Rivercider

Thanks for the info Mike. Although I never visited either Guinness at Park Royal or the MOD at Bicester I have a little knowledge of them as at various times I was involved TOPS work relating to those locations. Some of the sidings along the B&H mainline and some of the London area branches are more of a mystery to me though! cheers

In the early 1980s I was working in Bristol TOPS, and on rest days I would sometimes catch a train and spend time taking railway photos. A few of my trips were to locations in the London Division of the Western Region of BR, In this thread I will add some of my photos from the area taken between 1980 and 1986, I will also sneak in one or two instamatic shots from the late 1970s. I have photos from Didcot, Oxford, a couple from the B&H and Reading, and a few from Acton. These photos will illustrate some of the freight traffic that could be seen, though as with the thread covering the West of England Division this will not be an exhaustive list. My earlier thread of photos taken around the West of England Division of the Western Region can be seen here:- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/83609-western-region-1980s-freight-west-of-england-division-my-photos/ My knowledge of the London Division is not nearly as detailed as for the West Country, and as before I will rely on some of my books for extra information. The Inter-City Railway Society's Shunter Duties booklet for 1979 gives details of which yards had class 08 duties. My various Ian Allan and Platform 5 loco books will show how many 08s were allocated to cover the duties. My, well thumbed, Bakers Rail Atlas (1980 3rd edition) shows the locations of yards and sidings. No doubt there will be quite a few things I omit and, as before, any corrections or additional info will be welcome. I hope this thread will show some of the variety of traffic that could be seen and provide some help and inspiration for anyone modelling the area and era. It always seemed to me that the London Division did not have a large amount of originating freight traffic, and that it was dominated by freight trains from elsewhere terminating in the area, or other freight rains passing through. Some of the important freight flows were:- Coal from South Wales to Acton Yard and various Coal Concentration Depots. Aggregates traffic from the Mendips to various stone terminals. Petroleum products from South Wales/Fawley/Thameside etc to various oil depots. Freightliner traffic from Southampton to the Midlands and East Anglia. Although I am on RMWeb nearly every day this will again be a slow thread as I find the photos and try to confirm what I have seen! Page 1 - Didcot Page 2 - Oxford and B&H Page 3 - Acton Yard cheers

Thanks for the nice comments. As I thought, the concensus is to start fresh threads for the other two divisions. I will start with the London Division next, I made fewer visits there though so it will be a much briefer affair. cheers

Is the 'camping Toad' still at Christow? cheers

Thanks for the additional information, I do remember that as revenue earning vacuum braked traffic declined there was a small remaning network of services for moving engineers traffic, as well as odds and sods like vehicles for scrapping, or repaired cripples left off from trainload services. My knowledge of the freight services east of Swindon is much more limited as is my photographic collection. This brings me on to a point I have been pondering for a few days, since I have finished my photographic coverage of the West of England Division. My photo coverage of the London Division is much poorer, mostly Didcot, Oxford, a little at Reading and one visit to Acton, after that though I have I have plenty of photos from the South Wales Division which will include a number of locations off the South Wales Mainline. As this thread has now reached page 15 I am wondering is it getting unwieldy and would it be better to call a halt, rename the topic header and start afresh with another thread for the London Division etc. Or better to keep everything as it is in one thread for the whole region? I'll think about that for a day or two, any thoughts anyone? cheers

