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.
Archive steam shots from the early 60s using a hopeless camera (a bad workman always blames his tools). I used to belong to the Bristol Locomotive Society and went all over England, but mainly 'up north' and the (east) Midlands, on Sundays, searching for steam. The pictures get progressively worse but it was grim and grimy at the end of the Industrial Revolution. The 'WD' at Hullavington, for example, just looks like a grey blur but the top of the signalbox and the larches are in focus! More to come (you'll be pleased to know!) .....
We used to cycle to Hullavington from Chippenham to see the more exotic engines (Britannias, WDs) to be found on the South Wales line. The named trains (Capitals United, Red Dragon, South Wales Pullman etc) caused some excitement as they would often be pulled by Kings and were occasionally double-headed which was something rarely seen on the Bristol line. Hullavington was a lovely country station, surrounded by larches, with a signalbox, sidings and coal yard.
On one occasion, I was standing on the down platform when the signalman came tearing out of his signalbox to tell me to get off the platform. Apparently my bright red shirt could have been taken by a driver to be a red flag indicating that trains must stop. I spent the rest of the day either on the footbridge or in the waiting room. Lucky in a way as I 'acquired' a collection of luggage labels I found there - see some examples below.
The archive below was inherited from my great uncle, Charlie Barnes, via his daughter (a great cousin?). Charlie was a driver on the LNER, working on north London local services. I don't know how many of the pictures are his own, certainly some are as he is pictured in a few. Only a small number have captions, which I have repeated; most 'captions' therefore are from my research into the identity and home (shed) of the engines pictured. The title picture shows an unidentified 0-6-4 tank engine at the head of a local (probably) passenger service at an unknown station (I would guess somewhere 'up north').
In the early 60s, the home shed of this Stanier 2-6-4, 42553, was York
A Fowler 'Patriot' working hard with a freight train consisting of vans. Such trains were often 'banana' or 'fish' specials.
This photo did have a caption: 'LMS 4F 44431 at Howden Clough (Sheffield) on 2nd September 1961 with the12:20 (SO) Yarmouth Vauxhall - Bradford Exchange train'
This is another photo with an original caption: 'Ivatt 2-6-0 no. 43044 with an up freight at Calverley and Rodley (Leeds) on 11th September 1964'. 43044 was a Stourton (55B) engine.
The Forth Bridge (completed 1890) seen here in the late 50s/early 60s
Midland 4F 44467 (of 55B, Stourton) with reporting/headcode 1X24 on the RCTS/SLS North Eastern Railtour which took place between 27th September and 1st October 1963. The station is (at present) unknown.
A typical Great Central scene showing York K1 62009 with a mixed freight at an unknown station
A Jubilee, possibly 45654 Hood (of 41C, Millhouses) with train reporting no. 1X51 passes an enormous marshalling yard
A 'Black 5' 4-6-0 with a mixed parcels/freight train passes substantial sidings of coaches and vans
Stratford (30A) J15 0-6-0 (introduced in 1883!) 65464 probably on duty as a station pilot
Seance on a wet afternoon. Ivatt 2-6-2T 41273 (a Manningham, 55F engine) awaits the 'right away' at... Bradford Forster Square (possibly)
York engines J72 0-6-0T 68736 and 'Jinty' 0-6-0T 47436 on duty at York Station
No engines can be identified in this summer scene. Clearly, there is a Midland preponderance but the remoteness would perhaps indicate Scotland?
Aha... here are those buildings again with Swindon Standard Class 5 no. 73001 passing at the head of a passenger train. There is a 'high level' line in the background suggesting that this is Templecombe on the Somerset & Dorset.
Talking of Scotland, here we see Drummond Caledonian 0-6-0s 57679 and 57264 on shed at Stirling (Lanarkshire)
Almost in Scotland... here we see Tweedmouth (Berwick-upon-Tweed) J39 no. 64925 with a local train
Doncaster A2 no. 60533 'Happy Knight' - one of four A2s rebuilt with double blast pipe and multiple valve regulator
J37 0-6-0 with a local coal train. All these engines were allocated to Scottish sheds.
St Margaret's (Edinburgh) J35 no. 64515 with another local coal train. This engine was withdrawn from service in 1961.
Hull Dairycotes K3 2-6-0 no. 61901 at Ardsley
Ardsley K3 2-6-0 no. 61975
Leeds (Holbeck) Britannia no. 70053 'Moray Firth' enters an unknown station with a long passenger train
LMS Ivatt Class 4 (high running board and typical tender) with a train of vans possibly running through Skipton (Whitakers Ltd advertising)
Banbury 9F no. 92214 with a train of open goods wagons
Looks like these goods wagons have come a cropper somewhere up north
Sowerby Bridge Fairburn 2-6-4T no. 42150 passes a power station with a local passenger train
Another seance on a wet afternoon. The title picture again showing more of the station.
