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Here we see Severn Tunnel Junction, looking
east. The three junctions around the Severn Tunnel - this one,
Bristol Parkway and Filton Abbey Wood - are all currently laid
out with three platforms, which makes trackwork rather untidy
as trains tend to only go through them in two directions. At
Severn Tunnel Junction Up trains (heading towards London) which
are going through the tunnel pass through Platform 3 on the left,
while Up trains not going through the tunnel use Platform 2 on
the right (and, as a side note, the sign with 2 and 3 on it refers
to where 2 and 3 car trains should stop, not the platform numbers).
Down trains (those heading away from London) are all routed through
Platform 1, on the far right, which occasionally causes congestion.
Consequently it has been decided to lay out the tracks a bit
more logically by re-opening Platform 4 (far left) so that Up
trains for the tunnel go through Platform 4, Down trains out
of the tunnel use Platform 3, Up trains to Gloucester go through
Platform 2 and Down trains from Gloucester go through Platform
1.The trackwork and signalling is now being prepared for this
and work should be carried out over Christmas 2009. Meanwhile
the station is undergoing a bit of an overhaul, with a nicely
resurfaced car park and some new buildings. This is then due
to be followed by electrification of the mainline through the
Severn Tunnel; the old mainline, which is used as a diversionary
route, is not included.
In the centre is the bay platform for the
Wye Valley line. Any proposal to re-instate the Wye Valley line
would probably not involve re-using this platform, but (despite
it being of no practical use) it has never been obliterated.
Instead it has been filled with rubbish. The continued existance
of the platform edging epitomises the run-down nature of the
station. |
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Looking the other way, we see the west end
of Platform 1. Out of view to the left is the freight loop, which
can be used by heavy trains from Gloucester. The old station
building for Platform 1 - which would have been awarded "Worst
Welsh Station Building (Large Bus Shelter)" award if such
a prize existed - is visible in the foreground, with its replacement
beyond it. The lamp-post has been turned around to avoid damaging
it while installing the new shelter, which means that drivers
of 2 and 3 car trains no longer know where to stop (although
4 car trains are still told to stop at the next lamp-post). The
island platform possesses the only original building surviving
- an unimpressive empty brick structure which pretends not to
be there. Its function is unknown - if you know, please tell
us. On the far side is the newly-rebuilt platform 4, along with
the station car park. This photograph was taken from the station
footbridge, with the road bridge in the background, on a balmy
summer evening in September 2009.
Dotted around the station are bi-lingual station
nameboards, with Welsh on top in green and English underneath
in black - for travellers going through the Severn Tunnel, these
are the last bi-lingual nameboards they'll see. The Welsh name
- "Cyffordd Twnnel Hafren" - is a direct translation
of the English, only it has been turned around, so a direct translation
back would read "Junction Tunnel Severn". |
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Caldicot station is the first stop out of Severn
Tunnel Junction, and a good telephoto lens can show the platforms
of Caldicot station clearly from the footbridge at the junction.
The station has two platforms and presents a distinctly 1980s
air. The buildings are so plain and simple that there's nothing
there to vandalise. Two trains pass through in each direction
for every three hours (with a minimal service Sundays), so it's
not too difficult to get a picture of this station featuring
no trains at all during a winter evening on Sunday - which is
when this picture was taken. |
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Sudbrook Junction was provided so that a siding
could be laid from the main line to the new pumping station at
Sudbrook. The branch provided access to the pumps at Sudbrook
and allowed coal to be taken in to supply the furnaces which
provided steam to operate the pumps. However, in 1961 the pumps
went over to electric power and the branch effectively fell out
of use.
For some time it appears to have struggled
on, although by the 1990s it was being used exclusively for stabling
the Severn Tunnel Emergency Train. That then moved to Severn
Tunnel Junction, and the connection with the mainline for the
Sudbrook branch was lifted in the early 2000s.
On the other side of the line was the junction
for the line to MoD Caerwent, which headed off across country
to the left and the North, crossed the M4 (now M48) and entered
the military base at Caerwent. Opened in 1939, it has been run
down in recent years and the military presence has declined to
the degree that it has been used for cutting up old railway vehicles.
This traffic has also declined, and the vehicles were increasingly
brought in by road anyway, so the line now looks somewhat disused,
although the junction remains in place (complete with crossover)
and is still maintained. |
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The pumps at Sudbrook were built to drain
the Severn Tunnel, then under construction, and put the water
in it into the Severn. It was a late move as initially it was
hoped that such apparatus would not be necessary - until one
day the tunnellers, during their routine digging, uncovered the
Great Spring, which proceeded to pour water into the tunnel at
a rate of 22,000,000 gallons per day. After the Welsh end of
the tunnel had filled with water in about two days (one mile
of mud still separated it from the English end) the pumps were
set up and, after two years, the tunnel was dry again. Happily
it has remained useable ever since.
