchard by the time they were lifted. Before Parkend was reopened properly by the D.F.R. the stub to Marsh was still connected, via a double slip as part of the run-round loop in the station. But the slip was removed and the station sidings & stub to Marsh cut off; I don't know, but it is possibly to do with conditions for reopening imposed by the Railway Inspectorate or whoever governs what Heritage railways can do. The D.F.R. already has several level crossings on it's route, so also probably didn't want the expense of yet another, that would rarely, if ever, be used, especially as I understand they have no interest in trying to reinstate the sidings themselves.

[Nickey Line]

 

Hi, you might want to try asking on this thread...

I suspect those involved might know the answers, and more besides!

[Paul H Vigor]

1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said:

The bit of track with the Parkend open wagon on it is a recent addition. The rails definitely ended on the 'far edge' of New Road in the 1990s when I was round that area regularly with one driving job I had. The almost-buried rails in the yard are original as far as I know.

Not sure just when Marsh sidings were lifted, or why only to New Road. The D.F.R. had set up at Parkend in the very early '70s and even stored stock at Marsh for a bit, but had moved to Norchard by the time they were lifted. Before Parkend was reopened properly by the D.F.R. the stub to Marsh was still connected, via a double slip as part of the run-round loop in the station. But the slip was removed and the station sidings & stub to Marsh cut off; I don't know, but it is possibly to do with conditions for reopening imposed by the Railway Inspectorate or whoever governs what Heritage railways can do. The D.F.R. already has several level crossings on it's route, so also probably didn't want the expense of yet another, that would rarely, if ever, be used, especially as I understand they have no interest in trying to reinstate the sidings themselves.

I recall, back in the day, there were health & safety concerns relating to a number of industrial sites in the Forest of Dean - mostly administered by the Forestry Commission. Seemed to involve fears that people might suffer falls off structures? Must say, I climbed all over such structures - including Marsh Wharf - as a child in the mid-1970s, and never came to grief! The clearance policy cost us much industrial archaeology. 

[br2975]

Last train out of Marsh Sidings was a Cl.37 and 16 tonners, I believe bound for Uskmouth P.S. May 1976.

 

[Jenny Emily]

Thanks for the replies. 
 

The stub is connected, though the point timbers appear to be in the process of being replaced. 
 

[F-UnitMad]

8 hours ago, Jenny Emily said:

The stub is connected,

Well that is good news, & nice to see! The original arrangement used to be a double-slip, with a headshunt alongside the main for a short distance. Another possible reason for removal of the slip could've been maintenance costs.

[Re6/6]

Picture taken 7th May 1976. Ctsy Parkhouse/Lightmoor Press

 

Possibly the last train out judging by the 'audience'!

 

[Nickey Line]

29 minutes ago, Re6/6 said:

Picture taken 7th May 1976. Ctsy Parkhouse/Lightmoor Press

 

Possibly the last train out judging by the 'audience'!

 

 

Would those be Scotch blocks on each siding?

[F-UnitMad]

It was 37 270, according to something I read years ago, probably in the old "Forest Venturer" D.F.R. Society magazine, although in the Lightmoor Press book that photo is taken from, the loco identity is claimed to be unknown.

[Michael Hodgson]

10 hours ago, br2975 said:

Last train out of Marsh Sidings was a Cl.37 and 16 tonners, I believe bound for Uskmouth P.S. May 1976.

 

My father had previously worked for the Forestry Commission, but in the New Forest where he had dealings with a Verderer's Court to adjudicate on laws peculiar to that forest - we held the reception after his funeral in the Verderer's Courtroom at the Speech House.  I had gained the impression (perhaps quite wrongly) from him that the fairly infrequent traffic I saw was coal extracted using "freemining rights" under ancient forestry law.  I remember fairly short trains of 16T minerals being flagged over the road crossings, and I should have some 35 mm slides buried away somewhere.

 

I remember the Dean Forest Railway as having a short length of track at the present Parkend platform with ambitions to take over the branch, but they were frustrated by BR's continued operations on the branch.  I think they wanted some sort of deal along the lines of BR use the track during the week, preservation trains at the weekend, but that was not acceptable to BR, and they moved to Norchard after giving up on that.

[Re6/6]

27 minutes ago, Nickey Line said:

 

Would those be Scotch blocks on each siding?

Yes they are. IIRC the story goes that, as the sidings must have been on a slight downslope, some wagons ran away and smashed into a set of gates so they were fitted to stop a re-ocurrence! 

