Bodmin & Wenford Yesterday (18-8-14)

[Hayfield2]

Had a very pleasant day  on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway yesterday. Best of all was seeing the Beattie well tank pulled out of the shed by an 08. Might be to run with a Pannier for the next 3 days or just getting it out of the way for both Panniers.

 

The big boy (GWR 2-8-0T) was used all day and just about had enough steam to get us to the top of the hill.

 

Had plenty of time to look at the trackwork. Was the GWR one of the first to use Concrete sleepers? Here 2 bolt chairs on them!! 

[avonside1563]

Look like fairly standard concrete sleepers, nothing specifically GW about them.

[Brinkly]

Also Bodmin General has gone through so many changes since closure. The layout now is quite different to what was there in 1964.

 

Our club is currently rebuilding and restoring the late Mike Casey's Bodmin layout and I think all of the photos we have of Bodmim General and Boscarne Junction show timbered sleepers. I imagine the concert sleepers you have seen were laid by BWR permenant way men using recovered 2-bolt chairs.

 

I might be wrong, but I imagine that is what it is.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[The Stationmaster]

Also Bodmin General has gone through so many changes since closure. The layout now is quite different to what was there in 1964.

 

Our club is currently rebuilding and restoring the late Mike Casey's Bodmin layout and I think all of the photos we have of Bodmim General and Boscarne Junction show timbered sleepers. I imagine the concert sleepers you have seen were laid by BWR permenant way men using recovered 2-bolt chairs.

 

I might be wrong, but I imagine that is what it is.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

I think they are almost certainly ex WR concrete sleepers in view of the use of two bolt chairs - they are standard (G)WR fixing method using chair bolts with the nut on top of the chair and are typical of what the WR was installing on a number of secondary lines in the 1950s.  They are probably a late GWR design or early in the nationalised era and I can't recall ever seeing them on faster stretches of line - only those where speeds didn't exceed around the 50-60 mph mark,  we had a lot of them on our local branch where the maximum permitted speed was 50mph, they appeared to be exactly the same as those shown in the OP.

 

During WWII the GWR developed the use of concrete 'pot' 'sleepers with a tie bar between the 'pots' and also used a similar pattern concrete sleeper to that used in a number of army establishments which was characterised by a couple of slots through the thickness of the sleeper - the GWR ones were chaired in its usual manner and used with bullhead rail whereas all the WD ones I have ever seen or seen pictures of seem to have been used with flat bottom tail.

[Brinkly]

Mike your knowledge is amazing!

 

So do you recon they have 'arrived' from elsewhere on the network during volunteer ownership? Our research shows timber up until passenger closure.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[The Stationmaster]

Mike your knowledge is amazing!

 

So do you recon they have 'arrived' from elsewhere on the network during volunteer ownership? Our research shows timber up until passenger closure.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

They probably came secondhand from somewhere Nick.  A lot of this sort of track was pulled up in the '60s (and possibly even into the '70s) and some must have gone into sidings and yards as 'serviceable' and was then recovered again when yards etc were rationalised.  In the '80s it was relatively easy to buy complete track sections from BR so it might well have passed into preservation use then or simply have sat somewhere until it was later sold off or even have been sold off as redundant loose sleepers.  In other words all sorts of ways it which it could have potentially finished up at Bodmin.

 

PS My library is also useful for checking up on what I think I know