The pumps therefore continued to be rail served
until their conversion to electric power and the consequent use
of the branch as a siding where the Severn Tunnel Emergency Train
was stored. This was moved to Severn Tunnel Junction in the early
2000s and subsequently replaced by a pair of single Diesel Multiple
Unit cars built in 1960 and suitably converted in 2003. All the
vehicles associated with the Emergency trains were placed on
the market in late 2007 and sold "as seen", with practically
no mileage on the clock since conversion.
While the last trains to use the branch have
therefore been moved to train purgatory (being dismantled at
Cardiff to provide spares for the Cardiff Bay Shuttle train,
which is of the same design and similar vintage) the branch itself
is in its very own limbo waiting for someone to get around to
doing something with it. As most of it runs alongside the narrow
road through Sudbrook the logical one would be to use it to widen
the road; however, that would allow traffic to get along it,
which is currently out of fashion, and so it will remain as it
is for the forseeable future.
In the background of the picture, showing
the overgrown rails proceeding through Sudbrook, is the impressive
pump house. As the Severn Tunnel runs directly beneath this line
several websites specialising in maps and arial photos have problems
showing the tunnel and this branch, and often end up suggesting
that four IC125s plus several freights and stopping trains traverse
this route every hour, with the tunnel portal being in the middle
of the pumping station. |
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While the Sudbrook branch heads in a fairly
straight line away from the mainline, the Caerwent line turns
away sharply to the North, as seen here. Little has used the
branch in recent years, and it is starting to decay a little.
Opened in 1939, it served the new military
base at Caerwent, which was expected to admit practically all
of its traffic by rail in those days, and so wanted a good rail
link. This line was therefore built across the 1½ miles
to Caerwent, with the first half of the route mostly in a cutting
and the second half principally on an embankment. Apart from
certain track alterations, particularly at the junction, the
only major change throughout its life came when the embankment
was sliced in half in 1966 as part of the construction works
for the M4 when it was extended across the Rivers Severn and
Wye into South Wales.
With the general reduction in business at
the base JT Landscapes expanded their scrap metal business into
cutting up old locomotives and rolling stock at the rail-linked
site. Immediately post-privatisation - from 1998 onwards - was
a good time for this, with private operators - particularly EWS
- clearing out vast quantities of old stock. The demise of the
old Mk.1 stock on the Southern Region also meant big money for
scrap metal merchants and over 1000 vehicles were reduced to
scrap metal in two years. JT Landscapes also has the honour of
having dismantled the only "top link" ex-West Coast
Mainline vehicles to be cut up, with the unlucky vehicles being
non-standard coach 12140 (October 2004), van 82119 (October 2005)
and locomotives 87005, 87015 (both October 2005), 87016 (October
2004) and 87024 (November 2005). Cutting up West Coast stock
is no longer a profitable business, with the coaches being in
short supply and the 28 spare 87s all sold to Bulgaria. No further
fleets are slated for disposal now or at any point in the future
so at the moment the site is empty, but when vehicles are in
residence they are generally visible from the M48 motorway.
Therefore, while the MoD is still keeping
their track clear, there is no immediate demand for it at present. |
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The original station at Portskewett opened
in 1850 and lasted just over 13 years before being replaced by
the new one, half a mile closer to Gloucester and a mere 146
miles from London Paddington. This allowed it to become the junction
station for the Portskewett Pier branch - a task which it fulfilled
until the branch closed 23 years later in 1886. It was also briefly
the junction for Sudbrook from 1873 until 1878, when the Portskewett
to Sudbrook tramway was replaced by the Caldicot to Sudbrook
railway. The station slowly decayed to "wayside halt"
status despite being quite well-placed to serve Portskewett and
Sudbrook. The small, attractive station with gardens, buildings
and footbridge with ornate lamps was duly closed in 1964, although
the footbridge survives.
Portskewett itself is a small place, mostly
made up of modern houses, which looks like it wouldn't mind a
new station. Currently there is plenty of room for one, but it's
not on anyone's agenda at the moment. |
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The Portskewett Pier branch provided access
to Portskewett Pier station, which was neatly built quarter of
a mile from Portskewett station on top of Portskewett Pier. The
pier was a large wooden structure which was built to allow people
to board ferries and be carried across the river to New Passage
Pier, which meant a much shorter journey time to and from Bristol
than that via Gloucester.
The branch had a short history. Opened in
1864, it ran continuously until 1881, when the pier caught fire.
It was re-opened three weeks later and served for a further five
years until closure - it had been superseded by the Severn Tunnel.
The track was duly lifted and the pier demolished without so
much as a farewell special.
