Welcome to the Rudloe and environs website.
Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.
Contributions in the form of articles or photos are welcome. Even those with completely contrary views to mine!
Thanks to the website builder 1&1 and Rob Brown for the original idea.
Rudloescene now, in January 2014, has a sister, academic rather than anarchic, website about Box history here: http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/
It contains thoroughly professional, well-researched articles about Box and its people.
Contact rudloescene through the 'Contact' page.
5th April 2025 brought about an excursion to the Bluebell Railway with mate Mike. As it happened, I let the train take the strain - Chippenham to East Grinstead via Victoria (where I met up with Mike). The Bluebell 'experience' was a bit of a shambles. Firstly, 'our' steam train had departed just minutes before the scheduled arrival of our train from Victoria - marvellous. We then had to wait an hour for the next steam departure. However, this hour turned into an hour-and-a-half as the train was delayed by a 'stuck token' (details on request). The train was then held up for quite some time by a significant lineside fire near Horsted Keynes (see pictures). The title photo shows 9F no. 92240 in a bay at Sheffield Park (engine only, no tender).
Signal Point at Swindon Station - derelict and boarded up. Network Rail 'regained' this building from Nationwide (I believe) many years ago proposing to redevelop it and the surrounding area. Nothing has come of this so an eyesore it remains.
The train shed and concourse at Paddington
Cabling at Paddington Circle/District Line underground
'Third rail' electrical power for Southern Railways electric trains
East Grinstead, the northern terminus of the Bluebell Railway
Or, on our day out, no trains
At long last our train arrives behind Bulleid Pacific 4-6-2 no. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair
As you may see, Sir Archibald Sinclair is a member of the Battle of Britain class. He was Secretary of State for Air during WWII and one of his first tasks was planning the Battle of Britain.
Members of the volunteer comms team on the railway. We got chatting to these guys during the long wait for our (and their) train.
Kingscote Station
The train arrives at Sheffield Park
The museum building (with loco works beyond) at Sheffield Park
BR Standard Class 5 no. 73082 Camelot at Horsted Keynes station
Our train arrives back at East Grinstead
Once again, I can't resist a postscript about the infernal announcements on trains and stations (but not on our blessed steam railway). "If you see something that doesn't look right..." (see the footnote to the 25th March article here 25th March 2025 article). If I heard this once, I heard it a dozen times on the journeys to/from East Grinstead. But what's so special about stations and trains? Why not go big time (or Big Brother) and have these announcements on the High Streer, in supermarkets (Sainsbury's for example, where we could nobble the store manager on each visit and ask why prices are so ridiculously high), in shopping malls, on buses, in public toilets (there's plenty that doesn't look right in there), in cinemas (half-way through the film, there could be a break with "If you see something that doesn't look right..."), in airports and on aircraft (bit too bleedin' late then), on pleasure cruises - that would be great wouldn't it... an announcement every half-hour during your Caribbean cruise... but I'm positive that in any circumstances (and without constant reminders), a passenger would be able to identify a torpedo heading towards the ship.
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