Identifying Railway Items

[WildStrawberry]

Hi, I've been part of a group clearing an old railway line (open from ~1870s to 1960s), now a foot path (the Strawberry Line in Somerset), and we've come across a few railway era things that I was hoping to find out more about. Pics attached.

1. The first looks like a storage bin (for ballast? there's still some gravel in there). We've heard stories from people who used to play hide-and-seek in this as kids! Would it have had a cover, or open as it is now? Are there any photos of ones that have survived in better condition?
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     Strawberry Line #1

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
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     Strawberry Line #2

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
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     Strawberry Line #3

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
2. The next is a sign with the number 6 on it, up at the top of the cutting, next to a farm bridge that goes over the line. Would it have been next to the line originally, to be seen by the driver? And I can't work out what the 6 would mean.
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     Strawberry Line #4

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
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     Strawberry Line #5

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
3. Old bit of railway line in the cutting, next to the trackbed. Now used for a geo-caching point. I guess this has been made into a fence-post, with the wire wrapped through the holes? Did this happen a lot? Why didn't they sell the line on for scrap?
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     Strawberry Line #6

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
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     Strawberry Line #7

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
4. Just off the trackbed: a twisted metal rod, with a thread on the end. Seems familiar but I have no idea what it is!
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     Strawberry Line #8

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018
5. Very hard to take a photo of! A broken concrete hard-standing, about ~4 meters across, and going back maybe 2 meters? Another one of the above metal rods in the foreground, and a fence-post in the background. One slab of the concrete is below the fence, another bit on the left hand side of the picture, and plants covering all of the rest, with more past the left hand side of the photo, including what seems like a very rusted low chain-link pedestrian gate. Could this have been a signal point?
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     Strawberry Line #9

     • WildStrawberry
     • 13 May 2018

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[randyrippley]

At a guess............

1) A sand bin on a potential slippy piece of track
2) Bridge number? (was it the sixth bridge on the line?)
3) Fence post? Don't think so. Looks more like the upright for a sign. Maybe a gradient sign? Looks just like a piece of angle-iron, not heavy enough to be rail
4) Tensioner for a telegraph pole
5) Can't make sense of the photo, but if there is a gate, there must have been a crossing there

 

[krus_aragon]

A few initial thoughts:
2: Perhaps a distance marker: 6 miles from one end of the line? (May also have up to three dots underneath showing quarter miles) Not sure where it is in relation to the trackbed, though.
3: When renewing track, the old track would often be reused as a makeshift fence post or similar as opposed to carting it off as scrap metal (and carting in a fence post).The shape (profile) of the rail is an old-fashioned type (bridge rail) that wouldn't have been used in the 1960s (to my knowledge), so it wouldn't have been put in the ground when closing the line.

 

[WildStrawberry]

Thanks for that! For the sign, there are quite a few bridges (will have to check how many); the mile marker would also make sense, as I couldn't find one that was on an old O.S. map a few hundred meters down the line (I'll check it again for quarter-mile dots), so maybe they were re-done later? It's currently loose, facing away from the trackbed, which is about ten meters below it at the bottom of a cutting. Will also check the maps for crossings in the area, and try to get a better set of photos for #5. Cheers!

 

[Jensen]

No.1 is not a sand pit. Its a chipping bin used for measured shovel packing beneath a sleeper. A manual task undertaken to take out imperfection in track line and cross level. The mechanised stone blower does a very similar job nowadays

 

[WildStrawberry]

Any idea when it would have been put there Jensen? The concrete looks post-war (and pre-fabbed)?

 

[Jensen]

No idea precisely but possibly 1930's. Also likely to be fabricated at Taunton Concrete Works. They are quite common.

 

[pdeaves]

Number 3:

Why didn't they sell the line on for scrap?

The big railway companies were largely self sufficient and were really good at using what they had. It was more efficient to use bits of worn out rail as fences, sign posts, etc. than it was to 'sell them for scrap' and make (or buy) special fence/sign parts. In fact, they often didn't sell things for scrap but instead recycled them through their own workshops. Scrap wood could be made into smaller items (even furniture, artificial limbs and coat hangers were products of the big works). Scrap steel would go into the furnaces and come out as a new locomotive part (or whatever was required). Very little actually left the businesses.

 

[randyrippley]

.............The shape (profile) of the rail is an old-fashioned type (bridge rail) that wouldn't have been used in the 1960s (to my knowledge), so it wouldn't have been put in the ground when closing the line.

How old is that kind of rail?
Any chance it could date back to broad gauge days?

 

[krus_aragon]

How old is that kind of rail?
Any chance it could date back to broad gauge days?

Seems so.

Such bridge rails were used on Brunel's broad gauge baulk roads (see here) and also on a metal-based approach by MacDonnell (see here). Wikipedia states that MacDonnell's plate track was used on the Bristol & Exeter and Bridport Railways, both built as broad gauge. The East Somerset Railway's also stated to have been built using bridge rails, but it's worth following up those references to make sure!

As per pdeaves' comments about railways re-using everything themselves, that bit of rail may not have originally been used on this line, but reused from elsewhere.

 

[Bevan Price]

If you are referring to the former Yatton - Wells - Witham line, the milepost zero was at Witham station.
Milepost 6 would have been about ½ mile west of Cranmore station..
Milepost 16 would have been about ¾ mile north west of Wookey station.
Milepost 26 would have been near Winscombe station.
Is the material near any of those locations?