Ledbury to Railway to Gloucester by rail Taken from David Postle’s book of the same name and is seen through the eyes of the Driver and Fireman of the last passenger train on the branch on the 11th July 1959. The driver was Jack Folley and the fireman Jim Kavanagh.

Jim checked the fire again and looked at the pressure gauge, and decided that he ought to put a little more coal on the fire. He picked up his shovel, opened the fire hole doors and placed half a dozen shovelfuls round the firebox, turned on the injector again because he knew that shortly he would be stopping at Barber’s Bridge with a minute or two in hand to gain any pressure that might be lost by putting more water into the boiler. He picked up a little hand brush and swept the coal dust from the floorboards of the cab.

‘Even when the railway was opened, no attempt was made to advertise the new service. It wasn’t until the end of August that the G.W.R. advertised a summer excursion from Cheltenham to Malvern via Newest. The line was obviously considered important by some because, in the sales particulars of property on the market at that time, the proximity to the new railway was very often stressed’

‘Did the railway look as though it might fulfil its potential’, asked Jim.

‘Early newspaper reports were very optimistic. The first five weeks saw over 2000 passengers booked at Newest and just over half that at .’

‘Talking in the early days,’ said Jim, ‘the guard told me at Ledbury that we have an elderly gentleman on board who travelled on the first train, and here he is, on the last one over the Branch.’ ‘Is that right? I suppose it just goes to show how short-lived this Branch has been.’

‘Whilst on the subject of people, did I tell you about Dick Nash?’ asked Jack.

‘ No, what about him? He was the ganger on the line, wasn’t he, between and over Junction?’

‘Yes that’s him,’ said Jack. ‘Well, just about every Friday, if we were on the pick up goods, he’d leave us three rabbits, one for me, one for my fireman and one for the guard.’

‘Did you take them home with you?’ asked Jim.

‘Oh, yes, we used to enjoy taking rabbit home and eating it.’

‘These gangers really look after you, don’t they?’ said Jim. ‘Not only do they make sure the track is safe for you to run over with your engines, they even provide you with your meals.’

‘Yes, but we do provide them with their warmth and comforts by the loss of a little coal from the tender every now and again.’

‘How many gangs look after the line?’ asked Jim.’ Two, one is responsible for the section between Over Junction and Newest, and the other for the Newest to Ledbury section. You would always see them somewhere as you travelled on the Branch. They’d be out in all weathers and they won prizes for the Best Kept Length over the years. It was a fairly common sight to see Jim Hincksman, the ganger from Ledbury, on his trolley travelling between there and Newent. A system of occupation keys existed between the Signal Boxes, and this allowed the gangers possession of the line when there were no trains about.’

Jack started to brake as soon as he saw the goods yard at Barbers Bridge on Photo - TB Owen his left hand side. ‘It’s quite a big yard, isn’t it?’ said Jim ‘for what’s basically a small Halt.’

‘I believe it was reasonably busy at one time, although in my days of the pick up goods along this branch, I’ve never really had to pick up too much at Barber’s Bridge.’

‘What sort of traffic was commonly seen in the yard?’

‘The usual livestock - cattle, horses as well as fruit, chicks, hatchling eggs and milk. It is said that one of the Stationmasters a long time ago never went short of milk for his breakfast. The churns were left on the platform and a quick trip through the doors with a ladle ensured he started the day right.’

‘What’s that big concrete ramp for, Jack?’

‘They built that when they were moving pitch from here. Oil used to come up the Severn for refining and the residue pitch was sent to Barber’s Bridge for dispatch, mainly to Cardiff and the North of . They built the ramp so that the lorries could tip the pitch straight into the wagons. I think they shifted some 1500 tons a year.’

‘Was the crane for timber?’

‘Yes, quite a lot of it was elm for coffins. Fertilisers were also brought in, some being collected by farmers and some delivered by a lorry from Gloucester.’

The train pulled into the platform and several people got out including the local Leadon Valley Skiffle Group and the mourners who had travelled to Ledbury on the last train. The skiffle group had played in the guards van during the trip and at Ledbury Station whilst waiting for the return train. One of the ‘official’ mourners had dashed out at every station with a tape measure to obtain the correct dimensions for any coffins he thought of making. The wreath and inscription which was placed on the engine at Ledbury had been brought by the Barber’s Bridge contingent as well as ample supplies of drink and food hampers which took up valuable room in the guard’s van. However this luggage had not lasted too long before being consumed.