Despite the line having been closed for over
120 years the trackbed is still remarkably intact, with the picture
looking down the last few yards of cutting towards where the
pier used to be. However, Monmouthshire County Council wishes
to use part for the cutting for dumping rubbish in. For some
reason the locals at Portskewett do not appreciate this idea
- soming about how it would involve big heavy lorries. |
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Chepstow opened when the South Wales Railway
inaugrated services from Chepstow to Cardiff in 1850. The station
was originally Chepstow West, due to there being another station
on the other bank of the river called Chepstow East. Between
the two there was the Wye and a coach service, this being cheaper
(and rather less impossible) than building a bridge - a policy
which continues to this day on the railways when trying to deal
with inconvenient things, like passengers.
On this occasion the problem was solved by
getting Isambard Kingdom Brunel - a notable engineer of the time
- to build a bridge across the Wye. Having built it, he then
tweaked his designs a bit and went off to build a cheaper (and
bigger) version at Saltash, on the border between Devon and Cornwall,
shortly before dying in 1859. The Saltash bridge survives today,
but the Chepstow one was demolished in 1960 and replaced with
a stronger one - probably fair punishment for driving Chepstow
East and the connecting rail-replacement bus out of business.
Chepstow station originally had low platforms,
but these were raised in the 1880s, following complaints from
Wye Valley travellers. The Platform 2 building is original (the
Platform 1 one was demolished in 1964), as they were jacked up
and the platforms raised around them. There are photographs showing
how they did it - it involved lots of heavy timbers and big men.
After the First World War the adjacent shipyards
became the Government's National Shipyard No. 1 - an interesting
development which does not seem to have lasted too long. The
massive track network was being reduced by 1930, and although
the yards are still open (privately, and quite limited) the railways
have gone.
Today Chepstow is the first/last station in
Wales, looks rather run-down, and needs some work doing on the
sidings (which have been partially dismantled). Despite the miles
of railway which were laid 90 years ago, the current track layout
involves an up and a down line, with a single crossover for stone
trains off the Wye Valley Railway. The surviving building is
a cafe. The blue building on this platform has since been demolished
and replaced with a small shelter similar to those at Severn
Tunnel Junction. In the gaps between trains the station acts
as an informal youth centre - passengers do appear when a train
is due, however, and the station can be quite busy with people
heading for the bright lights of Cardiff and Newport. |
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Once known as Chepstow East, Tutshill was
eventually re-opened as a halt at the east end of Chepstow, near
the former home of the Harry Potter author - although not in
the exact same spot as its predecessor, which was located at
the end of the cutting, halfway up a cliff overlooking the Wye.
Although the east side of Chepstow sounds like a useful place
for a commuter stop, circumstances conspired against it - the
walk to the main station is roughly 5 minutes, and the rail journey
is about one, so the Ministry of Transport is unlikely to have
seen much point in the extra stop. The Chepstow bypass - the
new A48 which goes across the Wye alongside the railway rather
than winding through the town's main gate and down the High Street
- slashes across the western end of the platforms and cuts it
off from Chepstow and Tutshill. More critically, the halt had
a fairly minimal service amounting only to the Wye Valley trains,
and therefore closed along with the rest of the Wye Valley route
in January 1959.
Little trace now remains of the halt, and
the fact that parking, disabled access, access for anyone who
doesn't like crossing 50 mph roads, and rebuilding the platforms
are all practically impossible ensures that it is unlikely that
trains will ever stop here again. |
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On the opposite side of the road bridge to
Tutshill Halt, Wye Valley Junction marked the point where
trains to Monmouth branched off and headed north into the Wye
Valley. The junction was completed in 1876, and services over
the branch started the same year.
The Wye Valley line developed over the years,
but the junction was steadily rationalised. Initially there were
two tracks branching off (one up, one down); this was reduced
to a single track junction with a crossover connecting the branch
to the down main in 1936. A set of catch-points with a sand-drag
were provided instead to catch errant trains.
Following closure of the Wye Valley line beyond
Tintern Quarry in 1964 (passenger traffic having already ceased
in 1959), the junction was simplified again. The points are now
operated by a groundframe, with a ground signal controlling movements
off the branch. The crossover was moved to Chepstow station,
where it remains to this day.
Until 2007 the Wye Valley Railway had the
honour of being one of the last of the six branches on the English
section of the the line to retain its mainline connection (between
1976 and 1990 it was the only one of the six to carry traffic).
