Newport and Eastleigh
Michael Forward
Michael Forward
Hello Roger, An unusual working at Newport on 22 July 1999 was 09107 with a trip working from Llanwern to Ebbw Junction. Best wishes, Michael
Here is a shot of 66309,recently brought over from Europe,looking resplendent in it’s new identity ,outside Eastleigh works on 26 July 2023. Thanks for dealing with this, Michael Copyright Michael Forward
Many Thanks Michael
A new station for Bristol opens
Portway Park & Ride
Guy Vincent & Richard Giles
Portway Park & Ride
Guy Vincent & Richard Giles
This morning (1st August 2023) the long-awaited opening of Portway Park & Ride station finally happened with unit 165108, forming the 2K00 0510 Bristol Temple Meads - Severn Beach, making the first official call at 0536am. The unit returned, calling at 0607, on the 2K01 0553 Severn Beach - Bristol Temple Meads. No photos but worthy of mention as the single platform has been patiently waiting for passengers to arrive and depart since it was completed over 9 months ago.
Photo looking towards Avonmouth taken 26.07.2023 as some finishing touches are applied in the car park area.
Guy Vincent
Photo looking towards Avonmouth taken 26.07.2023 as some finishing touches are applied in the car park area.
Guy Vincent
Portway Park and Ride. A preview picture taken on the 26th July 2023. illustrates the station in relation to the M5 bridge and also shows the very large parking area. Copyright Guy Vincent
A special thanks to Richard Giles who was there - bought the first ticket and rode the first train.
Hello Keith
There did seem to be people who have travelled from near and a far for this ‘inaugural’ public passenger train serving the Portway Park & Ride opening on 1st August 2023. Like Marsh Barton, Exeter the project saw a number of delays affected by the Pandemic and financial change. At one time both stations were reported to be opening for public passenger trains on the same day – Saturday 3rd June!
August 1st - Train details were; 165108 – 2K00 0510 Bristol TM – Severn Beach calling 0537 – 0539.
GWR management, NR officials and Council staff (Bristol City Council own and operate the adjacent car park now with over 800 spaces) along with Transport Minister Mark Harper MP (who also opened Marsh Barton) had used the 2K16 0910 Bristol TM – Avonmouth service (calling 0940 – 0942) formed with 165112 to perform the official opening of the £5.8 million station on the day before. The station had been added to the Working Timetable as an unadvertised stop from the Winter 2021 timetable change (from 12th December) which saw a new 30 minute timetable introduced for the this part of the Severn Beach line - despite very little work having taken place at that point!
Two souvenirs available for those present on the day are depicted in the second view, with what is believed to have been the first ticket issued to the station at Temple Meads within an hour of opening, purchased on 31st July.
Next station for the Bristol area will be Ashley Down (2024) with Filton North and Henbury (possibly 2026) and two more for the Portishead Branchline, where contractor Volker Fitzpatrick are undertaking survey work for the authorized re-opening business plan to be submitted to the Government early or during the Summer of next year.
Hope of use, in case of no reports for your ‘latest inputs and news section’ from elsewhere,
Regards, Richard Giles, Clevedon, North Somerset.
Hello Keith
There did seem to be people who have travelled from near and a far for this ‘inaugural’ public passenger train serving the Portway Park & Ride opening on 1st August 2023. Like Marsh Barton, Exeter the project saw a number of delays affected by the Pandemic and financial change. At one time both stations were reported to be opening for public passenger trains on the same day – Saturday 3rd June!
August 1st - Train details were; 165108 – 2K00 0510 Bristol TM – Severn Beach calling 0537 – 0539.
GWR management, NR officials and Council staff (Bristol City Council own and operate the adjacent car park now with over 800 spaces) along with Transport Minister Mark Harper MP (who also opened Marsh Barton) had used the 2K16 0910 Bristol TM – Avonmouth service (calling 0940 – 0942) formed with 165112 to perform the official opening of the £5.8 million station on the day before. The station had been added to the Working Timetable as an unadvertised stop from the Winter 2021 timetable change (from 12th December) which saw a new 30 minute timetable introduced for the this part of the Severn Beach line - despite very little work having taken place at that point!
