Shortwood Sidings

[horace]

Confusion reigns. Mangotsfield north junction is in shortwood, the village pub is the bridge inn is adjacent to the railway. The box you are referring to is actually in Pucklechurch, the box at the south end of westerleigh sidings is in parkfield again in pucklechurch. I dont know what the Midland railway called them, but i am using mapping that shows administrative boundaries.

[Robin Summerhill]

I suppose its best not to mention Berkeley "Road" or the fact that Kelston station was in Saltford during the course of this discussion .....

And the less said about Midgham station being in Woolhampton the better

[horace]

The confusion is over the sidings, the mapping shows no sidings near what you are refering to as shortwood box, the only siding i can find is the single line that goes into the brickworks which is 500 yards south of the box.

[buxton4472]

.. the box in the photograph, as thought by me and as confirmed by Rob Tarling, is Mangotsfield North box.

From what I can see, the pointwork behind the telegraph pole is a single slip and trailing crossover presumably serving the down siding. So the actual junction between the Bath and Bristol lines must be some way further on around the right-hand curve - I certainly can't pick it out on my computer monitor - which placed the junction signal considerably in advance of the junction, and the signal-box some (lesser) distance from it also. Therefore, was that the final location of North Junction signalbox? I ask this because passing the junction regularly as a boy, it never seemed to be any distance whatsoever from the box to the junction. But again, I have to accept that the memory plays tricks.

[horace]

This is a photo of the chimney at brandy bottom pit taken from the railway, this is the location where a box is shown on the mapping.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/3 ... 4460669493

[buxton4472]

The confusion is over the sidings, the mapping shows no sidings near what you are refering to as shortwood box, the only siding i can find is the single line that goes into the brickworks which is 500 yards south of the box.

Yet in the 1937 LMS Sectional Appendix to the Working Time Tables the box is actually named 'Shortwood Sidings' and in the 1960/61 Bristol District WTT it is called 'Shortwood Siding' so siding(s) there were up until some point in time. Probably no-one thought to change the name when the siding(s) were removed. That must have been fairly late on though, because why else keep a block-post open just several hours a day with only 3/4 mile blocks on either side of it?

[horace]

I have 25" mapping of all of mangotsfield station and junctions, the 1915 editions which shows all of the rail layouts, and 6" mapping of the line to all the way to westerliegh, 1946 edition. the 6" of westerleigh sidings is already in my photostream and the 25" of the station has just been made public.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/7 ... 4369146983

I do not have a scanner at the moment but give me a few days and i will photograph both junctions and the 6" mapping covering the section under discussion and will post them on flickr.

[horace]

Problem solved, I think, plate 44 in Pete Lawsons book walking the dramwway shows the sidings at parkfiled colliery, there were quite a few sidings etc. Parkfield colliery closed in 1936. My mapping of this area is dated 1946 and shows the colliery as closed with no sidings. But just down the line is a single siding into the brickworks. From sidings to siding!!

[horace]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/7 ... 4369146983

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/7 ... 4369146983

Mangotsfield North and South Junctions 1915

[Robin Summerhill]

.. the box in the photograph, as thought by me and as confirmed by Rob Tarling, is Mangotsfield North box.

From what I can see, the pointwork behind the telegraph pole is a single slip and trailing crossover presumably serving the down siding. So the actual junction between the Bath and Bristol lines must be some way further on around the right-hand curve - I certainly can't pick it out on my computer monitor - which placed the junction signal considerably in advance of the junction, and the signal-box some (lesser) distance from it also. Therefore, was that the final location of North Junction signalbox?

I think that the photograph is playing tricks!

Horace's map of Mangotsfield North junction (here) http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/8 ... 369146983/ shows that the junction was just beyond the southern end of the sidings. If you look closely at the photograph that started all this (I zoomed to 400%) you can just about see that the line running into the distance is the Bath route, and the Bristol route curves off to the right - there is just the vaguest sign of that junction in the photograph. It is, in fact, only just beyond the box, so your memories are correct.

[horace]

Another two maps, one showing the Bristol end of Mangotsfield station and the other showing another siding that rarely gets a mention, the one into the old quarry at Charnhill. The other aspect that may be interest to one person in this thread is i believe the location of his childhood home.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/8 ... hotostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/8 ... hotostream

[horace]

Nice picture of parkfield colliery here clearly showing rail sidings.

http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/bhr/Main/coal/7_coal.htm

[Robin Summerhill]

The other aspect that may be interest to one person in this thread is i believe the location of his childhood home. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/8 ... hotostream

Yes but the map is pre-1938 because the house itself doesn't appear on it

My father used to refer to that area as Stone Sidings. I've never heard it described or indeed mentioned by anybody except him.

[horace]

The wall in this picture I believe is the same wall as is shown in the picture on the link above. I have now posted an extract from a 1888 map
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/8477493656/
which shows all the sidings. They were actually located at parkfield colliery itself. There is another siding into brandy bottom pit labelled on here as parkfield south, this is where the signal box is shown, although there is another one just to the north of parkfield colliey itself.

[horace]

1950's map of Tewell hill area, all evidence of siding now gone apart from the curved boundary at that location.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/8476343309/