The Great Western - my "local patch"

[The Stationmaster]

The steepest section of Dauntsey Bank is the stretch of 1 in 100  for just over a quarter mile from just east of Dauntsey station site to the site of Wootton Bassett Incline Signalbox; the rest is at 1 in 660.  With the exception of Box Tunnel (also 1 in 100, rising towards London) it is the steepest gradient between Bristol and London (until Reading flyover opens, which I believe might be a little bit steeper).

[Rugd1022]

Cheers Nidge, I hadn't thought about it like that but that makes a lot of sense! The day that photo was taken it was a decent load on the back, but since GBRf have taken over the load seems a lot more variable. One day it was about 8 IOAs. Whether it's coincidence or not, but whenever I say it in Freightliner days it always seemed to be a full load

 

jo

 

When we had the job, the timings for the incoming 6M40 and outgoing 6V14 at Stud Farm were such that sometimes the latter would leave the quarry with (say) only half of it loaded, as some drivers didn't want to be late running into Oxford for relief (and an hours drive home afterwards in the staff van). The departure time was 22.38 and if there was something else due up the branch from the Knighton end it'd hold you back at least half an hour. Add in the possible further delays at Nuneaton, Water Orton, Landor St Jcn, Bordersely Jcn and Leamington and you can see why a lot of us were keen to get away right time. The rate of loading at Stud Farm varied depending on which particular operator was in charge of the loading bunker! Most of the time, if I was on the job and it was taking longer than usual I'd stay with it and leave late with a full load, but some of the lads wouldn't entertain it, especially those who lived a long way from the booking on point at Rugby. From start to finish it was a ten hours thirty minutes job so getting back in good time for those living further away was an issue.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Another excellent set of pics Jo.

 

Trains in the landscape, well composed and lit - reminds me of the work of that great photographer George Heiron.

[Steadfast]

Mike thanks for that, it explains why there's so little warning of stuff exiting Box tunnel heading west if it's running downhill off the power!

Thanks Peter, I must admit I'd never heard of George Heiron...heathen that I am! Having googled him, I must say you're too kind! The works of him, Ivo Peters and some other great photographers really illustrate the scenes so well, giving so much more to the image than just a loco in a station and provide an inspiration, but it's hard to even come close!

 

jo

[brianusa]

Great pictures of trains in the country.  Sadly soon to be spoiled by catenary and overhead wires!

 

Brian.

[Steadfast]

Here's another update taking us further west towards Langley Burrell. It's been a while, I really must get better at posting each installment closer together! Off work with lurgy at the mo, so let's do something productive this evening when I should be there!

First thing's first, here we are a few hundred feet west of the last shot of the previous post. Between Friday Street and Christian Malford the railway runs along a large embankment.

29th March 2011. 66951 just west of Friday Street. This was one of the final runs of 4V60 Calvert - Bristol. The cottage in the background is beside the road I was stood on in the previously mentioned photos from the last post.

3rd July 2014. The road sign to the right of the image refers to a bridge taking a lane under the railway, this lane is adjacent to the access point visible in the shot of 66951 above. Here, 70807 is at the head of 6M50 Westbury - Bescot, today with a nice mix of Salmon and Falcons. Despite the howl these GE locos put out, the horse is completely undisturbed in its field!

8th June 2014. An evening shot now from the north side of the line, sort of level with the previous spot but the other side of the line. 70810 was still clean and shiny when it was seen at the head of 6C37 Westerleigh Jn - Oxford Hinksey Yard

22nd June 2014. Another permanent way train - this time with a green 66 on the front! 66508 leads 6Y62 Westbury - Reading West Junction on a Sunday morning. All the shrubbery visible in these last few pictures is something that I hope the electrification clearance will help with.

1st April 2012. No it's not an April fool, the Network Rail HOBC trains really are that long! 66618 is approaching the site of Christian Malford Halt at the head of 6Y11 Theale - Taunton Fairwater Yard, 66621 bringing up the rear. With a quick bit of Google Earth measuring, I reckon this consist is a minimum of 1/3 of a mile long, illustrating the dead straight line on the embankment.

12th September 2010. Passing the site of Christian Malford Halt, 37607 and 37611 have a heavy load in tow on 1Q12 Derby - Bristol. Both locos were powering, too!

