Love it! I worked at Kilmersdon. I recognised Herbie and Nelson Loader on the loco and Benny Moon (I think) at the bottom of the incline. Great nostalgia! Noel
Great bit of footage. when we were kids of about 10 years old we would wait for the trucks to be unhitched and let freewheel round the corner then jump off the retaining wall of the main line on to them and ride along to the end. Slightly dangerous looking back but we were kids having harmless fun.
Aker Bilk and the Wurzels at the Slow & Dirty Festival Radstock. I remember the free for all, when they hooked up the carriages to a steam train and gave all of us a ride (on the flat bit) from the colliery head in Haydon to the top of the Incline, when the final days of the Pit had come to an end. What a party in Radstock, hog roast, cider & music. LOVED it. Those were the days when you could jump onto the electric milk float (in this case driven by Fred, not Erny !), and ride it to your'e bus stop for school. No company risk assessments in them days. @ the mo, I live in an old mining town in the Midlands, and it has pretty much a replica of the Incline from Haydon, bits of which still exist. I wonder if any soul had the gumption to take pictures at the festival, now that would be interesting !
Very Nice. Lived in Kilmersdon during my student days at Bath Uni in the early eighties, so unfortunately all this was long gone. Had a little chuckle as the Peckett came up over the turnout at 2:12. I'm a railway modeller and go through all sorts of hoops to ensure my track is smooth, particularly my turnouts, slips, etc. Although the camera foreshortening makes it look a lot worse, on seeing the closure and stock rails with the nasty angle and the Peckett getting shoved sideways might make me rethink some of my rural sidings!
Excellent footage! As a quick note on your description though, -the Hymek as shown couldn't have been collecting the train being assembled by the 08- . The Hymek is passing through the ex-S&D station (redesignated as a Western Region line in it's final few years, hence the Hymek) -from Midsomer Norton headed for Bath- , not Radstock's station on the ex-GWR Bristol-Frome line the other side of the river that linked to Kilmersdon's incline. The main giveaway was which side of the shops it came around at 9:42, which are still extant. Edit: As per my reply in the comments, I've since found out there _was_ a link made behind said shops to maintain access via the S&D as far as to Writhlington Colliery for a time in the mid-70s - sorry!
Hello Michael, I appreciate your comments and I am glad of any help you can give me in unravelling John Simon's footage. Whilst a frequent visitor to Radstock myself in the final years of the S&D, I never (inexplicably) went to Kilmersdon and I may well have not necessarily got all the scenes in the right order; please put me right if you can. However, with regard to the Hymek, I have re-examined the footage and it would appear that, the 08 shunting and the Hymek traversing the connection from the North Somerset line before passing through the S&D station, were filmed consecutively. Since I am not familiar with the workings at that time, I would have to accept that it is possible that it is simply a shot of a train of empties headed for Writhlington. On the other hand, the loco may well have returned to collect wagons from Kilmersdon and we cannot say that it could not have done so!
Hi @@BobBishopDiagonal, I've found a track plan of Radstock in the mid-70s, it makes sense now: the GWR route onwards nearly as far as Five Arches was retained as a headshunt, and a link to the old S&D made (vaguely on the site that's now a childrens' play area) for that route to act as a spur as far as Writhlington Colliery's sidings. This train would be empties headed to Writhlington Colliery, which the 08 may indeed have been assembling. Sorry for the confusion!
I'm researching a similar, but much older, incline in South Wales and wanted to know if they all had a powered winding house which must have been across the track somehow. I can't find much information on these systems online, perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place. Any advice gratefully received.
