Disused Stations: Grange Court Junction

Grange Court Junction: Gallery 2
Before 1935 - c1950

A pre 1935 view from the Down South Wales platform and looking towards Gloucester. The camera angle offers a better idea of the layout of the shelter on the island platform with bench seating visible. Obviously priority was given to those waiting for trains on the Up South Wales line, with those awaiting trains for Ross and Hereford having to make do with little more than a shallow canopy. The station lamps had the usual lamp tablets but the wording on them cannot be determined; the station name was perhaps abbreviated as the full title would have been a difficult fit. Also conspicuous by absence is platform numbering although one would assume the footbridge was fitted with signage information intending passengers which platform they required. The dark rectangle on the platform face, left, is thought to have been a boundary marker of the two original railway companies and presumably this was not the only such marker on the station.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection

This view shows the South Wales line curving away on the left and the Hereford line doing the same on the right. The vantage point would have been the road bridge. Visible is the second West signal box, in use from May 1896 until 17 April 1935. The original West 'box can be seen in one of the 1872 photographs. The factory in the background was originally the Albion Carriage & Wagon Works. To the right of the factory stands a goods van; a siding curved sharply away behind the signal box, the points being just visible behind and to the left of the 'box, and wound its way around the north side of the factory. It does however appear that a hut with catslide roof obstructs the siding but this may be an illusion. Alongside the Hereford line opposite the signal box is a token collector, this marking the end of the single track section from Longhope. Nearer the camera, right of centre and adjacent to the point rodding stand what appears to be the remains of a Disc & Crossbar signal (see the 1872 photograph of this location). All other signals visible appear to be new and that includes the guy wire from the signal on the right. To modern eyes the positions of some of the signals may seem rather odd and especially that of the nearest signal on the left and the branch signal beyond and to the right of the 'box.. The reason was to allow for track curvature and the fact GWR locomotives were righthand drive. The driver of a train approaching from the Chepstow direction would therefore be able to clearly see the signal on the left. For trains coming in from the Hereford direction, signal positioning was what we would today call conventional. It was part of the fireman's job to aid the driver by checking signals and in this case while both Outer and Inner Home signals may be 'Off' trains approached under caution by virtue of Fixed Distant signals as seen here. In addition there was another Fixed Distant signal at Church Lane level crossing, situated in the right background. By the time the Hereford line closed its signalling had been somewhat simplified.
Photo from John Mann collection

Looking along the station towards Gloucester, probably taken at the same time as that showing the second West signal box. The Grotesques adorning the edges of the platform canopies appear to all be intact, unlike in later years. The canopy of the Up Hereford platform, far left, was never so adorned being provided later and to a different style. The wide spacing between the tracks of the South Wales line, right, is a legacy of the broad gauge or more precisely a legacy of the conversion to standard gauge. The Hereford line tracks, left, have a standard 'Six Foot' as the Up line and platform were not provided until after gauge conversion.

Photo from John Mann collection

A line-up of staff photographed in the final years of the Great Western Railway and going from those not wearing railway uniform it is sometime in the 1930s. The group are standing on the island platform and the ramp of the Up Hereford platform is visible at far right. Behind the group and against the bridge once stood the original West signal box. From left is Les Cleveland and then stationmaster Thomas Kirk. Next to him, cigarette in hand, is Mr Farr who was a clerk as was probably also Mr Cleveland hence the non uniform attire. The identity of the remaining three is not known although fourth from left is a porter while fifth from left appears to be wearing the uniform of signalman. The attire of the final man, right, may suggest he was involved with goods traffic.
Photo from John Mann collection

The West signal box which, like East, existed between 1896 and 1935, standing in the 'V' formed by the parting of the Hereford and South Wales lines. The 'box fronted onto the South Wales line and we are therefore here looking at the rear of the 'box. The odd position of the nameboard was due to the presence of the chimney breast. There would have been another board on the front of the 'box, more centrally positioned. The track in the foreground is the Down Hereford loop while that beyond is the siding which ran parallel to the Hereford line. Another siding can be seen branching off; this ran towards the one-time Albion Carriage & Wagon Works and joined another siding in front of the 'box. The layout was therefore an inverted 'Y' and could be used as a reversing siding or as a means of moving between the Down Hereford and Up South Wales line. It of course also gave access to the works private siding.
Photo from obsolete Grange Court Junction web site (2004 - 2012)