1st December 2012. Jumping a short distance west brings us to Kellaways, a hamlet of a couple of houses just east of Langley Burrell. The road I am stood on for this first shot carries Maud Heath's Causeway, a raised footpath built to carry villagers above flood water and allow them to get to the market in Chippenham. Maud Heath died in 1474, the 64 arch pathway was built using money left in her will and is maintained to this day through charity. Oh, and the train? A recently blue painted 60163 'Tornado' at the head of 1Z31 Ipswich - Bristol Temple Meads.

6th October 2011. A more traditional angle, taken slightly further west (and I mean slightly, perhaps ten steps!), where a convenient bench by the river provides a nice relaxing seat to wait for the train. 82146 leads 67029 and the EWS 'Management Train' towards Langley Burrell working 1Z05 Ealing Broadway - Bristol. Since the photo, the set has lost the EWS branding in favour of some equally huge DB logos.

11th January 2013. Final shot for this installment, taken from the gate leading to this field 66589 leads a well laden 4L32 Bristol - Tilbury. This is a viewpoint that changes massively depending on the season, the crops can grow so high as to obscure the train completely, and even if they are not that tall, the lineside bushes in the summer can completely obscure the underframe - particularly with the hot and wet summer of 2014.

More sooner rather than later hopefully, the next update should take us through Langley Burrell and possibly into Chippenham, depending how many photos there are.

 

jo

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Another top-notch selection.

[brianusa]

Interesting to see such modern motive power amongst such olde worlde English place names. Makes for attractive and evocative pictures!

 

Brian.

[Steadfast]

That's an interesting perspective on things, Brian. To me these place names are just local villages, but you are spot on!

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Moving west from Kellaways we come to Langley Burrell. The most well known viewpoint is from Crossing Lane, which leads from the village to a concrete footbridge on the site of a level crossing, removed as part of the 125mph conversion of the line - but more of this later.

22nd November 2013. The final photo of the previous post is from the eastern end of the field seen here. Following the lane that the gate allow field access from leads to a couple more gateways. 59004 running in debranded Yeoman colours heads 7Z12 Merehead - Wootton Bassett near Langley Burrell.

11th May 2012. A wider view in the same area, 31465 heads 1Q13 towards Swindon, working from Didcot to Derby via Basingstoke, Reading, Swindon and Bristol

11th April 2014. 66710 heads a lightweight 6M40 Westbury - Stud Farm past Langley Burrell. This a field or two west from the previous pictures. The western end of this field is bordered by the previously mentioned Crossing Lane, which has a concrete bridge similar to that at Shrivenham.

7th December 2010. A very cold day, with freezing fog all day long results in a murky view from the bridge at Crossing Lane of 66548 leading 4V60 Calvert - Bristol. Proof an interesting picture can be had without full sun 3/4 angle!

1st May 2013. Looking the other way off the bridge, the view is rather head on due to bushes growing up on the south side of the line. 66416 is at the head of a lightly loaded 4O24 Bristol - Grain.

16th March 2009. Going back a few years from the previous photo, a more side on shot was possible then as shown with 56311 on hire to Colas, here working to Eastleigh from Westerleigh. The ballast cleaner it has in tow has now been sent to work in France for Colas/Seco Rail.

10th March 2013. Cocklebury Lane in Chippenham provides a nice elevated view in both directions, with arguably the better shot being the one looking towards Chippenham. With Langley Burrell behind it, 60092 leads 7C48 Appleford - Whatley on a very dull day!

9th April 2014. Looking the other way, 6M50 Westbury - Bescot is headed buy 70805. Chippenham station can be seen in the distance. The speed this train does past here is all dependent on the HST preceding it. A late running HST will see 6M50 running on single yellows at crawling pace, whereas an on time departure will see the 70 putting on quite a performance as it howls under acceleration.

4th April 2013. Passing under the bridge the previous shots were taken from, 66514 is at the head of 6Y54 Ruscombe - Westbury, a train running from a worksite connected to the Reading redevelopment work over Easter 2013.

Next time we'll cover Chippenham itself

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Time for the next update with photos of Chippenham - home!

I have got far fewer shots around the station area than you might imagine, largely because I prefer the more scenic locations in the surrounding countryside.

14th April 2014. A location I've only recently discovered, taking a footpath that leads from Cocklebury Road opposite the college to Cocklebury Lane, there's a clearing in the bushes that gives a clear view of the railway, with aid of a step to see over the fence! 66738 is leading 6M40 Westbury - Stud Farm.