Doncaster A1 no. 60122 Curlew speeds through open country with an express passenger train
Bletchley 7F 0-8-0 49443 at Leighton Buzzard
Royston (Barnsley) Stanier 2-6-2 tank no. 40181
Leeds (Holbeck) Fowler 2-6-4T no. 42408
Midland 4-4-0 no 40637 allocated to Corkerhill (Glasgow), withdrawn from service in 1961
Leeds Holbeck (1961) or Ardsley (1962) A3 no. 60070 Gladiateur
Huddersfield Standard Class 5 4-6-0 no. 73166 somewhere on the Western Region (note the signal), possibly on the S&D as I 'copped' it
A B1 4-6-0 hauling a passenger train out of a northern town (probably! See new council housing at right)
A Jubilee in quarrying country (note the tower and buckets?)
A double-header! A Midland 4F 0-6-0 and Jubilee await the 'right away' at an unknown (big!) station.
Canklow (Rotherham) 1F 0-6-0T no.41875 on shed. I've been there!
Goole or Farnley (Yorkshire anyway!) 0-6-0T no. 47581 with a J39 0-6-0
This photo had a caption... Stanier Pacific no. 46205 Princess Victoria at Low Gill (then Westmorland, now Cumbria) on 6th August 1960 with the 10.5 am Glasgow - Birmingham
Probably a Peppercorn A1 4-6-2 Pacific in open country
Nice landscape - no idea about the engine or the line
Difficult to make out but this looks like Blaydon (52C) K1 no 62006 with a local train. Reader Niall Jordan says: "K1, No.62006, is on an Alnmouth to Alnwick service. Most probably the bridge at Greenrigg. Certainly looks like it was in 1966".
Looks like this shot was taken from a passing train. It shows LNER A3 Pacific no. 88 'Book Law' which became BR no. 60088. The photo has the caption: "1948 Book Law - York N.B. gantry"
This photo has a caption 'Stanier 2-6-4T no. 42613 assisting Standard 9F at Shap Wells 29-7-61 with a down express'
Taken on the same day as the last photo, this shot also has a caption '46236 Shap Wells 27-7-61 Down Lakes Express'. 46236 is/was 'City of Bradford' and the 'Lakes Express' ran from Euston to Windemere, Keswick and Workington.
Same engine/train as the last shot, just a frame or two further on
This photo's caption is: '42739 Cumnock 14-4-64 up freight'. 42739, a Hughes 'Crab' was a Hurlford (67B) engine.
D49 4-4-0 62759 was withdrawn before 1961
Grantham A3 no. 60046 Diamond Jubilee running along the main line in open country
Thornaby (51L) or Ardsley (56B) L1 2-6-4T no. 67766 with a local train. Reader Niall Jordon says: "Class L1, 67766, is standing on the Esk Valley platform, at Grosmont Station heading towards Battersby. So shed is Thornaby."
Skipton (24G) 'Jinty' 0-6-0T no. 47427
Two LNER tanks (the far one is a J50) at a marshalling yard 'somewhere' in eastern England (probably)
Hull (Dairycoates) V3 2-6-4T no. 67640 with a local train. Note the wooden platforms and the loading gauge beyond the smokebox.
Caledonian 3P 4-4-0 no. 54470
J36 0-6-0 no. 64571 at Polmont (65K) shed
GNR 2-6-0 no. 1001 which, I believe, became LNER class K2 at an unknown shed
GNR Gresley N2 class 0-6-2T no. 1765
GNR Gresley A1 4-6-2 Pacific no. 1471 undergoing steam trials in the 1930s (more research required - watch this space)
The same engine - GNR A1 no. 1471 now on shed
A Stirling Single in an unknown 'works'
That Stirling Single again
GNR J17 0-6-0ST no. 909 which became LNER class J56
Stephenson GNR J13 0-6-0ST no. 1204 which became LNER class J52
GNR Stirling G2 0-4-4T no. 767 at Kings Cross. This was the only engine of the class that 'survived' into LNER ownership which came about on the creation of the 'Big Four' railway companies in 1923. (One assumes therefore that this photo is pre-1923).
Gresley GNR K1 2-6-0 no. 1668 and J6 0-6-0 no. 905 (I believe) on shed
Stirling GNR 766 Class 0-4-4T no. 931, built Doncaster 1892 and fitted with condensing equipment for working to Moorgate (see the steam pipe running from smokebox to tank). None survived into LNER (1923) ownership so photo must be pre-1923.
GNR Gresley H4 2-6-0 no. 1001 on shed. This GNR class became LNER class K3.
1001 again, presumably taken on the same day
This 0-6-0ST is, I believe, a GNR class M3 engine which became LNER class J54. I have found a copy of this photo on the Internet which leaves me to doubt the provenance of this image.
This photo has the caption: L.N.E.R. (G.N.) 4-4-2 3274 Kings Cross 24.5.27 (in rather stylish script)
The two photos in the gallery below show Charlie Barnes alongside, and in the cab of, 'his' LNER J52/53 0-6-0ST no. 4274, presumably at Kings Cross
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