Somewhere in the Forest of Dean

[ParkeNd]

I went up to ParkeNd on Saturday, although the DFR calendar showed nothing running, to take some photos of familiar subjects with a new camera body. The individual photo sizes are giving my iMac memory a bit of a hiding, so until more memory arrives Tuesday I am having to downsize the photos I export to Photobucket to avoid the system churning for 'hours". Don't know how good this photo is going to look - the original is almost etched!!

 

This photo shows a surprise (to me) Branchline Experience in progress at Norchard which was to become a Photo Opportunity just after I had to leave. Whilst at Parkend I talked for about 20 minutes to a very interesting DFR member who told me that the pile of stones I would see at Norchard is Berkeley Station Platform awaiting re-erection at Norchard, that St Mary's Halt might be dismantled to use the platform surface at Norchard High Level, that a second platform is to be installed along with a signal box and water column at Whitecroft, and since it is not a Sustrans cycle path at the old Travellers Rest Crossing there is no theoretical reason why the line could not be continued all the way to Cinderford.

 

Here's the photo with pile of stone visible.

 

[brianusa]

Cinderford, here we come then!

 

Brian.

[F-UnitMad]

They wouldn't be able to return to the original Cinderford station site, as that is now a housing estate. Bilson Junction yard site is still (as far as I know - been a while since I've been there) open land, & not a cycle path. Realistic aims for the DFR would be Cannop Ponds, then Speech House Road.

Not surprised if St Mary's Halt is dismantled - it's nothing but a concrete platform pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't ever a Station there before the DFR; I think it was an early Terminus for them before they reached Lydney Junction (also pre-dates the re-opened Lydney Town). I'd bet no passengers have used it in some time, especially if the footbridge to the churchyard is out of use. Makes perfect sense to close the halt.

[ParkeNd]

In my view Speech House Road would make a perfect western terminus. I have been told this is in the DFR 10 year plan and money is the key requirement. All the more reason now to photograph St Mary's Halt with its removal likely. Apparently there is a group who favour absolute authenticity but the paying public reward a lively railway experience with return visits - and this is likely to provide the impetus for more "railway atmosphere" at Whitecroft and Norchard. I could go with this.

[Arthur]

 

Other than the extra travelling mileage, Cinderdford actually offers nothing as a destination. Apologies to the residents but it was voted 'ugliest town in the UK' (or something similar) a short while back. In truth, it's no worse than many places but it's certainly not 'pretty' and has no particular tourist appeal nor attractions.

 

Speech House/Cannop Ponds have much more appeal.

 

The footbridge at St Mary's looks to be in need of considerable repair and it's no surprise that access is blocked off.

[brianusa]

In my view Speech House Road would make a perfect western terminus. I have been told this is in the DFR 10 year plan and money is the key requirement. All the more reason now to photograph St Mary's Halt with its removal likely. Apparently there is a group who favour absolute authenticity but the paying public reward a lively railway experience with return visits - and this is likely to provide the impetus for more "railway atmosphere" at Whitecroft and Norchard. I could go with this.

Wherever then, as long as its done before we come back home next!  There will always be the 'group who favour absolute authenticity' but they don't contribute as much as the general public when it comes to spending money and the CFR is a business. They may be methodical with their models but that principal would put most preserved lines out of business.  Thomas and Hogwarts, etc, bring in the families.

 

Brian.

[Captain Kernow]

Restoration through to Speech House Road would be excellent, and I've heard it mentioned before. Clearly the main road at Travellers Rest would have to be crossed on the level. I suspect that a modern installation with lifting barriers will be required, but wouldn't it be wonderful if a replica of the original signal box and level crossing could be provided instead?

[ParkeNd]

After three days of upgrading the memory and the operating system on my iMac I am finally able to use my new camera in RAW mode. So I shot off to St Mary's Halt this morning and parked outside the church. The railway nearly goes through the churchyard.

 

I found it a quiet and charming place - sylvan would be a good description - dappled sunlight, birds, and peace and quiet. When I got back to Norchard I told them I think it should stay and they should make more of it. Anyway, here are a few photos to add to the tiny handful there appears to be on the internet otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

That crane has not moved in years decades !!!

[brianusa]

Probably rusted to the rails!  I realise there are priorities but it would be a shame to lose it.

 

Brian.

[ParkeNd]

The next photo session will be at Purton trying to find signs of the Severn Railway Bridge coming ashore on the Lydney side. Following Arthur's instructions I have found on an OS map a lane with a right turn off it by a pub which should still have sight of the embankment at the sharp left hand curve as the railway left the bridge itself. At the time of typing this access to Norchard from Parkend by road should be impossible on a working day due to road resurfacing so will have to go the long way round. At weekends the road is open albeit with the surface removed - the road signs should read "Beware cars doing 70 mph coming the other way flinging up stones at your windscreen" so best avoided.

