Bridgwater North

[RailWest]

The Bridgwater branch closed to passengers on 1-Dec-1952 and then to goods on 4-Oct-1954. After the latter date goods traffic was maintained at Bridgwater North by means of a new connecting chord to the ex-GWR docks line.

 

Now, Jem Harrison’s book on the line states that BN closed to goods on 7-July-62. However RA Cooke (Section 18) lists some of the station trackwork being taken out-of-use in 1964 and the rest closed in April 1967. So which dates are correct? Or was there perhaps some sort of formal closure of part of the site in 1962 and then maybe some residual use for a few more years?

 

[Blandford1969]

Sorry no idea

[phil_sutters]

 

The Bridgwater branch closed to passengers on 1-Dec-1952 and then to goods on 4-Oct-1954. After the latter date goods traffic was maintained at Bridgwater North by means of a new connecting chord to the ex-GWR docks line.

 

Now, Jem Harrison’s book on the line states that BN closed to goods on 7-July-62. However RA Cooke (Section 18) lists some of the station trackwork being taken out-of-use in 1964 and the rest closed in April 1967. So which dates are correct? Or was there perhaps some sort of formal closure of part of the site in 1962 and then maybe some residual use for a few more years?

 

The Bridgwater branch closed to passengers on 1-Dec-1952 and then to goods on 4-Oct-1954. After the latter date goods traffic was maintained at Bridgwater North by means of a new connecting chord to the ex-GWR docks line.

 

This interesting shot came up on the photo-sharing site I use - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/grisleyreg/31576363. As noted before, not all firewalls like 'ipernity'.

[RailWest]

An interesting shot indeed, which I came across only recently on the web.

 

According to Cooke, when the branch shut to goods the line was retained past the level-crossing as far north as Boards siding, with a further short section of the branch past there. I would assume that was to provide a spur to use to hold wagons when shunting Boards, otherwise why not just keep the ex-branch line just running direct into Boards? In that case I would have expected just a simple hand-point, but there seems to be something more substantial where the two chaps are standing. Maybe they kept the old GF, rather than bother the trouble of putting in a hand-point instead? If only it could be enlarged nicely.......:-)

[phil_sutters]

An interesting shot indeed, which I came across only recently on the web.

 

According to Cooke, when the branch shut to goods the line was retained past the level-crossing as far north as Boards siding, with a further short section of the branch past there. I would assume that was to provide a spur to use to hold wagons when shunting Boards, otherwise why not just keep the ex-branch line just running direct into Boards? In that case I would have expected just a simple hand-point, but there seems to be something more substantial where the two chaps are standing. Maybe they kept the old GF, rather than bother the trouble of putting in a hand-point instead? If only it could be enlarged nicely.......:-)

If only it could be enlarged nicely.......:-)    I don't think that wish will come true - this is a comment the photographer made - One I took on a camera that was old even by 1950s standards, and only recently rediscovered it,

Edited October 11, 2016 by phil_sutters

[RailWest]

It has been brought to my attention that there was an article by RA Lacy in S&DRT Bulletin No 43 (1971 – before my time) about the Bridgwater Branch in which he states that the signal-box at Bridgwater North was relocated to its later site by the level-crossing on 7th September 1903. This is the first time that I have seen such a specific date quoted for this change and one which is much earlier than previous estimates.

Does anyone perhaps know of his source for this ‘fact’ and/or was there by chance any follow-up discussion in subsequent issues? Is the author still with us and if so does anyone have any contact details please?

 

Chris

[Blandford1969]

1 hour ago, RailWest said:

It has been brought to my attention that there was an article by RA Lacy in S&DRT Bulletin No 43 (1971 – before my time) about the Bridgwater Branch in which he states that the signal-box at Bridgwater North was relocated to its later site by the level-crossing on 7th September 1903. This is the first time that I have seen such a specific date quoted for this change and one which is much earlier than previous estimates.

Does anyone perhaps know of his source for this ‘fact’ and/or was there by chance any follow-up discussion in subsequent issues? Is the author still with us and if so does anyone have any contact details please?

 

Chris

Could this be recorded in the 'officers minutes' ?

