Ghosts in the Machine.

[LMS2968]

[C126]

Please forgive me if readers do not think this the correct thread for these pictures, but whenever I pass the site of Redhill Yard, I see the increasingly dilapidated and over-grown 'CLASP' yard office(?), and think it should be recorded before it is razed for good.  Yester-day, at last I attempted a few pictures from the train home, thus:

 

The first attempt, with a lighting pole (?) amusingly bang in the way:

 

 

 

 

... two better attempts from the train to Reading:

 

 

 

A depressing sight.  Sorry.  If anyone has pictures of Redhill Yard fifty years ago full of wagon-load freight, please do post them to lift the resulting gloom.  Thanks.

[PhilJ W]

It might last for years if the vegetation takes over.

[Wickham Green too]

Hundreds of years hence an archaeologist will hack his ( her ) way through the jungle and discover this lost remnant of a long forgotten civilisation ................... and will wonder what sort of so called "civilisation" would have created such a CR4P structure !

[melmerby]

18 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Hundreds of years hence an archaeologist will hack his ( her ) way through the jungle and discover this lost remnant of a long forgotten civilisation ................... and will wonder what sort of so called "civilisation" would have created such a CR4P structure !

I thought it was a post WW2 pre-fab!😄

[John M Upton]

It's a post WW2 portacabin type building.  Curiously when the whole west side of Redhill was rebuilt for the installation of Platform 0 a few years back it somehow survived.  It was apparently the train crew mess room for the goods yard there and apparently had some - ahem - interesting decorations on the walls so I am told...

[great central]

Looks rather like our former club building which, prior to us obtaining it, served as an extra classroom on a school site the other side of Nottingham. 

Timber framed and clad, ours was originally from the Vic Hallam company at Langley Mill, built from standardised 6ft sections they could be erected almost any size required, ours was 60ft x 24ft.

Very heavy sections all dismantled and rebuilt by a much younger and willing membership without any mechanical help. 

There's several smaller versions, now becoming pretty decrepit, beside former Eastern region lines, which would have served as P Way cabins, notably on the Skegness line.

[C126]

Sorry to clog this thread up, but I thought a reader could 'zoom in' to pictures posted at will.  Perhaps my lack of I.T. skills, but I could not, so I post below 'cropped' versions of the pictures.

 

If it is still standing in the winter when the foliage has dropped, I will try photographing the buuilding again if passing.  There is an extension on the north side, quite covered.

 

 

 

 

 

[33C]

This wartime sign is revealed on the side of the original Shoeburyness shunters hut after the removal of the old yard telephone relay cabinet.

[PhilJ W]

44 minutes ago, 33C said:

This wartime sign is revealed on the side of the original Shoeburyness shunters hut after the removal of the old yard telephone relay cabinet.

The hut itself looks in fair condition, I hope it hasn't been demolished. 

[33C]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The hut itself looks in fair condition, I hope it hasn't been demolished. 

No, still in use as a locker/storage hut and it's listed! Here's a rear view with the depot memorial garden. Signal box was in the left background.

[ejstubbs]

Currently on holiday in Portugal (so perhaps not strictly appropriate in the UK prototype forum) and yesterday took the train from Lisbon to Sintra. Was somewhat surprised to see a short turntable complete with bridge and rails in situ - though not connected to anything - as we emerged from the tunnel on the approach to Campolide station: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.7304501,-9.166735,19z/data=!3m1!1e3

Edited June 3, 2022 by ejstubbs

[John M Upton]

It extraordinary what interesting things you find being chucked out at work...

[Bon Accord]

Tidying up the other day and found this.

[Wickham Green too]

I hope the club will be waiting to welcome the Hastings Diesel unit touring into Skeggy this Saturday !!?!

[The Stationmaster]

20 hours ago, Bon Accord said:

Tidying up the other day and found this.