Two souvenirs available for those present on the day are depicted in the second view, with what is believed to have been the first ticket issued to the station at Temple Meads within an hour of opening, purchased on 31st July.
Next station for the Bristol area will be Ashley Down (2024) with Filton North and Henbury (possibly 2026) and two more for the Portishead Branchline, where contractor Volker Fitzpatrick are undertaking survey work for the authorized re-opening business plan to be submitted to the Government early or during the Summer of next year.
Hope of use, in case of no reports for your ‘latest inputs and news section’ from elsewhere,
Regards, Richard Giles, Clevedon, North Somerset.
Portway Park & Ride opening 1st August 2023, Bristol - Severn Beach Branchline, Shirehampton Copyright Richard Giles.
With very many thanks to Richard and also to Guy for their reports. We wish this new station a bright future.
NINETEEN SIXTY TWO – PART 36
The Pines Express
Michael L. Roach
The Pines Express
Michael L. Roach
A Trip on the Pines Express
In the last Part we had returned from the engine shed to the station at Bath Green Park on Saturday 30 June 1962. The main aim of the day and the whole weekend was to travel on the Pines Express the full length of the Somerset and Dorset line from Bath to Bournemouth a distance of 71½ miles before the Pines was rerouted away from the S&D two months later. The line was single as far as Midford; then double; and single again for seventeen miles from Templecombe to Blandford Forum with crossing loops at Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton and Shillingstone.
On Saturdays the Pines left Manchester Picadilly at 10.30am with a restaurant car and through coaches from Manchester only. There was only one timetabled stop at Gloucester Eastgate (2.23 – 2.27) before reaching Bath at 3.25pm. The train arrived at Bath on time behind Peak-class diesel D65 with twelve coaches. West Country 34045 assisted by pilot BR Standard 4-6-0 75009 came on to the rear of the train because the station was a terminus. I took no photographs of the two engines presumably because they were off the end of the platform. I logged the times of the train over the whole journey but in more detail over Masbury Summit from MP 12 at Midsomer Norton to MP 25 at the approach to Evercreech Junction Distant signal. I did not record detailed times on the climb out of Bath; but am not sure why. The milepost distances started at Bath Junction half a mile out of Green Park Station.
The train departed on time at 3.30pm. Midford (4.36 miles) was passed at 3.39pm a very creditable performance for a climb mostly at 1 in 50. At Midford the line became double track and the gradients became uphill to Wellow and then undulating to Radstock North (10.65 miles) passed at 3.48pm. Here the climbing started in earnest to Masbury Summit (18.25 miles) initially at 1 in 50. Speed was around 18/19 mph to Chilcompton (14.49 miles). The gradient eased through the station enabling the two locos to gain speed to 24 mph on the 1 in 50 gradient to milepost 15 (15.50 miles). For the next mile to milepost 16 the gradient eased to 1 in 60 and speed increased to 32 mph. The gradients eased further for the next mile covered at an average of 36 mph to milepost 17. Over the three remaining quarter miles to the summit speed gradually fell – 34.6, 31.1 and 29.0 mph as the gradients were also easing to 1 in 63 and then 1 in 73. The train passed the summit at milepost 17¾ (18¼ miles) at 4.06.31 for an average speed of 30 mph from Bath.
Once over the summit speed increased rapidly into the fifties peaking at 60mph between mileposts 20½ and 20¾. Shepton Mallet was situated on a short piece of uphill but was still passed at 56mph before the downhill resumed at 1 in 50 but this was taken a bit easier at an average of 51mph through Evercreech New to Evercreech Junction distant which was at caution and there was a heavy brake application, but the home must have cleared, and we entered Evercreech Junction Station and stopped 7½ minutes early. Here the pilot engine 75009 came off; 43216 seen much earlier had arrived with its freight train and was shunting; and 82002 passed on the 4.05pm Templecombe to Highbridge train. The train departed Evercreech Junction at 4.29pm one minute early. We passed 4F 0-6-0 number 44417 on the 4.15 local from Templecombe to Bath near Cole and then entered the single line at Templecombe without stopping.