 

Took a few photos at Norchard on Saturday but not worth publishing due to the high volumes of discarded clutter showing up in the pictures.

Edited May 19, 2015 by ParkeNd

[Arthur]

 

Lovely photos of St.Marys. Sylvan is the right word, certainly with the sun shining through the leaves of the trees, which is what it was like when I walked the dog there. I'm pleased that you found the visit worthwhile.

 

I'll look forward to your Purton photos, having never visited the area myself.

[ParkeNd]

I visited the site of the Lydney side of the Severn Railway Bridge this afternoon. This is not the easiest place in the world to find, and the lane from the A48 down to Purton (Purton exists on both sides of this huge river by the way) was little more than a meandering cart track. After overshooting and finishing up in Etloe I retraced my steps and found the farm drive which approached the site. From the views it just had to be the place so I parked and set off along the drive. A very friendly farmhand told me it was OK to walk further but he had never heard of the Severn Railway Bridge but did volunteer that there were two tunnels a few yards further on. What I was looking for (from a satellite view) was a T shaped growth of trees where the head of the T was the river bank and the stem of the T was the trackbed coming off the bridge. After a few more yards I found the embankment, the trackbed, and the tunnels through the embankment to the fields beyond where the trains went round a tight 90 degree left had bend. I walked along the trackbed where there are still trackside walls and parapets visible in places, and through the first tunnel where I could see the much photographed circular bridge piers on the opposite bank. In a battle between trees and disused railway the trees have won decisively.

 

I will publish the photos as soon as the RAW files are processed.

[ParkeNd]

I have spent part of last evening examining pages 30 and 31 in particular of 'The Dean Forest Railway and ex-Severn & Wye Railway lines Volume 2" by John Stretton. There are some good 1964 photos of where I went yesterday afternoon - which was the exact site of Severn Bridge Station at the exit from the Severn Railway Bridge. The station was high up on an embankment just as the train came off the 10 arch viaduct after the last cast iron span on the Lydney side. To say that this station was in the middle of nowhere is pretty accurate.

 

The first photo is from the station drive shared with a farm and shows the complete side of the embankment where the signal box sat at the end of the platforms. The access road running diagonally up the side of the embankment still exists within the trees.

 

 

Walking a few yards to the right in the above picture you pick up the original access road which is now just a path through the trees - but within a few yards the outer edges of the up platform starts to appear above your head.

 

 

Carry on walking upwards and onwards and you emerge onto the trackbed midway between the river end of the platforms and the viaduct of the bridge. This shot is facing towards Lydney.

 

 

Walk along the trackbed and you pick up first the start of one of the platform ramps and then the platforms on both sides of the twin track - but well strangled with trees.

 

 

 

 

 

The undergrowth thickens substantially from here beyond where the farmer is doing something in wire netting cages on the trackbed so I went back down to the access road and walked further along parallel with the embankment - until I got to the bridge over the farm road into the last field down to the main railway line. This bridge shows up on virtual y every photo of the station and the old bridge.

 

 

And seen from the other side with the river at my back. The trains would have looked pretty dramatic going over this.

 

 

The other side of this bridge the view would have been really dramatic before the main Severn Railway Bridge was demolished. The complete span of the bridge would have been seen as the trains ran out of the station and over the river - too many trees now.

 

 

But moving just right of this a fraction the much photographed pier of the swing bridge section on the other side can be seen across the river and you have to imagine the iron spans giving way to the 21 metre tall 10 arch viaduct carrying the railway across the main line and into the station to your left.

 

Edited May 20, 2015 by ParkeNd

[brianusa]

Nice little essay and most interesting although hard to believe any railway ran through the forest of trees

 

Brian.

[ParkeNd]

Nice little essay and most interesting although hard to believe any railway ran through the forest of trees

 

Brian.

Hi Brian,

 

Had they been there when the Severn Railway Bridge and Severn Bridge Station were in full swing it would indeed have been difficult going.

 

But what is now a stand of trees on an embankment and a few archeological remains used to look like this :-

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/The_Severn_Bridge_Sharpness_England.jpg

 

But the place name on the photo is not correct - it's not Sharrpness because that is on the other side of the river and much further to the right - this is Purton on the Lydney side of the river. The Sharpness side had the swing bridge section and the round pillar.

Edited May 21, 2015 by ParkeNd

[F-UnitMad]

Agree with the above... in fact one thing that stands out about a lot of Steam Era photos of the Forest of Dean is in fact how relatively few trees there were at that time..!!!

The "Then & Now" series of books by Past & Present Publishing are well worth getting & demonstrate that fact time & again!! Serridge Junction is another place in the Forest that is now almost impossible to imagine ever being host to railway tracks.