The connection has now been removed at some considerable expense
and to no particular benefit. The branch had not been used for
at least 15 years, although the exact date of the last train
depends on which source you read - a common problem with freight
lines. |
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You would probably think that Sedbury village
does not look like the sort of place which could justify a rail
service with Chepstow and Tidenham stations so nearby - and you
would be right, as it couldn't. Instead, the branch was opened
to serve the shipyards at Beachley - a village sandwiched between
the Severn and the Wye. These shipyards - the National Shipyard
No. 2 - were built from 1917 to 1919, with the railway being
built to serve them. The yards were then closed again in 1919
(imagine what the tabloid response would be today) and the railway
was then progressively shut down. Workmans' trains were inaugrated
in 1919 but withdrawn in 1920, with the junction being removed
in 1928. A loop line - there were originally two, but the outer
one was lifted in 1931 - survived until 1968, along with a signal
box.
The junction was complicated by the existance
of a lane to Sedbury which crosses the railway on a bridge at
this point - while the Wye Valley line (above the mainline to
the left) simply goes over it, this line wants to be at the same
level as the road, and spent about a third of its life (1 year)
passing under the road, leaving the mainline, and heading south
- this was revised for the remaining two years of its life with
the junction and signal box being on the east side of the road,
and the railway then climbed away and crossed the road on a level
crossing.
The site of the original junction is still
railway land, and is now used by a radio transmitter for signalling
between trains and the signal box at Newport. The military retain
a presence at Beachley to this day in the form of an MoD base
which seems to have opened at the same time, but didn't justify
a rail link on its own. |
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Not lost to quite the same degree is Woolaston
station. It is clear that there was a station here - it is shown
on the 1960 map of the area as a closed station, and the station
building still survives, visible in its smart coat of white paint.
The station, which lasted for precisely 101 years 6 months (1st
June 1853 to 1st December 1954) was never a very major stop,
with four trains each way each day halting alongside the level
crossing - which gave access to three fields and the down platform.
The village itself was half a mile away, at the other end of
Station Road, with the inhabitants mostly living on the other
side of the A48.
Woolaston can hardly have been helped by the
fact that, with a good telescope, you can almost see the platforms
of Lydney station, two miles away as the crow flies (and as the
train runs, since the marshes which the railway is built on are
dead flat and the railway is therefore completely straight).
In life it was a quiet wayside station; in death it provides
a constant barrage of noise as a kennels and cattery, which ensures
that Station Road bustles with the kind of continuous traffic
which it is unlikely to have ever been subjected to during its
lifetime. If you are heading from Wales to Lydney with a bike,
Woolaston station marks the point where you should think about
getting up to find it and wheel it to a door. |
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Adjacent to the southern terminus of the Dean
Forest Railway, Lydney station is a fully-traditional railway
station - it is a mile from the town it purports to serve, and
is outside the area encircled by the by-pass. In a bid to make
up for this, various people have put lots of luxury housing along
the road to Lydney Docks, about half a mile away to the south-east,
and so Lydney station is actually near some houses. Despite the
station's location, it is undoubtedly the busiest out of itself,
Chepstow and Caldicot.
Originally the level crossing in the distance
was a rail over rail crossing, with the Severn and Wye Railway
line to the docks passing across the main line on its way down
from the Forest of Dean, which is to the right, on its way to
the Severn Estuary, which is to the left. Now Lydney has a busy
full-barrier level crossing, controlled by the signal box beyond
the crossing. The Severn and Wye Railway is now preserved by
the Dean Forest Railway, which does a reasonable job at keeping
a railway alive in the Forest.
The Severn and Wye Railway arrived here before
the mainline, as a tramway which eventually found the money to
upgrade to the broad gauge used on the mainline. The mainline
was then converted to standard gauge and, after much grumbling,
the Severn and Wye followed suit. By 1920 it had a massive network
in the Forest, with a main line to Cinderford, a loop line which
turned much of the northern half of the line into a giant lasso
around the centre of the Forest, and branches to Lydbrook and
Coleford. Passenger services beyond Lydney Town ceased in 1929
and the network was steadily cut back over the next 30 years
until only stone trains to Whitecliff Quarry, near Coleford,
survived. These were then reduced until closure of the network
in 1976, which freed up the surviving Lydney to Parkend section
for preservation.
The Severn and Wye is still linked to the
mainline and the link is used by the occasional railtour. It
is the last such link to survive on this section of the route
since the removal of the connection at Wye Valley Junction. |
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In many ways one of the greatest engineering
achievements of the Victorian era, the Severn Railway Bridge
spanned the River Severn at Sharpness from 1874 until 1960. It
was a single track construction, built to carry Forest of Dean
coal to Sharpness Docks for export, and provide access to the
Midland Railway on the East bank of the river.
The Severn and Wye Railway was struggling
at this time, and quick construction of the bridge might have
staved off bankruptcy for a few more years. As it was, the company
rapidly found itself saddled with the even more impoverished
Severn Bridge Railway, which came with the sort of astronomical
maintenance costs which can be expected from half-mile long bridges.
