Nick Gough

Just to confuse everything - I've just taken this taken this screenshot from a Youtube video of the last day in 1959:

1 hour ago, Rhys said:

Sorry, thats not the Glacier. it runs behind the spur on the left and much lower down the valley. you can just see a patch of it lower left above the spur line.. 35 years ago it was possible to walk up onto the lower/middle reaches of the glacier from the valley floor.

Whoops!

In my defence, I went on the glacier walk the following day:

To the permitted limit of the trail:

These were the viewing conditions:

14 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

And back to Cholsey.  firstly apologies for theh poor quality but it was the wrong time of year and the film type and camera didn't help plus my processor managed to get some dust on the small prints he used to do to keep my pocket money costs down.  So here we are at Cholsey in late 1964 with two versions of each view  because I have also lightened them as much as I dare to try to show detail under the canopy and that of course washes out other detail.

 

So first the Down Main Line platform building.   Nice telegraph pole - note the cable running from it to the location cupboard a bit further along the platform.  as the cupboard is, roughly, opposite the signal box there was presumably an underground cable from it to the 'box.

 

 

 

Now the building on the Up Relief Line platform .  Note the position of the two vans standing in the bay (probably in view of the date on which the photo was taken they were carrying S&T Dept tools and stores as resignalling work was well underway by then).

 

 

 

 

And a vicious enlargement of the bay end part of the building plus the two vans and you v can just make out the short length of unclimbable ('spear' ) fence at the end of the bay.

 

 

 

Thanks very much for posting these Mike.

Despite your views on their quality, that's the best and most useful photo, I have seen, of the Down Main building in its original condition. It clearly shews the section that's now removed.

I guess that the small black object, about half way up the side of the right hand van, in the other photo, must be the lamp attached to the end of the fence? To me that definitely indicates that the stop block was nearer the building then.

I don't suppose you have any more Cholsey photos?

Nice work Chris!

After Franz Josef our next destination was Queenstown, for four nights. This is a popular resort town on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. There never was a railway here but there is a strong railway connection - TSS Earnslaw is based here:

A triple expansion, twin-screwed steam ship, used by NZ Railways, to connect Queenstown with the railway terminus at Kingston at the south end of the lake (approximately 46 kilometres by road):

Despite the bad weather, in Franz Josef, we had the opportunity to meet a couple of real Kiwis (the feathered variety), at the wildlife centre:

No photos since they were in a nocturnal habitat enclosure.

This one at the Haast Visitor Centre wasn't quite so lively:

17 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

Incidentally, the right hand (western) chimney only goes down as far as platform level, and the fireplace (in the C&WR ticket office) is on the diagonal across the corner of the room.

I have never seen inside this room. Is the fireplace blocked off like in the waiting rooms? I don't suppose there is anything of interest left in the room?

It's interesting that it had a fireplace though it is marked on the architects plan as 'Stores'. 

In practice I believe that it was, at least for a few years, used as the station master's office.

21 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Hi All,

I have been following this discussion with interest as it has a bearing on how I might arrange the buffer stop area on the bay platform at Bradenham. 

In my ignorance of such matters, I had been planning to maximise the length of my bay by having a stop block attached to the building wall at the end of the bay rather than  a full blown buffer stop as shown at Cholsey, but maybe the GWR & GC rules did not allow this?

 

Any thoughts welcome!

Cheers

Paul  

I think it would be unlikely that the the beam of the stop block would be attached to the wall of the building since there would not be anything to restrain a possible collision, and incursion into the building.

A quick look through my photo collection suggests that many bay lines end with a short section of platform intervening before the building. Under the surface, this would allow for a large lump of concrete (or similar) or for the rear diagonal bracing rails, normally seen at the back of a stop block, to be buried within.

These were platforms 2 & 3 (the Berks & Hants bays) at Reading General before re-building:

The original platform 3 stop block has been replaced and moved - as seen in the next photo. Looking from behind the screen you can see the gap from the building:

This also allows access to platforms 1 and 2:

There was also a similar arrangement for bay platform 7:

In the island between the Up Main and Down Relief platforms.

