Jonny's "where are these?" photo album

[Edwin_m]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

Already confirmed by others but this is Brent South End, the scene of many a derailment and visit from the Breakdown Crane when I was a secondman at Stonebridge Park, it was pretty much a weekly occurence in those days.  These days the signal gantry at the south end of the through goods roads just out of view to the right is a regular relieving point and Harlesden station on the DC line is off to the left, down below. The second bridge, seen through the first carries the Dudding Hill and Neasden Junction line over the WCML to Acton Canal Wharf and Acton Wells junctions.

 

Great selection of photos by the way, very nice.

 

 

Is the upper lens a fixed red, or possibly a searchlight like the ones that used to exist at Nottingham station west end?  There is a subsidiary aspect below so I don't think this is one of the obsolete types of miniature shunt aspect.  

 

Perhaps the extremely low positioning of these signals was part of the reason for frequent derailments.  

Edited March 29, 2020 by Edwin_m

[SM42]

I'm just amazed I recognised some of these. Equally amazed by how things have changed too

 

Andy

[73c]

Thought the 3rd rail photo with crossing, signal box and gasometers might have been the one used in the film 'The Wrong arm of the Law ' with Peter Sellers.

Which would put it between Hampton Wick and Teddington.

[uax6]

7 hours ago, iands said:

Here's another 3, some or all maybe at the same locations already identified and would be grateful for confirmation. Something unusual (for me at least) in the 3rd photo are the sub-signals, I've not come across this type before.

 

 

Nice pair of ground mounted searchlights there, quite unusual here in blighty, but the subs under them are something I've never seen before....

 

Andy G

[beast66606]

17 minutes ago, uax6 said:

Nice pair of ground mounted searchlights there, quite unusual here in blighty, but the subs under them are something I've never seen before...

 

Think they might be fixed reds Andy, allowing the route to them to show a single yellow rather than the train being slowed and getting a sub. The subs on these signals are the departure signals.

[uax6]

They certainly look like they could be searchlights, easy to keep at red mind, just don't wire them up. The one on the right does make me think it is a searchlight, that vertical line across the red is something I'm sure I've seen in a searchlight before....

 

Andy G

[iands]

9 hours ago, big jim said:

the reference to the church in Tipton in previous posts also relates to this pic as you can see it to the left of the frame

 

google mapping the location gives me this as a possible point

 

Dropped pin
Near Tipton
https://goo.gl/maps/pRyeGotVdAy5hUeE9

 

Between coseley and Tipton looking toward Birmingham, the give always are the bend in the canal On the right and the long building to the left , in particular the skylight arrangement that is the same in the pic as google maps

 

 

 

the signal has a No1 route indicator which is hazard a guess would take you into the aforementioned princes end branch

 

on the down side there is a signal box that those with knowledge of the area may be able to identify (Tipton curve signal box maybe?)

Many thanks Jim. 

[beast66606]

10 hours ago, big jim said:

on the down side there is a signal box that those with knowledge of the area may be able to identify (Tipton curve signal box maybe?)

 

Is it Littleton Colliery ? - became a ground frame after the PSB came along in the 1960s

[5BarVT]

10 minutes ago, beast66606 said:

 

Is it Littleton Colliery ? - became a ground frame after the PSB came along in the 1960s

 

10 hours ago,  big jim said: 

“on the down side there is a signal box that those with knowledge of the area may be able to identify (Tipton curve signal box maybe?)”

 

It’s Bloomfield Jn. Shunt Frame, at the Wolves corner of the Princes End branch triangle, and also controlled the siding to South Staffs Wagon Co.

Paul.

[Rugd1022]

12 hours ago, Edwin_m said:

Is the upper lens a fixed red, or possibly a searchlight like the ones that used to exist at Nottingham station west end?  There is a subsidiary aspect below so I don't think this is one of the obsolete types of miniature shunt aspect.  

 

Perhaps the extremely low positioning of these signals was part of the reason for frequent derailments.  

 

I'd say some of the derailments were down to the low height of the signals but most were caused by over enthusiastic driving as I recall...!

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

I'd say some of the derailments were down to the low height of the signals but most were caused by over enthusiastic driving as I recall...!

Probably a bit like Saltley (although there it was added to by GPLs being on the wrong side) and certain Drivers not being exactly sure if their whereabouts. aka poor knowledge of the road - SPADs were a regular feature for Eastleigh Drivers on their occasional visits to Saltley).

 

Incidentally the subs of that unusual appearance were a far from uncommon feature on signals on certain parts of the LMR - I think they originally dated from early 1950s resignallings but might have been a bit older.

