Rivercider

When EWS set up at Doncaster it was not only train planning staff who were reluctant to move. All office based TOPS work was centralised there (excluding TOPS direct inputs carried out by groundstaff), traincrew rostering was also later centralised there. As a TOPS clerk I declined the kind offer to move to Yorkshire, as did many of my colleagues at Westbury. Seven years later, now working as a traincrew roster clerk in Bristol I again declined the chance to move north, and along with all my remaining roster colleagues in Bristol took redundancy, cheers

Weston-super-Mare Southern League Premier South champions, also tier 7, had an attendance of 1490 for their final home game. The next challenge will be to stay in National League South. Local West Country derbies v Bath City, Taunton Town, Yeovil Town, and Torquay United should see some more big gates next season, cheers

I noticed that the pasties appeared to be side crimped, making them more likely to be imports from over the Tamar. Devon pasties are generally top crimped, though there are exceptions on both sides of the border, cheers

The ten members of the E1/R class 0-6-2T were conversions of LB&SCR E1 class 0-6-0T. They were rebuilt and enlarged in 1927/28 for use on the former LSWR working in Exeter and North Devon and North Cornwall, cheers

On one of my visits to the West Somerset Railway back in May 2009 I was there for the first departure of the day from Bishops Lydeard, and was treated to some impressive steam action as S&D 2-8-0 no.88 prepared the first train of the day for Minehead. It must have been a chilly morning, and possibly a freshly prepared loco. No video, but I took a number of photos as the loco moved stock from one platform to the other, timed from 10.06 to 10.12 the cylinder drain cocks appear to be open in all the photos I took. The steamiest photo shows No.88 propelling stock out of the down platform towards Norton Fitzwarren prior to drawing forward into up platform to load up. 19/5/2009. And in the platform waiting for departure time. 19/5/2009 cheers

I think this bridge at Stapleton Road Bristol is a bowstring bridge, since replaced when the four tracks here were re-instated. 45007 heads south 30/9/81 cheers

Taken during the 'wilderness years' of the island platform at Taunton which lasted from 1970 to 2000. There was no platform furniture on the island then, but the stairs remained, and the platform was I believe occasionally used on summer Saturdays and possibly for traincrew relief. The re-signalling of the Taunton area in May 1986 made these platforms reversible, and they came back into regular passenger use in 2000. cheers

Weston-super-Mare have managed to win the Southern Premier League South to gain promotion back to the National League South. I watched the Saturday game as relentless pressure eventually led to the only goal against Merthyr in front of over 1000 fans. Last night a 4 -1 home win over Hendon in front of 1400 fans, with Bracknell and Truro having dropped points. Next season will see West Country derbies against Bath City, Yeovil Town and Torquay Utd. cheers

For anyone interested in moving to Moretonhampstead properties in the Hingston View development, which is on the site of Moretonhampstead station, are now going on the market. The former goods shed is being converted into three homes - they are not affordable housing, Bradleys Estate Agents have the details cheers

I remember from my time in the Bristol Area Freight Centre about trains through The Tunnel requiring exam, and the exemptions for some trains starting from yards in Bristol. The Bristol area mobile c&w examiners would visit places like Filton CCD and Wapping Wharf CCD to check wagons were fit to travel. Here are some views of the up side yards at Severn Tunnel Junction. First showing the Admin block which included the Area Manager, traincrew depot, and TOPS office, which I visited a couple of times. The 08.45 Severn Tunnel Junction to Hallen Marsh departs behind 45033, the ferry vans are probably to load ingots for export, while the hoppers of coke for Commonwealth Smelting will have come from coke ovens at either Nantgarw, Cwm, or Coed Ely. 9/9/80 The upside yard, included off to the right a set of single ended sidings, known as the Bristol Yard. The up yard looking west. Pilots 08848 and 08780 were Ebbw Junction allocated locos at this date, Ebbw Junction depot closed around 1982, so Canton supplied the locos after that. 9/9/80. Undy Yard was the up reception yard for the up hump. Undy Yard looking east, the ground frame cabin is of the 'plywood' style. 25/9/86. Amazing to think in the following year October 1987 all this was closed, cheers

