Broad Gauge Railway Question

[magpie patrick]

Being very open that this is not about canals! I was recently in a meeting where the debate was getting hung up about the exact length of canal to be delivered, and the issue of whether this was any use was in danger of getting side tracked. I recalled being told by Magpie the Elder of a situation on a railway during the broad gauge era where a length of dual gauge was agreed, and the standard gauge railway delivered on their promise of dual gauge to the exact yard, resulting in the broad gauge tracks being useless as they ended nowhere in particular,  no station, no sidings, no runround facilities.... 

 

It must have been a line connected to the GWR broad gauge, and several places down here (Chard for example) had one of each gauge serving their towns, but I can't remember where this peculiarity was, and of course I can't ask the guy who originally told me. 

 

I know some of you are at least as interested in  railways as canals, so I'm guessing someone might know?

 

Thank you all!

[1st ade]

Even further off topic - Government contracts have hung on similar issues - I recall one (which never got to court) where contractor supplied software crashed (roughly) once a day (for each of over 300 users) and the contractors' response amounted to "while we admit ..... the time to reboot the workstation is ... which means we are still within contract of 98.2% availability..."

[Heartland]

I wonder if Ian Moss was thinking of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway where the broad gauge was laid only in part although Brunel wanted it throughout as per parliamentary authority. See notes on the RCHS Railway History Forum in recent years. 

 

[magnetman]

On 01/12/2023 at 08:44, magpie patrick said:

Being very open that this is not about canals! I was recently in a meeting where the debate was getting hung up about the exact length of canal to be delivered, and the issue of whether this was any use was in danger of getting side tracked. I recalled being told by Magpie the Elder of a situation on a railway during the broad gauge era where a length of dual gauge was agreed, and the standard gauge railway delivered on their promise of dual gauge to the exact yard, resulting in the broad gauge tracks being useless as they ended nowhere in particular,  no station, no sidings, no runround facilities.... 

 

It must have been a line connected to the GWR broad gauge, and several places down here (Chard for example) had one of each gauge serving their towns, but I can't remember where this peculiarity was, and of course I can't ask the guy who originally told me. 

 

I know some of you are at least as interested in  railways as canals, so I'm guessing someone might know?

 

Thank you all!

Random guess Maidenhead to Marlow line which still exists. The Marlow Donkey. 

 

 

[Ronaldo47]

I did read of an instance where the GWR  laid an additional rail for standard gauge throughout on one of their lines,  but installed  the extra rail for the standard gauge  so that it was on the platform side at stations. This meant that goods trains could use the line, but standard gauge passenger trains could not use the stations due to the large gap between the standard gauge carriages and the platform edges.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[Captain Pegg]

4 hours ago, magnetman said:

Random guess Maidenhead to Marlow line which still exists. The Marlow Donkey. 

 

 

I doubt it. The remaining branch is a combination of the Wycombe Railway - which ran from Maidenhead to Oxford and Aylesbury via High Wycombe and Princes Risborough - and the Great Marlow Railway. Both were built to broad gauge and converted by the GWR to standard gauge.

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[BEngo]

There were all sorts of strange goings on round Glastonbury, Wells  and Shepton Mallet.  A look into the Somerset Central Railway and the various broad and narrow gauge connections might bring something to light.

 

N

[Captain Pegg]

I suspect it’ll be somewhere on the fringes. Somewhere like Yeovil, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford or Wolverhampton.

 

I’m just thinking though that if it’s in Somerset then Patrick might have remembered it.

[magpie patrick]

I think I've found it - the WSW (Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth - broad guage) were required to dual their line between Dorchester and Weymouth so that LSWR trains could reach Weymouth (avoiding Interchange and/or an expensive legal battle do build a parallel route).  The Southampton & Dorchester, the LSWR stooges in this instance (as the WSW were GWR stooges) were required to build an equivalent length of dual gauge from Dorchester towards Southampton 

 

Thanks for the replies, they did help me know where to look for the answer!