Engineer

A bus turntable in St Helier, Jersey, on site of former Jersey Eastern Railway terminus, Had gone before I was able to visit - the bus station became car parking. Christchurch turntable on the Bournemouth trolleybus system, previously mentioned. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rw3-497alh/46158057181/ https://twitter.com/ephemeracity/status/1134161776310984705 https://twitter.com/thejohnfisher/status/1273857936469753857 Turntable in a London trolleybus depot, Edmonton, from about 40 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHnXcTGZGfk

Interesting project, one to follow. The Metropolitan Diagram Book gives length over buffers as 24' 10" and wheelbase as 5' 6" + 5' 6". Has the kit come out to these dimensions, broadly?

Just a footnote on the Jazz service. I'll leave it to others to debate the exact source of the term 'Jazz' in this context. I can add, however, that 'jazzing' is a term used by railway schedulers for the design of an intensive service from one terminus to multiple destinations, often alternated in pattern. It's very feasible this may have started as a result of the best practice established by the GER. Others have responded to my observation with derision but I believe that scheduling at its best, across the logistics and transport industry has always achieved its excellence through acknowledging not only innovation but also tradition and deep experience and operational practicality. There is a good Railway Gazette article, October 1920, on the GER's intensive services.

Agree, looks a tight fit. https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW019739 Have found an image with the jetty in question, not present in the 1930s OS, so probably an expansion of facilities by the 1940s era. Can't help much with the issue of the landward line, only speculating on the information available. There have been quite a few changes to that area of the island over the years, affecting both the land usage and the alignment of the water's edge. I have access to an outline sketch plan of that particular area - unable to share - that shows the object in question as a fixed coal wharf. It appears [as drawn] slightly inset to the edge of the dock and the connecting rail line appears to run along the join - maybe the wharf deck was extended onto the land side. The line in question then continues roughly eastwards into a long headshunt that terminates a little short of the Buccleuch lift bridge , as was. There is a further loop off the headshunt that returns by a slightly more inland route to connect to the layout of dockside lines. Another aerial image,. At the left edge of the picture there's the west end of the coaling wharf and the rail access to it on a slightly curved 'bridge' over the rough, lower 'shore' of the island. https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW019738

Referring to today's earlier posts on Barrow in Furness (Image = 30 June 2018): https://goo.gl/maps/FwkJmauTr9ciQgTC7 and: "... this strange survivor: ..." Apologies for delay, had to think and I may not have found all the possible evidence as yet. I reckon it's a jetty with moorings, and the rail access may have been for coaling and supply for ships. After a ship was launched, or if it was visiting for refit, the vessel would be moored in the Devonshre or Buccleuch docks, close to workshops and cranes. Here, I admit and explain that I'm not a local nor an expert on the shipyard, so I am speculating, Several years ago, however, I did get the chance to talk to an expert on the yard for research. My own interests in the area were twofold - the electric tramway, and the construction work done by Vickers on Metropolitan Railway locomotives in 1920-23, which I've been researching and writing up over a number of years. I wanted to understand how the locomotives moved in, out and around the site during build, testing and finishing. I was told that the rail lines in the north-west area adjacent to Devonshire Dock - highlighted in the posts - were in places too tight in clearances and radii for bogie vehicles so the locomotives had to go the long ways around the eastern end of the island. Here is the OS link from the early 1930s showing a jetty in the Devonshire Dock. The jetty we're looking at appears to be in the Buccleuch Dock, maybe similar or a replacement. The Devonshire Dock jetty and nearby lines are visible, also to the left corner there are the tram lines to Walney Bridge and Island and the Furness/LMS lines that ran across the island and served the shipyard. https://maps.nls.uk/view/126514793#zoom=6&lat=5532&lon=12106&layers=BT I'll look at other OS and aerial views confirm the position or role of the jetty.