The interesting thing about that is that via a slighty tenuous connection it is still in operation although on a completely different basis.  The Touring Club sprang out of an organisation known as Repta - which offered all sorts of discounts for rail staff members - and another thing associated with both was something known as 'Mac's Tours' which actually organised tours both for all comers from railway staff, including that touring club.  It advertised through the Repta handbook and I think possibly 'Rail News' at some time.

 

 Mac's Tours evolved into also taking public bookings which changed things a bit because it meant that passengers had to pay ordinary public fares instead of using free passes or priv tickets (according to whichever mainland railway administration they travelled over).  The market of course changed as air travel and package tours involving it became even cheaper so demand from railway staff dropped which led to Mac's Tours rebranding itself and making rail travel part of the holiday.  I'm not sure when this change occurred in relation to who was running the concern. Things as ever evolve over the years and what is now a limited company sprang from those origins and is still very much in business today - as 'Great Rail Journeys'  (and I see from their website that Repta members can get a 5% discount  with GRJ).  And many of GRJ tour group leaders are drawn from the ranks of retired railway staff (not including this one)

[iands]

6 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

The interesting thing about that is that via a slighty tenuous connection it is still in operation although on a completely different basis.  The Touring Club sprang out of an organisation known as Repta - which offered all sorts of discounts for rail staff members - and another thing associated with both was something known as 'Mac's Tours' which actually organised tours both for all comers from railway staff, including that touring club.  It advertised through the Repta handbook and I think possibly 'Rail News' at some time.

 

 Mac's Tours evolved into also taking public bookings which changed things a bit because it meant that passengers had to pay ordinary public fares instead of using free passes or priv tickets (according to whichever mainland railway administration they travelled over).  The market of course changed as air travel and package tours involving it became even cheaper so demand from railway staff dropped which led to Mac's Tours rebranding itself and making rail travel part of the holiday.  I'm not sure when this change occurred in relation to who was running the concern. Things as ever evolve over the years and what is now a limited company sprang from those origins and is still very much in business today - as 'Great Rail Journeys'  (and I see from their website that Repta members can get a 5% discount  with GRJ).  And many of GRJ tour group leaders are drawn from the ranks of retired railway staff (not including this one)

At the risk of going seriously off-topic, another staff orientated holiday company was Panorama - used them 2 or 3 times in the past. Don't know if they are still a 'going concern.'

[The Stationmaster]

The best ghost in the machine I think that I ever came across was in Tisbury booking office back in the 1970s when it was on our patch (Westbury).  The Senior Railman called one day to report a £20 loss in booking which he couldn't run to earth.  Although it wasn't technically my job my boss sent me down there to look for it because he knew that I had a nose for running such things to earth.

 

The man involved was known to be very reliable & trustworthy, and in any case he'd hardly be the sort who reported a  loss like that if it had gone into his pocket.  The amount also suggested that I was probably looking for money rather than an accountancy error but I had to first check through all that to make sure all the numbers were correct.  Whilst doing that I looked at the record of blank season tickets issued (always a good place to play a few booking office accountancy tricks) so duly asked for the relevant forms - but it was all entered in a book as well.  Issues of blank season tickets was clearly not a frequent event at Tisbury - the book was headed 'L&SWR Record of Blank Season Tickets Issued' and the first entry had been made 64 years previously - in 1913.   Apart from clocks or watches it was the oldest thing I have ever come across still in regular use anywhere on BR (but alas no photo, sorry).

 

And the £20?  Well all the numbers were right so it was a case of missing cash.  And having dismantled most of what could be dismantled in the office I finally found the £20 note which had gone over the back of the cash drawer and dropped behind all other drawers in that nest of drawers to finish up stuck in the dust behind the bottom drawer.

[rodent279]

And £20 in those days was probably enough to have a good night out, and have change in your pocket.

[Mark Saunders]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

The best ghost in the machine I think that I ever came across was in Tisbury booking office back in the 1970s when it was on our patch (Westbury).  The Senior Railman called one day to report a £20 loss in booking which he couldn't run to earth.  Although it wasn't technically my job my boss sent me down there to look for it because he knew that I had a nose for running such things to earth.

