Andy Kirkham

This would seem to be a good occasion to share this: MAY 74 36. Exeter St Davids, April 22 1974 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr This was on April 22 1974 and I think I was travelling on the 14:00 Penzance-Birmingham, which must have stopped to swap a Western for a Peak before departing Exeter at 17:39. The timetable shows that no other direct passenger train departed Exeter for Bristol between 17:39 and 21:29. There has been a suggestion that the 31 is 31258. Would anyone care to speculate on the working it is in charge of?

Also glimpsed at the end of this video http://www.britishpathe.com/video/paignton-zoo/

Gerry has previewed many of Mark's pictures at the RCTS and Bristol Railway Circle, and on that basis I am confident that this this will be among the best ever books on the Bristol area.

It's worth looking at the Old Maps site (although it's not very friendly to non-subscribers) e.g. https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/520881/181190/12/100907. It seem to show that the earthworks are not there on the 1:2500 plan of 1871, but they had appeared by 1896. By 1915 the bridge over the North & South Western Junction line was still there, but the earthworks seem to have been levelled to make a golf course and an athletics ground. A curved property boundary still revealed the old course. BY 1935 there seems to be not a trace.

An example of this is "Ringing Rock" a Manning Wardle built for the Narberth Road and Maenclochog Railway ("Ringing Rock" being a translation of the name Maenclochog). It was absorbed by the GWR, much Swindonised and put to work on the china clay lines of Cornwall until sold to the Kent and East Sussex in 1914. Stephens renamed it (as "Hesperus" of course), and the nameplates were put into store - being retrieved in 1922 and applied to another Manning Wardle that Stephens purchased out of his own pocket and put to work on the Selsey Tramway.

It's worth noting that one of the 3' 6" gauge 0-4-0STs on the East Cornwall Mineral Railway... ...was rebuilt as a standard gauge 0-4-2ST and ended up on the Selsey line, where it was also given the name Hesperus. (Colonel Stephens evidently tried to ensure that any railway he had anything to do with had a locomotive named Hesperus)

Does anybody know why it needed to take so long? I thought the new bridge was craned into position months ago. What kind of works were needed to make it ready for use?

Part of a welcome trend. The railway always used to be marginal to Bristol's local transport requirements because Temple Meads was so inconveniently situated; now that the city's centre of gravity is migrating towards Temple Meads, the railway's role is increasing. It's just a pity that so many of the city's residential areas are remote from a railway - the Midland route out to Mangotsfield would be booming now if it had been kept.

I sometimes think that the famous "North-South Divide" is actually less profound that the East-West Divide. As resident of Bristol I feel a degree of affinity with Cornwall, Wales, Liverpool, Manchester, the Lake District, Glasgow and the Hebrides, but Kent, Lincolnshire, Tyneside and Fife feel almost as alien to me as Samarkand.

Seeing the model from that angle put me in mind of one of Polly's continental relations: Von Roll foundry, Delémont, September 1992 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr Still at work in 1992

I've no idea whether Blake had the inclination to believe such a crackpot legend, but what I think Jerusalem is saying is that it really doesn't matter whether those feet really did walk upon England's mountains green. We should nevertheless be inspired by the idea, and strive to make our country a better place.

Sadly the Coffee Trike is now in abeyance; Keira is moving away from Bristol and her last day was on Friday.

There is a painting named "Dawn near Reading" showing a westbound broad gauge train and in the background a train on the South Eastern line. It belongs to the collection of Sir Arthur Elton now in the care of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum. I have seen it reproduced several times in different contexts, for instance here http://www.brunel200.com/great_western_railway.htm The artist is said to be unknown, but recently I came across a reference to this http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/up-mail-passing-reading-188712 by one Brownlow D. Knox (died 1878), which is surely by the same hand. I contacted Ironbridge to point out the similarity, and they said they would follow it up, but haven't heard back from them since. Although I live in Bristol and have often visited the Museum & Art Gallery, I have never seen the Knox painting on display; presumably it is kept permanently in store.

Do trams not have some kind of dead man's handle so as to stop the vehicle if the driver is incapacitated?

Seems surprising, considering that the D6100's were considered so unreliable that they needed to be re-engined and many had been taken out of service and stored. The D6300's on the other hand led reasonably useful lives. Did the Scottish Region have higher expectations than the Western? [edit] Also it seems odd that both classes had more-or-less the same engines, and those engines were considered to be the Achilles heel of the one class but not of the other. (thinks a little....) Could it be that by the time the question of re-engining arose, it was known that the 22's had a short life expectancy because policy had turned against hydraulics, whereas the 21's, being diesel-electric, were worth persevering with?

Yes, in my opinion the 43s had on the whole better names than the 42s. By which I mean that there were more which were frankly warlike or historically resonant, as befits a fighting ship, rather than "tame" ones such as names of admirals and types of dog. I particularly relish those exotic ones Temeraire and Ramillies. Although Roebuck is pretty lame, I'll grant you.

I think this is 1042, if that is any use. FEB 73 13. A Class 52 (possibly D1042 Western Princess) passes Landore with a Swansea-Paddington train, 1973 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr

I suppose this would have been typical of public roads in those days (this, admittedly is the 1890s). Would this just have been compacted dirt? Brook House, Old Road, Barlaston. by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr

Penwithers Junction (Truro) is near a place called Penweathers

To return briefly to Saltburn, there have been posted on Flikr a couple of pictures recently: Saltburn Station by robmcrorie, on Flickr Although I am a staunch GWR fan, I cannot deny that the North Eastern had overall the grandest architecture of any railway. Now hold onto your hats and take a look at this! 66078 at Hunt Cliff by robmcrorie, on Flickr

Here's the coffee vendor I mentioned above https://thecoffeetrike.co.uk/

Lovers of Great Western Branch LIne Album will doubtless recognise this picture https://flic.kr/p/chi2wJ - one of hundreds that the photographer has posted on Flikr https://www.flickr.com/photos/64215236@N03/albums

I used to get it out of the library again and again. One of my favourite railway books ever. But it's only this year that I've actually bought a copy.

I hadn't realised the canopy supports were new. I wonder if they are second-hand ones from elsewhere. At one time they'd just have pulled the canopy down. Also artwork has been applied the boarded-up windows. They are images from Victorian photographs, each with some anachronistic addition, such as an iPod. At some stage the building served as a clubhouse for the Bristol Railway Circle which did a good deal of renovation, then had to leave because BR/Railtrack/Network Rail made the rent unaffordable. An upholstery business occupies the building now. A young lady sells coffee here on weekday mornings, something unimaginable a few years ago, and a testament to the traffic growth in recent times. I look forward to the introduction of the "Metro" service - half-hourly with alternate trains running through to Portishead and Bath.

Only once a week does the Severnside refuse train run in (for the time being) daylight and today it passed Redland (and my house) at about 17:30. 637J 1311 Southall T.C. to Severnside Sita, passing Redland. September 25, 2016. by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr A couple of months ago I got this shot at Temple Meads: A pair of Class 37s at Temple Meads with nuclear flasks from Hinkley Point. July 6 2016 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr Not a great picture in itself, but it makes an interesting comparison with this one from 46 years previously! MAY 70 19. Puxton-Aberthaw fly ash train, Temple Meads 1970 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr Unfortunately I didn't have the 1970 picture with me for reference, so I was depending on my memory for the choice of viewpoint. It seems I should really have been standing nearer to the end of the platform and closer to the edge.