Hi Rob, thanks for the comment, I very seldom pass that way these days so as yet have seen nothing of the electrification work. I did work at Swindon in 125 House from 1985-88 but took no railway pictures at that time. In 1996-99 when at Westbury TOPS we did the inputs for the Swindon area so I produced many trainlists for the Rover trains as well as the Coopers scrap traffic. Here are a couple more views from my one photographic visit in the 1980s. Back then there was more aggregates traffic passing through than I think there is these days. Sometimes the Mendip traffic would run via Melksham and Swindon if there was engineering work on the B&H route. There was also the traffic from Tytherington, usually a train a day for Appleford or Oxford Banbury Road, another to Theale, both these were formed of MSVs. There were normally two trains day for Wolverton, each of 36 PGAs worked by pairs of Bath Road 37s, Swindon traincrew I think worked these trains forward as well as working the Avon Waste train through to Calvert. edit -I forgot to mention that the Foster Yeoman stone train to Wootton Bassett always ran to Swindon first to run-round as the terminal at Wootton Bassett can only be reached off the down line on the way back. Here is one of the Wolverton workings returning through Swindon. Set 253001 is on a Paddington working as 37204 and 37158 pass by on the down through line with 6V11 Wolverton - Stoke Gifford, 4/9/84 Vacuum braked services between Severn Tunnel Junction and Acton lasted unti the early 1980s, then there was aiso a nightly Swindon - Bescot and return vacuum braked working 7M01/7V01 I think that conveyed engineers traffic later including concrete sleepers from the plant at Washwood Heath loaded on salmons. There were several Speedlink workings a day on Speedlink Route 1 South Wales - Dover (which included Essex), here is an up working. My notes have this as a Severn Tunnel Junction to Ripple Lane working headed by 47314. 4/9/84 Paul Shannons 'Railfreight since1968 - Wagonload' has a list of services in 1986 including 6E91 14.10 Severn Tunnel Junction - Dagenham Dock so it may well have been this working, with empty cartic sets for Dagenham 6E91 ran for some years, it later became 6L91 when the Anglia Region was formed. cheers

Looking at photos on Flickr taken in the 1970s in South Devon in places like Dainton the ballast, particularly on the shoulders, is very pale in colour, presumably from Stoneycombe Quarry. The track on Blue Ball looks nice as it is, perhaps maybe a little weathering where locos stand (by the signal in the loop, at the end of the platforms?) or between the rails, but otherwise OK, cheers

Hi Simon I have been to every Weston show so far, and pretty good they have been too. I hope to be there, so will stop by and say hello, cheers

Have you seen Southern Branch LInes by Michael Welch (Capital Transport), page 98 has two colour photos. One photo from the Bideford end of the south platform looking towards Barnstaple with the waiting room and signal box to the left of the shot. The other photo, also from the Bideford end taken from a train window as a train leaves towards Torrington, the view is of the quay sidings with cranes and a coaster alongside, cheers

There were a number of active freight locations at Swindon, mostly on the up (north) side of the main line. Arriving from the west Swindon Works was first encountered, then just west of the station was the loco depot, behind this, to the north was Swindon Stores which received and dispatched various civil engineers equipment. The works and loco depot can be seen in this view from the station 08523, a Tinsley allocated loco presumably in Swindon for works attention stands in front of Co-Bo 5705 The class 37s are 37280 and 37255, Swindon Stores lies to the right behind the fence, 4/9/84 To the east of the station on the up side of the line was Cocklebury Yard (I think Spike Sidings had gone by then - a new road built in its place) Hartwells Oils had a small terminal which received a small amount of traffic via Speedlink. The former Highworth Branch gave access to Coopers Metals scrap yard, though I dont remember traffic at that time. Then there was the Pressed Steel plant making car body parts for Longbridge which was variously later renamed British Leyland. BL, Austin Rover, and Rover Group. I remember there were usually two trains a day from here to Longbridge with the traffic originally loaded in Cov-ABs, then a pool of brand new VGAs were allocated later to be replaced by the high-cube vans. Swindon Transfer sidings were on the down side of the main line and there was a small amount of traffic to here. The butter train of 2 x 5 freightliner sets from Tilbury was also handled here when it ran. 08795 is in the platform while making a shunt from Cocklebury Yard to the Transfer Sidings. In the background are parcels vans ready to be loaded in the parcels platform that no longer exists having been replaced by the new platform 4, 4/9/84 cheers

The last location to look at in the West of England Division is Swindon. As well as the BREL Works at Swindon, and a number of private sidings, there was a lot of through traffic passing on the main line from South Wales and the Bristol area to and from the London direction. Over the years the Works was the origin or destination of a lot of freight traffic,. In the late 1970s as a TOPS clerk at Bristol I remember the C&W assessor would visit Bristol East Depot Upside Cripple Grading Sidings each week and label away wagons for repair, with a cripple code of CW - for works repair. Perhaps 30 or 40 wagons would be sent away to a number of repair points and Swindon Works was often the destination for a batch of 10 or 15 vehicles. By the early 1980s the unfitted and vacuum braked wagon fleet was being heavily culled and wagons were more likely to be labelled away with a cripple code of CJ - one journey only - for scrapping. Swindon had a small loco depot adjacent to the station with an allocation of seven or eight class 08 shunters. The importance of the Works is indicated by the 1979 Shunter Duties booklet which lists six duties in all, three in the Works. 1 - Cocklebury Yard pilot 1 - Transfer Yard pilot 1 - Swindon station parcels pilot 3 - BREL Works, 1 Subway and A/B shops 1 Parcel / Carriage pilot 1 Field sidings. In 1982 the allocation was 08288, 08398, 08411, 08487, 08583, 08785, 08839. In the 1980s the Works was in decline and although repair and refurbishment was still carried out a lot of the work by now was the scrapping of stock. Here is a melancholy photo from the 1970s, of a Western and a 16t mineral which I assume will be used to carry away the remains. 1068 Western Reliance stands in the scrap yard next to 16t mineral B216409 9/6/77 cheers