At Stalbridge our train waited from 4.53 to 5.00pm to cross a northbound train which turned out to be Standard class 5 number 73049 with 7C on the 3.40 Bournemouth to Bristol which ran Mondays to Saturdays, running on time. Stalbridge was a scheduled stop for The Pines. The next scheduled stop was at Blandford Forum where two engines coupled together were waiting to proceed north on the single line; they were 73051 and 92001. There were further scheduled stops at Broadstone and Poole. We were stopped by signals in Branksome Station for six minutes waiting to diverge off the main line to Bournemouth Central and Waterloo and on to the short branch to Bournemouth West which was still reached exactly on time at 6.08pm. I think you could describe the schedule of the Pines Express as reasonable and not very taxing if trains were running to time on the single line sections. Our short time at Bournemouth West will be described in a forthcoming part which will round-off the series about the Somerset and Dorset.
FOOTNOTE to Part 36
I have been reading the magazines of the original Great Western Railway for more than sixty years and am still buying more copies for my collection. I never cease to be fascinated by the facts that the editor recorded for posterity, and on the morning that this article was sent to Keith came across this item in the magazine for June 1906. At that time the GWR was still building locos of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement and just starting to build a fleet of 4-6-0s which would lead to the Castle-class in 1923. After each bank holiday the magazine would record some details of the very heavy passenger trains worked out of the capital to places like Chester, Kingswear, New Milford, Penzance, Plymouth and Weymouth. There were a few 4-6-0s available but most of the trains would be hauled by 4-4-0s and 4-4-2s, and the loads that the company expected their engineman to handle were prodigous. This is the one that caught my eye on the morning of 29 July 2023. The date was Thursday 12 April 1906, the day before Good Friday, and the train was the 6.30pm Paddington to Plymouth via Bristol. The driver was called Price and Chippenham was reached at an average speed of 51 mph. The engine was 4-4-0 no. 3310 and the load was 17 8-wheel and one 6-wheel coaches. The 18 coaches would have weighed about 600 tons. The Castle Cary cut-off opened just 11 weeks later saving 20 miles.
Michael L. Roach.
In the last Part we had returned from the engine shed to the station at Bath Green Park on Saturday 30 June 1962. The main aim of the day and the whole weekend was to travel on the Pines Express the full length of the Somerset and Dorset line from Bath to Bournemouth a distance of 71½ miles before the Pines was rerouted away from the S&D two months later. The line was single as far as Midford; then double; and single again for seventeen miles from Templecombe to Blandford Forum with crossing loops at Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton and Shillingstone.
On Saturdays the Pines left Manchester Picadilly at 10.30am with a restaurant car and through coaches from Manchester only. There was only one timetabled stop at Gloucester Eastgate (2.23 – 2.27) before reaching Bath at 3.25pm. The train arrived at Bath on time behind Peak-class diesel D65 with twelve coaches. West Country 34045 assisted by pilot BR Standard 4-6-0 75009 came on to the rear of the train because the station was a terminus. I took no photographs of the two engines presumably because they were off the end of the platform. I logged the times of the train over the whole journey but in more detail over Masbury Summit from MP 12 at Midsomer Norton to MP 25 at the approach to Evercreech Junction Distant signal. I did not record detailed times on the climb out of Bath; but am not sure why. The milepost distances started at Bath Junction half a mile out of Green Park Station.
The train departed on time at 3.30pm. Midford (4.36 miles) was passed at 3.39pm a very creditable performance for a climb mostly at 1 in 50. At Midford the line became double track and the gradients became uphill to Wellow and then undulating to Radstock North (10.65 miles) passed at 3.48pm. Here the climbing started in earnest to Masbury Summit (18.25 miles) initially at 1 in 50. Speed was around 18/19 mph to Chilcompton (14.49 miles). The gradient eased through the station enabling the two locos to gain speed to 24 mph on the 1 in 50 gradient to milepost 15 (15.50 miles). For the next mile to milepost 16 the gradient eased to 1 in 60 and speed increased to 32 mph. The gradients eased further for the next mile covered at an average of 36 mph to milepost 17. Over the three remaining quarter miles to the summit speed gradually fell – 34.6, 31.1 and 29.0 mph as the gradients were also easing to 1 in 63 and then 1 in 73. The train passed the summit at milepost 17¾ (18¼ miles) at 4.06.31 for an average speed of 30 mph from Bath.
