Thetownend.com

Hey, Does anybody know if the construction of the Stratton Bank roof is still going ahead?. Haven't heard anything on the subject for a good 2 months. Last I heard was that they had drilled into the bank to see what was underneath it and they said an update of what will happen next will be announced the following week. But nothing has been said since!. I'm thinking maybe they have had the usual problems with planning permission? or maybe they have knocked it on the head seeing that it is now likely we will be staying in League 1 and not moving up to the Championship. Anyone have any news? Cheers

Simon's back  :)

Sure some of the trust bods on here will know

What is this? I don't understand it.

From the last Trust meeting, we've had 2 survey's, one to make sure that there is nothing under the SB to stop us putting a roof up (there isn't), and we've recently had another survey so find out about the groundwork costs. Once we receive details about that, we should have an estimate how much this is all going to cost, even though it will have to go out to tender.

We've still got to finalise the plans to go and get planning permission from the council for the roof.

We have certainly not 'knocked it on the head'. Unfortunately it all takes time.

There's probably evidence of some stone age settlement or a rare species of earthworm that will render the entire CG to be closed  and we'll end up ground sharing with the 82ers

There are nearer grounds...

The ground that shall not speak its name

Cheers for the info

And great crested Newts

Not seen any crested ones, but many pissedasa's

They are the bane of my bloody life - and they are not even that rare in this country!

Seconded

Id also add bats, reptiles, native crayfish, dormouse, water voles, slow worms, badgers, ground nesting birds, migrating birds..... The list goes on. Can't imagine many are living under the SB though.

 My guess would be that under the Bank, would be a load of railway clinker, that acts as hardcore....

In the late 70's , i was a tyre fitter for NTS  on Marshgate.
Spent many a time repairing tyres of the loading shovels that were loading "clinker" from the graveyard.
Roughly where Sainsburys at Mannington is now.
Sorry for the ramblings but "clinker" was used for building blocks and the firm that did the extraction was from Chesterfield,Colas.
For a decent hardcore,go for a type 1 or scalpings.(blown granite)

Where the clinker mountain was that you mention, legend had it that Brunel's original Broad Gauge locos, were indeed laying at rest in their graveyard.  Sadly when it was cleared in the late 80's, there was nothing.

I always associate clinkers with the leftovers from an ass-wipe

To my knowledge,they ended up in Barry and cut up for scrap.

Not sure the Broad Gauge stuff ended up in Barry....certainly a lot of post Beeching locos did.

At first some Broad Gauge stuff was kept in The Works for preservation, but due to lack of space etc it was cut up, and recycled, a fate I suspect shared by the other beasts.  North Star, of which there is a replica in the Museum, apparently has some original material.

Pretty sure no broad gauge stuff ever went to Barry, think it was all scrapped at swindon - must have been a logistical challenge to get it there before they changed the gauge!

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/swindonlocal/3943997607/

It is correct that both Lord of the Isles and North Star were preserved at swindon works until 1906 but apparently they needed the space so they were scrapped.

Yeah 200+ locomotives went to Barry in the 60's and vast majority were rescued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_locomotives_saved_from_Woodham_Brothers_scrapyard

 Loving the Broad Gauge pic....how strange must it have been to have to accept that although our gauge was better, it would have to be sacrificed in the national interest...

My great grandfather completed his apprenticeship at the Works in 1892, the same year I believe that Broad Guage was abandoned. He never fully recovered.

At least he'd have been able to call on the services of the Great Western Railway Medical Fund Society, to help him with his trauma....a kind of forerunner of the NHS funded by workers contributions. 

Although they were more concerned with patching up workers who'd been injured in the Works.....when the Hospital in Faringdon Road was nationalised in 1947, by the incoming Labour government, the fear was it couldn't be as good.

 ??? I thought we had a trainspotters thread on here  ???