‘I can’t see a signal box here’ said Jim. ‘I presume it went a long time ago.’

‘Yes, the yard has been worked with a ground frame at each end for many, many years, in fact probably since the line was singled, because originally Barber’s Bridge was built as a passing loop, just like Newent and Dymock, and did have a signal box then, but the down platform was taken out of use in about 1898.

Barber’s Bridge Station 1919 Courtesy Real Photographs Co.

‘So it would seem the decline started only thirteen years after the line first opened’ joked Jim.

‘Yes, and on top of that’ said Jack ‘you could add the 1907 new line to Birmingham, then the singling of the Dymock to Ledbury bit, all contributing to the closure of the line now.’

‘Is there a Stationmaster here, Jack?’ ‘Until a few months ago, Bill Dando was Stationmaster here, but he has moved onto Gloucester, and there is a relief man here for today.’

It seems a very small station to have a Stationmaster in these days.’

‘Yes I agree. One story I’ve heard, but I don’t know if it is true is that it is something to do with the sale of the land when the railway was built. There was a stipulation in the contract that Barber’s Bridge be manned by a man with gold braid, and so they’ve had a Stationmaster ever since.

‘Not the same sort of responsibilities as the Stationmaster at Paddington’ laughed Jim.

Bill Potter KRM

Both Jim and Jack looked out of the cab and down the platform. Quite a party going on down there,’ Jim said. ‘It looks as if the Relief Stationmaster is being presented with something or other.’

‘Looks like a bottle’ said Jack. One of the mourners, still with his top hat on, was walking towards the footplate crew. ‘In recognition of your services on this last passenger train from Ledbury to Gloucester, I would like to present you both with a bottle to mark the occasion,’ he said, whereupon he handed over a bottle of port to driver and fireman.

‘Thanks very much’ they said. ‘Look forward to drinking that later.’

‘Right away’ Jim said, as he noticed the guard’s green flag, and Jack eased the engine forward and under the road bridge for the last stretch towards Over Junction.

‘Besides the Stationmaster who had a good milk supply, there used to be one here some time ago who used to hold trains specially so his son could go and sell home grown tomatoes on the train. Officialdom caught up with him in the end though.’

Once underneath the Newest to Gloucester road, the line rejoined the river

Leadon, which it had left in Dymock, and now followed it right the way to Over. Jack was standing on the footplate, hand on the regulator, quietly thinking to himself of all the sorts of engines that he had driven up the Branch in his days as a driver from Gloucester.’You know, as nice as these Collett engines are, you can give me Dean goods any day’ said Jack.

‘Did they work this Branch, then?’

‘Oh yes, for many years they were the standard goods engine, and if it weren’t for the wartime, they would probably still be running up here. During the wartime, we got a load of North Eastern engines to replace those standard goods engines which had to go to France. We soon found out why they didn’t send the North- Eastern engines to France, they were the ones that had been taken out of service, and they were very, very rough.’

‘Did you like the tanks, then?’

‘I didn’t like driving the 45’s on this Branch. They rolled, but the 41’s were alright. Obviously one was a bit restricted as to what one could use because of the size of the Ledbury turntable.’

‘Hey, Jack, I heard some time ago that this line once saw a lot of L.M.S. engines.’

‘Yes, that happened back in the 1930’s, I think, from what I gather, when there was some engineering work on the line between Gloucester and Birmingham and the London Midland trains were diverted over the Gloucester to Ledbury branch on their route to Birmingham.’

‘That must have been quite a sight, particularly as many of the engines and coaches were red, compared with the green engines and chocolate and cream coaches of the Great Western.’

‘And the diesel railcars in recent years have been “blood and custard” colour. In fact W19W is in that livery and worked most of the trains earlier today. As you know, we are a special working just for the last train.’

‘Diesel railcars were the main source of motive power on the Branch from the 1940s, weren’t they?’ asked Jim.

