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WW2 Trackside pilboxs...


class"66"

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Interesting topic,

One thing I had been planing to include on my 1947 layout is the leftovers from the war, with the planning being an Anderson shelter in a garden and a pillbox next to the road bridge at the right hand end of the layout overlooking the goods yard.

 

Looking through these links has given a couple of prototype Somerset pillboxes to copy

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That got me rembering a pillbox at the end of some sidings on the north side of the GW mainline somewhere between Paddington and Slough. Some wag had painted 'Tex Catty Kat' on it sometime in the '60s at least, maybe earlier. I saw it every time I took that line, and I think it was still there - the graffiti - last time I passed a couple of years ago.

 

Historical graffiti? Anyone know the story of it?

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This afternoon i went for walk round the old ROF at Hooton,which is only down the road from my house.

After half an hour,of looking round i soon came across wartime pilbox,or some type of bunker/pilbox.

This one is next to Hooton railway station,but part of the old Wirral way line...

post-10160-0-54470900-1385953197.jpg

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This afternoon i went for walk round the old ROF at Hooton,which is only down the road from my house.

After half an hour,of looking round i soon came across wartime pilbox,or some type of bunker/pilbox.

This one is next to Hooton railway station,but part of the old Wirral way line...

Hi Class 66

 

The pillbox in the photo is a non standard WW2 box. It could be pre war or one built early in the war before the standard types were designed. The slits in the box are larger than normal, far wider than a normal rifle or LMG opening. It looks to me more like an observation post than a pillbox. Were there ranges at Hooton? It could be a observation post for the ranges.

 

Nice find.

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Interesting topic,

One thing I had been planing to include on my 1947 layout is the leftovers from the war, with the planning being an Anderson shelter in a garden and a pillbox next to the road bridge at the right hand end of the layout overlooking the goods yard.

 

Looking through these links has given a couple of prototype Somerset pillboxes to copy

Hi Rich

 

Me and my mates had a den in an old Anderson shelter until the big boys chased us out, and that was in 1960s.

 

The remains of a road block or some anti-tank obstacles would be another feature. Blackard Bombard mountings were quite common, I know of two locally to me. Or even the local framer filling in the trenches by the pillbox, using POWs as his labour force.

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As I understand it pillboxes were placed next to railway lines for a couple of different reasons. The first was, as along the WSR, to take advantage of railway embankments etc. to act as defensive earthworks. The second, as with the western side of Bridgwater station, was to act as a defence against invading forces (particularly tanks) using the railway line as a convenient, unobstructed road.

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Vague post time: I seem to recall a fairly recentish article in Model Rail (?) which involved scratchbuilding a station building (Southern Railway?) that had two gun emplacements built in or on the top of it.

 

Not much help I know but hopefully somebody else will remember the article or know the station!

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Hi Class 66

 

The pillbox in the photo is a non standard WW2 box. It could be pre war or one built early in the war before the standard types were designed. The slits in the box are larger than normal, far wider than a normal rifle or LMG opening. It looks to me more like an observation post than a pillbox. Were there ranges at Hooton? It could be a observation post for the ranges.

 

Nice find.

Ive done little bit more research today on Roften Works Hooton Cheshire,it comes up with WW2 anti tank gun making factory :no: It also had standard gauge railway tracking

going into the site,and narrow gauge track linking all its site buildings.... :read:

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When I was looking for a house to rent about 5 years ago, I discovered one with an Anderson shelter still in use as the garden shed. I also remember my granddad used the transplanted corrugated iron parts of one as his allotment shed, until his death in the early 1980s.

 

There were probably a lot of pillboxes along the GWR Berks & Hants line, as one of the stop lines followed the Kennett & Avon Canal.

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Furthermore to my previous answer...

 

 

This is a rather curious example just before a railway bridge. - A4118 (Gower Road) by the Clyne River.

 

Just before the Railway Inn, its practically invisible and covers both the bridge and railway. Very well camouflaged indeed.

 

30kbyid.png

 

xpzr10.png

 

I could get clearer images if you wished.

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