Abbotswood stolen tractor incident

[Phil Bullock]

And even more has gone with the coal flows disappearing ....whats left? Not even much steel these days...and oil trains are so long they were probably 3 or 4 trainloads back in the 60s....

 

Phil

[Reorte]

...and oil trains are so long they were probably 3 or 4 trainloads back in the 60s....

That raises a question about how heavily-used a line is. If it's one train carrying as much as three or four it's easy to claim "this line sees a third / quarter of the traffic it used to, it's really not that well-used any more" but is still carrying as much as ever.

[28XX]

That raises a question about how heavily-used a line is. If it's one train carrying as much as three or four it's easy to claim "this line sees a third / quarter of the traffic it used to, it's really not that well-used any more" but is still carrying as much as ever.

Rather like the USA model. Single track, minimal signalling, long sections, very long trains but still worth maintaining for the hundreds of lorry loads saved.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Back in the early 1960s there were only about 10 freight paths booked daily each way between Honeybourne and Cheltenham. About half of these were in connection with the Banbury Ironstone traffic.

[Fat Controller]

That raises a question about how heavily-used a line is. If it's one train carrying as much as three or four it's easy to claim "this line sees a third / quarter of the traffic it used to, it's really not that well-used any more" but is still carrying as much as ever.

Except that traffic figures are based on tonnes moved, rather than the number of trains. This also provides the PW engineers with the data needed for the planning of maintenance.

[Rugd1022]

There were certainly some sparodic movements along the Cheltenham - Stratford route right up until that fateful derailment at Winchcombe in August '76 when the Toton - Severn Tunnel Junction freight came a cropper, between late '73 and about June '76 a mate's Dad used to take us on regular trips round the Cotswolds in his old Wolseley 1.5. We'd drop in at Honeybourne, Broadway, Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse to see if anything was about and saw various empty stock, freight and light engine movements which often took us by surprise , and on one memorable occasion D1052 on a well patronised railtour on 29/3/75. We saw it at Cheltenham Racecourse then just caught it again at Stratford, beating it by about fifteen minutes. One particular light engine move sticks in the mind too, Hymek 7029 ambling south through Willesey in early '74 (between Honeybourne and Toddington). I think the last raceday special to call at Cheltenham was 47 hauled in March '75 or '76. Some of the raceday specials went empty stock from Cheltenham to Toddington to birth and run round, while a few continued on via Honeybourne to Worcester to run round there before returning south agin. The Kidderminster Railway Photographic Archive holds numerous negatives and prints of these activities, I've bought some of them over the years but they rarely make it into books or magazines.

 

Edit : apologies for continuing to veer off topic - I know I've mentioned this before in another thread somewhere but one of my colleagues who started as a Secondman at Saltley in 1975 remembers working a Peak hauled freight from Washwood Heath to Gloucester via Honeybourne with an ex-Tyseley Driver, in either '75 or early '76.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I lived near to Spring Road station from Late 1975 and remember a daily southbound freight worked by a variety af classes in the late morning time.

[Phil Bullock]

So here are the presumably temporary bridge repairs - many thanks to Steve Widdowson for the photos

 

 

 

Cant imagine that is a permanent repair

 

Phil