Loco sheds and other railway buildings...
Discussion
Spent many an hour up in the mess room at Bath Road waiting for our return working to Paddington, I remember there was huge tea urn permanently on the go, the same as the one in the mess room at Padd on platform 1. I've just realised it's almost thirty years since Bath Road closed as a working loco depot.
Some more preservation stuff - Hydraulics on the Severn Valley and West Somerset lines in 2012....
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/pP4g6QxT[/url]
Some more preservation stuff - Hydraulics on the Severn Valley and West Somerset lines in 2012....
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/pP4g6QxT[/url]
Sadly, I remember when the Bath Road depot was rebuilt in the 60s to become a diesel shed. Used to be able to walk across the tracks from the end of platform 4. Living in Weston and going to school in Bristol meant I would go past it twice a day. On the rare occasions in recent years when I have been to Temple Meads I am still confused by the renumbered platforms.
mfmman said:
Family holidays were always in the UK in those days, oddly enough every one seemed to be in a location with a preserved railway nearby or with a rail connection e.g. city break to York, North Wales/Snowdonia etc and countless preserved lines.
Sounds familiar! We probably walked past each other at some point!Our holidays were North Wales, North Yorkshire, the Severn Valley - always near a preserved line.
These pics are all great btw. If you want to see some from further north then have a look at the Railscot website.
I've had many stories passed on to me from old hand railwaymen that I now work with, this is my favourite and has been verified by other drivers who were around in the same era (I was still at school then)....
A Manchester man by the name of Alan (currently an Avanti driver) started out as a second man in Lancashire on what is now the preserved East Lancs Railway (I think P5B has driven on this line). One day he was second manning a coal train hauled by a 40 and as it passed through Ramsbottom the driver spadded (passed) the signal protecting the level crossing at the end of the platform. Obviously as the peg was on (against the loco) the crossing gates were open to road traffic and the 40 smashed through them. Miraculously no cars were crossing at the time but there was a chap who was minding his own business in the adjacent phone box. One of the crossing gates swung open so wide it hit the phone box and trapped the unsuspecting caller inside it. My mate, the driver and the boxman used crowbars to free the victim. He was uninjured and unbelievably (from today's perspective) he went sauntering off up the road without a care in the world. Not to the nearest no-win-no-fee solicitor! Not only that but the driver, my mate and the signaller all agreed on a story and despite the best efforts of the local traction inspector no action was ever taken. Meanwhile the S+T were delighted to get some overtime in, repairing the crossing gates and the gears that drove them from the box. It's hard for me to imagine a greater contrast from the modern railway of downloads, forensic investigations and accountability that P5B and I now know as the railway of modern times.
A Manchester man by the name of Alan (currently an Avanti driver) started out as a second man in Lancashire on what is now the preserved East Lancs Railway (I think P5B has driven on this line). One day he was second manning a coal train hauled by a 40 and as it passed through Ramsbottom the driver spadded (passed) the signal protecting the level crossing at the end of the platform. Obviously as the peg was on (against the loco) the crossing gates were open to road traffic and the 40 smashed through them. Miraculously no cars were crossing at the time but there was a chap who was minding his own business in the adjacent phone box. One of the crossing gates swung open so wide it hit the phone box and trapped the unsuspecting caller inside it. My mate, the driver and the boxman used crowbars to free the victim. He was uninjured and unbelievably (from today's perspective) he went sauntering off up the road without a care in the world. Not to the nearest no-win-no-fee solicitor! Not only that but the driver, my mate and the signaller all agreed on a story and despite the best efforts of the local traction inspector no action was ever taken. Meanwhile the S+T were delighted to get some overtime in, repairing the crossing gates and the gears that drove them from the box. It's hard for me to imagine a greater contrast from the modern railway of downloads, forensic investigations and accountability that P5B and I now know as the railway of modern times.
