Didcot Railway Centre is a former BR steam shed which now houses a great number of exhibits and artifacts. Between Reading, Swindon and Oxford, it is located in the triangle between the main line to Swindon and the branch to Oxford.
I went into the real Didcot loco on 25 July 1962. I was a cleaner/fireman at Reading loco and was told to take Castle 4-6-0 No. 5094 to Didcot light. I couldn't believe my ears because I never imagined that I would ever get out on a Castle. "Tretower Castle" was in pretty poor trim. Reading was getting rid of her back to her home depot. As we were only going light it didn't matter much about such details as sanding (back sand wouldn't budge an inch) or whether the ashpan was empty. I also didn't have to worry much about the fire, in fact I kept a very thin fire, barely alight, This, however, was sufficient to keep a full head of steam and a full boiler of water. I was fussing over the fire and the driver said to me:
"Don't worry about the fire, just come over to my side and enjoy the view."
The views of the Thames Valley were superb on this sunny summer morning. We went slowly past the train spotters on the end of Didcot platform anxiously waiting to see whether they has scored a "cop". I just hung nonchalantly over the cab side - I was on top of the world.
When we arrived at Didcot loco we just dumped her in the yard and walked off, I wonder how long it was before they realized that No. 5096 was, in fact, back.
We dumped Tretower Castle just about where 2-8-0 3822 is.
Didcot has many visitors such as Clun Castle on 31 May 1982
Apart from the Didcot regulars you never know what you will see
Many of the exhibits are stored safely inside the shed
This is Shannon, built in 1857, from the Wantage Tramway just to the west of Didcot,
A 57xx class 0-6-0 switcher. I worked several shifts on one of these
Disdcot is worth visiting not only for its wonderful collection of GWR locomotives. There are many other interesting items
One of the last remaining items from the ill fated atmospheric system which was intended to conquer the Devon hills by air pressure. The system failed because the slit at the top, which carried the connection betwen the tube piston and the train, was sealed with a leather flap soaked in grease. The rats ate this voraciously so that an air seal was not possible. Pity they didn't have plastic in those days
A sand trap used at the end of trap points to stop equipment without derailing it.
As Neil Kearns has pointed out the GWR broad gauge was actually seven feet and a quarter inch. The reason for this was that the original rails and the equipment wheels were precisely seven feet. The first locomotive was delivered by water to Brentford and it was found that it would not negotiate the curves on the line. It turned out to be easier to widen the gauge a little rather than sent back to Newcastle for new wheels.
The Great Western Society at Didcot has an impressive collection of broad gauge items.
This is a transfer shed with standard gauge on one side and broad gauge on the other. Here a standard gauge train is giving rides
Dual gauge track work can be complex
The broad gauge was built using transverse ties
Broad gauge side of the transfer shed
Two operating broad gauge steam locomotives have been built from scratch
There is a standard gauge demonstration line which provides a lot of interest. There is a demonstration of mail bag picking up and setting down.
Video of mail bag pick up and set down. Note the blue locomotive is a King 4-6-0
There is always something of interest at Didcot. There are a number of exciting new builds to replace classes that were scrapped entirely while the visiting locomotives provide a change of pace. The Centre can be accessed directly from the Network Rail platform
Zurich Hauptbahnhof Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof. This will be in several parts. The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza. The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a sing...
This video, by Noel Wyler, shows what we have just missed. Last Saturday (14 September) the Oensingen Balsthal Railway organized an event to commemorate 60 years of the Re 4/4 locomotives. They brought together 24 of them and ran them as one train. Paul and I flew home on KLM from Schiphol Airport. We took a train from Den Haag directly to the airport. The trip back was marred by a couple with a young boy who was obviously teething. He cried almost continuously for the full six hours. I found I could tune him out when I dug deep into the KLM sound system and found a treasure trove of classical music. Bach violin concertos, Mozart piano concerto No. 23, Beethoven symphonies, Schuman etc. We survived the stupidities at the entrance of the Montreal airport and caught the KLM bus back to Ottawa where we arrived precisely on time. A good ending to a wonderful, tremendous, trip
A Dutch speciality - pancake with cheese, mushrooms and bacon. This was the only picture I took today - after we had finally arrived at Den Haag. We went early to the station at Basel to check on our train to Dusseldorf only to find out it had been cancelled. A visit to the SBB ticket office revealed that the train hadn't actually been cancelled but was starting today from Karlsruhe. They found a connecting train leaving a little earlier which we took. This became progressively later and later so that it arrived at Karlsruhe just as the connection was about to pull out. A frantic dash across the platform and we were able to claim our seats. The journey to Dusseldorf was peculiar, There were periods when the train went fast (up to almost 200 kmph) and other periods when it dawdled. It progressively lost time except that it arrived at its final destination, Dusseldorf, eleven minutes early. (An injudicious use of recovery time in the schedule?) Dusseldorf gave us an opportuni...
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