Once over the summit speed increased rapidly into the fifties peaking at 60mph between mileposts 20½ and 20¾. Shepton Mallet was situated on a short piece of uphill but was still passed at 56mph before the downhill resumed at 1 in 50 but this was taken a bit easier at an average of 51mph through Evercreech New to Evercreech Junction distant which was at caution and there was a heavy brake application, but the home must have cleared, and we entered Evercreech Junction Station and stopped 7½ minutes early. Here the pilot engine 75009 came off; 43216 seen much earlier had arrived with its freight train and was shunting; and 82002 passed on the 4.05pm Templecombe to Highbridge train. The train departed Evercreech Junction at 4.29pm one minute early. We passed 4F 0-6-0 number 44417 on the 4.15 local from Templecombe to Bath near Cole and then entered the single line at Templecombe without stopping.
At Stalbridge our train waited from 4.53 to 5.00pm to cross a northbound train which turned out to be Standard class 5 number 73049 with 7C on the 3.40 Bournemouth to Bristol which ran Mondays to Saturdays, running on time. Stalbridge was a scheduled stop for The Pines. The next scheduled stop was at Blandford Forum where two engines coupled together were waiting to proceed north on the single line; they were 73051 and 92001. There were further scheduled stops at Broadstone and Poole. We were stopped by signals in Branksome Station for six minutes waiting to diverge off the main line to Bournemouth Central and Waterloo and on to the short branch to Bournemouth West which was still reached exactly on time at 6.08pm. I think you could describe the schedule of the Pines Express as reasonable and not very taxing if trains were running to time on the single line sections. Our short time at Bournemouth West will be described in a forthcoming part which will round-off the series about the Somerset and Dorset.
FOOTNOTE to Part 36
I have been reading the magazines of the original Great Western Railway for more than sixty years and am still buying more copies for my collection. I never cease to be fascinated by the facts that the editor recorded for posterity, and on the morning that this article was sent to Keith came across this item in the magazine for June 1906. At that time the GWR was still building locos of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement and just starting to build a fleet of 4-6-0s which would lead to the Castle-class in 1923. After each bank holiday the magazine would record some details of the very heavy passenger trains worked out of the capital to places like Chester, Kingswear, New Milford, Penzance, Plymouth and Weymouth. There were a few 4-6-0s available but most of the trains would be hauled by 4-4-0s and 4-4-2s, and the loads that the company expected their engineman to handle were prodigous. This is the one that caught my eye on the morning of 29 July 2023. The date was Thursday 12 April 1906, the day before Good Friday, and the train was the 6.30pm Paddington to Plymouth via Bristol. The driver was called Price and Chippenham was reached at an average speed of 51 mph. The engine was 4-4-0 no. 3310 and the load was 17 8-wheel and one 6-wheel coaches. The 18 coaches would have weighed about 600 tons. The Castle Cary cut-off opened just 11 weeks later saving 20 miles.
Michael L. Roach.
Many thanks to Michael for for his most detailed account of a journey on the 'Pines Express' now a very distant memory. Here is a link to a Google item on the 'Pines Express' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pines_Express
Castle Class Information
Guy Vincent
Guy Vincent
re: Movement of redundant Castle Class stock from Laira 28.07.2023
Keith / Roger
It was reported this morning on wnxx.com that the Castle set moved by Rail Adventure Ltd on Friday last (28th July) from Laira to Kings Norton was transferred to the Potter Group storage facility at Ely, Cambs, yesterday (31st). This now places 43022 and 43158 with 43170 which moved there from Laira on 9th June.
