GLOUCESTERSHIRE TRANSPORT HISTORY

Celebrating everything connected with

transport and Gloucestershire

NOW WITH ADDED HEREFORDSHIRE!

THE ART OF GLOUCESTER

This beautiful atmospheric oil painting of a wet day at Barton Street Junction in the days of the old swinging gates and LMR "Black Fives" is from the brush of Gloucester artist Rob Rowland, who has also depicted former Great Western 2-8-0 3864 hauling a fast freight towards Central station. Further south ex LMS 3F 0-6-0 43645 runs light past Eastgate's Passenger Station Box.

TRANSPORT ART COLLECTIONS

If you prefer road vehicles however, then why not check out the work of Dewsbury based John G. Kinsley?  His current range includes Southdown buses, as featured on this website's Herefordshire sister. 1952 vintage Leyland Tiger seen here forming the 32 service from Hassocks to Horsted Keynes carried the fleet number 1506 on its East Lancashire DP40 series body.                      

For a consumer review of your latest book, DVD or other Gloucestershire and Transport related product or service why not email Alan

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN GUEST

If you like high quality card mounted photographs of interesting aircraft - and more - then why not call Gloucester photographer Ken Guest on +44 (0)1452 413511 or email ken.guest@tiscali.co.uk? Prices start from just £5.00 for a 7" x 5" print and for a further selection of images click on the picture of Swiss marked Hawker Hunter F6 J-4015 at Kemble above.

CARD MOUNTED 7" X 5" KEN GUEST PRINTS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT A SPECIAL PRICE OF £3.00 EACH OR £ 5.00 FOR TWO AT SELECTED VENUES THIS SUMMER. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

ALTERNATIVELY, WHY NOT BROWSE KEN GUEST'S PRINTS IN PERSON AT THE AVIATOR  RESTAURANT AT GLOUCESTERSHIRE AIRPORT?

THE MELLOR BROTHERS
 VEG OUT

2009 has been a busy year for Paul and David Mellor, most notably with the completion of their Charles Russell low loader complete with Blackburn Buccaneer twin jet bomber.

Their aim for 2010 is to replicate even more Gloucestershire based commercial vehicles in 4mm scale and Gloucestershire Transport History visitors can help them achieve this.

Do you have any colour or monchrome pictures that you could email of any lorries and vans that worked in the county from 1950 onwards?

In particular the Mellor Brothers would appreciate any more images of Loader & Munckton vehicles such as the one above and also of any used by Western Trading ( mainly yellow and black Fords ) and Haine and Corry ( orange ) builder's merchant's.

And what about vegetables?  They'll have the same!  In particular Paul and David hope to model more of the Bedford TK and Commer vehicles used by Francis Blakeway, Ford, Griffiths ( brown and orange markings ) and Hintons.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Gloucestershire Transport History really started with my interest in the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited and although Bristol Road's output of private owner coal wagons and more advanced rolling stock stock for British Railways have been explored and celebrated on these pages relatively little attention has been given to products sold to the "Big Four" railways and their antecedents.

As such, I was very pleased when Richard Salmon emailed with news of a four wheeled 10 ton five-plank 9' wheelbase wagon ( pictured above ) built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company for the Great Western Railway and now being restored at Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex.

87782 was one of a thousand "OPEN A"  wagons (Nos. 87001–88000) in GWR Lot 697  ordered on 20 October 1911 and completed on 28 December 1912. 

The average cost to the Great Western per Gloucester RCW built wagon was £112 and 87782 was completed during week ending 23 November 1912.  In all 10,815 wagons identified by the telegraphic code "OPEN A".were built by or for the GWR to their diagram O11.

Rather than the continuous brakes of more modern wagons, 87782 was fitted only with a  Dean / Churchward ratchet type hand brake with handles on the right hand of either side. As the name suggests, this was designed by two succeeding GWR Chief Mechanical Engineers and widely used by the GWR but rarely by other railways. 87782 thus had a relatively low original tare (empty) weight of 5 tons 18 cwt 0 quaters, although it was marked 5 tons 17 cwt on arrival at the Bluebell Railway.  However, 87782 was originally fitted with a sheet support rail to prevent water accumulating in hollows in covering tarpaulins and leaking onto the goods below.

During the Great War (1914–1918) a number of locomotives and wagons were taken over by the military for use overseas. 87782 was so requisitioned on 21 February 1917 and was returned to the GWR on 11 April 1920, thus making this particular OPEN A a War veteran!