[pacer lover]

hi all 

 as far as i know , the siding where lifted by the DFR to re use the track else where  not sure on a date tho   will ask when next up  there .   The slip was removed before we reopen the line to parkend  to passengers  traffic  as the layout was simplefy  and the yard was disconected .  The yard have been reconected in the last few years   ready for the signal box coming in use ( hopefully in the next few months ) 

regards

rob 

[shipbadger]

As someone who was closely involved in restoring the wagon on the short length of track perhaps I can add to the following.  The short legth of track stands on ground belonging to the Forestry Commission.  Fortuitously one of the utility companies happened to have a digger adjacent to where the track was going to go and the 'job' has finished.  The driver obviously had an interst in the railway and asked if there was anything to do.  Yes please, level that bit out please.  Red faces later as the correct permissions were still pending.  The wagon is in response to the residents of Parkend wanting their village gatekeeper.  Another example is Littledean which has a collection of milk churns.  Both are intended to show old industries associated with the settlement.

 

The wagon is actually ex-SECR, the Parkend colliery wagons were taken to Liverpool in WW2 and used to store timber away from the docks area.  The timber for the restoration came from the Lydney Park woodlands.  The last movement out of Marsh Sidings afaik was the at the request of BR the DFR's 03 shunter retrieved a few wagons which had been left behind by the last revenue earning train. 

 

There never has been any intention to use the sidings for the heritage railway.  Just look at old photos to se how close the railway was to the front doors of the cottages.

 

Level crossings have been the subject of long winded negotiations with the ORR if the plans to reach further in to the Forest are to come to fruition.  As is probably known the official policy is to remove as many crossing as possible, not have new ones even if they existed on the site previously.  The rails in the road are there still as it's cheaper than digging them up!

 

The MR 3 plank wagon was an earlier restoration project.  Officially it dates from 1896 but I think could have been a year or two earlier.  Originally it had a wooden underframe but at some point a steel one was fitted but using much of the originall steelwork.  It was transferred to Sharpness docks as an internal used and never received brake levers on both sides.  When we were working on it and needed to put the brakes on or off we always seemed to be on the side the lever wasn't!

 

Tony Comber

 

[johnofwessex]

At the expense of thread drift, how were the sidings operated in their final form?

 

Did the loco 'run round' in the station area then shunt Marsh Sidings or did it use the loop in Marsh Sidings?

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, johnofwessex said:

At the expense of thread drift, how were the sidings operated in their final form?

 

Did the loco 'run round' in the station area then shunt Marsh Sidings or did it use the loop in Marsh Sidings?

Almost all of the photos I've seen - steam or diesel - have the loco at the 'station' end of the train, so I assume (dangerous, I know) that they ran round at the station & propelled into the sidings, which would be easier anyway if there were already a lot of wagons there.

However by the time of the last BR workings, the D.F.R. was in residence at the station, so run rounds might no longer have been possible there.

Besides which, the original station loop used to go over Yorkley Road, as indeed it does again now, but when I first saw the station in 1994 the tracks had been lifted from the end of the platforms & the level crossing over Yorkley Road removed, and a single point approx halfway along the near platform created the loop. Exactly when this was done I don't know, but it shortened the station loop by some distance. If it was done in the late '60s, maybe that would have forced the last BR trains to use the loop at Marsh sidings due to train length. Again that is just speculation, though.

Edited January 5, 2022 by F-UnitMad

[Captain Kernow]

According to Neil Parkhouse in his excellent, brilliant book 'Forest of Dean Lines and the Severn Bridge' (Lightmoor Press), the track was lifted in the early 1990s, but he doesn't state whether this was done by the DFR or not.

 

My understanding is that the DFR just didn't have the resources to preserve Marsh Sidings. They were initially a very small operation, in the tiny goods yard at Parkend station and once they had acquired the site at Norchard, that required a significant effort to develop that as a visitor attraction and then it was a question of gradually reopening the line down to Lydney and then up to Parkend station itself.

 

It would have been a lovely thing to see the line to Marsh Sidings preserved, but apart from rail vehicle storage, you have to ask what the DFR would really do with it? It's hardly a logical destination (from Lydney) when you have Parkend station already there and Speech House Road beckoning in future years.

 

If there had been some overriding need to reopen it, I am sure that solutions could have been found to the level crossing issue, but the expense of that, plus the absence of trains from the land immediately in front of the cottages and pub would have presented considerable problems to overcome if nothing else.

 

What was verging on the criminal, though, was the wanton demolition of the old stone loading wharf at Marsh Sidings, a significant relic from the industrial revolution, now landscaped out of existence by the H&S jobsworths.

 

All being well, Re6/6's P4 model of Parkend Marsh Sidings should be in operation at the RMWeb Members Day at Taunton at the end of next April.