In other HST news I have learned that 43004 was withdrawn due to having reached the engine hours operating limit on its power unit. 43088 and 43160 are both stored on Laira depot. 43093 was stopped on 7th June and is being kept in warm store at Laira as a mileage saving measure so should, in theory, return at some point. 43186 is waiting for a replacement power unit to become available from another PC and 43172 will probably finish service in the early autumn when it becomes due for major component attention.
According to information published in the 2023 Platform 5 locomotives pocket book, power cars used on west country services are owned either by: 1) Angel Trains 2) First Group or 3) Great Western Railway (as assets of the Greater Western franchise) The latter 7, with three more for spares only, were additions to the original quota of 28 Castle Class conversions.
Angel Trains Power Cars: 43004 005* 016 040 041* 042 170* 186 187 188 189 192 (12 now 10)
First Group Power Cars: 43088 092 093 094 097 098 122 153 154 155 156 158* 160* 162 194 198 (16)
Great Western (assets of franchise) Power Cars: 43009 010 022* 027 029 063** 091** 161** 171* 172 (10)
* Withdrawn ** Never used in fleet - all in faded Indigo Blue livery for spares recovery at Laira.
Scrapped Castle Class PCs (so far): 43005 (A) 041(A) 171(GW)
Pre Castle Class PCs stripped at Laira and now scrapped: 43053 069 070 078 079 086 087 180 193 195 196 197. All were taken to Sims Metals, Newport Docks, for disposal.
Pre Castle Class GWR operated PCs now preserved: 43002 018 023 025 056 071 159 165
I saw a note some time ago in one of the monthly enthusiast magazines that when final withdrawal of the Castle fleet takes place the best of the remaining power cars could be taken on by Network Rail for their test train operations.
Regards, Guy Vincent.
Keith / Roger
It was reported this morning on wnxx.com that the Castle set moved by Rail Adventure Ltd on Friday last (28th July) from Laira to Kings Norton was transferred to the Potter Group storage facility at Ely, Cambs, yesterday (31st). This now places 43022 and 43158 with 43170 which moved there from Laira on 9th June.
In other HST news I have learned that 43004 was withdrawn due to having reached the engine hours operating limit on its power unit. 43088 and 43160 are both stored on Laira depot. 43093 was stopped on 7th June and is being kept in warm store at Laira as a mileage saving measure so should, in theory, return at some point. 43186 is waiting for a replacement power unit to become available from another PC and 43172 will probably finish service in the early autumn when it becomes due for major component attention.
According to information published in the 2023 Platform 5 locomotives pocket book, power cars used on west country services are owned either by: 1) Angel Trains 2) First Group or 3) Great Western Railway (as assets of the Greater Western franchise) The latter 7, with three more for spares only, were additions to the original quota of 28 Castle Class conversions.
Angel Trains Power Cars: 43004 005* 016 040 041* 042 170* 186 187 188 189 192 (12 now 10)
First Group Power Cars: 43088 092 093 094 097 098 122 153 154 155 156 158* 160* 162 194 198 (16)
Great Western (assets of franchise) Power Cars: 43009 010 022* 027 029 063** 091** 161** 171* 172 (10)
* Withdrawn ** Never used in fleet - all in faded Indigo Blue livery for spares recovery at Laira.
Scrapped Castle Class PCs (so far): 43005 (A) 041(A) 171(GW)
Pre Castle Class PCs stripped at Laira and now scrapped: 43053 069 070 078 079 086 087 180 193 195 196 197. All were taken to Sims Metals, Newport Docks, for disposal.
Pre Castle Class GWR operated PCs now preserved: 43002 018 023 025 056 071 159 165
I saw a note some time ago in one of the monthly enthusiast magazines that when final withdrawal of the Castle fleet takes place the best of the remaining power cars could be taken on by Network Rail for their test train operations.
Regards, Guy Vincent.
We are greatly indebted to Guy for his supply of detailed information on many items of railway interest, very very many thanks indeed Guy - you are a mine of information.
Early days at
Buckfastleigh
Ken Mumford
Buckfastleigh
Ken Mumford
Early days at Buckfastleigh - Copyright Ken Mumford.
A smashing picture but undated picture reminding us of days when we were much younger - many thanks Ken.