The result was that the Severn and Wye Railway began looking
for buyers; after some blackmail, the Midland Railway took over
the southern end and the Severn Bridge, and the Great Western
Railway took over the section to the north of Parkend. This mixed
ownership lead to the railway network retaining an individual
flavour until it became part of the new British Railways (Western
Region) in January 1948.
The bridge remained upright until a thick
fog on the 24th October 1960. Two boats coming up the river were
tied together by crew members standing on the bows (the front),
in fog which was so thick that the captains couldn't see that
this had happened. The rising Severn tide swept the vessels up
the river past Sharpness Docks and straight into pier 17, which
disappeared in a large bang and a fireball - along with the bows
of the boats, five of the nine crewmembers, two spans of the
bridge, and the gasmain to Lydney.
Passenger services across the river into Lydney
Town station were promptly suspended, leaving Lydney station
on the mainline as the railhead. The inferno which resulted from
the accident as the fuel for the boats poured into the river
covered the whole distance from Lydney to Sharpness and made
escape very difficult. Fortunately the sport was on the radio,
so the track maintenance team were hiding in the Severn Bridge
signal box rather than patrolling the bridge.
Although at the time work was being done to
strengthen the bridge, it was never rebuilt and a second strike
on pier 21 two years later saw the decision taken to demolish
the crossing. Two contractors were bankrupted by the job and
it was ultimately never completed, with the support for the swing
bridge over the canal and approach viaduct at the Sharpness end
remaining intact to this day.
The occasional noise is made about re-instating
it, although it reality it remains a virtually impossible pipe
dream. More likely is the return of rail services to each end
- the railway is still intact into Sharpness and re-opening could
be achieved very cheaply. The other side, where Severn Bridge
station stands at the end of the embankment, is of vague interest
to the Dean Forest Railway, although it is a little close to
the Lydney bypass.
The photograph looks across from the west
bank. A line of trees across the centre is the main line, while
the line of trees on the right is the railway approaching the
bridge. On the other bank of the river - the brown streak - is
the canal. Sharpness is hidden behind the trees on the right. |
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Gatcombe station was a typical railway station
in that it was in Purton. To reflect the fact that Gatcombe itself
is a half a mile away, it also carried the name Purton Passage,
and was located just above the slipway from which the ferry would
cross the river to Purton. The fact that two places on opposite
banks of the river are called Purton suggests that it was quite
easy to get across the river once - the ferry is now long gone
however, and the fact that Purton (Gloucestershire) is about
twenty road miles from Purton (Gloucestershire) is merely a cause
for confusion.
Gatcombe station (which was precisely 130½
miles from London Paddington via Gloucester - the milepost was
halfway down the platform) opened with the line in 1850 along
with Gatcombe Goods, which was back up the line at milepost 130
in Gatcombe itself. It was a simple two-platform affair, probably
with small wooden buildings and low platforms, which does not
appear to have been terribly successful. Unlike many stations
and branch lines in the country, its closure cannot be blamed
on Dr. Beeching, whose recommendations were published 94 years
after this station was closed and demolished in favour of Awre
in 1869. Curiously the walk from Gatcombe to Awre junction is
less strenuous than the one from Gatcombe station to the village
which it purported to serve. Gatcombe Goods (one siding and a
crossover) had a similar lifespan, with its traffic being handled
by Blakeney instead. This probably means that Gatcombe Goods
was built to handle Blakeney's freight traffic.
Purton was also due to play host to a tramway
which would have climbed up the hill from Purton Pill and then
run in a level sort of manner up the valley and across farmland
to somewhere. Only a short three-arch viaduct which crosses the
road into Purton was built, with the result that there is a very
effective 200 year-old block on vehicles more than 15 feet tall
approaching the village from the east. |
 
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Awre [pronounced Arr] was not
the most important junction on the route; if anything, it was
one of the bottom two. In the mid-19th Century, rail services
to the centre of the Forest of Dean were somewhat lacking, and
so a new railway - the Forest of Dean Central Railway - was promoted
to run from the mainline at Awre Junction, through Blakeney and
on to the collieries north of Mallard's Pike - a lake in the
depths of the Forest. There was also a bridge over the mainline
for a branch down to the Brims Pill on the banks of the Severn
- although they forgot to open that bit, the embankment is still
visible. Awre station was opened with the new branch line and
provided a slightly better passenger service to Blakeney and
Awre. Blakeney also got a convenient, if rather rubbish, goods
service from the branch line, which never saw a passenger train.
The response of the Severn and Wye Railway
was to build the Severn and Wye Mineral Loop. Leaving the Severn
and Wye at Tufts Junction, on todays Dean Forest Railway south
of Whitecroft, it headed northwards past Mallards Pike to rejoin
the Severn and Wye at Drybrook Road station, near Cinderford.