And Meldon ballast is not actually granite, but another metamorphic rock known as hornfels. cheers

These are a couple of other views I took from the bridge over Severn Tunnel Junction. I have previously posted them on RMweb, but I think they have disappeared into the ether. The down hump at Severn Tunnel Junction looking east. Pilot 08932 has just finished a shunt and a pair of bitumen tanks roll down the hump. 9/9/80 Looking the other way off the bridge, to the west down towards Newport and Cardiff A view of the down yard, with the diesel depot across the main lines . 6/6/83. Another view looking west (correction - sorry) I think, from the previous posts that the upside traincrew relief point is the loops where two class 25s are standing with a bitumen train, with 45033 beside them with the 08.45 service for Hallen Marsh. 31424 passes Severn Tunnel Junction with 08.15 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour. 9/9/80 cheers

A few pages back I offered to add a photo or two if appropriate to this fascinating thread, though most of my photos were taken a few years after these incidents took place. Here are a couple relating to the parcels working from Bristol Temple Meads. First a view of Bristol Temple Meads east end. East end pilot 08644 stands on the Up Through Line. We can see the east end connection to the the Up Middle Siding which is the further of the two middle roads, from where the parcels train departed. 50037 prepares to depart from platform 5 with the 11.15 Plymouth to Manchester Piccadilly, 19/6/79. A class 46 similar to the loco involved in the incident seen on the Up Through Line at Bristol Temple Meads, the ground frame is the one giving access to the east end of the Up Middle Siding where the parcels train would have started. The guard climbs into the rear cab of 46035 which was working a seasonal special Exeter Riverside to Whitemoor Yard with empty vanfits which had come from East Anglia with bagged beet pulp nuts. 11/11/80. My geography at Severn Tunnel Junction is not great, but this view from the bridge over the yard is looking east towards the Tunnel with the down hump out of sight to the right. I assume the parcels train came to a stand at one of the ground signals in view? 46051 hauls fire damaged 45009 to the depot at Severn Tunnel Junction 9/9/80. cheers

I have had the pleasure of attending a number of slide shows presented by one of my railway photographer heroes Les Nixon. At his shows he always mentioned that when people comment about how great it was that he was capturing vanishing scenes from the end of steam and closures of the Beeching era he pointed out that we all currently have the chance to go out and record the changing railway scene now. A friend of mine spent a lot of time photographing work sites and engineering trains during the work to open the Portishead branch to Royal Portbury dock, that also made a very interesting slide show, cheers

I am thinking a possible explanation, a block of say five identical VEAs of MOD stores arrive at Mossend, three for Leuchars, two for Fort William. The shunter mistakenly splits them in the wrong place (2 and 3), thus attaching one of the Leuchars vans into the Fort William traffic. When the TOPS trainlists for the onward trains to Fort WIlliam and Leuchars are run off neither train preparer or guard notices that their train is one over/one short, and the errant wagon goes the wrong way. Later that day Leuchars realise they are one short, and Fort William find they are one over. A less likely explanation is that the TOPS release information was wrongly given, or wrongly input at origin. The originating and receiving TOPS offices, as well as any intermediate yards where the traffic was shunted, should have received the special movements wire with the relevant CS number. This would say something like 'CS1234 - wagon 230001 plus two others MODtown to Leuchars per the following services....' We used to pay quite a lot of attention to these in the TOPS office I worked, and would like to think we would have spotted any error, cheers cheers

The fuelling point at Bath Road was in a three road shed known (like Gateshead) as the 'Daily Shed' The Daily Shed at Bath Road is in the centre of this view taken in January 1982. 47239 had recently arrived from Swindon hauling 37247 and 47295, 15/1/82

