# Cheltenham Trains - Gloucestershire - April 2018



## Gromr (Apr 21, 2018)

Spotted this one on maps, seemed worth a little look as we were in the area for the weekend. 

*History*

To be honest, I don't have a clue why these are all here. I would assume they are old stock that they are still keeping as assets as some had asset numbers on them, but will probably be scraped eventually. Judging from the dates written on the carriages I would guess they have been there since the mid 90s. 


*The Explore*

A nice relaxing walk, until it starting raining...
They are pretty clean, not much graffiti, which is refreshing.



*Photos*


----------



## stu8fish (Apr 21, 2018)

Very nice.


----------



## Dirus_Strictus (Apr 21, 2018)

Presumably these belong/belonged to some private individual or society. All depends on who owns the tunnel and its present connections (or not) to the operating rail system - Many people purchased redundant rolling stock with very good intent and then found out eventually that their bit of track became completely cut off from the working tracks. Nothing really special in there; the cranes are not valuable enough to extract and the rest is just scrap iron, with the tank wagon(s) being a potential health/environmental risk.


----------



## Sam Haltin (Apr 21, 2018)

It looks like these are marked as condemned. Probably of no use at all, maybe a heritage railway could use some of them for their own track maintenance. Picture 8 shows a date on the side of the wagon which is when its due for maintenance on 21-10-95 and the code of the maintenance depot of 40307, but the wagon never got there.


----------



## UrbandonedTeam (Apr 21, 2018)

Great shots mate


----------



## Potter (Apr 22, 2018)

I like this. It's something a bit different.


----------



## Dirus_Strictus (Apr 22, 2018)

Hugh Jorgan;352610Picture 8 shows a date on the side of the wagon which is when its due for maintenance on 21-10-95 and the code of the maintenance depot of 40307 said:


> It made it - all least to the inspection sidings, where it was condemned for revenue service but added to the CE internal fleet because of its good condition. Most of these 16 Ton mineral wagons were designed for tippler operations and thus could be used in the carrying of coal also, but lack of continuous through braking soon made many of the older ones redundant and thus only used for internal traffic. The advent of the HAA wagon for the 'Merry - Go - Round' system of coal delivery to the new Mega Watt Power Stations soon meant there was a glut of scrap 16 Ton wagons. The 32 Ton HAA was supposedly designed to allow year round delivery of coal from pit to power station furnace in a none stop system, with no coal stored on the ground at power stations. Thank God there was storage space for ground stocks at these new stations, because the system was an abject failure in sub zero winter temperatures. It was quite a sight to see a 16 ton block of frozen coal fall out of an inverted wagon on the tipper, but at least the coal was discharged and broke up as it hit the tippler hopper. Fast forward to the 70's and the 80's and I was spending my summer months at High Marnham power station; where the CEGB had built a huge freezer to take a loaded HAA wagon and subject it to winter conditions, trying to discharge frozen loads from HAA wagons. Yes the Committee designed HAA was an abject failure, the load froze up in zero temperatures so that the hopper doors would not open and the load would not discharge. Sadly the innovative door operating mechanism was the root cause of this failure - good idea on paper, utter failure in bloody winter. We tried all things - spraying with anti freeze, none-stick coatings in the wagon interior surfaces etc. The problem was that the mechanical mining method produced a product that had a very small sieve size - no large lumps like in the old days - just what my Dad Called 'slack' and played hell with the coal man if he delivered more than a handful down the cellar shoot! And why the tests in summer? In winter the power station hopper staff were doing all they could to discharge coal and feed the hoppers to keep the station operating. Very close run thing one severe winter for the Trent Stations; happy days!


----------



## Electric (Apr 23, 2018)

Great photos Gromr. Nice to see trains crop up again.
And, fascinating read Hugh and Dirus.

Every heritage railway has its condemmed or decaying rolling stock, with more or less of it tucked away in sidings (or conveniently hidden in a tunnel) depending on the size of the railway. Nowadays, some heritage railways have real problems with a shortage of siding space and a surplus of stock that can't be put to revenue earning service.


----------



## jhluxton (Apr 23, 2018)

GLoucester & Warwickshire Railway stock by the look of it.

John


----------



## HughieD (Apr 23, 2018)

Some lovely pics there and some very informative commentary from Dirus.


----------



## prettyvacant71 (Apr 26, 2018)

This looks very nice Grom...hope you don't get any phone calls about trespassing on the railways


----------

