Westbury, early 1979

[Raspberry_Horn]

Hi all, hope someone can assist in a bit of reconstruction from the fuzzy memory banks here - recall at the time Westbury was a sort of 'easy reach' way for a Southern Region type to catch a variety of Western Region traffic, which always seemed rather more exciting. My memory of it is sort of this - getting there from Portsmouth area on a Class 33 hauled train (headed for Bristol?), and once there, the lines that went through the actual platforms including Class 50-hauled traffic (would there have been more variety than that on that route - 47s?). But also these lines sort of parallel, running under a road bridge, at maybe a few hundred yards distance, east of station, where HST traffic (not sure where bound?) was visible - would my mental image be about right here?! Appreciate any thoughts...

 

[Ash Bridge]

Wouldn't say your memory is so far out, and I think I'm correct in saying that the HSTs you saw on the Westbury Avoiding Line would be Paddington-Southwest England services. As well as the 50s I'd be rather certain that there would also be a good number of 47 hauled services too.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Yes, your memory appears to be good.

Class 33s worked the Portsmouth to Bristol service - not sure if it extended to Cardiff in those days, but I think it did?

There would have been 47s as well as 50s; I saw both types on expresses through Newbury at the same sort of timespan and of course that's just a bit further along the same line from Paddington to Exeter.

There is indeed a bypass line used by trains which don't call at Westbury itself and that is roughly the time at which HSTs started to be used via the Berks & Hants line, and they were introduced first on the services which made the fewest stops so it is quite logical that you would have seen them on the avoiding line.

 

[Cowley]

Obviously being far too young to remember such times (I was 6 in 1979). I’ve been wondering what else would’ve been seen at Westbury around then?
Class 45s, pairs of 37s or new 56s on stone trains?
31s on parcels or lighter goods trains maybe? 47601 (to become 47901)?
My first proper visit to Westbury was in I think 1986 and we saw all four brand new class 59s (so different compared to everything else) plus 47901 and various 56s that day. The red pen was very busy...

 

[randyrippley]

31s and the odd 37 would have been on some of the Weymouth line trains, DMUs on others. What I can't remember is whether the cross-country DMUs had been replaced by the higher density units by then.

 

[Taunton]

1979 ? A few years after the last of the Westerns and Hymeks, alas. Class 50 did most of the WofE expresses, Class 47 the rest, but this was the time they were getting replaced by HSTs, which took some years to change over.

There traditionally had been very little freight on the Reading-Taunton line, but as the large quarries developed around Frome then Westbury became a centre, especially for block trains to London. A good number of Class 56 would have been allocated to this work at the time.

Bristol to Portsmouth trains would have been Class 33 by then, some with Mk 1 stock, others with spare 4TC units. I can't recall if Hampshire demus were still getting through to Bristol at the time, but I think not. Services only as far as Salisbury, as well as Weymouth trains, would be Western dmu. Crews were commonly changed at Westbury, which had long been a significant WR depot. The dmus would be a mixture of the Gloucester cross-country units (119), the Swindon units (120), and the Derby suburban units (116) from Bristol St Philips depot. Unfortunately Bristol had always had a habit of allocating sets somewhat indiscriminately, a suburban unit would be on Weymouth turns while a cross country unit would spend the day on Severn Beach. This was true also of the Taunton to Bristol, and Minehead branch, services. There were also some Pressed Steel single units used in multiple. The Maiden Newton-Bridport branch used these, and the crews for this came from Westbury depot and thus spent nearly half their shift travelling on the cushions to and fro.

Some Weymouth services in summer had always changed over to loco hauled, mainly Class 31 by this time; they used to be Hymeks. In the winter they were all dmu.

The original line through Westbury was the Wilts Somerset & Weymouth, from Chippenham to Weymouth. It wasn't until 1906 that the line from Reading was opened. This joined just east of the station by a tight curve, and the non-stop expresses, especially on summer Saturdays, were quite a nuisance, so in the 1930s the Westbury Avoider was built. This is the line that passes south of the station, and over (not under) the road. It's quite a lengthy stretch of line, several miles between the end junctions. It's completion allowed the Cornish Riviera to be speeded up, nonstop from Paddington to Plymouth, from 4 hours 7 minutes to the even 4 hours. I've never actually noticed that trains on it were visible from the station. Indicative of how far out of town the station is, it passes between the station and the built up area. For a long time most of the expresses to the West were nonstop between Reading and Taunton, it's only since the 1960s that there has been more than odd stops at places like Newbury, Westbury, or (most notably) Castle Cary.

 

[Raspberry_Horn]

Thanks all, interesting stuff - so Westbury had a depot? I don't recall seeing that, all I remember is bagging numbers from that platform, plus companions venturing out to identify what was going past on that avoider line!

 

[Raspberry_Horn]

On the subject of 56s, I'm sort of curious on these, as I do remember seeing them somewhere that year, but in hindsight not clear where - so they'd have been regulars here?

 

[Ash Bridge]

On the subject of 56s, I'm sort of curious on these, as I do remember seeing them somewhere that year, but in hindsight not clear where - so they'd have been regulars here?

I'm pretty certain the 56s were the main heavy hauler on the aggregate trains until the Foster Yeoman 59s arrived on the scene around 1986.

 

[randyrippley]

I'm pretty certain the 56s were the main heavy hauler on the aggregate trains until the Foster Yeoman 59s arrived on the scene around 1986.

the 56's were the desperation attempt at moving the stone trains as nothing else could cope following the scrapping of the Westerns. Peaks and 47's were tried but couldn't handle the loads.

 

[Taunton]

Thanks all, interesting stuff - so Westbury had a depot? I don't recall seeing that

The shed closed with the end of steam, 82D for WR aficionados, it was west of the station, on the south side of the line at the junction of the Salisbury and Taunton lines. If you were going to bunk it ( ) there was a long footpath from the far west end of the station approach road. Once steam finished the land rapidly returned to weeds and scrub, the diesels were just sat in various sidings. I don't recall if a fuel point was provided but I think it likely was, especially with the limited fuel tanks of the WR hydraulics (half the space between the bogies was taken up with boiler water tanks). However the significant crew depot remained. As the stone trains built up in the 1970s it became increasingly important.

The shed was a long way from the next nearest, and so covered a wide area; already mentioned was that they crewed the Maiden Newton-Bridport branch to the end. They also provided locos for the 1950s filming of "The Titfield Thunderbolt", which took place on the old Limpley Stoke-Camerton branch; although that was also quite a distance away in the opposite direction 82D was still the nearest shed. Several Westbury depot crew actually appeared in the film, and were given speaking parts, thus earning them names in the film credits.