My dad was the WR civil engineers wagon supervisor in the 1970s and 1980s, much of his job entailed visiting yards and depots to chase up delayed, detained, or mis-appropriated engineers wagons. He got to know many of the yard supervisors, shunters, and TOPS clerks quite well. Sometimes if he was doing a full check of a yard he would ask for a TOPS X3 yard enquiry, or if TOPS yard files were in use he would ask for a yard 'Stour' (yard list), which he would check as he walked around. Occasionally the supervisor or TOPS clerk would give him some lost (non engineering ) wagons to look out for which he was always happy to do in exchange for a cup of tea, quite often he would find the missing wagon(s) buried deep in the back of the yard somewhere - though I don't remember him mentioning explosives. cheers

Barton Hill in Bristol had two very early steam sheds. Later they both became part of Barton Hill carriage and wagon shops. In the 1990s sectorisation Barton Hill became a RES depot, so new loco fuelling and maintenance facilities were provided. 47786 Roy Castle at Barton Hill 7/4/01 Barton Hill fuel point looking south 47725 10/3/2001 cheers

Fuelling points come in many different forms, and also varied over the years. There would be a big difference between an early diesel fuelling point provided in an active steam shed compared to a fuelling point in a purpose built diesel depot. Most, but not all, fuelling points include a concrete apron, though some were ballasted, A search on Flickr will bring up examples, cheers

Stone traffic from Cliffe to Paddington continued after other traffic ceased I believe. Picture from Flickr by Andy French, 33001 33052 with 09.10 Cliffe to Paddington New Yard. 13/8/87 cheers

The Fen Drayton to Kings Cross sand traffic was in HTVs when I remember it. 31319 has just been attached to 37125 as the pair depart from Cambridge with the Fen Drayton to Kings Cross sand train 11/7/85 cheers

Freight Only Vol 1 : Northern England, by Rhodes and Shannon has some info. It lists the Tyne Yard trip summary from January 1987, though not details of wagons or traffic. The relevant trips departure times, (and booked loco) are:- 9P04 06.45 to TCFD, Cl.31 9P10 11.00 to Simonside & TCFD, Cl.31 9P11 11.30 to Heaton & Coxlodge, & TCFD, Cl.31 9P02 13.50 to Southwick (Austin & Pickersgill) and TCFD, Cl.31 cheers

Well I managed to get over to a blustery Woodspring Stadium this afternoon to see Weston beat Tiverton Town 2 - 1 in a local derby, making hard work towards the end. There were four former Exeter City academy lads in Weston's starting XI, and two more in the Tiverton starting XI, with another on the visitors bench. 40 year old former Exeter player Woodman also played for Tiverton, while another former player Reuben Reid was unused on the Weston bench (mind you Reid has about 17 former clubs!). The attendance of 997 was pretty decent, cheers

The LSWR branch from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe was steeply graded with a summit at Morethoe and Woolacombe. Northbound was as steep as 1 in 40, while southbound trains faced a climb of 1 in 36 from the platform end at Ilfracombe. Local instructions showed that when descending the bank in either direction two manned heavy (20t) brake vans were required if the load exceeded 15 but not more than 25 loaded wagons, one manned heavy brake van being sufficient for up to 15 loaded wagons. If two brake vans were used one went on the rear, the other behind the 11th vehicle. If the train was double headed one heavy manned brake van would suffice. cheers

Thanks Paul, that VTG tank car looks right, vinylidene chloride used in the production of packaging products is UN code 1303 and dangerous goods code 3(A) highly flammable liquid, so not permitted on a train with explosives or a loaded nuclear flask. Here is 7M22 the 09.05 Exeter Riverside to Bescot (as it had become by then), shown calling at Bridgwater to attach a loaded flask for Sellafield. 47335 restarts 7M22 away from Bridgwater. Behind the loco are two empty gunpowder vans, probably returning from Truro. Behind them the three loaded clayfits are probably conveying ball clay from North Devon to Molar Products at Wrexham for the manufacture of dentures. The loaded nuclear flask is seen further back behind the next block of vanfits, 12/9/80 cheers