Stoke West

26 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

Did they work this?

 

Another shorter but proper single section was china clay traffic to Carne Point.

Cowley Bridge Jn to Barnstaple and Nelson Quarry

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I wondered about that - and doubted it.  They might possibly have got in on the last days of the original loco hauled Fishguard boat trains but I doubt if anybody who knew the road had the traction knowledge.

Yeovil Pen Mill to Dorchester West . Wolvercote Jn to Ascot-under-Wychwood , Moreton-in-Marsh to Norton Jn , Worcester Shrub Hill to Henwick and Malvern Wells to Shelwick Jn

3 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Is that the one that’s up on an embankment?

If so, it wasn’t always approach lit and back in the days before embankments were tree lined you could see G121, UC98 and (I think) G21 the junction signal for the loop all at the same time.  So at night, as the line curved back and forth, a driver saw a red and two greens dancing about GGR, GRG, RGG etc.  Think it was early 80s when the approach lighting was added after (legitimate) driver complaints.

Paul.

Correct  if G121 was  lit , it would show a red infront of what ever UC98 was showing

18 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

The term searchlight only strictly applies to the electro-mechanical jobs, but the LED versions with a single lens (two lenses if double yellow can be shown) are sometimes casually referred to as searchlights to distinguish their style from the multi-lamps we have been more accustomed to until Fibre optic and LED technology came along.

 

As mentioned above the vane mechanism has three coloured lenses; it is effectively a three-position relay.  The red lens is central and the vane fails safe to that positon under gravity.  A positive or negative voltage to the mech moves the yellow or green lens to be in front of the lamp.  One consequence of this is that when the signal steps up  from Y to G because the following signal has advanced from R to Y, the signal has to pass briefly through the central red aspect.  This doesn't apply of course to the modern LED signals.

 

The word Approach in signalling descriptions comes up in quite different contexts and can be a cause of confusion.

 

Approach-lit signals are dark unless there's a train coming; they tended to be used to save batteries in very rural locations where there was no mains electricity supply to the box.  This isn't a problem these days, which is why they are obsolete.

 

Approach Release is quite common.  It means the control circuitry forces a train to reduce speed has before the signal to a diverging lower speed route can be cleared.  The signal may be Approach Released from Red or Approach Released from Yellow depending on the severity of the speed restriction.   The signal only clears when the train is sufficiently close, so signals in rear of that must have been showing caution and the driver is expecting a stop.   It is used to enforce the speed restriction for a diverging route of slower speed.  It would be incorrect to call these Approach lit as the track circuits in rear of the signal are used differently.

 

Approach Locking is very widespread and  is used to prevent the signalman from changing the route at points where an approaching train may have seen a clear signal.  It involves allowing a timer to run after putting the junction signal back to danger before allowing the points to be moved.  Once the timer (typically a couple of minutes)  had finished, any train which might have been approaching would either have seen and stopped short of the red signal or have already reached the signal in which case it is protected by other circutiry.

Gloucester 121 is an approach lit signal stands at the end of Haresfield loop , because Up Charfield 98 is immediately after it and is only lit when the road is set into or a train is standing in the loop

3 hours ago, Rivercider said:

 

These are a couple of other views I took from the bridge over Severn Tunnel Junction. I have previously posted them on RMweb, but  I think they have disappeared into the ether.

 

 

The down hump at Severn Tunnel Junction looking east. Pilot 08932 has just finished a shunt and a pair of bitumen tanks roll down the hump. 9/9/80

 

Looking the other way off the bridge, to the west down towards Newport and Cardiff

A view of the down yard, with the diesel depot across the main lines . 6/6/83.

 

Another view looking west (correction - sorry)

 

I think, from the previous posts that the upside traincrew relief point is the loops where two class 25s are standing with a bitumen train, with 45033 beside them with the 08.45 service for Hallen Marsh.

31424 passes Severn Tunnel Junction with 08.15 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour. 9/9/80

 

cheers

 

In the top photo the two lines behind the hump control cabin were used as reception lines avoiding the hump to get to the west end of the yard with a hand signal from the rear of the cabin . The two  reception lines for trains out of the tunnel were shorter than the other reception roads and trains had to draw past the hump connection to the next signal , the hump pilot having to draw the train back prior to propelling over the hump , and being the only two roads from the tunnel were always humped as a priority to keep clear . In the second shot the hard standing is the site of the Powell Dyffryn wagon shops

5 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Er. well.  there is an online photo which very clearly shows a curved carriage siding roughly on the alignment of the dock siding and following the curve of the station approach.  It isn't show on the 1914 OS map but the photo suggests that it might well have been there by then judging by the vehicles in the siding.- early years of the 20th century so it seems fairly certain that is what it was there for.

 

The other siding, parallel at that point with the Down Goods was quite short stopped short of the bridge and was presumably extended when the bridge was rebuilt - the bridge of course is still there carting Station Road/the B3097 over the railway.   What the two sidings were used for has - as I explained - clearly changed over the years,  In the getting on for 5 years when I was at Westbury the siding which ran roughly parallel to the Patney Refuge had the grain silo and was not much for anything else - in fact it wasn't used for much at all as generally the Patney Refuge was the first choice as it was easier to shunt.  The Dock Siding very occasionally had a wagon stabled on it and it definitely wasn't used for traffic purposes, although probably originally intended for that, as any traffic (which was actually quite regular) requiring side loading/unloading was dealt with in Farr's Siding - almost all of it at that time being for them anyway.