15th April 2014. The next day, and a wider shot at the same location, 70803 is at the head of 6M50 Westbury - Bescot

3rd April 2010. One here that should keep Nidge happy as well as a few others. D1015 is working 1Z52 from Paddington to Penzance, looking smart with a matching set of stock in tow. The building visible in the background is the former Westinghouse factory, producers of braking equipment for railways (and other industries), their products were, and indeed still are, seen the world over. After Knorr Bremse bought them out, a new factory was built at nearby Melksham.

23rd November 2012. 43163 sits at Chippenham waiting to depart with a service for London. Looking at the EXIF data, I'm going to guess at a slightly late 14.55 departure

10th January 2013. Taken from the Up side car park, 60063 thuds slowly through Chippenham working 7C54 Oxford Banbury Road - Whatley. I seem to remember that day was as dull and miserable as it looks!

20th June 2007. For several years the Glastonbury Festival saw hired in class 67s on sets of mk2 aircons working Swindon - Castle Cary shuttles. The second photo in particular I know is rather blown out, thanks to being photographed straight into the sun. I've tried to make it a little better in Photoshop, but oh how I wish I'd been shooting RAW in 2007! The locos are 67013 and 67029 incidentally.

14th April 2014. Just west of the station are arches built by Brunel to carry the railway over the town, the parapets of which can be seen either side of the train. From walking across the bridge, I thought this was quite a clear shot. Wrong! It's amazing what a difference looking through a viewfinder makes. Quite a bit of vegetation growth, some long shadows and signals in difficult locations meant a zoomed in close up was about the only option sadly. 70804 is the loco, the working 6M50 to Bescot from Westbury again.

West of here is Thingley Junction - a small clue to next time's content!

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Moving west from Chippenham just before Thingley the railway crosses the A350.

25th April 2013. The bridge over the A350 was dropped in over Christmas several years ago, it was when I was a kid so could easily be 15 or more years back. I remember seeing photos of the work in the local paper and thinking "wow!!!" as a kid seeing a crane moving a bridge does! 56087 trundles across the A350 near Thingley working 0Z87 Westbury - Hinksey after a signal check at Thingley Junction. It had previosuly come down from Crewe with a load of DB Schenker Coalfish and Seacows.

2nd November 2010. After a period of disuse, the late 2000s saw a resurgence in activity in Thingley Yard as a metal recycling centre. When the track recycling centre at Westbury opened, the activity transferred there and the yard once again fell quiet. Now the track has partially been lifted I believe, in preparation for a scrap company to move onto the site. Back in busier times, 66952 has brought in a welded rail set that had been used to bring in scrap rail. The set is self propelled, which I hadn't realised, so it was quite eerie to see a set of wagons moving without a loco attached!

20th June 2010. Another scene when the yard was still processing scrap rail, 66616 passes Thingley working 6Y11 Stoke Works Junction - Taunton Fairwater via a reversal at Swindon, taking the Network Rail High Output Ballast Cleaner back to base after a weekend's work. 66611 was on the rear, though out of sight in the distance.

10th March 2012. The yard is looking rather desolate by now, even the scrap sleepers and dumped odds and ends have gone by now. 57601 is carrying, in my opinion, the better looking version of the WCRC livery as it passes Thingley with 1Z76 Scunthorpe - Bath and Bristol.

11th July 2013. From memory, this was the only day in the week that it didn't begin with a clear blue sky. Thankfully, by 7.32, it had brightened a bit. 60049 makes an appearance away from its usual shunting role at Eastleigh, here working 6W61 Kemble - Hinksey. After this, it worked the daily 6O26 Hinksey - Eastleigh engineers to get it back to Hampshire. The empty yard behind the train was occupied for many years by a local haulier, GH Martins, but they went bankrupt a couple of years back. In the last year or so a bus company has started storing vehicles here, but it's a sad sign of the times with the views in both directions from this bridge now show massive reductions in activity.

22nd September 2014. Friday 19th September will be remembered by many as the day the train got stuck in the water at Corsham. The following Monday saw work to attempt to restore the signally properly result in single line working between Thingley and Bathampton. Here 43027 is passing Thingley Court, running 'wrong line'.

11th July 2014. 66504, at the time unique in carrying the Powerhaul version of the Freightliner livery, leads 4O24 Bristol - Southampton. On a Friday, the 11.00 departure from Bristol seems to go to Southampton with an empty set of wagons, instead of heading to Tilbury or London Gateway. The farm visible to the right is Thingley Court Farm.