There is/was a similar gap at Slough for the Windsor bay:

(Including a small forest)

For Bradenham I would suggest Princes Risborough and High Wycombe are the places to look at - the only stations with bays on the GW&GC. Both of these have had new stop blocks in recent years - moved away from the dead end, but both were built with a space between them and the buildings:

High Wycombe:

Princes Risborough:

If you want to maximise the length of your bay you could consider Kingswear, where the bay is to the rear of the building so the stop block position wouldn't be an issue:

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Her's an enlargement off my oroginal scan of the postac card and nor t the compressed version I posted.  I haven't gota clue what the very ornated thung is at the end of the building and the things that look like handrails are equally inexplicable but might be fixed t  the large pale area?

 

Note the end of the fence desb n't havea lamo bracket  and I reckoon that it is probably a bit shorter than the preseent fence. The large wooden box witha sloping top looks like a large toolbox but might have been used for tools. and maybe oil cans possibly?

 

 

 

Thank you for posting this. It shows some fascinating details. I have this photo in the Wallingford branch book, but it's not possible to blow it up this clearly.

Regarding the ornate object - I think this might be a Victorian self-weighing machine - penny-in-the-slot type:

https://collection.maas.museum/object/54861

The two handrails could be for getting on and off this?

It also looks like there is another (chocolate?) machine between this and the two ladies.

After the all too brief stop at Shantytown it was back, under this bridge:

back onto the main coast road, south to Franz Josef:

From Greymouth a freight only railway parallels the coast road south to the town of Hokitika (about 23 miles) with several other impressive bridges along the way:

As we drew closer to Franz Josef the locals came out in force to welcome us:

Despite the hold up, luckily we still arrived at our destination with just enough light to see the glacier snow on the top of the mountains:

Since the following two days it they would be invisible in the torrential rain.

9 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

I believe it is on the "to do" list - both Mark Hopwood and Peter Hendy changed trains at Cholsey when they came to open the canopy at Wallingford station two years ago and were both horrified to see the condition of Cholsey station.

 

(Unfortunately the C&WR ticket office door was repainted by GWR contractors a few years ago when it shouldn't have been! One of our volunteers - a GWR employee - got permission to paint the door in heritage GWR colours. A few months later, GWR's contractors came along and repainted all the doors in GWR green - including ours!)

 

We are currently (and have been since the pandemic!) waiting for Network Rail to finish redecorating the inside of our ticket office so we can reopen it.

The stairwells at Buggleskelly Cholsey could do with some TLC as well:

15 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

 I suspect that it probably had the sleepers against the concrete area you have a photo of.  The beam of the stop block is clearly - in old photos - not against the wall of the building but from what can be made out of its position that would fit with teh sleeprs being against that concrete.

 

Some photos indicate there was a short wooden fence, or possibly it was a gate?, off the end of the building but quite short, definitely not extending as far as theh present fence.  It's worth looking on the 'net as i found several photos showoing the earlier (presumably original) position of the stop block.  There is one photo  I found which shows very clearly a lamp (of the stop block type) on a post on the platform edge presumably slightly short of the stop block itself.

 

Added  is the oldest view I have of Cholsey & Moulsfird station - on a postcard posted in Wallingford on the morning of 16 April 1911 and it shows - and might be visible on enlarging the pic below but I have a much larger original scan of it  - the short section of unclimbable  (aka 'spear') tron fence which appears in that painting however it is only a single section of fence and not two as shown in the painting

 

Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the stop block on either of my visits to Cholsey in  April and December 1964

 

Thanks Mike - I can zoom in and see the fence in this view (behind a large trunk?). Could the large white area, immediately to its right, be a poster board?

I think this is the photo you mean with the lamp?

It looks to me that the post might be a fence post - the bracket behind the lamp looks like it could be supporting a fence panel, with a tiny piece of the first 'spear' shewing in the bottom right corner?

Compared with what's there now:

The post is different (plain square tube) but it has, what looks to me, to be a lamp bracket in a similar position to the lamp in the old photo?

These are a couple of scanned slide photos I took in 1986/7:

Although they are not that clear I think the fence posts look more like the one in the old photo.