 

The S&T depot was at Frome but there were techs based at Westbury however material coming in for resignalling work is something completely different and I doubt the PerWay had much need to store materials under cover especially in the sort of quantities those vans could accommodate.

There were alterations after the 1899 rebuild of the station  the down and up goods running loops coming later on . The siding alongside the down goods extended under and beyond the bridge and moved away from the Patney and ended at about the middle of the panel box standing about ten grain wagons the Patney side of the bridge , presumably  classed as a private for Nitrovit . It always had the appearance of having been a tip siding probably loco ash . Parallel to the dock siding was a siding which split into two , the carriage Sidings , and passed under a stone built bridge of Wilts and Somerset design now filled in but the parapet on the station side is still there , and onto an embankment to the rear of the panel box . The dock must have been put in as a passenger dock ie Horse &  Carriage , separate from the goods yard . 

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Ah, Farr's Siding and loading bank.  Funny how the names change over the years.   Farr's were a big rail customer back in the 1970s regul;arly receiving wagonloads of agricultural machines from Germany in ferry wagons.

 

The first photo above (and copied below) really shows a lot of long changed Westbury.  I suspect that the wagons were probably being used to store material for resignalling work which would have been getting underway by then.  The line nearest the camera - with Wx Nth No.63 ground disc just in shot - was the Down Goods Avoider and the next line away from it - before the dock siding - had at one time been where grain wagons were dealt with - still an occasional traffic in the 1970s and there was a small grain silo next to it; it originally extended back under the bridge alongside the Patney Refuge (siding).  The Dock Siding - where the wagons are standing - had at one time been much longer and seems to have originally been used as a carriage siding.  Quite when it became a dock siding I don't know but as what became Farr's Siding - over on the Up side, at one time served the iron works it might well have been created to provide some sort of dock capacity?

 

This dock was for the traffic department , the carriage sidings were separate and ran under the disused bridge of which the parapet remains on the station side . The engineers Dept had various buildings either side of the road alongside the carriage sidings . The S&T Dept was based in the downside yard at Frome

8 minutes ago, Steadfast said:

Bovis Wharf siding?

 

Jo

That dock is where the gwr traincrew Depot is now

10 hours ago, The Border Reiver said:

Here is a photo of class 20 20206 with a line of another class 20 and class 37s behind taken by my late friend probably after December 1974 when the snowplough brackets were fitted. Can anyone idenfify the location? Its last two sheds were Tinsley 9-10-71 to 12-12-76 and Eastfield 12-12-76 to 12-4-91

 

Worksop !!

3 hours ago, OnTheBranchline said:

Was it true that the London trains would have priority at Cogload Junction in GWR days but under BR, there was no priority for the London trains. If true then why was this changed?

 

My question is based on an article from Steam Days on the 47xx (Part 2 is BR days) and the article talked about part of the reason for the horrible timekeeping of the 47xx Holiday Expresses was because there was no priority on the London trains under BR. 

Norton Fitzwarren was the critical point for regulation as the Bristol line was the relief and the Cary line the main from Cogload  with options at Creech Jn ,Taunton East Jn no DRL to DM, West Station , West Jn limited options and Silk Mill very limited options

14 hours ago, DaveF said:

A few more photos at Pilmoor come next.  As usual the loco numbers may or may not be correct.

 

 

Pilmoor Class 47 D1516 up car carrier Edinburgh to Kings X Sept 65 J379

Pilmoor Class 47 D1577 down freight Feb 67 J768

 

 

Pilmoor Class 47 D1501 down Anglo Scottish Car Carrier June 67 J0925

 

 

Pilmoor Class 55 D9010 Newcastle to Kings X Sept 67 J1117

 

 

Pilmoor Class 101 Darlington to York Aug 75 C2211

 

 

David

J768 a Rowntrees working all vanwides , branded 'RETURN TO FOSS ISLANDS YORK NER '

On 22/01/2023 at 19:14, Market65 said:

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Mick, for posting those diagrams of the layout at Hessle Quarry, they are most informative. 
It’s interesting to find out more about the Plymouth fish train, which unfortunately, would cease when fish was no longer conveyed by train.

 

This evening, we have another two photo’s by John Turner, on Flickr, of Ivatt, 4MT, 43077, as it heads an empty stock train to Brough, at Hessle, where it will run round its train and form the Fridays Only 12:15 (approx) Brough to Hull service for workers at the nearby aircraft factory, on the 22nd November, 1963.

 

And this photo’, on the same date, shows WD, Austerity, 90272, running non-stop through Hessle station with a Hull bound, Class F, unfitted express freight, with two, presumably empty, tank wagons at the front.

 

Best regards,

 

 Rob.

No one else has noticed  90272 this train should be stop and examine look at 13th or 14th vehicle

On 13/12/2022 at 19:01, montyburns56 said:

Unknown location 1969

 

Usual move propelled down from Bath Road , usually shunter waiting to signal forward onto train looks on this occasion not ready and train crew gone in cabin . 6A27 1100 Malago Vale to Old Oak

1 hour ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Never mind the 08 and runner look at the poured concrete structure on platform! Calling out to be modeled ....what was it for?

Note Conflat D converted Boplate E load 3 BD containers used on Paddington to intermediate depots to Friary  NCL coy

On 07/11/2022 at 14:27, Rugd1022 said:

Photo by Phil Durrell : 50 030 c.1981 / 82, not sure where but might be Salisbury...

 

Reading General plat 1 . Newbury news vans ?

8 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Just east of Swindon station I think, John Senior took several similar shots around here (and Bath Spa) of Hydraulics shunting / working Enparts vehicles.