Colwall question.

[Not Jeremy]

I thought I'd cast another question out to the RMweb expertise.

 

I am scanning negatives from the late David Hyde, and have come across what I think is a shunting accident at Colwall, date early 1960s I think. Without wishing to be irritating(!) I don't want to reveal the image as I am going to use it in a new book I am working on.

 

So, the question, does anyone here have any record or knowledge of such an incident? If so then I would love to hear from you!

 

So as not to be seen as too much of a miserly rat bag, here is a nice picture from the same collection, showing a WR DMU running in to the station. This picture pre-dates the incident I think.

 

 

And here is what I think is the photographer's car, this taken at Hatton I am pretty sure.

 

 

I think the photographer may be Jim Russell himself, but am not sure and wonder whether anyone here knows if this is the case.

 

Any thoughts or assistance very much appreciated, and I think it fair to offer a copy of the new book when it comes out to anyone who can provide a date and or details for the shunting mishap.

 

I'm going to limit it to the first person to come up with the info, just in case it is something really well known!!

 

I thank you...

 

Simon

[The Stationmaster]

It appears not to have involved any sort of passenger train or possibly not even a running line as I can find no trace of an HMRI Report.   Colwall was a very awkward place to shunt because of the gradients - the gradient changed from 1 in 80 rising (from Great Malvern) to 1 in 148 falling (towards Ledbury) in the  vicinity of the station.  The photo show the rising gradient from the Malvern direction which I think indicates that the Down Refuge Siding, to the right of the DMU was actually nearer to level rather than rising towards the stop block which appears to be the case in the photo.

 

There was requirement that any Down freight train needing to shunt at Colwall should first detach its rear portion into the Refuge Siding and that portion was not to be allowed to stand on the running line while shunting was carried out.  There were also special precautions in place if it was necessary to detach a vehicle from the rear of a Down passenger train and cross to the Up Main and in that case the facing point leading to the Up Refuge Siding had first to be set towards the siding (that point is obscured by the DMU).  There was also a requirement regarding the securing of points towards the Old Tunnel Siding on the Up Side which required the  points to be padlocked towards the Up Refuge Siding except when needed for shunting purposes (the Old Tunnel Siding was also on a falling gradient and is, I think, visible above the single line to the right of the DMU).

 

So alas no information about any sort of shunting  incident but it was clearly a dodgy location to shunt at the best of times and the sort of place where a moment's inattention could result in problems.  The Up Sidings and Down Refuge Siding would appear to have been taken out of use in the mid 1960s.

[Not Jeremy]

Thank you very much for checking Mike.

 

The result of whatever happened was that a string of box vans in the commercial numbering series, ie presumably vans used for local storage, were shunted through the buffer stop on the siding nearest the up main. The first van ending up on top of the collapsed buffer stop hard up against the goods shed, it and the van behind it suffering some interesting damage because of the resulting height difference.

 

It must have been quite a heavy shunt to detach the bufferstop - I bet it made a bang!

 

In the same collection of negatives I have pictures of the same vans in the same positions but on another date I would have thought.

 

All very intriguing, and as you say it must have happened shortly before closure.

 

Sorry to be not showing the pictures here, but they are deinitely worthy of publication in a book, such a thing from WS is heading for publication this year.

 

So much to do and so few brain cells...

 

Simon

 

 

 

Simon

[Morello Cherry]

Have you asked the Cotswold Line Promotion Group? Although they are very much about the line now, they are pretty much the holders of the memory of the line and if anyone is likely to know then it is probably going to be a member of CLPG. Might be worth shooting the editor of the newsletter an email. 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Morello Cherry

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Not Jeremy said:

Thank you very much for checking Mike.

 

The result of whatever happened was that a string of box vans in the commercial numbering series, ie presumably vans used for local storage, were shunted through the buffer stop on the siding nearest the up main. The first van ending up on top of the collapsed buffer stop hard up against the goods shed, it and the van behind it suffering some interesting damage because of the resulting height difference.

 

It must have been quite a heavy shunt to detach the bufferstop - I bet it made a bang!

 

In the same collection of negatives I have pictures of the same vans in the same positions but on another date I would have thought.

 

All very intriguing, and as you say it must have happened shortly before closure.

 

Sorry to be not showing the pictures here, but they are deinitely worthy of publication in a book, such a thing from WS is heading for publication this year.

 

So much to do and so few brain cells...

 

Simon

 

 

 

Simon

Nothing serious then - over the blocks, or blocks knocked a few feet when the fishplates broke, were the everyday story of over enthusiastic shunts in yards.  One time it was reckoned that in the Bristol Yard at Severn Tunnel Jcn just about all the dead end sidings that still had stop blocks in one piece were a few yards longer than they started out at but with a gap between the usable bit of the siding and the stop block.  

 

The only place there would be likely to have been a report would be within the railway but at various times, and then permantly from earlu y 1974 we didn't even submit a report elsewhere but just listed such incidents on a four weekly Return of Shunting Mishaps - something which had also applied at various times back in the '60s on the WR so the chances of finding anything official are very remote.  Trying any local 'papers might be a useful route?

[The Johnster]

Re stop blocks being pushed back, I was involved in a shunting mishap at Pengam Freightliner (Cardiff) that featured this phenomenon.  This would have probably been in the winter of 1974/5.  In those days, enforcement of the rules was lax compared to the current situation, and my driver saw no need to change ends during the shunting operations (for what ISTR was an Edinburgh working) out along the headshunt, which could only hold 15 wagons, 3 sets, rather than the 20, 4 sets, that the fully made up train consisted of.  We were both sat in the 'Newport end' cab of a 47. and the drivr was watching me, in the secondman's seat and in line of sight to the ground staff who were directing operations by handsignal.  He was watching my left hand banksmanship whict was relaying what I saw from the ground staff, and there was a very minor bump.  We came to a stand and I looked around, only to see that we were 'on the block'.  When we got down to have a look to see if we'd done any damage, none was apparent and it was only by chance that I spotted that there was a gap of about 5 feet in the rail between the 47's bogies, which was effectively end of sports for that job!

 

Partly my fault of course, I should have been keeping an eye to the rear of the loco as well as on the ground staff, and so should the driver, and we should both have realised that we were approaching the end of the road, our only excuse being that it was getting dark on a dull and drizzly day.  We were both expecting a Form 1 (please explain), and the Canton minibus was sent out to pick us up while the per.way people cut and laid lengths of rail to rescue the rear end of our loco!  An 08 ran up from Tidal to rescue the flats, and another loco and crew were sent out to take the job on, spare men who'd booked on later than us,  Never heard any more about it, though, and didn't feel like stirring up a hornet's nest by asking!

Edited April 23, 2022 by The Johnster