Notes on 87782 from the GWR Wagon Register further describe the iron framed wagon's wooden body as measuring 15' 6" long, 7' 7" wide and 3' 3" deep while suspension was provided by 3' 4 1/4" long leaf springs.

Length between centres of axle journals was 6' 6", size of journals 8" x 3 3/4", diameter through boss of wheels: 5 1/4" and diameter in middle: 4 3/4".  on the end of each axle were wheels with a diameter of 3' 1 1/2".  The buffers were self contained.

GWR maintenance records show 87772 being repaired and returned to traffic on 11 May 1932 and a Haywoods Slack Adjuster was fitted at Swindon on  7 January 1939

W87782 was condemned on the London Midland Region on 21 February 1959 and sold by British Railways to the Port of Bristol Authority on 26 December 1959. It was renumbered PBA 59627 and continued in service within the docks until the late 1970s, after which it was purchased for the Bluebell Railway by Neil Cameron, arriving with other vehicles from Bristol Docks in June 1981.

The Port of Bristol Authority wagons were regularly repaired and PBA 59627 was fitted with replacement headstocks and reinforced door pillars. The original GWR self-contained buffers were replaced with Dowty pneumatic buffers although the original solebars and underframe on this wagon are in particularly good condition for nearly a century of service.

Meanwhile, if you have a 3 1/2" gauge live steam model of a British Standard Britannia 4-6-2, similar to 70041 "Anzac" pictured below, in running condition or not, then John Clifton would be interested in acquiring it from you.

It may well be that it was built from the plans supplied by Model and Allied Press ( MAP ) as L.O. 81 volumes 104-109.  A completed example - numbered 70051 and named "Firth of Forth" is seen at work below in Walton Park, Sale, Cheshire with members of the Sales Area Model Engineering Society.

RED NOTICE CASE

 

Set at the lowest natural crossing point on the River Severn, Gloucester has always been a focus for travellers and as a result both the City and County have a rich transport heritage.

First came the Romans with their roads, which evolved from the pathways of the Ancient Britons and grew into the complex of trunk roads and Motorways that we enjoy today. These roads not only allowed Welsh livestock to be driven to London but also accessed the coal, iron and timber of the nearby Forest of Dean

As the centuries passed too, the Severn was also exploited for the movement of goods, leading Queen Elizabeth I to grant the Letters Patent that made Gloucester a Port in 1580. Indeed, the trade on the Severn was so busy by the reign of Charles I that his imposition of Ship Tax helped the citizens of Gloucester decide to stand against him in the English Civil War.

After decades of manual labour, the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal also opened in 1827, allowing the dangerous sandbanks of the river to be bypassed by ocean going vessels. The longest, widest and deepest ship canal in the World – as it was when new – also brought an abundance of timber to the Cathedral City.

This in turn laid the foundation for such firms as Morelands – the "England’s Glory" match manufacturers – the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited and H.H. Martyn's of Cheltenham.

From Gloucester's tradition of blacksmithery and pin making too, sprang Cotton Motorcycles and – ultimately – the Gloster Aircraft Company. Among this company's illustrious products were the Gloster E28/39. In 1941 this became the first Allied jet aircraft to fly and led directly to the development of the Meteor and Javelin fighters.

Indeed, prior to the creation of the new counties of Avon and South Gloucestershire in 1973, Gloucestershire also embraced Parnall's of Yate and the Bristol Aeroplane Company with its omnibus building ancestry.

From the latter's base at Filton, the British prototype Anglo - French Concorde first flew on 9 April 1969. With Brian Trubshaw at the controls, G-BSST landed at RAF Fairford - still a part of the transport infrastructure of Gloucestershire today and host to the annual Royal International Air Tattoo.

Gloucestershire also boasts a rich heritage of railway operations, having been the Nineteenth Century battleground of the gauges between the factions of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and George and Robert Stephenson. As a result, the county still has direct links with Cardiff, Bristol, Swindon and Birmingham.

Indeed, Gloucestershire can also lay claim to preserved railways,horse drawn tramways, narrow gauge and miniature railways as well as a thriving model transport enthusiast community. This includes the Gloucester branch of the International Plastic Modelling Society which meets at Churchdown Community Centre on the first Tuesday of every month. For further information please contact Mr Barnfield on 01242 862826.