Denched at Drenchworth (1)

Denchworth is a delightfully picturesque Oxfordhire village a few miles north of Wantage. Until 1974 it used to be a delightfully picturesque Berkshire village but was summarily transferred to Oxon during boundary re-organisation which replaced Berkshire with a series of unitary authorities.

Technically the village should be called South Denchworth as the hamlet of North Denchworth is nearby.

North Denchworth was (and still is) a couple of farms and their associate residences, ignored and unloved as a community on modern maps.

It was to Denchworth that the fbb and family repaired on the Sunday of their recent Wantage visit for a top-class nosh at the village pub.

The carvery was excellent!

A tad further down the road from the Fox is the church ...

...and careful observation reveals a public footpath veering off the village lane towards and beyond said ecclesiastical edifice.

A Google aerial view further reveals that this pathway is the beginning of a series of routes south and east from the village.

The metalled road between Denchworth and Wantage was utterly disrupted by the building of Grove RAF station (opened in 1942). Denchworth is off the map top left, Grove upper right ...

... and Wantage at the bottom. This aerial view shows the extent of the facility ...

... and a modern map extract shows new development at Grove taking on the "shape" of the accommodation and admin buildings of the old base.

So back to the footpath network south and east from Denchworth village.

The westernmost track passes close to Upper Circourt Farm then crosses the Great Western main railway line, now electrified. As part of the electrification, this crossing has been provided by a shiny new footbridge.

The "centre" of the three paths ...

... has, at some stage in its recent history, been diverted onto the road ...

... across the railway and then along the track of the old road south to Wantage.

The sign on the gate suggests that the land owner wishes to discourage its use!

Thus it can be seen that two of the pathways are successfully and safely carried over the busy railway, electrified at 25,000 volts and with relatively silent (First) Great Western Railway electric trains whizzing by at anything up to 125 miles per hour.

As an upstart newcomer to the ancient history of rural England's byways, the intrusive railway has had a heavy responsibility to maintain routes across the tracks and, in so doing, ensure the safety of pedestrians - even if very few use the path nowadays!

But the comfort of bridges new or old is not available on the easternmost path, that which leads direct from Denchworth to Grove.

Of which more tomorrow.

East Lancs Railway Comical Commentary - a P S

When fbb penned his piece in yesterday's blog covering some laughable commentary on the railway programme recently broadcast on TV, he could not find the actual programme to include a few screen shots. That's because he was searching on Channel 5!

The programme was one of a series entitled Steam Train Britain.

It was transmitted on the channel "Yesterday" once known as UK TV History. UK TV is the good old Beeb (BBC) in a skin which makes the errors even more appalling.

Lord Reith would be turning in his grave ...

... at great speed!

So, here is Sophie, the wedding organiser at the East Lancs Railway, putting the headboard on the Great Central 4-6-2 locomotive ...

... and here is the decorated alcove where the bridge and groom will be wed.

Sweet.

And we must not forget the signs for Bury Street station ...

... this one filmed as the commentator announced the erroneous name!

Occasional correspondent David emailed to point out another daftness which fbb missed. Apparently coal for the Great Central locomotive was delivered on a diesel engine.

An interesting concept.

 Next Denchworth blog : Tuesday 12th November 

Weekend Assortment (2)

Don't Believe What You See On TV!

In a recently broadcast documentary, watched by fbb during the worst of his recent (and continuing) attack of the Rangoon Nadgers, much was made of the East Lancashire Railway "doing" a wedding. Obviously the televised nuptials were a huge success and everyone had a frabjous day, callooh callay!

At least one Trip Advisor wedding customer would not agree.

What went right? Not much! After the wedding we were having our photographs and were interrupted by guests who had gone to collect tickets to advise me the staff member did not have very many tickets- people that had pre booked them were found without tickets and I myself had booked five and my own was missing.

The steam train was getting quite late and I was becoming more and more stressed as we had other guests at the venue waiting for us, catering etc. the staff member then told a guest (not even myself) the train had been cancelled.

They sent a replacement almost an hour later that was a diesel train, filthy and had no separate decorated carriage for my guests. As the train was so full as one had been missed, all the guests were split up amongst the random public.

When I emailed to complain, the reply was comical. Not one ounce of customer service at all. Not even an apology or reimbursement or anything which was awful, especially with the amount of custom I have brought them. 

Reading between the lines, however, the above was about people who had booked on the railway as part of their wedding entertainment; whereas the programme was about the full works, champagne, nosh and decorated platform plus a ride on a special exclusive train.

At least four times the voice-over informed us that this all took place at Bury Street station. There is no such station anywhere on the UK network nor never there was.

One of the bits of blurb was spouted as the cameras passed by a picture of the station sign!

Then, as if to add insult to injury, viewers were told that the special wedding train would be hauled by a Great Central Railway 4-6-2 Express steam engine.

Indeed?

In pulled the East Lancs Southern Railway locomotive, distinctive to all railway enthusiasts and well recognised by less dedicated followers of ferroequinological fashion.

The Great Central Railway does have a similar locomotive, but as rebuilt by British Railways removing the "spam can" streamlining tin box - although we have to call it "air smoothed" these days.

Coming soon to a blog near you, Channel 5's "take" on the history of London's iconic routemaster bus.

Decidedly Damp on the Banks of the Don

Most places that flooded recently in South Yorkshire have always flooded; fbb remembers some incidents when he was at Uni in Sheffield 63 to 66. The railway bridge at Heeley is an old favourite.

The trouble now is that there is more stuff to get flooded, notably Meadowhall and Parkgate shopping centres, built on the banks of the River Don.

Apparently, things built very near rivers are more likely to get flooded than properties further away.

