phil_sutters

J.E.Kite's 1850 - 1925 Vintage Album has a nice photo of M.R. 2-4-0 198 at Cromer in the late 1890s, with assorted railway staff posing around it. Above it is a splendid view of M&GNJR 4-4-2T No.9 heading for Cromer on a substantial through train from Kings Cross, photographed by C. Laundy in 1921.

It was seeing your similar vans that got me thinking about my oddity. I really don't know where I got the GC from. It was the days of Denny's Buckingham etc.. It's a bit like my SDJR engineers' half van half open. I know I saw that one as a model in MRN or MRC and made a copy of it. Seeing your 'papered' wagons I am just about to try using photo prints of van sides that I have worked up on computer. Knowing how shades and sizes can be affected by the commercial photo printing process, I sent off for several different shades and slightly different sizes as an experiment to see how accurately they are reproduced. They are all in SDJR passenger blue livery - a horse box, a ventilated fruit van and a Fuller's of Bath PO CCT. I don't think I shall be bold enough to make the panelling on the fruit van raised.

08507, 47425, single carriage,DMU - Oxford I guess 47425 had been sent, with a barrier coach to rescue the DMU, failed and was rescued by the Osney sidings shunter.

Ever since I excavated my 1950s built 00 rolling stock from the nether regions of the garage, I have been wondering where I got the inspiration for this from - I wasn't too fussy about whether it should have wooden or steel as the undercarriage in those days.

I haven't reread it recently, so I don't know whether military traffic is or isn't mentioned, but chapter 5 of 'Footplate over the Mendips' by Peter Smith, covers the war years.

Apropos of nothing current, I have just come across several pages of photos of the building of Tucking Mill Viaduct, in 'Somerset & Avon Railways in Old Photographs collected by Kevin Robertson' (Alan Sutton Publishing) I expect they have come to your notice - but just in case...........

In Essery's LMS Wagons when talking of D1659 and 1658 there is mention of the OPC 'An illustrated History of Midland Wagons Vol 2, chapter 11. ' as a source of further information, but it is not clear (to me at least) whether that related to D 1658 and -59 or just -58.

I don't know if this is one of them. Go to the Newman Family...website at http://www.newman-family-tree.net/s&d/index.html and search for 53804 (Ctrl + F)

Just like these -

I have the benefit of Photoshop Elements

Dad's photos are not really clearly enough focussed on the carriages, to see what they are precisely. However they do show quite a variety. As the gallery on RMWeb is not functioning yet, you can see them on my other photo sharing site at http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/album/514735

82001 was another which ventured up the Somerset Central - Dad would never allow it to be called the branch. The first is dated as the summer of 1961.

Another source of photos of goods trains, on the Somerset Central, is the Newman family, who had a farm close to the railway. They have a website http://www.newman-family-tree.net/s&d/index.html This has several photos of goods trains, including one of 50 wagons. I wonder if they were redundant ones that had been stored at the Wharf.

My understanding is that there were extra sidings laid to the north of the carriage sheds, which were to the north of the line to Bason Bridge, just east of Highbridge station. I am sure that I have seen a map showing the sidings but I have no idea where I saw it.. Later - I thought that the map might have been on the local history site CaptureHighbridge, but it wasn't. However there were, in an evacuee's reminiscences, references to the fuel dump being at the end of Isleport Lane, which comes out onto the Mark Road, opposite the area I described above. Another paragraph, in the site's S&DJR page, says that the works had lain empty from 1930 until the Americans arrived and used the works as a store and had a fuel dump from which D Day supplies were drawn.

I know that I have drawn attention to this restoration company, to which I have no connection, in previous notes, but here is a project to restore a saloon, which may be of interest. http://www.ipernity.com/doc/312383/album/404587 I particularly like this shot - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/312383/31305389/in/album/404587 - 1:1 scale kit for a door.

Some of them, including mine and Dad's will be in the Gallery section which has not yet been restored. You can access some of ours at my other photo-sharing site at - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/album/538609

The number is not visible, but is this what you were interested in? I have only just come across this thread, bumbling about in the new look site!

How scruffy do you want it? The first one is I think at Templecombe. If you get fed up when you have weathered the loco it looks as if you don't have to bother to do much to the tender!

One for your workspace pinboard!

It seems unlikely as continuous welded rail was only introduced on British Railways in 1960, according to a Hansard record in 1969.

Highbridge Wharf and an area beside the passenger station were used by the US Ordnance during WW2, with some additional sidings laid. They used some of the WD 0-6-0Ts to work the yards. WD1255, 1585, 1394 & 1557 were recorded among others, according to Chris Handley in the Maritime Activities of the S&D. So war materials unloaded, stored and sorted there would have passed down the line, through Evercreech, towards the south coast.

This is an official photo of one, that is a fairly standard goods van, designated as a Road Van. The hinged doors would allow goods to be loaded and unloaded at stations or goods yards along the route more easily than from vans with the heavier sliding doors, common on the otherwise similar Midland vans.

Highbridge Wharf rapidly ceased to operate as a port after WW2 and closed in 1949. It still functioned as the S&D line goods yard and as a store for withdrawn stock into the 1960s, so there was very little goods traffic originating from there in your period. I only have one photo by Dad of a goods train anywhere on the Somerset Central and that is this one from 1962. If you want a van for your milk tankers from Bason Bridge Zephyr can deliver one for you! 25.2.1966.

You are only saying that because I live a couple of miles from said Haven and have a computer rammed with photos of the Cuckmere valley. Some have escaped online http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/album/502159 but to save you ploughing through a load of non-railway snaps, here's just one.

Trying to work out whether there is anywhere in Hunstanton that would be high enough to permit this view - and I am still not sure - I came across this website - http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/west/index.htm - anyone round here responsible for this whimsy?