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rogerfarnworth

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Posts posted by rogerfarnworth

    The Co. Donegal Railways

    in Disused Railways

    Posted

    My wife and I were due to spend a couple of weeks walking in Co. Donegal in April and May 2020. Instead, we remained at home in Ashton-under-Lyne and continuing to do the jobs we love! I would have been writing a blog about our journeys and walks but instead I have started a series about the 3ft-gauge Co. Donegal Railways. .....

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/05/27/co-donegal-railways-ireland-part-1-the-glenties-branch-stranorlar-to-ballinamore

    Gloucester Docks and their Railways

    in Disused Railways

    Posted · Edited by rogerfarnworth

    Neil Parkhouse, in one of his fantastic collections of colour photographs from the last decades of steam in Gloucestershire  (British Railway History in Colour) focusses on the Midland lines serving the docks, specifically three lines in the area - the Tuffley Loop; the High Orchard Branch; and the Hempsted or New Docks Branch. The Western approaches to the docks are covered in the first volume of the series. 

     

    This thread is designed to cover the Railways of the Docks - the first post below is a general over view. Elsewhere I have posted about the ancient tramroad that first served the docks - it was a 3ft 6in gauge plateway which ran between Gloucester and Cheltenham - The Gloucester and Cheltenham Plateway.

     

    My following posts on the thread will seek to follow the routes of the various branches and their sidings.

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/05/17/gloucester-docks-and-railways-part-1

    • Like 3
    • Informative/Useful 1

    The Cornwall Minerals Railway

    in Disused Railways

    Posted

    This post results from reading Issue No. 30 of the "Railway Archive" Journal. It contains an article about the locomotives originally purchased for the Cornwall Minerals Railway. That company dramatically over-ordered motive power and when it lease was taken over by the GWR, 50% of its original order were returned to the manufacturer Sharp, Stewart of Manchester.

    Eight if these locomotives found their way to the Lynn & Fakenham Railway and eventually onto the books of the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway.

     

    This first post about the Cornwall Minerals Railway highlights these locomotives. ...

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/05/17/the-cornwall-minerals-railway-part-1

    • Like 2

    The Cheltenham and Gloucester Tramroad

    in Trams & Tramway Modelling

    Posted

    After spending a bit of time reading Neil Parkhouse's recent series on the railways of Gloucester - entitled "British Railway History in Colour" and published by The Lightmoor Press, I have stared looking at the ancient tramroad which served Gloucester Docks and Cheltenham and Leckhampton Hill. There is an excellent little book about this by David Bick. The first post in this short series focusses on the remote end of the branch-line which served Leckhampton Quarries. A small part of the tramroad outside the quarry boundaries remained in use up until the turn of the 20th Century.

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/23/the-cheltenham-and-gloucester-tramroad-part-1

    • Like 2

    The Cheltenham and Gloucester Tramroad

    in The Railways of Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean.

    Posted

    After spending a bit of time reading Neil Parkhouse's recent series on the railways of Gloucester - entitled "British Railway History in Colour" and published by The Lightmoor Press, I have stared looking at the ancient tramroad which served Gloucester Docks and Cheltenham and Leckhampton Hill. There is an excellent little book about this by David Bick. The first post in this short series focusses on the remote end of the branch-line which served Leckhampton Quarries. A small part of the tramroad outside the quarry boundaries remained in use up until the turn of the 20th Century.

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/23/the-cheltenham-and-gloucester-tramroad-part-1

    • Like 4
    • Informative/Useful 1

    Iran Railways

    in Railways of Asia

    Posted · Edited by rogerfarnworth

    One of the joys of doing research is discovering little gems in surprising places. This happened to me just recently as I was searching for information and particularly for images associated with the railways of Iran up to the end of the Second World War. The result is this next article which I have agreed with Lancaster City Museum and the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum. ......

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/13/railways-in-iran-part-12-photographs-from-the-second-world-war

    • Like 1

    Iran Railways

    in Railways of Asia

    Posted

    To finish the collection of translated articles from other sources, this post focuses on chapters from a book written in Danish in the 1930s about the filming of a documentary about the building of the Tran-Iranian Railway. ......

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/13/railways-in-iran-part-8-foreign-articles-collection-b

    Iran Railways

    in Railways of Asia

    Posted

    While undertaking the research for these articles on the railways in Iran. I was delighted to find some material in  a number of European language posted on a thread about the Railways of Iran on the SJK Postvagen forum. This next post is numbered out of sequence as I have already begun work of the period from the 1980s onwards, but the material is really interesting (in my view). I have had to use Google Translate to get the first draft of the different papers referred to in the link article and then I have had to clarify or paraphrase a number of things to make the text work in English. ....

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/03/railways-in-iran-part-6-foreign-articles-collection-a

    Iran Railways

    in Railways of Asia

    Posted

    The rule of the Shah in the 1970s became increasingly authoritarian. The royal family appropriated a large amount of the country's income for themselves and gradually the clerics became less and less content with the ruling classes. The result, as we know, was major political change at the end of the decade.

     

    Quote

    My recollections of the 1960s are vague. As a child I was almost entirely focussed on my immediate environment. The 1970s were a different matter. Events in the Middle East and in Iran began to intrude on my childhood. New of conflicts in Palestine and in the wider region became part of my consciousness.

    Many of us will be aware that Shah left Iran for exile in January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar who was an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran to be greeted by several million Iranians. 

     

     

    The railways continued to serve the country and saw some significant developments during the decade.

     

    I hope you find this next article interesting. ... 

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/30/railways-in-iran-part-4-1970s

    • Like 1

    Iran Railways

    in Railways of Asia

    Posted

    After the War, Iran's railways experienced a period of relative stagnation. Significant developments did not occur until the 1950s.

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/28/railways-in-iran-part-3-1945-to-the-1960s

     

    Quote

     The Cambridge History of Iran - Volume 1, which was published in 1968 says that after shortages disappeared a pattern became established, and by 1968, railways provided the basic freight-transport service from the Persian Gulf ports to Tehran and the eastern Caspian Sea region. The authors said, "Branch lines have been extended to Tabriz and Mashhad (Meshed), mitigating to a high degree the relative decline of these cities since 1925. A 120 mile westward extension of the railway line from Tabriz, now being built under the sponsorship of the Central Treaty Organization, will connect the Iranian and Turkish railways. (It was completed between Tehran and Tabriz by 1960.) An eastward extension from Qum, south of Tehran, is now complete as far as Yazd (but not by 1961 when Baker visited) and will ultimately connect with the Pakistan railway system in Baluchistan. During World War I a line of this system (then part of India) was extended as far as Zahidin in Iran, a short distance from the border. Service to Zahidin is provided by Pakistan National Railways, but there is no regular schedule." The line when built was 5ft. 6in. gauge.

    Iran Railways

    in Railways of Asia

    Posted

    This is the next installment covering the Railways of Iran. ......

     

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/24/railways-in-iran-part-2-the-1910-to-1945

     

     The Trans-Iranian Railway - When completed, the Trans-Iranian Railway was an immense achievement. It ran for 850 miles and linked the South and North of the country. For the first time the northern agricultural lands and the Caspian Sea ports would be linked to ports and oilfields in the south. It linked the capital Tehran with the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. The railway connected Bandar Shah (now: Bandar Torkaman) in the north and Bandar Shahpur (now: Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni) in the south via Ahvaz, Ghom and Tehran.

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