The north side entrance to the station site.
BRISTOL & NORTH SOMERSET RAILWAY WALK
RADSTOCK TO GREAT ELM
"MELLS ROAD TO GREAT ELM (Frome)"
(From two visits on the 4th and 13th of Aug. 2019)
The north side entrance to the station site.
To the left a branch ran off to Vobster, Newbury Colliery and to
Mackintosh Colliery.
Ex Shunter's Cabin. A bit large for a standard Ganger's hut!
The Newbury Railway curved off to the west side of Mells Road station.
Running to Mells Quarry, Vobster Quarries, Newbury and
Mackintosh Collieries. (NLS Maps).
Remains of a brake van.
Jericho Bridge (Farm Access).
Southwards along the west side of the track bed towards Frome.
View on the western side of the track bed.
Flowers Farm (Access) Bridge
This is the only spot where you get down on the actual track bed. However
it is blocked just up ahead and you need to get back onto the path
to continue.
Westwards view towards Great Elm.
At this point there steps that take you too and from the official path to
the road junction or continue along the track bed. The ballast is quite
deep and very loose which
makes for quite slow and painful walking. Outwards I took the easy path
but returned on the track bed back to this spot and back to Radstock.
The ballasted track bed. Flowers Farm Bridge is just up ahead towards
Mells.
The path leading down to Buckland over bridge and to Great Elm.
Under bridge towards Buckland.
Official end of track bed walk. You can go a little further but there is a
fence
where the junction was with the Whatley Quarry branch and in to
Frome.
Quite had going as the ballast is very deep and loose.
Steps down from then track bed to Bucklands bridge.
Bucklands Bridge. From Great Elm to Buckland Denham.
Ex junction where the Whatley Quarry branch turned off the Radstock
branch.
The walk into Great Elm village.
My intention was to have a welcome drink at the George & Dragon
while waiting for the bus into Frome. Sadly it was closed and I had
not long missed a bus.
Instead of walking into Frome I decided to walk back to Radstock,
which helped to fill the day in nicely. This made a around a walk of
11 miles to and
from Great Elm..
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Other
railway walks:
The Dundee & Newtyle Rlwy Walks Opened in 1831 the route had three incline planes. The
first was from the terminal station on Ward Street, up the
Dundee Law, where there was
also a tunnel. The second was the Balbeuchley incline at
Rosemill and the third at Hatton that ran down to Newtyle station.
It was also the very first passenger train service in Scotland.
Worked by Horse over the levels until the first steam engine was
purchased in 1833. Came under the Caladonian Railway with it's
terminal moved to Dundee West station. Passengers
service ended in 1952 and the line totally closed in the mid 60's.
The inclines were by-passed in the 1860's.
The Cromford & High Peak Incline railway in Derbyshire has been luckier in having much of it's buildings, including an Engine House preserved. This is what could have happened with
the D&N, indeed, should have happened with at least one of the D&N inclines. However, the C&H gives an excellent comparison of what the D&N would have looked like, albeit the
inclines were only single track.Boddam To Ellon Branch (Walks) By Bill Reid. Ex GNSR branch line.
Dyce To Fraserburgh and Peterhead Walks. Ex GNSR
Bath To Wellow Rlwy Walks Ex Somerset & Dorset Rlwy.
The Test Valley Railway Walk. (New Mills To Hayfield).
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