2020

SO6210 : Forest track from Central Bridge

taken 4 years ago, near to Ruspidge, Gloucestershire, England

Forest track from Central Bridge
Forest track from Central Bridge
Until yesterday, I believed this to be the prepared (but never used) route of the Forest of Dean Central Railway (FoDCR), a doomed project to build a railway into the Forest for the purposes of grabbing some of the lucrative coal traffic. The line was never a success, partly because a miners' strike in 1921 forced Howbeach Colliery, one of the main potential sources of traffic for the line, to close, and partly because the Severn & Wye Railway (S&W) opened their Mineral Loop which effectively hoovered up any traffic which would otherwise have been taken by the FoDCR. The S&W were still obliged to provide a bridge over what was intended as the FoDCR's route (even though it was apparent to everyone that the opening of the S&W's new line would kill off the FoDCR for ever), and as I say, until recently I thought this was the view from that bridge. However, it turns out that the actual bridge provided was a girder bridge about fifty yards along the track, which was demolished upon closure of the mineral loop in the early 1950s and has been replaced with a wooden footbridge to which barely gave a glance as I passed over it on my bike. If you've read this far, you deserve to know that this is no more than a forest track, spanned by a handsome stone bridge - see SO6210 : Central Bridge, Forest of Dean - built in typical S&W style and now misnamed "Central Bridge". See LinkExternal link for the full story.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright John Winder and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Central Bridge [8] · Severn Wye Railway [4] ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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SO6210, 46 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
John Winder   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Sunday, 31 May, 2020   (more nearby)
Submitted
Monday, 1 June, 2020
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SO 6298 1077 [10m precision]
WGS84: 51:47.6608N 2:32.2911W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SO 6293 1079
View Direction
East-southeast (about 112 degrees)
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Image Type (about): geograph 
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