The Grange Court - Longhope single line token. This is a Tyers No. 9 type and the key end is in the holder's hand. At Longhope the token would be handed to the signalman who would insert it into the token instrument in the signal box. This would then unlock the token for the next section, to Mitcheldean Road, which he handed to the driver as authority to proceed. If this latter token was not present this meant it was on a train coming in the opposite direction, therefore authority to proceed could not be given until the train in the opposite direction had cleared the single line and the token handed to the signalman. By this means head-on collisions on single track lines were avoided. In practice there was rather more to it but this simplified explanation suffices,
Photo from obsolete Grange Court Junction web site (2004 - 2012)

The second East signal box which existed between 1896 and 1935. It contained a 39-lever frame and was a GWR type 5 'box. The previous East 'box had stood on the Down side of the line, this replacement was on the Up side. The reason for 'changing sides' appears to have been to allow alterations to the goods yard. In this view the camera is facing north across the running lines.
Photo from obsolete Grange Court Junction web site (2004 - 2012)

Taken on a damp day believed in 1935, Christmas trees are here seen being loaded into goods vans. The closed doors of the visible vans suggests either already loaded or the doors were about to be flung open for loading, the scene being fairly obviously deliberately posed. Note the scales on a trolley; Grange Court goods yard, such as it was, had no goods shed so the scales had either been trundled over from the station or were kept in a hut within the goods yard.
Photo from Jim Lake collection

WD (War Department) 2-8-0, also known as the 'Austerity 2-8-0', No. 90685 clanks through Grange Court with coal empties bound for South Wales. The motion of these locomotives really did clank and they became famous for this trait. Designed by Robert Riddles for the Ministry of Supply these locomotives were intended to be relatively simple and therefore cheap to construct and maintain which indeed they were. A total of 935 were built of which all bar three saw service abroad after D-Day. After the war some became the property of various foreign railways including as far away as the Kowloon - Canton Railway which took twelve examples. No less than 733 examples ended up with British Railways, the final examples not bowing out until September 1967. In Britain just one example survives. This had ended up with Statens Järnvägar (Swedish State Railways, commonly known simply as 'SJ') and became part of that country's Strategic Reserve until 1972. As SJ No. 1931 she was returned to Britain in 1973 and a start made to re-Anglicise her as she had been modified to suit Swedish requirements. Usually to be found on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, her home since returning from Sweden, she now carries the might-have-been sequential BR number 90733. No. 90685 was new ex Vulcan Foundry in November 1944. Originally allocated number 9224 she became No. 79224 as the numbers of all those due to serve abroad were given the '7' prefix. The BR number was applied in January 1949 and she survived until November 1964.
Photo from John Mann collection

Looking towards Gloucester from the west end of the Down South Wales platform and an interesting comparison with a similar pre 1935 view. At upper right one of the banner repeater signals is visible through the gap beneath the footbridge roof, telling us the photograph is no earlier than 1947. By 1956 the white platform edges had been repainted, therefore the photograph is no later than that year.

Photo from obsolete Grange Court Junction web site (2004 - 2012)

On an unknown date sometime in the early British Railways period an unidentified 'Large Prairie' Tank approaches Grange Court station on the Hereford Line. The photograph was possible taken using a zoom lens as the curvature of the Hereford line appears rather more pronounced at this point than it actually was. At this time Hereford line regular trains typically were formed of three passenger carriages and, often, a full brake or some other form of van. This particular train has had an additional Brake Second attached. Perhaps it was market day at either Hereford or Ross-on-Wye. There is much industriousness in the background on the site of what was once the Albion Carriage & Wagon Works and there appears to be a crane present, background left of centre.
Photo from obsolete Grange Court Junction web site (2004 - 2012)

A staff line-up from the 1950s, photographed on the Down South Wales platform in front of the main station building. From left to right are Tom Middlecote (grade uncertain but probably a clerk going by his non uniform attire), Dennis Leach (junior clerk), Charles Lewis (stationmaster and unusually without cap), Albert King (clerk), Victor Millin (junior porter), Herbert Phipps (porter), Clarence Claridge (signalman). Mr Claridge appeared in a number of photographs and his distinctive appearance makes him instantly recognisable.

Photo from obsolete Grange Court Junction web site (2004 - 2012)

Click here for Grange Court Junction: Gallery 3
1953 - c1961

[Source: Darren Kitson]

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Station Name: GRANGE COURT JUNCTION