12th April 2012. 66504 pre repaint! The next bridge west is rather higher than the others around Thingley, with the line running in a cutting most of the way from Box Tunnel. Five lanes all meet at this bridge near Easton, so it can get busy at times so you need to keep your eyes open here. The working was 4L32, Bristol - Tilbury.

29th June 2011. In the months after the Bristol bins ceased, Freightliner would often run a stone train in the same path, stabling the wagons at Barrow Road. 66519 is at the head of 6V87 to Barrow Road in Bristol, from either Angerstein or Crawley with a rake of empty HIAs in tow. This bridge is on Ladbrook Lane, with is at the opposite end of the curve seen in the previous picture and is the last bridge over the railway before reaching Corsham.

5th July 2013. Looking the other way, towards Corsham, 66563 leads 4O24 Bristol - Grain, recently this has transferred to London Gateway instead. This is the area where the aforementioned HST stopped in the flood water recently.

 

I'll have to try and explore Corsham to provide a decent next update.

 

jo

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Particularly like the 9th picture in tonights batch Jo. Really well lit

 

Pity about that pylon in photo 4 though - rather unbalances the pic.

 

Regards,

Peter

[HillsideDepot]

I thought I'd done the local patch in detail, but you beat me by a long way Jo!

 

Proving that things never stand still, there are blue marks on the platform at Chippenham which look as if they mark the location of the lifts and new stair cases on the replacement "public" footbridge.

At Thingley, yes the sidings have been partly lifted. Although the site is huge, I've long liked the track plan there, maybe it may re-appear in model form in the future as there is great scope for operating.  

I'm glad you are recording all of this Jo, if only I'd had a camera years ago to record the coal yard at the station, the remains of the down side goods yard, the West of England Resignalling train (mainly cable drums on bogie bolsters, but including a Mk1) which used to live in the sidings (I even saw a 37 shunting it once!), I could go on.... if anyone has such pictures, I'd love to see them!

[Jules]

A small correction/clarification to post #35

 

'The building visible in the background is the former Westinghouse factory, producers of braking equipment for railways (and other industries), their products were, and indeed still are, seen the world over. After Knorr Bremse bought them out, a new factory was built at nearby Melksham'

 

thats only part of the story! The factory was the Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company.  You are correct about the brakes part, but the former Westinghouse Signals are still on site (hidden behind the derelict buildings shown), now part of Siemens.

 

Cheers

 

Jules

[Steadfast]

Thanks for taking the time to post the comments guys.

Peter, thanks agains for the kind words. To get as much of the train in as possible it was a bit of a rock and a hard place situation. The photo is taken pretty wide, but much wider, or a lower composition would've been full of shadows in the foreground and zooming in closer would've resulted in much less of the train visible and some cables floating in the sky connected to nothing - a bit of a pet hate of mine. Whilst yes it's a bulky structure, the pylon itself doesn't cause me too much trouble personally, it's part of the location and as I said, gives the wires a terminating point.

Adrian, proof indeed that time never stands still. It'll be weird to have lifts and a new bridge at Chippenham. I've often thought Thingley Jn, modelled roughly from the signal gantry east of the yard to the road bridge that gives views of the yard would make a cracking layout. I did google maps it, but it was a tiny bit bigger than I expected! I do have most of the stock required though! A shame you didn't have a camera in the past, I'd have loved to have seen the sights you describe! They sound truly amazing!

Thanks Jules, yes it had completely slipped my mind about Siemens, I'm not particularly with it at the moment. Well, some say I never am.... Anyway. Westinghouse signals passed to Invensys, who were then bought out by Siemens, last year if memory serves me right. I believe they're on a part of the site further from the railway, as these buildings all look run down and derelict. There's a surprising number of companies with office space on the site, now known as Langley Park. It still surprises me when I see a signal head with Westinghouse, Chippenham and London cast into the rear of it. From a railway point of view, the word Chippenham seems to be seen with much more frequency than the town's status and 2 platform station would suggest, all thanks to Westinghouse.

 

jo

[Temeraire]

I drive over that bridge every time I head to the office on the Shriv 100 business park, so I'd be interested to know when that bridge will be removed! I had noticed some evidence of some preparatory works taking place at the station site and wondered what for.

Work started this Monday on a replacement for the bridge with a completion stated for March 2016, I'll take my camera with me tomorrow!