Rivercider

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

Thanks. I have always found mixed freight trains fascinating, there often appears to be a randomness about them, but when you study pictures you can sometimes identify patterns of wagon types and how they are formed that might vary around the country, cheers

We now go down onto Westbury Station for some views starting in the early 1980s. These views will show how the motive power situation changed in the Westbury area, after the withdrawal of the last Westerns the bulk of the stone haulage was done by Bath Road allocated class 47s until the first class 56s turned up around 1982/3. First is a classic stone train formation of the day, a class 47 with a train of former iron ore tipplers now coded MSV. A large number of MSVs were employed on stone traffic from the Mendips Quarries as well as Tytherington Quarry. 47284 a Bath Road allocated loco waits at Westbury with loaded MSVs 12/1/81 Here is another set of former bogie iron ore tipplers now coded PTA, these wagons were also very common on traffic from the Mendip Quarries at Merehead and Whatley but were not used out of Tytherington at the time. Cardiff Cantons 47233 stands in the platform at Westbury at the head of a train of 100t tipplers for Angerstein Wharf, after arrival from Merehead the train has run round and will depart via Salisbury, for this reason 47137 was at the rear ready to bank the train up to Warminster, 14/9/82 Vacuum braked services between Severn Tunnel Junction and the Southampton/Eastleigh area called at Westbury Yard. 47205 creeps along the Down Reception at Westbury with 6O48 Severn Tunnel Junction - Southampton 14/9/82 Although Bristol East Depot was the main engineers yard in the west Westbury Yard also handled engineers trains for the local area. 31297 draws a ballast train formed of a shark plough van and loaded sealion hoppers out of the up yard, 14/9/82 cheers

Very nice, that brings back memories. You have captured two of my former BR workplaces. In 1991 as a result of the Sectorisation re-organisation I moved to Westbury and worked for two years for Trainload Freight. For a few weeks the office was temporarily located in Farrs building as seen above 56031 in the distance, I then spent a few months in an office in the down yard as seen above 56038, the top floor of which was the TOPS Office, cheers

I did not want to suggest there was gridlock when shunting took place! But Avon Street forms a useful link beween Temple Way and Feeder Road so it was not deserted either. I seem to remember that in the 1980s the bridge got struck by road vehicles on a number of occasions, waste skip lorries I think were often culprits, in my photo of 08949 on the crossing in 1983 there is a Ford Escort waiting nearside, and what appear to be a car, a van, and a skip lorry far side, cheers

That is not a marshalling requirement I had previously been aware of. I do remember in later years that the pink pages of the Working Manual referring to dangerous goods had restrictions for marshalling certain steel traffic, like rods, blooms and plate that could not be marshalled adjacent to tank cars loaded with certain types of flammable liquids, cheers

Yes I think you are right Brian, they went from Quidhampton to Sittingbourne amongst other places, so would have routed via Severn Tunnel Junction possibly connecting into 6O50 01.50 Severn Tunnel Junction to Dover which called at Hoo Jn, cheers

