Rivercider

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

Hi Jerry the only photos I have of Warminster were taken that day in 1983. I remember reading the Warminster thread and I added one photo to it which shows a little of the station, the other photos are now on my Flickr collection, cheers

As by far the most important traffic in the Westbury area was aggregates here are another three views albeit taken over the regional border on the Southern. Although most stone trains were worked by Western Region locos Southern class 33s did work some services over the years. At Warminster, which had for a time been part of the Western Region 33060 and 33038 head north with empty PGAs, this pair were allocated to Hither Green but I am unsure of the origin of the train. Ashford, and Allington were two depots that received stone in PGAs at that time, 9/6/83. We are now just south of Warminster and see another empty train returning to the Mendips Fareham was one long lived terminal that received aggregates in tippler wagons for grab discharge Basingstoke was another grab discharge terminal and 47148 is seen returning from there with empty MSVs, 9/6/83 Also at Warminster were sidings for the MOD which received military vehicles loaded on warflats worked on a trip from Westbury Yard. Sometimes the wagon fleet became mixed up with vehicles from different batches being formed in the same train this was particularly noticeable in the large fleets of PGA 51t hoppers operated by both ARC and Foster Yeoman. This train of ARC PGAs illustrates the mix of PGA variants that could be seen running together, 47233, seen earlier at Westbury working 100t tipplers, is now seen passing westwards through Salisbury with empty ARC PGAs for Whatley Quarry, 9/6/83 cheers cheers

The high level part does look very effective. Are you going to give 08951 a CAR brake van for the shunters to ride in? cheers

The down yard at Westbury handled traffic from Meldon and the Mendip Quarries for Southern Region destinations that required reversal before proceeding via Warminster, there were two pairs of sidings in the down yard with connections to enable trains to run round within the yard. MSV former iron ore wagons had a long association with the Westbury area firstly on aggregate traffic, then into the civil engineers fleet as ZKVs into the 1990s when they conveyed new ballast from Meldon Quarry as well as their use on spoil trains of spent ballast. 47098 is on the Down Reception line at Westbury with loaded MSVs, this is the 15.45 trip from Whatley Quarry and is loaded for Fareham, 21/6/84 As more private owner air braked wagons entered the aggregate traffic class 56 locos arrived in the Westbury area. Cardiff Canton had received some class 56s early on but I think the first of the class allocated to Bath Road for use at Westbury arrived in 1982, they included 56031/33/34/36/39/43/44/45/46/47. The use of class 56 locos enabled heavier trains to be run, on many routes class 47s could take 30 51t PGA hoppers whereas the class 56s could take 36 PGAs, the same as a pair of class 37s. 56048 had been Canton loco but later moved to Bath Road, here it has arrived at Westbury Down Yard with 51t PGA hoppers, 17/7/85 After detaching from the train 56048 runs past Westbury station on the down reception line, 17/7/85 Finally at Wesbury a look at another passing freight service 47292 heads through the station with an unidentified working of BPO tanks including BPO87777 cheers

Thanks for the comments and anecdotes Jerry. I made a couple of visits in the 1970s with my dad when he was making yard visits in the area, sadly I only have a very few instamatic photos, here is one reasonable effort from 1979. 31s were seldom seen on stone trains on the WR but they were often used on local trips or engineers trains 31258 is stabled in the up yard adjacent to the loco depot, the portacabin in the right background housed the TOPS Office, 28/2/79. The TOPS office had use of an internal user van of some description, (does anyone know of a photo of it?) to hold stores including computer punch cards, these cards did not take kindly to being stored in damp conditions which made them difficult to put through the card punch machine resulting in a box of them being flung from the TOPS office window on at least one occasion! I have the local trip booklet for May 1975 and assuming the trips numbers stayed the same until 1979 31258 could have been working trip 8 that day. The following is a list of trip numbers and loco diagrams, some trips were booked for only a few hours, others worked for most of the day. Trip 1 52 LA122 Trip 2 52 LA 123 Trip 3 52 LA 120 Trip 4 52 LA 121 Trip 5 47 BR 112 Trip 6 47 BR 112 Trip 7 52 LA 131 Trip 8 31 BR 171 - 7B79 07.16 Westbury - Frome full loads, 7B79 08.39 rtn then MWFO 8O72 11.45 to Warminster and 7V19 13.22 rtn, or TTHO 7B79 11.40 to Radstock 13.41 rtn Trip 9 47 BR 24 Trip 10 47 BR 24 Trip 11 08 BR 2323 Trip 12 08 BR 2324 Trip 13 33 EH 206 cheers

More intreresting photos Chris, many thanks The bridge at Swindon winning first prize must be the White House Road bridge, there is/was a pub with a sign featuring the White House, cheers

Well caught! cheers

A trawl of Flickr suggests 76084 was next to 44901 and 48173 cheers

Along with some of my trainspotting schoolmates I travelled on a number of these trains in the 1970s. I still have some of my notebooks, but they lack detailed notes. One trip in the summer of 1976 saw us travel from Weston to Clacton-on-Sea, 47144 was our loco. In those days we also took bus numbers, so after arrival at Clacton went back to Colchester and then up to Ipswich where we went round the bus garage. We then returned to Colchester and went round the garage there as well, on the way to it we crossed a busy roundabout without using the pedestrian subway and were temporarily marooned on a traffic island surrounded by fast moving traffic, a police transit van passed us and we were tannoyed to 'USE THE SUBWAY'! All of this took up a lot of time, and we had not allowed time to get back to Clacton as we would have met the returning excursion half way to Colchester. We went into the supervisors office at Colchester and explained our predicament, and he arranged for the train to stop to pick us up, with hindsight it may have been booked for traincrew purposes anyway but it got us out of a hole. I copped 106 numbers that day. cheers