Great story, love it! Sadly I’ve never worked over the East Lancs but have travelled on it a few times. Stories like that were the folk lore of many a mess room in BR days. One of our now retired drivers wrote a really good book called ‘Life On The Leicester Line’ about his time as a secondman based at Coalville, there are some good funny tales in that. Back in 1980 my great uncle wrote one, ‘Country Station Life’ about his time with the LNWR and LMS at Rugby and the various lines radiating from it to Market Harborough, Leicester and Leamington Spa.
I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
For anyone who's enjoyed this thread and craves more, go to Flickr and search for Deadmanshandle (sorry my phone is rubbish at links). It will take you to an ex-railwayman and prolific photographer called Arnie Furniss, well known up here in the north west. I used to work with his mate Howard Heyl, I've spent many a happy hour on depot spare turns talking to Howard and looking through his photo collection. Plenty of Western Region memories on Arnie's Flickr, plus some of the lovely Woodhead route through the Pennines.
P5BNij said:
Great story, love it! Sadly I’ve never worked over the East Lancs but have travelled on it a few times. Stories like that were the folk lore of many a mess room in BR days. One of our now retired drivers wrote a really good book called ‘Life On The Leicester Line’ about his time as a secondman based at Coalville, there are some good funny tales in that. Back in 1980 my great uncle wrote one, ‘Country Station Life’ about his time with the LNWR and LMS at Rugby and the various lines radiating from it to Market Harborough, Leicester and Leamington Spa.
I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
Good luck, had it been Friday I could have given you a horn code on my way through Wembley Central I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
Here's a question for you train drivers. Every now and again I see very long trains of weird yellow ballast/hopper wagons, presumably used for track-relaying purposes. These trains have a locomotive at both ends. Is the engine 'pushing' at the rear of the train driven remotely by the chap at the front (like in an HST), or is there a driver in there doing what he's told/using his initiative? The only person I've been able to see in the trailing locomotive has been sat in the rear cab with his feet up reading the paper.
P5BNij said:
Great story, love it! Sadly I’ve never worked over the East Lancs but have travelled on it a few times. Stories like that were the folk lore of many a mess room in BR days. One of our now retired drivers wrote a really good book called ‘Life On The Leicester Line’ about his time as a secondman based at Coalville, there are some good funny tales in that. Back in 1980 my great uncle wrote one, ‘Country Station Life’ about his time with the LNWR and LMS at Rugby and the various lines radiating from it to Market Harborough, Leicester and Leamington Spa.
I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
Where are you taking it to? If north of Loughborough i might go train spotting for some exercise.I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
Yertis said:
Here's a question for you train drivers. Every now and again I see very long trains of weird yellow ballast/hopper wagons, presumably used for track-relaying purposes. These trains have a locomotive at both ends. Is the engine 'pushing' at the rear of the train driven remotely by the chap at the front (like in an HST), or is there a driver in there doing what he's told/using his initiative? The only person I've been able to see in the trailing locomotive has been sat in the rear cab with his feet up reading the paper.
Top and Tailed, sounds like the HOBC (high output ballast cleaner). The rear loco will have powered applied when needed as the thing ways around 2400 tonnes excluding the 2 locos. AJB88 said:
Yertis said:
Here's a question for you train drivers. Every now and again I see very long trains of weird yellow ballast/hopper wagons, presumably used for track-relaying purposes. These trains have a locomotive at both ends. Is the engine 'pushing' at the rear of the train driven remotely by the chap at the front (like in an HST), or is there a driver in there doing what he's told/using his initiative? The only person I've been able to see in the trailing locomotive has been sat in the rear cab with his feet up reading the paper.
Top and Tailed, sounds like the HOBC (high output ballast cleaner). The rear loco will have powered applied when needed as the thing ways around 2400 tonnes excluding the 2 locos. .Good call on Annie Furniss on Flickr, another worth a look is ‘Fray Bentos’, a Bristol based photographer who has some very atmospheric stuff shot on his native Western Region, he also recently published a book of Western photos.
KateV8 said:
Some nostalgia for me and PB5, the brick liner passing through Staffordshire. Photo taken from a magazine article.