Also the platform paving slabs seen here have since been replaced:

The thought occurs - presumably the old fence removed at the time of the re-surfacing?

Were the fence panels (or new ones) put back afterwards, but with new (standard square steel tube) posts, rather than the originals, and with  the old fittings?

Thus giving the appearance that the fence is a modern installation.

Two more locos were at the back of the workshop, next door:

In one shed there were three steam, logging, locomotives on display:

The museum has a short, former logging railway, used for giving passenger rides:

On our visit the train was diesel hauled:

On the return journey it stops at a sawmill:

Where this train could be seen:

Backtracking a little.

Having left the train at Greymouth, we made a short journey south to Shantytown:

This is an open air museum where around 30 heritage buildings have been gathered together to recreate a 19th century mining town:

It looks like someone else didn't know that the spear fencing was installed later:

There's a couple of other points on this painting:

The angled bricks on top of the plinth should be stone blocks:

The painting scheme for the window doesn't match the one at Kidderminster:

That is - no horizontal 'dark stone' line below the top pair of glass panes.

Of course Kidderminster is a preserved reproduction, so either version might be correct?

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

The cutout in the concrete pad had me thinking it may have cleared the end of the stop block perhaps? It would be interesting to see if there is another cutout in the concrete under the pile of leaves to the right.

That does sound logical.

There appears to be a cutout on both sides in this photo:

13 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Nick don't forget that the stop block has been moved back away from the station building and the fence is a modern addition.

Thanks Mike - that nearly caught me out!

Would the stop block have been right up against the building originally?

I had seen photos with the spear fence, from the last years of the branch, and assumed it was always there.

48 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

I'm amazed you can still gain access to Platform 1 (Down Main).  At most stations in the Thames Valley the DM platforms are closed to public access as is the UM side of the islands behind robust fences.  That even applies at Slough now!

There is a gate in the subway, at Cholsey, that's normally shut but never locked (when I've visited).

At the weekend it was wide open!

Behind the buffer stop, at track level, there is a line of stone blocks, at the end of the building, on top of a concrete pad:

The stone blocks appear to align with the top of this brick column that rises from the forecourt:

The ivy doesn't help!

I believe this is capping for the thicker, lower section of the building's wall, which along with the column and an adjoining retaining wall, retain the end of the branch line embankment.

It appears to be shewn on this drawing:

There appears to be a similar arrangement at either end of the Down Main building, so I headed over to take a look:

Oh dear!

I considered having a look at the rear of the building but this can only be accessed from the wheat field behind, which is surrounded by a wire mesh fence now - topped with barbed wire. Anyway as far as I could tell from the road the rear is covered with vegetation at the relevant areas - oh well.

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

Very impressed by this thorough and detailed research. Looks like a nice day out was had too.

 

John C.

Thanks John.

It's been far too many years since I last had a good look round at Cholsey, so it was good to go back.

Also useful to clarify all the little queries that have arisen since I started since I started building.

I'm luckier than some modellers of real locations in that most of 'my' station, and its surrounding infrastructure, still exist - albeit some has been modified.

Just to finish a good day, when I finished at Cholsey, I spent the afternoon at Didcot.

Anybody got a spare can of paint or three?

A closer look at some of the detail around the main station building:

13 hours ago, Annie said:

You were lucky to have had reasonable weather at Greymouth.  When I was there last it was raining like it was the place in the world where rain is stored when it's not being used elsewhere.  The rain was coming down like it was a solid wall of water and I was told by a couple of the local folk sheltering at a corner shop that this is fairly usual for Greymouth.

We were lucky. The following morning, after spending the night in Franz Josef, the rain was just like that for most of the day:

After another night we left, in the pouring rain, heading south crossing swollen rivers and avoiding some minor flooding on the coast road:

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes - thanks! Pity you didn't have time for lunch in the pub opposite Greymouth station.

 

It was glorious sunshine when we were there in April! We had weather like you've described a couple of days earlier though, driving across the Haast Pass.

The sun started to come out after we had come through the Pass:

And it was like this by the time we got toLake Hawea: