10th September 2024 “A Personal Snapshot of Some of Britain’s Military Railways” by Clive Pepper

On March 18th, 1995, passengers from Hertfordshire Railtours' "Prize Porker" tour from Paddington to MOD Pig's Bay enjoy a short walkaround the Establishment before heading back to Victoria. Since this time, the MOD's ranges have been operated by a private company, Qinetiq, which was formed by selling off the majority of MOD's once-famous research and development establishments such as the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough and the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Great Malvern. Photo: Clive Pepper.
On March 18th, 1995, passengers from Hertfordshire Railtours' "Prize Porker" tour from Paddington to MOD Pig's Bay enjoy a short walkaround the Establishment before heading back to Victoria. Since this time, the MOD's ranges have been operated by a private company, Qinetiq, which was formed by selling off the majority of MOD's once-famous research and development establishments such as the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough and the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Great Malvern. Photo: Clive Pepper.

Our 2024/25 season got off to an explosive start with visiting speaker Clive Pepper from Milton Keynes giving us a tour of some of the Ministry of Defence’s rail installations.

Clive’s interest in military railways was re-kindled from his childhood by the classic 1977 Baker Rail Atlas in which he saw a number of red-coloured freight-only lines which diverged from the main network at odd locations and terminated at unusual locations with no obvious purpose. The first examples he gave us were of the Monmouthshire Railway Society’s ‘Dockland Dawdler’ tour to the Royal Ordnance Factory at Glascoed in October 1984 and the Branch Line Society’s ‘Dyfed Dragon’ railtour to Royal Navy Armaments Depot, Trecwn in June 1984.

Turning to the South of England next, we saw the former Longmoor Military Railway on its last day of operation (31st October 1969) with locomotives No. 600 ‘Gordon’ and 0-6-0T ‘Errol Lonsdale’ (named after a former Commandant of the Royal Corps of Transport). The extensive network from Liss to Bentley was discussed, including the circular route to allow driver training to take place under realistic conditions, and some of the stored steam locomotives on the site were seen.

In close proximity was the World War 1 Ordnance Depot at Bramley which once comprised a 33-mile internal network. We saw it on its last day of operation on March 1st 1987, with Network South East’s ‘Bramley Bunker’ railtour formed by ‘Thumpers’ 205026 and 205033.

Moving down to the coast it was good to see the still-operational Marchwood Port which sees reasonably regular traffic to Didcot and Bicester, operated by GB Railfreight.

The former Proof and Experimental Establishment at Shoeburyness, dating from 1859, was our next venue. Interestingly there is still a path in the current timetable for a working from Kineton or Bicester, though it appears seldom used. Clive mentioned that this was probably the most difficult of MOD’s Establishments to research, possibly due to its former connections with nuclear activities. However, we saw Hertfordshire Railtours’ ‘Prize Porker’ railtour at Haven Point (the far extremity of the line), topped-and-tailed by 47739 and 47358 on March 18th 1995, as well as a variety of stored First Generation diesel and electric multiple units.

Following a break, we concluded with four more MOD Establishments: Longtown, Kineton, Bicester and Long Marston, all of which were built close to main lines but away from centres of population. Clive highlighted the similar pattern of many of these establishments: lots of sizeable storage sheds (some with earth banks on their sides, to send any explosions upwards) on spurs from loops of track, with exchange sidings at the entrance to/from the main line. In almost all cases, the decline in rail activity in recent decades was very visible, with many loops closed, the numbers of sheds significantly reduced and the overall decline in the level of traffic visible by a massively reduced infrastructure.

It was encouraging, though, to see that in support of the recent coronation of King Charles III, several troop trains ran into London under Operation 'Golden Orb'.

The meeting closed at 9.20 pm with a resounding vote of thanks to Clive for a fascinating, well-researched and illustrated insight into one of the country’s more unusual aspects of railway operation.