I worked with Arnie Furniss, he came to Manchester Victoria, with many of his colleagues, when guide Bridge closed .
Tony Gregory wrote "Life on the Leicester Line" we started just a couple of months apart, me in June 78 and I think Tony started a month or two later.
Edited by W124Bob on Tuesday 16th March 13:00
Edited by W124Bob on Tuesday 16th March 13:10
mcdjl said:
P5BNij said:
Great story, love it! Sadly I’ve never worked over the East Lancs but have travelled on it a few times. Stories like that were the folk lore of many a mess room in BR days. One of our now retired drivers wrote a really good book called ‘Life On The Leicester Line’ about his time as a secondman based at Coalville, there are some good funny tales in that. Back in 1980 my great uncle wrote one, ‘Country Station Life’ about his time with the LNWR and LMS at Rugby and the various lines radiating from it to Market Harborough, Leicester and Leamington Spa.
I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
Where are you taking it to? If north of Loughborough i might go train spotting for some exercise.I’m on an unusual job tomorrow, working a special ‘jumbo’ test train out of Wembley Yard with a 70, a 66 and two sets of wagons, it’ll be my first time driving a 70 on my own.....
P5BNij said:
I relieve my mate on it at Battersea in the morning then take that portion up to Wembley where loads of faffing about will ensue to join it up with another portion which comes from Paddington New Yard. Once it’s all nailed together I then take it up the WCML to Bletchley and across the branch to Bedford where I get relief. All in, it’ll be about 4,000 tons when both portions are joined together.
A way short of me then! I'm within a few hundred yards of the Great Central Railway where British gypsum have their east leake mine/branch which then links to the midland mainline a few miles away- though due to a bridge loosing masonry that may not be running right now. P5BNij said:
Tim O said:
Love this thread, thanks to all contributors. I spent many a happy hour bunking round Saltley and Bescot in the mid 60’s. Hard to believe we just walked in and helped ourselves.
Question for the west Londoners, is the the huge Car Giant site railway related? Part of Old Oak Common? The buildings have all the hallmarks of old railway buildings but I understand 81A buildings were demolished?
Car Giant's premises is up above Old Oak behind the canal, close to Mitre Bridge Junction where the West London line goes over the top of the Great Western mainline. There are some scrap yard sidings nearby but they're no longer in use Question for the west Londoners, is the the huge Car Giant site railway related? Part of Old Oak Common? The buildings have all the hallmarks of old railway buildings but I understand 81A buildings were demolished?
It was a former Rolls Royce/MPW site and if you buy a car from them that is in storage, you can go up in the old car lifts & there is still some RR branding/painted walls around behind the scenes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulliner_Park_Ward
P5BNij said:
We’ve been working this on and off for a few years now, it often weighs just over 3,000 tons fully loaded. The rear loco is there to give power on the gradients, the controls can be set up with the deadman’s isolated so you can still use the reverser and throttle in ‘feet up drinking tea’ mode. Each driver has a back to back radio but the one at the back will know exactly where to apply power and shut off anyway. Everything looks very different going backwards though .
Good call on Annie Furniss on Flickr, another worth a look is ‘Fray Bentos’, a Bristol based photographer who has some very atmospheric stuff shot on his native Western Region, he also recently published a book of Western photos.
Guess you work for FLHH? .Good call on Annie Furniss on Flickr, another worth a look is ‘Fray Bentos’, a Bristol based photographer who has some very atmospheric stuff shot on his native Western Region, he also recently published a book of Western photos.
Flying Phil said:
Another engine shed that I visited in 1965 was in Cardiff
Some sheds were quite small!
A USA tank engine in Okehampton July 1966.
Good old D1662 'IKB', it became 47 484 in 1973 and was one of our pet locos at Old Oak for a while, along with several others from the original batch of WR namers like Odin, Thor, George Jackson Churchward etc....Some sheds were quite small!
A USA tank engine in Okehampton July 1966.
('IKB' has been in private ownership for several years and is awaiting a complete restoration)
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