While we are looking at Westbury Depot let us have a look at the typical occupants of the depot in the early 1980s. I made a visit on a saturday afternoon after the stone train programme had finished for the week. The locos in the depot were predominately class 47s 47027 (LA), 47080 Titan (CF), 47055(OC), 47100 (CD), 47240(CF), 47225 (CF), 47063 (BR), 47293 (BR), 47326 (TO), 47082 Atlas (LE), 08756 (BR), 08951 (BR), 47096 (CF). In the adjacent siding of the up yard were 47503 (CD), 47097 (CF), 37207 (BR) + 37224 (BR). (LA is Laira, CF is Cardiff Canton, OC is Old Oak Common, CD is Crewe Diesel, BR is Bristol Bath Road, TO is Toton and LE is Swansea Landore.) Firstly looking into the depot from the station end, We see 47027, 47080, 47055 with 47100 on the right, 26/4/80 Continuing on through the shed we look out to the rear of the yard. The locos stabled out here are 47293, 47082, 08756 and 47326 cheers

In the 1980s Westbury generally had two Bath Road class 08s outbased as yard pilots, one each to work in the Up Yard and the Down Yard, one of them would also work trips to the Blue Circle Cement works. As a lot of the Westbury area traffic was in privately owned air braked wagons the Westbury pilot turns became air braked duties. 08942 is seen on the up side of the station with a mixed air and vacuum braked trip to the Blue Circle cement works, 23/8/83. Moving a little further south along the platform we can now see Westbury Diesel Depot. The depot contains the usual mix of power for the Westbury area in the early 1980s, at least four class 47s can be seen, along with a pair of class 37s The up side yard pilot 08900 makes a shunt, 20/8/83. cheers

There must be quite a few that were temporary boxes perhaps following war damage or during construction work. Henbury West signal box between Stoke Gifford and Avomouth was an example. It was open from 4th April 1993 until 28th June 1994 during construction work to re-double the line, which included a new bridge span over the M5, cheers

Here are two pairs of units of the same class passing, At Topsham four of First Great Western's class 143 units meet, 143619 is the rear set of the 11.23 Exmouth to Paignton and has met set 143611 leading another set on the 10.15 Paignton - Exmouth, 16/9/2014 cheers

Hi Rob, it looks like I only have a couple more photos with the gantry in. I walked past it every day to work in my last job with EWS at Barton Hill until 2007, but never took photos then. Here is a colour photo taken from the same side 50007 Hercules again passes under the gantry with 3A21 11.25 Malago Vale to Old Oak Common empty news vans, 2/6/83 And a shot from the other side looking towards Barton Hill, but this does not show much detail Light diesel 37287 under the gantry, 20/9/83 cheers

Hi Rob this just keeps getting better and better. I like the Severn Beach single power car making an appearance. The signal gantry at the left hand end is a good idea. The Bristol East Gantry is an impressive structure and something like it could work well. There are also a number of brick built relay rooms that might be useful as scene blockers. Here is the East Gantry in 1983, the brick relay room on the right I think was part of the earlier Bristol East Signal Box. I am not sure if the trees were there in the 1970s though. 50007 Hercules passes under Bristol East Gantry with the 07.40 Penzance - Liverpool Lime Street, 20/9/83 cheers

Thats a good point Rob. I think a lot of the short wheelbase types of freight stock like hIghfits and vanfits built by BR in the 1950s and 1960s were to similar to traditional designs constructed by the Big Four railway companies in the 1940s, and some might have traced their heritage back further than that. So much was swept away so quickly in such a few years cheers

Here are some other views including more from that misty morning in 1982, once I had planned a trip I often carried on even if the conditions were less than ideal. A number of stone terminals were equipped for hopper discharge and received stone in 51t PGA hoppers, Theale, Wootton Basset, Botley and Eastleigh were four such terminals. 47256 another of Bath Roads locos has just arrived at Westbury with loaded PGAs from Merehead Quarry, 3/1/81. As well as commercial aggregate traffic ARCs Whatley Quarry also supplied ballast for the Southern Region. 33001 stands in the platform at Westbury with loaded sealions which have just arrived from Whatley, the loco will run round before heading to Salisbury, 3/1/81 47327 is seen at Westbury with another train of Southern Region ballast, 3/1/81 As well as the 47s which predominated on stone traffic in the Westbury area there were a few class 37s allocated to Bath Road which worked in pairs, some worked trains from Tytherington but Westbury also had some. 37308 and 37148 (which were Landore locos at the time) arrive at Westbury with empties from Foster Yeomans Theale depot, most trains were routed via the station here for traincrew relief, stone trains on the Westbury Avoider were relatively rare, 14/9/82. This time looking west we see another pair waiting to depart from Westbury 37286 and 37186 have run round and are ready to head for Eastleigh with 6O63 from Merehead Quarry, In the background the Peak is in the up yard with airbraked HBA coal hoppers they are probably from the Blue Circle Cement factory at Westbury 14/9/82