And now crossing to the other side of the road bridge we can look down onto Westbury Station. To begin we have two photos when Westbury North Signal Box was still controlling semaphore signals. I think that at this time the multiple aspect signals at Westbury South were controlled by a mini panel in the North box which had been renamed Westbury Box, though I stand to be corrected. Firstly a view of a Salisbury - Meldon Quarry empty ballast train which has called at Westbury to run round. 50045 Achilles has been uncoupled ready to run round its train from Salisbury to Meldon, class 50s were not that common on freight services in my experience though I saw them a few times on Meldon trains, 14/9/82 Now another view of the ballast train we saw returning from Woodboro after a ballast drop. 31171 departs from Westbury on its way back to Bristol East Depot, I think these midweek trains often ran as 6Z10, 23/8/83 Now three views after the MAS scheme here had been completed. An earlier view of 6V83 the second of the two daily Speedlink services from Eastleigh to Severn Tunnel Junction 47312 departs Westbury for Severn Tunnel Junction, the PCA tanks next to the loco have probably originated at the cement works, 2/6/84 There were a few petroleum services passing through Westbury, bitumen for Cranmore and Frome has been mentioned. There was also traffic from Fawley to Plymouth and to Tiverton Junction. The Robeston - Theale service for Murco Petroleum ran via the Avon Valley then from Hawkeridge Junction to Heywood Road Junction then up the B&H route to Theale, returning discharged via Swindon. On odd occasions the train called into Westbury Yard to reverse, this sometimes happened before the MAS scheme was completed as Hawkeridge JUnction signal box was not always open. I don't know the reason for this working but the discharged tanks for Robeston are seen on the return working at Westbury. 56032 Sir Morgannwg Ganol/County of Mid Glamorgan makes a smoky departure from Westbury on the return working to Robeston, 21/6/84 Finally for this batch another view of 6V79 which we saw earlier passing Hawkeridge Junction. 6V79 Eastleigh - Severn Tunnel Speedlink service has just arrived at Westbury, the driver of 47156 looks back for a signal from the shunter as the train is about to reverse into the up yard in order for the cement tanks and warflats next to the loco to be detached, 16/6/86 cheers

We now move south to Westbury, a location then, as now, busy with freight traffic. Westbury is a railway crossroads with north-south traffic on the Bristol - Portsmouth route meeting east-west traffic from Paddington to the West of England, and further complicated by an avoiding line. Some of the photos have previously appeared on other threads. At Westbury North is a triangular junction, trains from the Bristol direction can branch left to Heywood Road Junction, and gain the main line towards London. Here is a photo taken looking north towards Hawkeridge Junction, the chord line to Heywood Road Junction can be seen leading off to the right. 47156 is heading 6V79 Eastleigh - Severn Tunnel Junction Speedlink service away from Westbury earlier on the same day as 6V83 previously seen passing Bath. 16/6/86 We now move to Westbury North and the road bridge at the end of the platforms. One source of much traffic at this end of Westbury was the Blue Circle Cement Works adjacent to the main line at Heywood Road Junction. Traffic from the cement works went in train loads to locations like Exeter Central, Lawrence Hill and Southampton, as well as in wagon loads to Barnstaple. Inwards traffic was coal in trainloads from the midlands and PFA from Longannet. Some trains went direct from the works to their destination, other times the wagons were tripped to Westbury Yard for the train to start from there. Here Westbury pilot 08951 brings a raft of 25 presflos from the cement works into Westbury, 3/1/81 To highlight the importance of aggregate traffic in the area we can see two sets of stabled PGAs (51t hoppers), on the left a set is stabled on the up Trowbridge Extension, the siding on the right is known as the Patney Siding. To the right the building site is the beginnings of the construction of the panel signal box. The re-signalling of the Westbury area took place in the early 1980s with Westbury South being completed first. while for a time Westbury North retained semaphores.. In this next view not only have the semaphore signals gone but the cement is now conveyed in airbraked tanks. 08949 brings a short train into Westbury, at this time the cement works was receiving pulverised fuel ash (pfa) from Longannet on Speedlink services, 17/7/85 We can now see the new Westbury Panel Signal Box at Westbury, although the semaphores are still in use at Westbury North. 31171 is working a midweek ballast drop out of Bristol East Depot and is returning from Woodboro on the Berks and Hants route, the permanent way staff are riding on the platform of the third hopper. The formation of 10 dogfish hoppers and a shark plough van, was the standard formation at that time, 23/8/83 Of course Westbury is well known for its involvement in the aggregate traffic from the Mendip Quarries. Although a handful of services bypassed Westbury on the avoiding line most trains called into Westbury either for traincrew relief, or to reverse if heading for stone terminals in the Eastleigh area. We also get a view of the completed Westbury Panel Signal Box. 47242 passes the panel box as it approaches Westbury from the London direction with empty ARC PTAs which are former iron ore tipplers, a type of wagon commonly used on stone traffic in the late 1970s and 1980s. 16/6/86. cheers