Today, I visited the village of North Hartley in Northumberland, through which passes the Blyth and Tyne freight-only line. It's a former mining community which suffered a great tragedy in 1862, the loss of 204 people underground - which led to a mandatory requirement for mines to have two shafts. There is a memorial garden for the tragedy. As with many communities with mining connections there is a mine tub on show, here carrying the village name. It is on rails but these are not offered as 'abandoned' or 'in the road'. Just beyond the village towards Seaton Delaval there is an estate of industrial units between the road and the railway, clearly a former industrial site. It turns out to be part of the former Seaton Delaval colliery complex. The unexpected find, very close to one of the estate's road entrances, is a short pair of rails still in place albeit part covered, and with some of the original yard's granite setts visible. Apologies,, camera image quality is degrading by the day.. Using 25 inch maps from the National Library of Scotland, here's a close overview of a 1920 revision OS alongside a modern aerial image. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=19&lat=55.08031&lon=-1.53035&layers=168&right=ESRIWorld The rails, I reckon, are between the road and the corner of the dark building and on the OS, they're about where the words 'North Corner' are. The full NLS 25-inch view, 1920 revision including the wider Seaton Delaval colliery complex, is: http:// https://maps.nls.uk/view/132279329#zoom=5&lat=5615&lon=12439&layers=BT

Excellent spot of tracks in the north-west corner of the yard on Barrow Island, well done. I'd not considered that part of the site in depth - it's just off the areas I looked at in the two April 4th posts with the OS and 'Britain from above' image. https://maps.nls.uk/view/126514793#zoom=5&lat=3206&lon=14288&layers=BT https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW004065

Additional material on Hammersmith and City electrification: https://archive.org/details/streetrailwayjo301907newy/page/166/mode/2up

Today, an abandoned yard in Carlisle alongside the line via Dalston, some remaining items of kit and some rails embedded in concrete. Pictures taken at the last moment from a train, camera in decline too. Another entry that's only just clipping the edge of this theme's target, the remains of the goods yard road entrance at Aspatria with the pivot base and a curved rail that once supported the outer end of a gate.

Another variant on the theme, not quite abandoned but 'rails' in the road. At Tetbury today, the former station and yard site has a car park where the bays are marked by steel 'rails' supported by bricks either side. A similar arrangement is used to mark lorry and access bays and reversing space, maybe slightly acknowledging the site's railway connections.

Stretching the theme a bit, abandoned rail line alongside a roadway in a railway cutting, viewed from a road overbridge. This is the connection to the Tata Chemicals Winnington site, in the Northwich area, Vale Royal, Cheshire, viewed from Winnington Lane.

Barrow-in-Furness tram track response Thanks for your suggestion a couple of posts ago on the Barrow tramway street track. I agree that standard tramway turnouts with one blade would be encountered aplenty indeed the reversing triangle at Darwen, shown earlier in this thread, is one example. I'm happy to be proved wrong but at the moment I apologise that I can't support the suggestion that the switch is part of a single chord connection from the inbound track from Ramsden Dock on Michaelson Road into the outbound track on Bridge Road towards Walney. This doesn't tally with the track layouts in the contemporary OS [now added] and in the aerial photograph in my later post [link repeated below], nor with the likely route patterns of Barrow trams in that era. https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW004065 My original source is "Barrow-in-Furness Transport" by Ian L. Cormack, and this describes the remodelling of railway and tram lines in Bridge Road around 1905, mentioning that the rail line through the altered junction was "... guarded by three sets of catch points, protected by Furness Railway signals. The catch points were normally kept closed for tram traffic, but when the railway wished to go over the junction the traps were opened, being worked from a barrel frame outside what is now the canteen of Messrs. Vickers Armstrong.". Some more details are given, and having read the book before walking the routes the location of the trap point on the ground is consistent with its role and the evidence that it did the job. I'm not knowledgeable on the railway aspects of this and my interests in the subject matters lie with tramway systems as well as a large amount of archive research on a Vickers project for the Metropolitan Railway.