[bécasse]

I have a feeling that it was R A Lacey and I have certainly seen the results of other research in that name in the distant past - my brain keeps suggesting an HMRS connection but that might be wrong. The 7th September 1903 was a Monday and so a perfectly feasible date for the bringing into use of a replacement signal box on a line not open on Sundays. My experience has been that dates that are quoted fully and are feasible are far more likely to right, suggesting that they come from documentation, than someone's inspired guess of, say, November 19xx (with shadows showing that the sun is high in the sky!).

[RailWest]

1 hour ago, Blandford1969 said:

Could this be recorded in the 'officers minutes' ?

Been through those! Lots of such things (eg the opening of the box at Corfe Mullen) simply not mentioned in there at all :-(

[Blandford1969]

8 hours ago, RailWest said:

Been through those! Lots of such things (eg the opening of the box at Corfe Mullen) simply not mentioned in there at all :-(

Ah ok, in that case no ideas, sorry

[bécasse]

I would suggest two possible sources, particularly bearing in mind that this was all but 50 years ago:

 

1) An S&DJR Sectional Appendix which included a dated amendment,

 

2) Information on the supply of a new frame for the box or other relevant information held at Wimbledon, which surfaced during a turn out and was "rescued" rather than being burnt.

 

In 1977, when the S&ISD moved from 50 Liverpool Street to the former RCH building in Eversholt Street, I was given the task of "weeding" the former Southern Railway Shipping & Continental Department service planning files. Incredibly the files went back well before the Great War but my instructions were clear, space constraints meant that only the 1% relating to ongoing legal agreements were to be retained. I kept a few choice items for myself, checked that Porchester Road weren't interested - they definitely weren't - and the rest were burnt. I suspect that that was repeated a hundred fold around the railway as offices amalgamated and/or moved.

[RailWest]

11 hours ago, bécasse said:

I would suggest two possible sources, particularly bearing in mind that this was all but 50 years ago:

 

1) An S&DJR Sectional Appendix which included a dated amendment,

 

2) Information on the supply of a new frame for the box or other relevant information held at Wimbledon, which surfaced during a turn out and was "rescued" rather than being burnt.

 

In 1977, when the S&ISD moved from 50 Liverpool Street to the former RCH building in Eversholt Street, I was given the task of "weeding" the former Southern Railway Shipping & Continental Department service planning files. Incredibly the files went back well before the Great War but my instructions were clear, space constraints meant that only the 1% relating to ongoing legal agreements were to be retained. I kept a few choice items for myself, checked that Porchester Road weren't interested - they definitely weren't - and the rest were burnt. I suspect that that was repeated a hundred fold around the railway as offices amalgamated and/or moved.

Err, more like 115 years ago :-)

 

1. Some S&DJR WTT Appendices exist, but there is nothing specific in the surviving 1905 or 1914 editions which pinpoint the actual location of the box.

 

2. There is evidence now which sugegsts that the 'knee' frame in the replacement box was made by McK&H, so do their order books for (say) 1900-1910 stil exist anywhere?

[bécasse]

The event was 115 years ago, but it was RAL's comment that is almost 50 years old, and so 65 years after the event. If I look back now 65 years, it is amazing what I can remember, and reasonably accurately date, from that time, far more indeed than I can from later years, and I take an interest in things that 'turn up' from that era.

 

What I was suggesting was not so much that the SA itself could have provided a date (and it would seem it definitely doesn't) but that someone might have kept not just an SA but a notice that the crossing was in future to be controlled by the relocated box and that would have been dated. I acquired an old GWR rule book when my late father-in-law, a signalman on Reading Panel, died and he had meticulously kept every issued update during its validity - he wouldn't have been the only one to do that.

 

If it was knee-frame then surely it came from the L&SWR's stock of such (component) items which, as you doubtless know, was renewed as necessary and often by a different supplier (but to the same basic design) each time on the basis of lowest tendered cost. That suggests that it isn't McK&H's records you should be looking for (although they might provide a "couldn't be before" date) but Wimbledon's, although there would presumably also have been a copy sent to Derby to justify the cost charged to the Joint Railway account. I vaguely associate RAL's name with the Midland in the back off my mind so perhaps it was the discovery of some record there that provided the source of his information - they may well have been turning out old records in the post-Beeching era, too.

Edited November 2, 2020 by bécasse