Railways and Tramways

Railway  and Tramway Miscellania! Under this heading you can find a variety of railway and tramway inspired pages and blog items – please use the drop down menu.

20 thoughts on “Railways and Tramways”

  1. Philippe Marassé

    Bonjour,

    I am sorry to write in french but my english is very bad !

    J’ai lu avec intérêt vos “posts” sur les “Railways of Herault”.

    Je tiens toutefois à vous signaler que la première partie (St-Chinian to Cazouls-lès-Bzs) cite de nombreuses informations qui proviennent d’une étude que j’ai publiée dans le numéro 27 de la Revue “Historail” (octobre 2013)(je tiens le fichier numérique à votre disposition si vous le souhaitez). Dès lors, pour rendre à César ce qui lui revient, sans doute conviendrait-il de l’indiquer.

    Thank you very much.

    Philippe Marassé

    Reply ↓
    1. rogerfarnworth Post author

      Mes excuses abondantes. J’ai tout référencé aux sources sur lesquelles je les ai trouvées.

      Je suis très heureux de bien référencer votre travail. Je ne savais pas que j’utilisais du matériel non référencé.

      Si vous souhaitez envoyer le fichier numérique par courrier électronique, je vais passer en revue ce que j’ai écrit et faire référence aux choses correctement.

      Encore une fois, mes excuses.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ph. Marassé

        Thank you for you reply.

        Pourriez-vous m’indiquer votre adresse mail pour vous envoyer le fichier numérique ?

        Thank you.

  3. Roy Davies

    Dear Reverend Farnworth, I am currently compiling a book for Middleton Press on the line from Wennington to Morecambe/Heysham via Lancaster and two of the questions I have that no-one can seem to answer are, as follows: [1] do you know the meaning of the word ayre as in Green Ayre and [2] do you know if the Edmondson curve at the former Torrisholme No. 1 junction had anything to do with the Lancaster born Thomas Edmondson?

    Reply ↓
  4. rogerfarnworth Post author

    Hello Roy

    I have found the following on Wikipedia which probably answers your first query. …..

    “Ayre (landform)

    An ayre is the name used for shingle beaches in Orkney, Shetland and the Isle of Man. The word is derived from the Old Norse eyrr, meaning a shingle beach or gravelly place, and may be applied to ordinary beaches, cliff-foot beaches such as the Lang Ayre in Northmavine, Shetland, spits, bars or tombolos, but only if formed of shingle. More than 130 such shingle beaches are named on Ordnance Survey maps of Shetland, but far fewer in Orkney, where most beaches are formed of sand. The word in its Old Norse form is common in Iceland, and it also occurs in a few place names in the north and west of the Scottish mainland which had a strong Norse influence, such as Eriboll (“a homestead on a shingle beach”) and in the names of several shingle banks – Salt Ayre, Green Ayre, Stake Ayre, Rabbit Ayre and Whinny Ayre – in the tidal reach of the River Lune at Lancaster.”

    I am sorry that I cannot help with the second item.

    Best wishes

    Roger

    Reply ↓
  6. Graham White

    Hi Roger,
    I am in the Forest of Dean next week, and want to do the Sling Branch, together with other
    railways/tramroads. It will be by walking,cycling or by car from my base at Parkend, to start at the old Milkwall station.
    The immediate problem is the lage industrial units where the old lne used to be, but have you done this?. Looking at old maps the line used to split at Sling into three different sites.
    I have looked at the Coleford Heritage trail phone app, but that doesnt include Sling and the present o/s maps only give a clue.
    I have also the book on the Severn & Wyle line (Vol 3), but if you have done this, I would appreciate your comments,
    Kind Regards,
    Graham White
    Swindon

    Reply ↓
    1. rogerfarnworth Post author

      Hi Graham

      We did walk around Sling/Millwall. I am, however, struggling to remember. I am away at present but will see what I can access on my phone.

      Best wishes

      Roger

      Reply ↓
      1. Graham White

        Roger,

        Thanks for the photos – I have printed them off for me to take. I have been able to get some very old maps of the area, and hope to do the line, together with any old tramway branches, if they still exist.

        Thanks again,

        Kind Regards,

        Graham

        ________________________________

  7. Ian Busby

    Hello Roger

    I am very interested in your past extensive review of the military railway at Bicester as we would like to find a way of filming it as part of next years OxRail2022 on line show. This year, apart from model railways largely built by Oxfordshire people, we also featured the major Oxfordshire heritage railways and the COSME miniature railway in Oxford. I saw you had been around the Bicester site and I wondered if you had a contact there as there is no information on how to contact anyone at HQ Bicester Garrison that I can find on the web.

    Kind regards

    Ian

    Reply ↓
    1. rogerfarnworth Post author

      Hi Ian
      I thought I had replied to your message but there is no sign of the reply on my system. Apologies if you have already received a reply.
      I am sorry, my article was based on public access areas and the judicious use of Google Maps. I was not able to contact anyone on site to get permission to move about in restricted/private areas.
      Best wishes
      Roger

      Reply ↓
  8. Coco44

    Dear Roger

    We wondered if you could help us with some railway history of the Glasson Dock Railway. Specifically, what happened to the land when the railways stopped using it . We can explain more, if you need more details. Could you point us to a book, maybe, please? Many thanks Sally and Dave Maddocks

    Reply ↓
    1. rogerfarnworth Post author

      Hi, I don’t think that I can help with land ownership. The route seems to be a public right of way. It may be that Lancashire County Council or the City Council maintain list of Public Rights of Way. When I worked for local government in the 1980s and 1990s the local authority had a Public Rights of Way Officer who among other things tried to ensure that landowners maintained these routes or organised for the Council to do so. That probably means that they would have a list of land owners. I do not know the current position.

      Reply ↓
  9. David Beresford

    Hi Roger, I see you have created a GE overlay for the ammunition stores near Nesscliffe. Would it be possible for you to email me the kmz or kml file. I’m in the process of mapping the defunct military railways in the UK. Do you know if RAF Chilmark or RNAD Bedenham have been mapped? Many thanks, David Beresford

    Reply ↓
    1. rogerfarnworth Post author

      Hello David,

      I not sure how much help I can be. …..

      As referenced in my post (reference (7)), I followed an old online link to an image of a GE file. I don’t have the file itself. This is the reference link:

      https://web.archive.org/web/20131005010516/http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?4825-Kinnerley-Ammunition-Depots

      The version I included in my blog is a little way down the email string. I didn’t find the actual GE file. You might be better following the clues than I was and so be able to find the relevant file. The string on the airfield information exchange goes back to 2010.

      Reply ↓
      1. rogerfarnworth Post author

        I am sorry, I do not know about the mapping of the other two sites. It might be that the Airfield Information Exchange is worth contacting?

      2. David Beresford

        Hi Roger, Thank you for the response – I’ll try the link you provided and continue my searches. Regards, David

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