[ParkeNd]

Agree with the above... in fact one thing that stands out about a lot of Steam Era photos of the Forest of Dean is in fact how relatively few trees there were at that time..!!!

The "Then & Now" series of books by Past & Present Publishing are well worth getting & demonstrate that fact time & again!! Serridge Junction is another place in the Forest that is now almost impossible to imagine ever being host to railway tracks.

Yes. I have both volumes of this book and a few more. Most of the photos show the comparison very well, but where there is just foliage and trees now the black and white photos do a particularly good job of masking the comparison. Page 30 of the John Stretton book covers the Severn Bridge Station location brilliantly with 1964 photos but the "current" photo is absolutely impossible to discern as the side of such a complex earlier structure.

 

I think if the pyramids had become covered in trees no-one would ever have discovered them.

Edited May 21, 2015 by ParkeNd

[ParkeNd]

Went back to the DFR yesterday again with the intention of taking some photos at Whitecroft to include trains. The buildings are being repainted - but even allowing for this the Whitecroft track and immediate surrounds has become too untidy for photos so I opted for just a shot on the village store side of the crossing gates. I plan to get a few shots of the steam loco passing the same spot next week. Although it will be tender first.



Settled for a consolation by going to Parkend and recording the departure of the 12.55 to Lydney. This was after failing to get to Norchard because road contractors workmen were stationed to stop vehicles approaching Norchard from both Whitecroft and Lydney - hope that's fixed before this weekend's special event.

Anyway here are the photos.




 

Edited March 17, 2016 by ParkeNd

[ParkeNd]

Visited DFR today to shoot the photos I wanted of Whitecroft with steam trains. Wilbert was on roster with a four coach train well packed with passengers all morning - two coach parties and many cars. I will post some pictures when I have processed the RAW files.

 

A few minor snippets of news picked up today. Whitecroft's planned second platform will be the passing loop when 2 trains run after the extension to Speech House road - when not clear. Despite Cindeford's apparent distinction of being one of the ugliest places on earth (apparently) DFR does have approval to run all the way there. There appears to be no problem running new track next to the cycle paths. A crossing at Fancy Road and a new bridge further on seem to be on the cards.

[ParkeNd]

A selection of 5 photos taken yesterday at Whitecroft on the DFR Wednesday 27th May 2015. This is the 10.53 at Whitecroft with a four coach train behind Wilbert and then leaving about 1 minute later to immediately cross the road from Lydney. Then coming back from Parkend at 11.27 after a 21 minute stopover. What intrigues me is just how close the trains get to the store, which despite having just been clad in white plastic boarding, has been at Whitecroft since the beginning of the DFR as far as I can make out in old photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Then despite sprinting across the crossing it left again for Norchard after about a 30 second stop.

 

[F-UnitMad]

A bit of trivia about the level crossing at Whitecroft. After the DFR had restored it in the 1990's, the first loco to use it actually crossed it by road... on the back of a low-loader..!!! There was a photo of the event in an issue of the old Forest Venturer magazine.

[Arthur]

 

Just going back to the Severn Bridge Station photos, which are fascinating by the way. I said earlier that I'd never been there, however, I remembered that a few years back my dad and I walked from Lydney Docks, up tne Severn, through Etloe and on to Blakeney. We must have crossed the path of the old line somewhere without realising it which shows how it's blended back into the landscape. Well done in finding those remains.

 

Etloe's a funny little place, at the end of a tiny lane to nowhere, in a cleft in the river bank, the railway running across it on a low bridge and embankment, the whole place prone to flooding.

 

I think the shop at Whitecroft has been recently refurbished, I've got a vague recollection that it was closed for a while.

 

Keep the photos coming, they're excellent.

[ParkeNd]

Thanks Arthur and F-UnitMad for your comments. The Whitecroft shop is just finishing it's refurbishment and the signs still have to be sign painted as you can see in the pictures.

 

I will keep the photos coming because I enjoy taking them. There are some shots of Wilbert at Parkend and Norchard taken yesterday and I shall post these in a day or so. For the next planned shoot I had though of Middle Forge if that is accessible and not so remote that my camera gear is vulnerable. The Flour Mill is unspectacular from outside - so not a good location perhaps.The Lydbrook viaduct is a bit too well photographed. Maybe what would be the most interesting is somewhere like the Sling Branch. Maybe Arthur has some ideas.

Edited May 28, 2015 by ParkeNd

[brianusa]

Definitely keep the pictures coming; they are invaluable to those of us out of the country and who make infrequent visits to the area and the DFR.  Cinderford may not be an attractive venue but the railway to get there is most interesting so how about some pictures above Parkend please?

 

Brian.