Trains which ran up the entire loop would ultimately end up facing
back towards Lydney, due to the design of the junctions.
The Forest of Dean Central tried to compete,
but failed. The whole line was open for 10 years, but in 1878
it was officially reduced to only serving some sidings in a particularly
quiet part of the Forest. The Severn and Wye did give it a bridge
to allow it to access the area beyond New Fancy colliery, but
otherwise had actually eliminated the threat from its smaller
competitor as soon as it opened its own line.
By the Grouping in 1923 much of the route
was disused, and from then until 1949 Blakeney was the terminus,
after which the line remained technically open for a further
ten years, prior to full closure in 1959. The junction station
was closed to passengers at the same time.
Although the route is still clearly visible
throughout, Awre Junction has long since been flattened, with
just the level crossing, the ruins of the Station Master's house
and the signal box surviving. How long the signal box will remain
for - or how long the house will remain visible through the ivy
- is debatable.
The box was retained to control the adjacent
level crossing, which is a full barrier affair with flashing
lights, sirens, and fast trains. Modern CCTV technology means
that the crossing can be controlled from Lydney (and has been
since 1974, with the aid of some bright floodlights for after
the Sun's bedtime). Consequently the box has been closed, and
the nameboard removed, but it remains intact, albeit slightly
vandalised - its survival probably being helped by the 24-hour
security which is a must here, and therefore will help prevent
vandalism.
There is a longer article on the Forest of
Dean Central Railway here. |
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Bullo is a curious name. Home to Bullo Pill,
it was also the junction for the Forest of Dean Railway. It ran
north from here towards Cinderford, serving the many collieries
and ironworks along the way, and eventually deigned to offer
a passenger service.
It is debatable as to whether this line or
the Severn and Wye was the more successful. This route, which
was ultimately entirely owned by the Great Western, had the smaller
route mileage and also never opened its northern extension -
a long branch line from Cinderford to Mitcheldean Road on the
Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway, with two tunnels and steep
gradients. It was completed in 1874 - the year after the Severn
and Wye began work on their own Lydbrook branch, which gave access
to the Ross and Monmouth Railway - albeit in a way which forced
northbound trains to run-around at the junction. Rather than
compete, the Great Western forgot about their line, and left
the route to rot. Part of the line was subsequently used for
passengers services, and a further half mile was used to serve
a quarry. The northernmost tunnel was never used by Great Western
trains, although the Admiralty subsequently used it for missile
storage. Following the Second World War, the line was cut back,
with passenger services ceasing in the 1950s alongside the demise
of most of the collieries along the route. Traffic finally ceased
on the 1st August 1967. The junction cannot be viewed from public
roads or footpaths and the best way to appreciate it is to pass
through the overgrown site - once home to an engine shed, water
tower and several sidings - on the train.
The route has a large supply of trivia in
its history, with the southernmost (Haie Hill) tunnel causing
several problems due to it being two-thirds of a mile long on
a steep uphill gradient with no ventilation shafts. Ridiculously
long trains of 100 wagons or more were hauled through by small
tank engines until one fireman ended up being carried out of
the smoke-filled hole on a stretcher. After this crews refused
to work the line with more than 40 wagons, much to the annoyance
of the railway company. During the early 1960s, Dr. Beeching
recommended closure of a number of railways around the country;
when a lorry crashed into the bridge over the A48 near Bullo
it was suggested locally that Beeching had been driving the lorry
at the time. The bridge was rebuilt and survived for three more
years before closure. There are no plans to re-instate this route. |
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Ruddle Road Halt was a short-lived affair.
It opened when a passenger service from Newnham to Cinderford
was launched in 1907. It is unclear what traffic it was expecting
which would not be better served by Newnham station, which had
mod-cons like local population, a waiting room (rather than a
hut) and through trains to Gloucester. The lack of traffic was
noticed during the First World War, before anyone had photographed
the halt, and it shut in the 1917 round of closures. It was demolished
in 1920, but did get to feature on an Ordnance Survey map from
about that time.
The design was very simple - two wooden platforms,
staggered so that there was one platform on each side of the
bridge (whichever direction you approach said bridge from, the
footpath up to the platform is on your left). The bridge is one
of several where what was once the South Wales Railway crosses
what is now the A48 on a stone arch which is too low for modern
requirements. Consequently large vehicles are encouraged to go
down the centre lane under the highest point of the arch; larger
vehicles are encouraged not to go beyond Blakeney, as between
there and Gloucester there are a series of these bridges, all
at about 14ft high.