I sort of know what you mean, in the past we have had a couple of feeders in our back garden, one of value mixed food which got ignored, and one of sunflower hearts which was very popular. Strangely though we had a feeder of niger seed which was treated with complete contempt by all the birds despite there being regular goldfinch visitors to our garden, and they never touched it preferring sunflower hearts, my mother lived 10 minutes walk away and her niger seed was consumed. cheers

A couple of years ago I made a number of weekend journeys between Weston-super-Mare and Taunton when there long running planned weekend rail replacement buses. On more than one occasion I have been aware the driver was slowly feeling his way into the next town looking for clues and I have 'conducted' him to the station, on the last occasion all the vehicles covering the job were First Group vehicles, mine was from Penzance and I am not sure the driver had ever visited Somerset before.... cheers

Well I am also hoping that he out there fit and well, just spending his time doing other things. It did just occur to me though that he may be waiting for this thread to get heated and become locked before breaking cover! cheers

Hmmm a bit more difficult than I expected. This is not quite right though. At Ely 47156 arrives with the 11.35 Kings Lynn - Liverpool Street, the VR waits at the crossing, 24/3/82 edit and another one 45068 in the rain at Leicester with a Manchester - Luton Footex, 2/10/82 (The score was 1 -1 Ricky Hill and Ashley Grimes being the scorers) Another one - not great quality Bristol set B473 on the 16.15 Bristol Temple Meads - Taunton heads into the setting sun at Parson Street, 3/2/81 At Port Talbot 47087 Cyclops passes Port Talbot with a Freightliner 5 set from Danygraig, 7/7/81 cheers ps I must have too much time on my hands, I have just looked through all 2468 of my photos on Flickr, and they are the only ones I have found

There are not many class 73 photos in my collection, but here is a scratched instamatic shot from 1978 73140 at Eastleigh Depot 20/5/78 cheers

Foster Yeomans first dispatched trains from Merehead in 1970 with access via a loop at Whites Crossing on the East Somerset line which meant that trains had to reverse on the way in and out of the quarry. In 1973 a new chord line was opened from Merehead Quarry Junction to Merehead to enable trains to arrive directly, thus forming a triangle. Loaded trains still leave via the original route propelling out to Whites Crossing before departing for the main line. From the reception sidings the wagons pass beneath the A361 road into the quarry complex for loading. The earliest wagons used included 16t minerals as well as 26t tipplers and 21t hoppers, a typical train from the 1970s might be formed of 38 x 26t tipplers with a payload of about 988 tonnes. 51t PGA hoppers were first introduced in 1973, and at one time over 250 were being leased by Foster Yeoman. 100t PTA, former British Steel bogie iron ore tipplers were first used in 1983. New O&K bogie hoppers first appeared in 1989. To carry out shunting at Merehead Yeomans bought several ex BR class 08 shunters including D3002, D3003, 08032, 08650 and 08652. Foster Yeoman 33 named Mendip, a former BR class 08 no.08032, seen at Gloucester Horton Road Depot 3/1/80. With increasing traffic in 1980 Foster Yeoman ordered a General Motors SW1001 switcher which arrived in 1981. Foster Yeoman 44 named Western Yeoman II, seen at Merehead during the 75 years celebration 28/6/98 Folowing the success of the reliable GM switcher Yeomans subsequently purchased class 59s which entered traffic in 1986 though this was after I had finished taking railway photos. cheers

Nice, that van must have been with the pilot for at least 14 months then, may be with a visit to Barton Hill shops for ppm at some stage, cheers