But here's is a happy-ending tale of a First Bus single decker in Rotherham.

It did not make it round the roundabout ...

... with passengers still on board.

Enter the noble lads with inflatable boat, propelled through undergrowth at the edge of the road.

Passengers safely loaded ...

... and safely deposited on dry (ish) land!

Well done all concerned; except, perhaps the First Bus driver who risked it and then wished he hadn't!

Did They Buy Too Many?

fbb has been following, with considerable interest, commercial doings in the world of model railways.

O gauge stock is almost twice the size of OO (four times the volume) and consequently much more expensive. "Rails" have offered discounts on some of their Heljan lines before, but now prices are almost ludicrously low compared with the originally advertised levels.

How about a beautifully formed diesel shunter?

Or a GWR prairie tank loco?

Or maybe a DMU parcels car.

Actually, were fbb in a financial or spacial position to upsize to "O" gauge, he rather fancies the latter in Post Office red.

Maybe as a "display" model?

Lest We Forget.

In recent years, there has been a heartening growth of poppyisation for Remembrance Sunday. Here is this year's offering from Stagecoach in Exeter.

It is good that we an reflect and remember but perhaps better is to join out hearts and minds in prayer for God's forgiveness for those who drive us to war and destruction and for Churchill's "jaw jaw not war war".

Tough call, maybe - but necessary?

A non public transport commemoration comes from the churchyard at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire.

Ghostly but powerful sculptured images as Tommys stand sentinel at the graves of the departed.

We WILL remember them.

 Next Drenching in Denchworth blog : Monday 11th November 

Weekend Assortment (1)

CAZ Bombshell (?) in Bristol

Last week, the Bristol City Cabinet approved a far reaching and dramatic plan for its city centre Clean Air proposals. The broad features of the scheme will be familiar to those who follow such plans. 

For a huge chunk of the central area of Bristol any commercial vehicle which does not come up to Euro VI emissions standards will get thumped for a fat fee of up to £100 to enter the zone at any time.

A smaller area is included south of the river.

But it would appear that within these "outer" inner areas private cars would not be charged.

However, more controversially, there is a city centre area where ALL privately owned diesel vehicles, private and commercial, will be banned between 0700 and 1500 every day. The only exceptions will be emergency vehicles, buses and taxis.

Commercial vehicles will, presumably, have already paid their charge.

Needless to say, there is considerable opprobrium about the plans.

James Freeman, boss of First Bus in the city is more realistic about the plans.

On Tuesday night Bristol City Council approved the introduction from April 2021 of a Clean Air Zone, which is one of the most radical introduced across the country so far. There are two zones.

An outer zone restricts buses, taxis, and trucks to Euro VI standard with any vehicle not meeting the standard paying up to £100 per day.

We expect that First Bus will be able to meet the standard and no fines will be due.

A second inner zone will charge drivers of all commercial diesel vehicles (except buses and taxis) to drive during the hours of 0700-1500. We are exempt from this.

Overall, this is a positive result for us and it is very necessary that something is done about the poor air quality in the City Centre.

The provisions of the inner zone are a little unclear, but one complaint already expressed with vehemence is that fold driving to hospital appointments will be fined. "That seems very unfair", suggest some councillors.

Once things settle down, it will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Whatever the result, we shall all have to get used to a new range of road signs.

The letter in the cloud symbol refers to the scope of the charge; i.e. which vehicles will have to pay. "D" is pretty much everything with a diesel engine!

A Jolly Brolly At Parkway

An unusual vending machine has appeared at Bristol Parkway station. For £3 you can buy a brolly. 

fbb knows nothing about durability and longevity of the product. As a student, and for a year or so afterwards, fbb owned a proper brolly but, sadly, the handle broke off as he was using it as an ice axe to climb the steep slopes of Sheffield as he walked to work on a particularly icy day.

Fed up with carrying it, he eventually left it deliberately at Poole Valley bus station in Brighton on a very sunny day.

It was raining when he left home! Buses no longer squeeze into Pool Valley, just the occasional National Express coach.

It Arrived on Thursday

Continuing his obsession with tank wagons, fbb's successful EBay bid for a Hornby Dublo Chlorine wagon duly arrived by post. This was part of Hornby's revolution in response to the growth of Triang. Bodies were moulded in plastic but, for most wagons, still sat on the crude all-metal chassis with solid brake gear.

For an SD6 (SD = "super detail") model the Chlorine Tank was still very crude with wire pushed through a hole on the chassis in place of properly anchored stanchions.

The filler cap area is a very crude representation of quite a complex part of the wagon in real life; but, at least, this wagon now has "open" brake gear ...

... one of the first Hornby Dublo vehicles to be so blessed. And were the brake shoes in line with the wheel treads?

Erm, no - but it was only the late 1950s.

And fbb has just discovered another manufacturer who briefly produced a UK tank wagon. Any guesses?

How Odd - and Who Cares?

This filtered through the twittersphere a few days ago. It shows a quirk of the European road signs conventions.

In countries shaded blue (as with UK) signs listing distances begin with the nearest and end with the furthest. 

But in countries shaded red, the opposite applies as per the Swedish sample above; Furthest comes first, nearest comes last. 

In these days of (enforced?) European standardisation, you wonder how the Brussels Bureaucrats have resisted the temptation to get one lot to change!

Pleeeeease don't suggest it!

Pretty Park and Ride

Occasional correspondent Peter adds a little bit of video to his Twitter site. fbb has not yet worked out how to extract such videos, so below are a couple of screenshots.

Note the ever changing coloured lighting display behind the park@ride sign.

Very festive!

 More Assortment Tomorrow : Sunday 10th November