Despite being abandoned for 90 years, the
approach paths are still quite healthy - particularly the westbound
one, which can be followed up to the railway. This picture was
taken from the north side of the bridge. |
|
Newnham opened with the main line to
serve the village of Newnham, but it rapidly became the junction
station for the Forest of Dean branch. It was soon realised,
however, that if the branch was to be opened up to passenger
trains there would be certain operational problems at the two
platform station as the branch train would terminate on a through
platform and hold up the traffic while the locomotive ran around.
Eventually the station was rebuilt with a
bay platform on the south side, allowing branch trains to terminate
clear of the mainline. "Railmotors" were introduced
at the same time, running to Drybrook in the north of the Forest.
Railmotors were wooden bodied coaches with a cab at each end
and a boiler fitted just behind one cab, allowing them to travel
around, literally, under their own steam. This eradicated the
need for the loco to run around, so there was no need for a loop.
The railway had recently been converted from broad gauge to standard
gauge, which meant that there was plenty of room for the extra
platform when it was added in 1907.
Newnham is a reasonably large village, particularly
by local standards (the large clock tower by the A48 makes it
feel more like a town), and the station was not far from the
centre, so the rail service will have seemed fairly secure. The
railmotors were replaced by the Great Western's "push-pull"
system (see Oliver and Isabel in the Thomas the Tank Engine
books - a tank engine pulled a single coach up the valley and
pushed it back down) in the 1930s, and the branch closed to passengers
in 1958, although the bay had been falling into disuse long before
then, as trains began to run straight through to Gloucester -
a sign that British Railways was beginning to appreciate the
need to carry passengers with as few changes of train as possible.
It was not enough, however, to save either the branch or the
station.
Trains have not stopped at Newnham since November
1964, except when held at signals. Sufficient room remains, however,
to re-instate the station - maybe one day. |
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Next was Westbury-on-Severn - a small halt
which lasted for 31 years, one month and one day before closure
on the 10th of August 1959. Being an insignificant little halt
(rather than an insignificant little station) it had no goods
facilities. Instead, it had two basic wooden platforms with a
small galvinised metal shelter halfway along each, along with
a couple of station nameboards and some lights. It was located
between two bridges- the first carried the railway over the A48,
and the second carried the railway over the Blaisdon road.
Westbury-on-Severn is part of a larger conurbation
of various houses and areas of woodland. The halt was only 1½
miles from the larger station at Grange Court, which was also
easily accessible from the village - this may well have sealed
its fate.
The photograph was taken from an adjacent
hillock. Behind the trees in the centre was the halt. The far
bridge, also hidden behind the trees to the left, crosses the
A48. |
|
Grange Court has survived comparatively well.
It was one of a number of stations on the British railway network
which kept a cat on the payroll - not that the cat got much choice
on what it spent the pay on (catfood from the corner shop mostly).
It was junction for Mitcheldean, Lea, Ross-on-Wye and Hereford,
which could be accessed by a railway which could - indeed, should
- have been very important. It was built as single track, however,
which meant that there were few trains and fewer passengers along
the one-bridge-and-one-tunnel-per-mile route, so the line closed
during the Beeching era in 1964. Grange Court was principally
a junction station, and therefore there were no nearby towns
or sizeable villages, resulting in it following its branch line
into the history books in 1964.
The loop lines remained intact, but in 2004
Network Rail expressed an interest in removing excess sets of
points along the Severn Tunnel Junction to Gloucester line. After
funny noises were made at Lydney, it was pointed out by the Dean
Forest Railway (who wanted to keep their loops and the associated
mainline connection, thank you very much) that there were two
loops at Grange Court lying around doing nothing. However, they
are still connected to the mainline (albeit overgrown) and the
signal at the East end of the Up loop is still on, glowing red
at any trains which manage to end up in front of it. |
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The last station before Gloucester was that
at Oakle Street. The small station was surrounded by small villages,
and the station took its name from the nearest - the village
of Oakle Street, which appears to be named after the road. The
nearest two villages of any size are Churcham and Minsterworth
(curiously both named after Christian buildings of worship) which
provided enough business to encourage the station to open with
the railway in 1851, but not enough to save it from early closure
four and a half years later in March 1856.
This was not the end for Oakle Street, however,
and it re-opened in October 1870 to passenger and goods traffic.
Things seemed to have remained healthy until 1953, when the signal
box closed, with the replacement groundframe being locked in
and out of use by Grange Court signal box. Goods traffic ceased
altogether in August 1963, although passenger services struggled
on for a further 14 months before the station closed forever
in 1964.
The site has now been cleared. It is hard
to believe that there ever was a stop here as trains clatter
up the straight from Grange Court at 75mph on their way to Gloucester. |
|
The last junction before Gloucester was that
for Newent, Dymock, and Ledbury. It was the archetypal minor
cross-country branch line, running for about twenty miles through
the middle of nowhere, and receiving the usual minimal service.
