pb_devon

There is a National Archives guide to researching railway workers: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/railway-workers/

That would seem to be a good place to start!

Plus their bookshop has a number of books on how to find records.

Oh dear…..wait for the Wednesday jokes (bless his soul) 😁

On 06/04/2022 at 11:42, Kris said:

Anyone after a free carriage, restoration required! 

 

Appears to be a clerestory brake vehicle judging by the photos.  

 

Looks like it may have been used as a Fishermans store.

 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/657767122186393/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks

As this requires a FB account (which I refuse to have), please can you do whatever is necessary so we can see the item.

Thank you.

The Swelltor line still has sleepers insitu, plus the headshunt bufferstop remains (stone with timber beam). 
Most of the other trackbeds can be easily traced.

36 minutes ago, Hippel said:

If it's who I'm thinking of, Fitzgerald Lighting was the name. I'm sure that they were still dispatching wagons in 1989 when I was working for Railfreight (General Merchandise).

 

Paul.

Correct…on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway.

Nuclear flask traffic, either from power stations….or if you want really niche…MOD waste from Devonport Dockyard to Sellafield.

12 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Indeed. I suggested this site because it is not just about 1840s tithe maps. It also includes zoomable largescale OS cartography and modern air photography. Explore it, see what it has to offer!

 

As an archaeological landscape investigator, this is one of my 'go to' sources.

This might be a better link for the wider resources available: https://www.library.wales/collections/learn-more/maps

13 hours ago, J.M said:

Can you pfotograf the pfoto please and send it to me? But thank you! I think i maybe even buy the book

You are forgetting about copyright again!

14 hours ago, Porl said:

I've arrived a bit late in the day, but am searching, fruitlessly so far, for images of Cornish engine houses being built. Scaffolding and order of construction etc. for a diorama. Can anybody point me in a good direction? Any help at all much appreciated.

I think you could just make a ramshackle temporary timber structure with odd lengths, stacks of stone on the platforms etc.

Oh, and make sure you have to hand a modern H&S document…..and immediately bin it as none of it will apply 

lmsforever…..perhaps you could get your mate to have the organisation make a formal official announcement on the subject, then we will all know the position rather than secondhand.

There is no future in complaining to any officials without accurate firsthand info.

You can see I’m not in the area…but I do know people who are that I could pass this onto.

It was encouraging to learn that the above on Roborough Down has been listed Grade 2.

Info here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1477178?section=official-listing

Image here: https://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=dda54321-ea1a-4b00-9dfa-d19e1417874c

Easy to get to, just off the Clearbrook road by the leat bridge, where there is a car park. Also a long section of the trackbed with granite sleeper blocks insitu as part of Drakes Trail path.

See this ‘demonstration’ of a trap point in operation: 

As someone who was (before retirement) very involved with Devonport Dockyard rail and development issues, I can advise that it is highly unlikely that there will be commercial shipping/rail freight operations at this location. As explained above, the internal rail system is totally unsuitable, and in any event is wholly devoted to other uses associated with submarine refit/decommissioning. The access from sea for a ship of any size is almost impossible, which is why the carriers are not base ported here. RN have maximised land use by moving many operations onto the site from elsewhere.

I summary…a non starter!

I might be confused in my old age, but wasn’t it Mk3 stock that was fitted with CDL?

One of the locations where the work was done was Devonport Dockyard by the dockyard operator (Devonport Management Ltd). I was in charge of the dockyard railway then. All the WR plus Cross Country fleets were done there on a weekly cycle with changeover on a Friday evening. A complete rake was hauled from Laira by a cl47, with an 08 in tow (sometimes sent in advance) for the propelling move down the dockyard branch. There were two barrier vehicles as well, which made the whole lot too long for the loop so a complicated shunt release was necessary to release the locos. Given that this was done twice each Friday (once for the completed set, then the incoming new one) it made it a long evenings work! 
 

There was a dual gauge (broad and standard) turntable in Devonport Dockyard until rescued by the GWS and is now at Didcot, but restored in bg only.

The dual track was in one direction only, by adding sg after 1892, to allow the table to be repurposed once bg had been discontinued. All tracks were central on the axis.

Full details here: http://www.gwsbristol.org/gwsturntable.html

Timetable World link: https://timetableworld.com/index.php

This might be useful: “Plan of Broad Street Station and property adjoining (Lower Level) 1905” RAIL 529/90 at TNA.

But you’d need to visit Kew to see it.

RAIL 529/91 is the upper level

Paul

Thanks Engineer for the Britain from Above image. I can see the office window where I worked!!

Paul

I don’t recall street level tracks across Worship Street.

The Pindar and Primrose Street crossings were under the viaduct so won’t show on OS maps. Might there be some railway drawings in NRM or TNA? 
Paul

I worked in Worship Street from 1966 to 1970. The container yard with it’s overhead gantry crane was in use in the early years but I cannot recall a closure date. I remember the Scammel three-wheeler road trucks delivering the containers. Also the yard workers riding on the top of the containers being hoisted from the high level rail wagon down to ground level. The ground level lines parallel to Appold Street were OOU at the time I was there. These went through timber solid gates where they crossed Pindar and Primrose Streets, and I never saw them opened. A bit of an industrial waste land at the time with derelict warehouses,etc.

A long time ago in a very different world….sigh!

Paul

On 04/09/2021 at 19:12, Phil Mc said:

The road/rail diggers were parked up in the sidings 2 weeks ago, although there was no evidence of any work having taken place then.

No idea what they're doing though !!

 

Cheers,

Phil.

There’s a report explaining what’s going on with photo’s on todays news on the CRS website: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc

Scroll down to the 6 September section.

2 hours ago, david.hill64 said:

UK government has a golden share in RR, so no foreign takeover possible unless the government relinquishes that share.

However it still maintains some control by various caveats. I have worked for one in this position. 

2 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

If Portsmouth get the Nukes if Scotland gains Indi, (as mentioned today), then maybe that will be the close of such services at Demport? Another nail in the Yard's box?

P

Gosh, that’s a lot of hypotheticals!

I will not deal with Scottish Independence here. However as far as our nuclear submarines are concerned, there is a world of difference between base porting of vessels and refit/upkeep/decommissioning. The latter will be at Devonport (full stop) and hence the transfer of contaminated waste to storage (currently Sellafield), will continue by rail. 

Post deleted.

Here is a video of the move…