[DY444]

16 hours ago, 73c said:

Thought the 3rd rail photo with crossing, signal box and gasometers might have been the one used in the film 'The Wrong arm of the Law ' with Peter Sellers.

Which would put it between Hampton Wick and Teddington.

 

No it's definitely Motspur Park.  Photo taken from the country end of the platform looking towards Worcester Park with the junction for the Chessington branch in the distance.  

[73c]

See it now, just looked on Google maps (satellite) should have realized by the way the road crosses.  

[jonny777]

Can someone shed light on this unit, and its previous identity? And, if possible, the location please?

 

There is a 33 at the far end. 

 

I don't have Platform 5 books from the 1990s, and so have no access to the information. A quick web search turns up very little, but I may be looking in the wrong place. 

 

 

 

[nigb55009]

It looks like a sandite unit in platform 1 at Salisbury. The leading vehicle has been converted from an 

ex Tyneside 2EPB, these units are recognisable by the slightly smaller headcode panel than the standard

2 EPB. The class 33 will be a 33/1 Push-Pull variant so the train can be driven from either end.

[5BarVT]

In the 1992 platform 5 book it is described as a Carriage Cleaning Fluid Unit.  931 061 ADB977559 (65313) ADB 977560 (65320). I don’t go back far enough to translate the coach numbers into what they used to be.

Paul.

[keefer]

Not a better photo but good description

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/16215600709

 

[Metr0Land]

Tonbridge

 

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

On 29/03/2020 at 16:59, iands said:

The second shows some track rationalisation has taken place, and the tanks in the sidings on the left may provide a clue.

Bloomfield Junction signal box just behind the left hand leg of the first gantry. Area to the left was the site of Bloomfield Basin sidings, later used by South Staffs Wagon. The land to the right was the connection to Tipton Five Ways Goods and Coal Deopt which came down from the OWW just north of their Tipton Station (aka Tipton Five Ways)

Edited March 30, 2020 by TheSignalEngineer
Correction about connection from OWW

[big jim]

It’s funny that after 20 odd years working trains down there it wasn’t until last night thanks to rail maps online that I discovered there was a line over the top Of the stour line from Dudley (you can make out the embankment in the picture) and indeed a wagon works where the recycling plant is now 

 

I knew there was a triangular jn to what I now know is the princes end branch but again that was something I thought closed in the middle of the last century looking at the remains on the ground, didn’t know it existed until the 80s 

 

it’s amazing how much railway there was around the Black Country

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Agreed Jim, and just how handy would some of those lines be now if they were anything like intact...?

 

A great area for modelling inspiration too... 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Rugd1022

[TheSignalEngineer]

33 minutes ago, big jim said:

I knew there was a triangular jn to what I now know is the princes end branch but again that was something I thought closed in the middle of the last century looking at the remains on the ground, didn’t know it existed until the 80s 

Tipton Curve Junction was at the Princes End point of the triangle. Tipton Station box which was at the site of the old Owen Street crossing controlled the Birmingham end. 

Bloomfield Junction controlled the points at the Bloomfield road bridge. These were some way off from the box and my Grandad told me that when he first went there which would have been c1920 the points were closer to the box and there was originally some interlaced track over the bridge. 

 

I walked the Princes End branch on the last day it was officially open in 1981, although it had been out of use for some months due to a bank fire between Princes End and Tipton Curve.  The bank had completely gone for about three feet below the sleepers in one place, we had to walk over the gap on the sleepers and could feel the heat of the fire coming up out of the ground.

 

110_2-8_2 Apr 1981 Princes End by Charles Eric Steele, on Flickr

[melmerby]

All on this map:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/115475968

[eastglosmog]

13 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

..............

 

I walked the Princes End branch on the last day it was officially open in 1981, although it had been out of use for some months due to a bank fire between Princes End and Tipton Curve.  The bank had completely gone for about three feet below the sleepers in one place, we had to walk over the gap on the sleepers and could feel the heat of the fire coming up out of the ground.

 

110_2-8_2 Apr 1981 Princes End by Charles Eric Steele, on Flickr

A hazard of building the embankment with colliery spoil?  19th century coal mine waste had a high coal content (mostly slack coal) and quite often caught fire due to spontaneous combustion or the practice of dumping hot ash on it.  Burning spoil heaps were a serious problem.

[luckymucklebackit]

Waste from Shale Oil mining was as bad, as BR found out to their cost when the embankment between Winchburgh Tunnel and The Almond Valley Viaduct which had been buit using wast shale went on fire.  The Shale bings were extremely dangerous places as the fire could burn underground leaving a crust on top that would collapse when someone walked over, sending them down into a void where the shale would be red hot, resulting in death or severe burns.

 

Jim