Nick Gough

A merry Christmas to all visitors to Cholsey & Moulsford and thanks for your interest this year.

Merry Christmas, Chris, to you and the inhabitants of Traeth Mawr and its visitors. Also thanks for your support and advice during the last few months.

Merry Christmas John!

Merry Christmas to you too, Neal!

Merry Christmas Rob!

The relief lines road bridge is supported on 31 girders spanning the road below: Although the railway lines are on a skew, passing over, the supporting girders are mounted perpendicular to the road. Looking through my photos I noticed that the 18 girders supporting the two railway lines are clearly deeper than the 13 beneath the goods yard/car park access road: So I decided to cut out a small section of 9mm ply from the top surface of the bridge: And replace this with a piece of 3mm ply: With small strips of wood attached to represent the girders. Another piece of ply holds it in place: (I intended to raise ground level here to allow the roadway surface to be at sleeper top level in the goods yard) This gives a 3mm difference in height between the goods yard road part and the relief line part of the bridge: I'm not going to put girders under the relief lines since they would be invisible with the road in place.

Do you have a source of info for these bogie changes Mike?

Merry Christmas to you Rob!

I thought you were planning to finish it and get some tinsel on it.

Happy Christmas Paul.

I have replicated the narrowed section of roadway: Together with the brick parapets, in the open area, and the opposite end of the main line bridge arch:

Very impressive Mikkel. You have definitely captured the design and look of the prototype. Nice work on the detailed elements and stonework.

When the quadrupling took place, in the 1890s, this bridge wasn't widened - unlike the previous one. Here a separate, girder bridge was constructed, for the relief lines, with an open space between it and the original bridge. This open space corresponds with the position of the station's island platform - a short distance away. This is a view of the 'new' bridge from below the main lines: From the other end: (July 2023) Clearly there has been a problem with high vehicles! Back in 2003 it looked a lot less bright and the posted height restriction was different: The bridge seems to have lost a lot more height over the years. The 1911 track plan shews that the headroom was 12' 6" then! Back in the 1980s there was a lot less greenery as well: As well as the relief lines the 'new' bridge also carries the access road for what now is the station car park but was originally for the goods yard entrance: Looking back towards the main lines it can be seen that the roadway is narrower under the old bridge compared with the 'new' one: Interestingly, this narrow section of walling extends into the open air section. This leads me to believe that this section of walls may date back to the opening of the Wallingford branch, in the 1860s. At that time the branch had its own separate line, adjacent to the two main lines, from the bay platform at Moulsford station, to the point where it diverged towards Wallingford. I believe that these two walls originally served as abutments for a separate bridge for the branch line, later being removed when the main line was quadrupled, and the branch truncated at the new Cholsey station. Although heavily weathered it does appear that the lower brickwork, in the wall, is similar in colour to that for the main line bridge, on the left, while the (newer?) parapet has similar brick colour to the 'new', relief lines bridge: If I am correct the branch line track would have needed removing before Cholsey's island platform could be constructed. Presumably, the relief lines bridge would have been constructed first, allowing the branch line to be temporarily diverted onto it; the parapets then built up after the branch and it's bridge had been removed. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any photos or documentary evidence to confirm or deny my theories.

To finish off the main structure I used two more T roll sections: For the curved corners between the wing walls and the portal: Looks a bit messy at the moment but the brick paper will cover this.

Around 20 K22s survived into the early 1960s, with the last (W1144W) withdrawn in December 1962. As Neal says, a number of passenger toplights survived into the early 1960s. The Longworth book mentioned, by Harlequin, gives the best info.

One wing wall in place - supported by a small shelf: The other one, attached to one of the cross struts: I had to 'nibble' away at the top of the cross strut as it was slightly too high. Both in place together with what will be the road surface: The road drops below natural ground level as it approaches the railway, in order to pass underneath: Therefore, the lower parts of the wing walls will need to be 'buried' beneath ground cover.

I have glued four toilet roll inners together to make a laminated tube 5mm thick - the same as the plywood I have been using: When dry, I cut out two small pieces for the curved ends to the parapet:

I'll bet you didn't find 5972 waiting to steam north though!

A plywood portal and parapet attached: The vertical pieces of stripwood, on either side, are for the pillars at each end of the parapet.

I have glued two strips of ply to the lower walls of the channel: With coffee stirrers above the strips. The plastic arch slides into place: In its final position the arch is flush with the lower sides:

This bridge will be located, on the layout, on the lifting flap in the doorway: I made provision for it, when I built this board, by making holes in the longitudinal members beneath the trackbed: And creating a channel with plywood sides: Due to the location it will be much easier to work on from both sides and underneath. When it's finished it will also be easier to view the bridge from both sides.

I think that's why I need radiotherapy!🙂

These bridges have an oval profile to the arches, rather than circular: Therefore, to get the correct shape, I gently squashed the plastic pipe, with clamps, between two pieces of wood: After dunking the whole lot in boiling water, for a short while, the plastic took on its new shape, ready for use.

What can I do with a piece of plastic drainpipe? Well, as I did for the last bridge, I can cut it in half and use it for the arch of the next bridge: This one though is a skew bridge: Another Brunel brick road bridge, this time for the public road leading into Cholsey from the south: Again, the bridge has been rebuilt, in recent times, with a girder deck, but would have looked like a lower version of this one, a mile or so further west:

Back home I have wallpapered the whole of the bridge face: To finish I need to fix coping stones to the parapet and wing walls.