Hi Rob sorry I did not spot this post earlier. The Temple Meads pilots and brake vans appear in a lot of my photos, but frustratingly not the close enough to read the van number. I have found this shot taken from the TOPS Office window, it is a bit crooked, and the print has not been cut straight. 08819 recently ex-works stands in the High Level Sidings with CAR B954964, as a bonus part of Avonside Wharf can be seen in the background, 8/5/83. As I recall once the station shunters had found a van they liked (good stove and draughtproof?) they furnished it with arm chairs and were reluctant to let it go. I remember one day watching the pilot and van parked more or less where 08819 is as the shunters transferred their belongings into the replacement van. I thought that at one time only one of the two station pilot duties was air braked, so the other one could have worked with a CAP brake van, but my Bristol Local Trip booklet from October 1975 shows both duties as 'D/B' so both would have had CAR brake vans, cheers

Hi Bill, nice work on the bullets, the information is on a 'data panel' here is an example https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/5007923258/ I am hoping to get to the Exeter Show next year, it will be my first visit if I make it, cheers

Hi Doug sorry those are the only photos I have of that line cheers

Hi Mike, I confess I took the location from my earliest Baker Rail Atlas, 2nd edition dated 1978 without checking further. My 1980 West of England Sectional Appendix does refer to Hapsford GF though. The 1975 trip booklet refers 'Whatley Bridge Loop as a starting or terminating location for the trips, where is that? cheers

There are many quarries located along the length of the Mendips and over the years quite a number have been rail connected. In the 1980s Foster Yeomans Merehead Quarry and ARCs Whatley Quarry provided the bulk of the stone tonneage forwarded by rail, there was also, at times, stone loaded in the yard at Frome by Tarmac which arrived by road from another nearby quarry. The closest of the two main quarries to Westbury is Whatley Quarry, north of Frome and reached by a branch off the former Bristol Radstock and Frome line at Somerset Quarry Junction. The number of trips or trains originating from Whatley over the years has varied, but the introduction of increasingly larger wagons and increasingly more powerful locomotives has meant that fewer trains can now convey a greater tonneage. The 1975 local trip booklet for example showed 11 weekday departures from Whatley though obviously they might not all run on any given day. Here are two views taken at Whatley that have been posted before elsewhere. PGA hoppers, MSVs, and some of the ARC shunting locos are visible in this view of the yard, 21/6/84. A view looking the other way at Whatley A rake of PGA hoppers are being loaded, 21/6/84 cheers

From the same day in 1984 here are three other freight services on the Berks and Hants main line. Firstly we are back at Clink Road Junction to see another train heading west 47090 Vulcan approaches Clink Road Junction with presflos from Westbury Blue Circle for Exeter Central, 21/6/84 Looking the other way on the up line we see another service that has been covered before in this thread Export clay in Polybulks heading for Dover passes the signal box behind 47282, 21/6/84 There were two bitumen terminals in the area at Frome and Cranmore, originally these terminals received traffic in block train loads but in the 1980s tanks arrived on Speedlink services at Westbury and were then tripped to final destination. At East Somerset Junction at Witham re-signalling and track work was underway when I visited with a BR colleague. 47279 is on a local trip from Westbury with 8 TTAs of bitumen for Cranmore, 21/6/84 The Witham signalman chats with the driver of 47279, also visible is some of the new track work, and new signals still hooded awaiting commissioning, 21/6/84 cheers

We now head west out of Westbury and see more traffic to and from the Mendip Quarries, Firstly two photos at Clink Road Junction east of Frome where the line to Frome and Whatley Quarry branched off north 33009 and 33107 storm westwards with empty PGA hoppers for Whatley, 21/6/84 Looking the other way off the bridge we see Clink Road Junction Signal Box, the route branching to the right here is for Frome, Whatley Quarry and Radstock where three was a wagon repair depot owned by Marcroft Engineering. 56039 approaches along the Frome Avoider with loaded PGAs from Merehead Quarry 21/6/84. Now a view at Witham where the Westbury Area Multiple Aspect Signalling scheme was underway East Somerset Junction at Witham was where the line branches north to Merehead Quarry and Cranmore. 56039 approaches Witham from Merehead with another train of loaded PGA hoppers from Merehead Quarry, 21/6/84 cheers