Although an attractive line (all minor closed
branch lines are attractive according to their sweet rose-tinted
obituaries), the railway was not frequented by enthusiast specials,
or indeed by passengers, who were all notable, even on the last
day, by their absence. The railway therefore closed as part of
the 1959 round of cuts, and nobody outside its immediate area
appears to have been particularly distressed that the 1885-opened
railway was no longer providing its apparently unnecessary service
to the community.
The junction was as far east as possible while
staying on the west bank of the Severn. It was a fairly simple
affair with two tracks crossing the river and heading off towards
Severn Tunnel Junction while two other tracks turned north, rapidly
dropped to one, and wound off into the countryside. Nowadays
a signal sits in the middle of the branch line, in the distance
beyond the bridge. On the other bank of the Severn, where the
lines to the docks once branched off, a trailing crossover now
connects the two tracks of the mainline with men in orange jackets
looking at it thoughtfully. |
|
Gloucester Central station was home to one
of the more notable points where railway passengers of the 19th
century were inconvenienced due to some railway politics and
excessive displays of engineering genius. When George Stephenson
began building successful railway locomotives he built them to
work on his local railways, where the rails were 4ft 8½
inches apart. This rapidly became standard for all railways which
were built by British engineers or engineers influenced by Britain
- in other words, most of the world. Mr Odd-One-Out was better
known as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who thought that the traditional
track gauge (distance between the rails) was inadequate - and
so when the Great Western Railway opened in 1836 it was to a
new 7'¼" broad gauge.
This was fine until railways began to meet
up - as they did, when the standard gauge Bristol and Gloucester
Railway met the Great Western at Bristol. The Gloucester and
Birmingham Railway then met the Bristol and Gloucester at Gloucester
Eastgate station, creating a standard gauge railway all the way
from Bristol to Birmingham. Then the Great Western came in from
Swindon on their way to South Wales with their broad gauge. Their
trains didn't fit in the station on the north-south mainline,
so they built their own station at Gloucester Central on their
east-west route. The result was an interesting picture entitled
"The Break of Gauge At Gloucester", with all the mail,
the passengers, their children, their animals, their luggage,
their porters, their kitchen sinks, etc., trying to get from
one train to the other - and the standard gauge stock was also
noticably smaller.
The problem was mostly solved by scrapping
the broad gauge - a task completed, after Brunel's death, in
1892. This left one easily noticable oddity on the Gloucester-Severn
Tunnel Junction route, among others, in that the tracks are further
apart than usual - about 10 feet, rather than 6. The problem
of two stations remained until 1972, when British Rail and Gloucestershire
Council came up with a solution. BR could close Eastgate station,
and Gloucestershire Council could say that they'd asked them
to do it due to the excessive traffic in Gloucester being held
up on the five level crossings on the two-mile loop.
Although Eastgate was the superior station
from the operations point of view, it shut in 1972 and was replaced
by a new road. The traffic is as bad as ever, partly because
Gloucester is one of the largest towns in Britain without a road
bypass, but the long-distance Bristol to Birmingham trains use
the avoiding line and do not stop at Gloucester, as this would
require them to turn around and go back out of the station the
way they came in. Instead, they stop at Cheltenham. Gloucester
- with its one train per hour to London, one per hour to Weston
Super-Mare, two per hour to Newport, and six per hour to Cheltenham
- tries to pretend that it doesn't care.
The yard at the east end of the station is
now home to Cotswold Rail - a loco-hire company and tour operator.
This picture was taken from the west end - on the far left is
Platform 4, with Platform 2 in the centre and Platform 3 on the
right. Platform 1 is in the far distance. |
|
Following the closure of Eastgate station
BR came up with another great idea - they closed what is now
known as Platform 4, which allowed them to remove the footbridge.
Of course, this left them with inadequate platform space, so
they put Gloucester Central into the record books by building
Platform One.
This picture was taken from one end of this
great platform. What you can see in this picture, stretching
into the far distance, is not all Platform 1. Just after the
red lights, which you probably can't see, it turns into Platform
2, which has all the main buildings on it. Most trains to and
from Cheltenham use Platform 1 - it probably saves about 5 minutes
of journey time. In exchange, First Class passengers are subjected
to a ten minute walk to the main buildings. First Class passengers
for the stopping service towards Newport used to have to walk
down to Platform 3, which is at the other end of Platform 2.
In total, Platforms 1 and 2 are 602.6 metres long - about a third
of a mile, which is nearly long enough for three full High Speed
Train sets and means that they comfortably hold the record for
the longest continuous platform face in the country. The board
to the left in this photograph taken from the very end of Platform
1 says "Way Out" - the only exit is in the main station
building - quarter of a mile away! |