‘Yes, that’s true, although steamers did work the line. There was a time in the 1950s when the autocrat sets with a 14xx tank were commonly used, but latterly they tended to be used as substitutes for the railcar when required. And you also got trains using normal sets of coaches, handled by a Prairie tank, or even occasionally a Pannier. During the Suez crisis in 1956, steamers made a bit of a comeback on the line as diesel fuel became hard to obtain.’

‘The passengers were all worked by Cheltenham men, weren’t they, as part of the Malvern Road shed diagrams?’

‘Yes, and the goods trains were worked out of Gloucester’ replied Jack. ‘Those Cheltenham diagrams included running the train from the Ledbury Branch through to Honeybourne.’

‘Isn’t it pretty countryside’ remarked Jim as the train was travelling alongside the near Rudford.

‘You wouldn’t have thought so a few months ago, when the whole lot was in flood’ said Jack. ‘I’ve seen this part of the railway totally submerged in water. I’ve also seen a fireman not too quick at shutting his dampers with the result that an awful lot of water got into the fire. Still, we don’t have that problem today, thank goodness. You see this crossing here that we’re just passing, Jim?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, it reminds me of a lovely tale one of the drivers was telling me in the Mess Room not long back about when he was coming down here with the pick up and a farmer had brought his horse with a cart loaded with hay onto the line and shut one gate behind it before opening the other one. When he saw the goods approaching him, he panicked, particularly as the whistle was screaming, and he tried to push the horse back, but of course having shut the gate he was only pushing the poor old horse up against it. There was a squealing of brakes and a lot of noise, and when the dust finally settled, the horse had its head between the first and second wagon, perfectly o.k., but the only way out was to uncouple the train, so that’s what they had to do to get the horse and cart out.’

‘I bet he’ll open both gates the next time round he tries that trick’ say Jim.

‘That same driver told me that he used to take the goods train to Ledbury with a Duke. When he got there, he would turn his engine, and relieve the Ledbury banker which was booked for watering and coaling. He would invariably bank a Pontypool-Yarnton goods which was R.O.D. hauled.’

‘I presume he turned his engine so that he would only get the smoke of the train engine and not his own as well when he travelled through the very narrow bore of the tunnel.’

Jack nodded his head. ‘He’d run to Colwall and back for a couple of hours before taking his goods back to Gloucester.’

The line swung round, following the river, past Lassington Court, heading south towards Over Junction.

‘The distant’s on’ Jim shouted to the driver.

Jack shut off the steam. ‘You know we were talking about special trains just before, like the daffodil specials, and the hop picker specials and the fruit picker specials? I’ve just thought of two more we used to run up this Branch. One was the race special to Colwall Racecourse which went up through Ledbury. The other was during the war when we ran workman’s trains to a munitions factory at Newest. The trains used to leave Gloucester about 5.40 in the morning and go and collect the workers again in the evening. Troop trains and ambulance trains were also quite common, as the Branch was a good diversionary route away from the big towns and cities. We also used to take light engines up this Branch quite a lot because when engines needed to be”soled and heeled” they went to Worcester. All sorts of engines have gone up here light for that purpose, and I remember an old driver proudly telling me of the occasion he had driven the famous “City of Truro” to the works at Worcester.’

‘Boards off’ shouted Jim as the train approached the outer home signal at Over Junction. Brian Mills

Jack opened the regulator again and the train started to gather a little more speed as it passed under the bridge carrying the A40 across the railway. The line curved quite steeply to the left as the Branch came in to meet the main line to South Wales from Gloucester. ‘Boards of’ said Jim, as he saw the home signal controlling the entrance on to the main line.

‘Thanks, Jim’ said Jack.

Jim picked up the token and moved over to the driver’s side of the cab. As the train drew level with the Over Junction Signal Box, he threw the token towards the foot of the box where it landed with a loud metallic bang. ‘Save the bobby a walk,’ he said. A catching post was provided for giving up the token on the fireman’s side, but Jim had elected not to use it on this last trip.

Once over the junction and onto the main line, Jack opened the regulator further and shortened the cut off. They were now crossing the over the bridge that had been built at Over in the 1950’s.

‘Well, that’s it, then Jack’ said Jim, looking back along the train as the last of the coaches cleared the points. ‘That’s the last passenger train over the Branch’

Alan Jarvis