Good afternoon Ron. Five years on from your video, today I finally made it to Foss Cross station. Happy to report, the roof is watertight, little has changed, and some kind soul has sympathetically trimmed back tree branches near the platform. Goodness knows how you found the station yard gate- it took be 40 minutes! But for your report I would never have ventured to such a fascinating site. Many thanks.
I walked from Kemble back to Towcester using disused railways back in 1980, came across Foss Cross and was amazed how complete it still was. Looks much like the video so it hasn't really changed which is great to see.
I have just voted this your best video yet. Leastways of those I`ve seen. A platform with a building, brilliant. Re the first "bracket" you saw sticking out of the building wall, methinks that had you pulled it out it would turn out to be a coat-hook - possibly. Very nice.
I remember it less overgrown when I visited many years ago, the doors weren't bricked up and a poster inside the building warning to shut the carriage doors.
Sir, you don’t have to apologise when undergrowth, etc., stops you visiting railway archeological remain on our behalf. I’m just pleased you can do it because my country walking days are long over! Many thanks for your excellent presentation. If you smelt a whiff of cigar smoke it was probably Sir Sam Fay’s spirit standing close by ....admiring your remarkable efforts. Sir Sam certainly lifted this railway up into a profitable concern. It would be an incredibly useful route nowadays between Southampton and the Midlands. Best wishes, Rob In Bournemouth.
Rob Thanks for the comment, it's a pleasure to be of service. With my Parkinson's my walking days are numbered but I haven't given up yet. Thanks for watching. P.W.
The abandoned building was probably the lamp room. The concrete slab would have held a 45 gallon drum of paraffin. The shelf was sturdy enough to hold several filled lamps, with spares left already filled, trimmed and ready to light. You would light them and let them burn for a while before a final trim and carrying out to location.
@@ParkinsonsWalks Further on in the video you showed a lamp-post with a hook. The station probably also had paraffin Tilley lamps as its platform lighting. So there would have been an allocated time-slot for lamping duties during the darker evenings and mornings; a really horrid job in driving rain / snow in open countryside. Quite how the lamps met their hooks is a bit of a puzzle because there doesn't seem to be any remnants of a hoisting system. As ever it'll most likely be a method that would give present-day aficionados of H&S severe palpitations :)
@@ParkinsonsWalks I've been steadily following your adventures and it's my way of showing my gratitude for you posting the results. It's not as easy as it looks. My knowledge and experience of the line starts at Ludgershall and Tidworth going South. I'll never forget the surprise appearance of a Bullied Pacific with 10 up full of squaddies going past Tidworth Down school as we boys played cricket, (train stopped play: sorry) long after that stretch of line closed, and the anticipation of its inevitable return. So, I'm enjoying learning about what went on beyond the end of the World (Swindon) ;)
Good question. I took the road to the left of the pub and found good parking outside the recycling centre and walked in parallel to the track bed. Trouble is this route is gated as there are businesses down there. I don’t expect the gates are closed during business hours but not ideal. The road to the right of the pub is I think public access, but looks private. The station site itself and track bed probably still belongs to Network Rail. You pays your money .....................
Where the men’s urinals are, am I correct in thinking there would’ve been some kind of wall or something blocking view? Can’t imagine passengers going in to get tickets and there in the corner are a few gents relieving themselves!
Hi Laurence, Yes there was evidence of a wall, I don't think they were that broad minded! The wall was probably removed by the farmer who was storing things in there for a while. The door was to the right as you look at them. P.W.
I couldn't match the couple of deer on my visit today, but there were a couple of large hares chasing each other! The two photos inside the station building have gone, but the ticket is still faithfully clinging to the door! Otherwise it all still looks pretty much the same.
Hi Keith, thanks for the update, I sometimes wonder how nature is getting on taking it over. Makes you wonder when you consider it was once a hive of activity. Ron
@@ParkinsonsWalks it then goes into cirencester through "watermoor station" long gone through cirencester but track bed there from edge of cirencester to swindon-marlborough-andover-southampton...
Hi Matt You were right, I have filmed parts of the track bed from Foss Cross to Ciren, it's now added to the 'waiting for edit' list. Will be out some time in the new year, Thanks for that.