Second part of rails in the road from my visits to Barrow Island for research, now the pictures are found. Vickers site railway network First, there's a Britain from Above image, 1920, with plenty of detail in the centre of the tramway/railway junction noted in my previous post. Also, Michaelson Road continues northwards between two large workshops: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW004065 Crossing the road between those two workshops is a standard gauge single line, not in use at present as far as I know: At the eastern end of the crossing is the General Engineering Shop, known before this as the General Machine Shop which played a large part in the construction under licence by Vickers of many Sulzer diesel engines. There is some background story at: https://www.derbysulzers.com/vaapp.html Much earlier in history, the same workshop building was known as the Howitzer Shop and from 1920 to 1922 the building housed the re-construction and assembly work on Metropolitan Railway electric locomotives - five re-constructions were completed. There was a rail line through the shop that headed eastwards and reached the Furness lines near Shipyard junction, enabling the original locomotives to be brought in from the main line network. At the other end of the rail crossing is the Gun Shop, a very large building divided into longitudinal bays. This building was for manufacture of naval guns and equipment and industrial plant. Behind that wall is 'Bay 13'. From 1921 to 1923 the two bays nearest the road, 13 and 12 were the storage and fitting-out area for the Metropolitan Railway's loco project after the decision to switch to new build for the last fifteen of the twenty-loco fleet. Their underframes and basic superstructures made the short rail journey across the road. Linking to the London Transport Museum's picture collection, just on the other side of the wall from the previous image, Gun Shop Bay 13 in early 1922 housing four locomotives in work. https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/system/files/styles/collection_item_component_600_px_wide/private/collection_item/2020-09/i0000694.jpg?itok=2JE0tL7z Taken at the same time, the adjacent bay 12 houses the other 11 locomotives that are being finished and fitted-out. The rail line across the road continues across the bottom of the image and then across the whole shop and onto the intricate works network. https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/system/files/styles/collection_item_component_600_px_wide/private/collection_item/2020-09/i0000692.jpg?itok=dCmFNVU3

Barrow Island This is a small area with a lot of railway and industrial past - tramways, the Furness Railway and the Vickers shipyard and works railway network. NLS OS 25-inch map of the junction area also showing Michaelson Road rail crossing between Howitzer Shop and Gun Shop [discussed in later post on this page]: https://maps.nls.uk/view/126514793#zoom=5&lat=3206&lon=14288&layers=BT First - Tramway, Michaelson Road near junction with Island Road This was the Ramsden Dock branch of the tramway. Rails remain in place in the wide road, and the space is currently a well-used parking area during works hours. Looking roughly south: Looking North to the 'Tea House' [*] junction with Island Road, where the Ramsden Dock tramway branch merged with the tramway to Walney Island. [* building with arch windows to the left far side of the roundabout] A small detail of the track on the left approaching the junction: This a tramway trap point with single moving switch, protecting the approach to the junction ahead. As well as the tramway junction, the Furness Railway had street tracks on Island Road crossing Michaelson Road and the tramways. This was a signalled junction operated by a railway frame. When the junction was set for rail traffic, the traps were set to protect against conflicting tram moves. A note to link to the subsequent posts on 4th/5th April. In summary, the trap point and track layout in the area is confirmed by the book on the area's public transport systems. Although it might appear that rails have been removed from the trap overrun, close scrutiny suggests another explanation - no rails were ever laid for the overrun and instead the cracked and split setts [which are otherwise undisturbed] are the result of flange damage from the trams that overshot the trap when set against them.

