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Above: 'River
deep, mountain high'. Mike Hodgson from the club's Yorkshire
area stands at the top of a zig-zag railway
incline that used to be part of the Penwyllt
Quarry line system at grid reference SN 871168.
From this viewpoint, walkers can look down on to the
abandoned trackbed of the former Neath & Brecon Railway.
This location is about as remote as it is possible
to get on an old railway, situated in the Brecon Beacons about
a mile east of the A4067 Swansea-Brecon road, north of Pen-y-Cae.
Autumn 2007. (Richard Lewis)
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Left: For
two weekends in October 2009, the Bluebell Railway provided
public access at East Grinstead to Imberhorne Viaduct and
the trackbed heading south towards Kingscote. Within a
few years, steam trains will run here
again – at least, soon after Imberhorne Tip has
been cleared. The tip is the major obstruction to the re-opening
and, of course, is where the trackbed walks stopped. It
seemed rather odd to buy a platform ticket for a station
that wasn't there yet! 10th October 2009. (Jeff Vinter
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Above: The
views of the viaduct from the trackbed were not impressive, since
the parapets are about 8 ft. high and cast deep shadows in the
bright autumn sunshine which made for photographs with very unhappy
levels of contrast. Accordingly, retreat was made to the streets
of
East Grinstead, where this view of the viaduct was obtained from
Garden Wood Road, looking west. 10th October 2009. (Jeff Vinter) |
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Above: Imberhorne
Viaduct is 93 ft. high and consists of nine arches that cross
a small Wealden valley just south of the still operational East
Grinstead
station, now the terminus of what is effectively a branch line
from Hurst Green. Opened as part of the line from East Grinstead
to Lewes in 1882, the
viaduct survived
the closure of this cross-country link in 1958, and was used
for many years to accommodate a headshunt
by which diesel electric multiple units were switched from the
down to the up platform.. This is another view from Garden Wood
Road, again facing west. 10th October 2009. (Jeff Vinter) |
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Above: Imberhorne
Viaduct, looking east along Garden Wood Road. The brick piers
contain vertical drains which take away surface water.
The Bluebell Railway will use at least one of these to harvest
rainwater, which will be pumped back to a water tower at track
level from which locomotive boilers can be re-filled. Presumably,
the water will require filtering. 10th October 2009. (Jeff Vinter) |
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Above: The
West Somerset Mineral Railway linked various
iron ore mines on
the Brendon Hills with the port of Watchet on the Bristol Channel.
The trackbed includes this dramatic cutting between the foot
of Comberow Incline and Roadwater. The trackbed here is a permissive
footpath,
accessible from the Roadwater (i.e. north) end. For further photographs
of this little known line, see Photo Gallery
Group 10.
January 2009. (Simon Jones) |
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Above: There
is an unusual occupation bridge part way down the WSMR's Comberow
Incline at grid reference ST 025347; it is accessible via a bridleway
from the B3224 that starts on Brendon Hill at ST 027343. The
bridge is unusual in that its arches are of different sizes,
while the
stonework on both sides is different also. For further details,
see the next caption. January 2009. (Simon Jones) |
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Above: This
is the other side of the occupation bridge seen above. The photographer
notes that this side has 'rusticated sandstone dressing
blocks (the smaller rusticated
retainer to the right has a bench mark incised in one of the
blocks), yet the other side lacks all signs of rusticated dressing
except for a single voisoir used as the key stone – there
is another buried in the wall to the bottom left.' January 2009.
(Simon Jones) |