 

The man involved was known to be very reliable & trustworthy, and in any case he'd hardly be the sort who reported a  loss like that if it had gone into his pocket.  The amount also suggested that I was probably looking for money rather than an accountancy error but I had to first check through all that to make sure all the numbers were correct.  Whilst doing that I looked at the record of blank season tickets issued (always a good place to play a few booking office accountancy tricks) so duly asked for the relevant forms - but it was all entered in a book as well.  Issues of blank season tickets was clearly not a frequent event at Tisbury - the book was headed 'L&SWR Record of Blank Season Tickets Issued' and the first entry had been made 64 years previously - in 1913.   Apart from clocks or watches it was the oldest thing I have ever come across still in regular use anywhere on BR (but alas no photo, sorry).

 

And the £20?  Well all the numbers were right so it was a case of missing cash.  And having dismantled most of what could be dismantled in the office I finally found the £20 note which had gone over the back of the cash drawer and dropped behind all other drawers in that nest of drawers to finish up stuck in the dust behind the bottom drawer.

The theft of cash was always a serious offence on the railways!

 

The number that were dismissed during the Persil £5 voucher offer in the 1980’s.

[Bon Accord]

10 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

The interesting thing about that is that via a slighty tenuous connection it is still in operation although on a completely different basis.  The Touring Club sprang out of an organisation known as Repta - which offered all sorts of discounts for rail staff members - and another thing associated with both was something known as 'Mac's Tours' which actually organised tours both for all comers from railway staff, including that touring club.  It advertised through the Repta handbook and I think possibly 'Rail News' at some time.

 

 Mac's Tours evolved into also taking public bookings which changed things a bit because it meant that passengers had to pay ordinary public fares instead of using free passes or priv tickets (according to whichever mainland railway administration they travelled over).  The market of course changed as air travel and package tours involving it became even cheaper so demand from railway staff dropped which led to Mac's Tours rebranding itself and making rail travel part of the holiday.  I'm not sure when this change occurred in relation to who was running the concern. Things as ever evolve over the years and what is now a limited company sprang from those origins and is still very much in business today - as 'Great Rail Journeys'  (and I see from their website that Repta members can get a 5% discount  with GRJ).  And many of GRJ tour group leaders are drawn from the ranks of retired railway staff (not including this one)

 

Interesting to learn that it's still on the go albeit in slightly different circumstances.

The cover belonged to my Grandfather and he made much use of his staff travel perks for family holidays, including quite a few trips around Europe, all by rail and via BR operated ferries.

He retired in 1974 after fifty years with the LNER and BR.

[The Stationmaster]

15 hours ago, Mark Saunders said:

The theft of cash was always a serious offence on the railways!

 

The number that were dismissed during the Persil £5 voucher offer in the 1980’s.

Alas stealing cash in 'old fashioned' booking offices wasn't too difficult and it undoubtedly got easier as various accounting changes were made from the mid 1960s onwards.  But while stealing it wasn't over difficult, especially where there was poor supervision and limited or sloppy checking, doing it without getting caught was a lot more difficult and the overwhelming majority of miscreants were caught in all the cases I knew of.   

[Wickham Green too]

On 13/06/2022 at 17:26, Wickham Green too said:

I hope the club will be waiting to welcome the Hastings Diesel unit touring into Skeggy this Saturday !!?!

Unfortunately they'd have a very long wait ! ......... it got as far as Tunbridge Wells.

[rodent279]

This one also fits in the Disused lines still with track thread. Tramlines still set in the ground at Bristol Temple Meads, don't think they've been used since before the second world war.

 

 

 

 

[33C]

50 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

This one also fits in the Disused lines still with track thread. Tramlines still set in the ground at Bristol Temple Meads, don't think they've been used since before the second world war.

 

 

 

 

Fantastic! Put it in the "Abandoned rails in the road." thread as well.