Northampton Cotton End I visited this abandoned level crossing long ago while walking Northampton's long-gone tram routes, one of which crossed the railway at this site. NLS OS 25-inch map of the area from 1920s, showing rail crossing, tramway and nearby Bridge Street station: https://maps.nls.uk/view/114479756#zoom=6&lat=2113&lon=9349&layers=BT Unable to find my own pictures so here is the StreetView from several years ago: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.2287983,-0.8963694,3a,75y,338.76h,81.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sB3-SN_9RquaCb7xZoKDcWA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e2?hl=en-GB The crossing was removed only in recent years after remaining unused for a very long time. It was close to Northampton Bridge Street station, which has a good internet reference that includes one or two images of the crossing in its latter days: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/northampton_bridge_street/index.shtml http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/northampton_bridge_street/index5.shtml

A tramway example at Darwen, Lancashire: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=53.68036&lon=-2.45838&layers=168&right=ESRIWorld

Further exploration not far from Netley. The grounds of the former Royal Victoria Hospital have become a park [with its own miniature railway]. The Hospital had its own rail access from the main line, as shown on OS maps of the area, and there are small traces of the approach routes. In the vicinity of the former hospital station, there are rails in place and the park has information boards that explain the railway connection and layout.

Explorations last summer in the Hamble - Netley area. First part is the Hamble rail trail. The footpath, for some distance, runs parallel to the rail lines which seem to remain in places beneath undergrowth and appear at road crossings, such as Hamble Lane: Rails also appear at intermediate road crossings and at the oil terminal destination:

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2021/03/22/hs2-starts-work-on-its-north-west-london-viaduct/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklyemailblog Colne Valley viaduct Also West Ruislip this afternoon:

"Is this what you can see from the m25?" Yes, not sure of the visibility but very close nearby.

Today, HS2 work site north of West Hyde, near Rickmansworth. View from footpath, looking roughly north. Several road and footpath closures in the area.

On recent weekends I walked the Ebury Way just beyond the fringe of North-West London, with two diversions of under a mile each way across Croxley Common Moor, and to the Hamper Mill on the far side of the valley. The Hamper Mill - image refuses to load correct way up. The Way itself is fairly level other than short inclines and takes the route of the Rickmansworth Church Street branch from the junction for the Croxley Green branch to almost to the former station site at Rickmansworth Church Street. Some bridges survive, others have been replaced or earth-filled to make ramps, and the route is more wooded than past times. Other than bridges and earthworks, the only obvious railway survivor seems to be a concrete gradient post on the stretch near Rickmansworth. I've long been aware of the old railway and its re-use as a walk so very overdue to make a visit. My secondary school was on the opposite side of the valley and often I saw trains of a few bogie oil tanks passing along the branch as far as the siding into the Dickinson's Paper premises. I regret not paying attention to the type of loco and wagons and worked out where the trains ran from, as information is hard to trace. The other railway interests in the area for me were of course the Metropolitan and some long-gone narrow gauge, a short sand and gravel line on the fringe of my school grounds, and the Colne Valley Waterworks Railway which had a transfer siding to the Rickmansworth branch. The line crossed the valley to the pumping station. References: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/r/rickmansworth_church_street/ https://www.croxleygreenhistory.co.uk/ https://www.croxleygreenhistory.co.uk/the-railway-to-croxley-green.html https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/31111251125/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/31111254095/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/31111257165/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/31111259715/in/photostream/ Dickinson https://www.croxleygreenhistory.co.uk/the-mill-railway.html Colne Valley Waterworks Railway http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/r/rickmansworth_church_street/index100.shtml https://www.westwatfordhistorygroup.org/p/colne-valley-light-railway.html http://www.industrialgwent.co.uk/wuk21-se/index.htm See Hertfordshire, Colne Valley Waterworks Railway https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/5550481363/in/album-72157626336121110/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/31111247605/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/30304650923/in/photostream/

Just for reference, the journal of the London Underground Railway Society, 'Underground News', is running a serial on the history of signalling across all areas of the Underground. Articles began in 2020 and four of these are available on this page: https://www.lurs.org.uk/articles20.htm

Recently found and posted a link featuring the Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway. This shows a little of the track at 3:47 onwards: https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/39/

Film featuring the Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway: https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/39/ https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/39/