European Railroad Discussion > Harbury Update

Just checked the Network Rail website and they are suggesting that the line through Harbury Cutting is unlikely to open before Easter(!). Apparently the slip has still not stopped moving, which can't have been helped by several hours of heavy rain on Monday morning :-(

One of the trains impacted by the slip is the M-F 6M50, a departmental working handled by Colas which connects Network Rail's VQ (Virtual Quarry) at Westbury in Wiltshire with Hinksey (Oxford) and the VQ at Bescot (Birmingham). At the moment it turns left, off the line severed by the landslip, at Wolvercote Junction north of Oxford, and follows the route of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton (OW&W) - now known as the Cotswold Line, but what used to be dubbed the Old Worse and Worse - via Moreton-in-Marsh, Evesham, Worcester (Shrub Hill) and Droitwich. It's the only freight train which is routed over the OW&W, at least as far as Worcester, and to add to the attractiveness there are at least five mechanical signal boxes en-route complete with semaphore signals. As I said earlier the weather on Monday was pretty grim but that didn't deter me from getting a shot of 6M50 speeding through Moreton-in-Marsh behind 70806. The broad gauge origins of the OW&W are very evident from the photograph.

Tuesday was a much nicer day, I spent the morning in and around Wootton Bassett, just west of Marlborough, where we were staying with my parents in law. This second picture shows the aftermath of an earlier cutting slip, at Brinkworth on the former GWR Badminton line. Presumably Harbury will look similar when work is complete.

This is another line which has suffered from more than its fair share of geological problems, the most notable being the perennial flooding of the 2.5 mile long Chipping Sodbury Tunnel opened in 1903. The GWR, British Rail and Network Rail have all grappled with the problems caused by the tunnel cutting through a major aquifer, most recently Network Rail has spent $4.5m on a new drainage scheme.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/15 07:39 by 86235.

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Moreton In Marsh was a signalbox that several people recommended. I rode the First Great Western 1P73 down from Worcester Shrub Hill to see it. The guard and I had a nice discussion about signalling and signalboxes and both of us agreed that the hooded signals that are showing up everywhere in here in the US are still better then the newest LED square all in one things that were starting to show up in the UK. Would like to have talked to that guy longer but only had a few minutes to spare at that point in the trip.
1) 1P73 as seen from the station footbridge.
2-3) Moreton In Marsh signalbox.

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It took me a couple attempts to figure out where you were standing. I then realized that I was looking at the back of the up starter?
4) I guess this would be the Up Starter for Moreton In Marsh, pulled off for the First Great Western 2E95 that I would take back north to Worcester.
5) 2E95 passing Moreton In Marsh signalbox.
6) 2E95 at Moreton In Marsh.
These are all from Wednesday 6th August 2014.

It would be neat to see some extra stuff go through here and Worcester.

Jim

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