Fovant military railway

[whole diary]

[AMLAG]

As another aside but with a strong railway connection to my Great Grandfather Sir John Jackson, was the building by his Civil Engneering Firm of the railway over the Andes between Arica and La Paz.

[Clan Line]

I've just come across a reference to Stockton Crossing Halt, on the Warminster-Salisbury line,

Another one along that bit of line was the spur from Heytesbury to Sutton Veny/Longbridge Deverill - which I think was built in 1915 and lifted in the 20s.

[Marlburian]

Contemporary postcard

[ellendune]

Not really a spur if it is a different gauge.  This looks like a narrow gauge railway.  Am I correct?

[Marlburian]

Yes. It's Decauville track, portable, quickly laid and easily replaced in the case of damage, and probably used at Sutton Veny to move stores and materials from the standard-gauge track, often during the construction of a camp.

Many of Wiltshire's military railways flourished during the Great War and photography of them would have been forbidden for security reasons. Bits of track within camps can be made out in some photographs but very seldom is there anything on them. One exception (on a postcard) is attached.

There are several postcards showing rolling stock on the newly-laid Larkhill Military Railway in the first months of the war before censorship was introduced.

Just about the only other wartime postcard photographs of railways in Wiltshire in a military context are of George V and the Royal Train at Ludgershall Station (which, of course, was on the "public" network) on one of several visits to troops.

I was in Ludgershall yesterday. The MoD sidings at the end of what is left of the M&SWJR line to Marlborough and beyond looked little used, with just a few flat-bed wagons parked there.

(Many pre-WWI cards exist showing Volunteer and Territorial troops arriving at Ludgershall Station for summer camp. There are far fewer for Amesbury and just two or three for Patney & Chirton and for Lavington.)

[Clan Line]

Some more info on Sutton Veny spur here:
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp280-293

According to this it was actually operated by the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for a while.

[infoman]

Sutton Veny and codford st luke were two locations where ANZAC's were being treated for war injurie's sustained in world war one.

I think a lot more who were hospitalised died from the flu epidemic in the early 1920s
Correst me if I am wrong

[Clan Line]

Sutton Veny and codford st luke were two locations where ANZAC's were being treated for war injurie's sustained in world war one.

I think a lot more who were hospitalised died from the flu epidemic in the early 1920s
Correst me if I am wrong

You are quite correct. The Sutton Veny Military hospital is listed as having 938 beds. There are 168 Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard at St John's Sutton Veny.
https://suttonveny.co.uk/village-matters/anzac-day-services/

Bit more info on the railway here: https://maps.nls.uk/view/101463542

[Marlburian]

And a bit more here!Note that the line goes onto Longbridge Deverill Camp, better known as Sand Hill Camp. D**n, uploaded the Codford railway map by mistake and had to add that for Sutton Veny.

[Clan Line]

And a bit more here!Note that the line goes onto Longbridge Deverill Camp, better known as Sand Hill Camp. D**n, uploaded the Codford railway map by mistake and had to add that for Sutton Veny.

What a fascinating pair of maps !!

[stuving]

And a bit more here!Note that the line goes onto Longbridge Deverill Camp, better known as Sand Hill Camp. D**n, uploaded the Codford railway map by mistake and had to add that for Sutton Veny.

What a fascinating pair of maps !!

Aren't all old maps fascinating?

[PrestburyRoad]

Yes, old maps are indeed fascinating.  And 'dangerous' too - because one can so easily spend a long time exploring them.

[Warning: this may swallow your time]  If anyone hasn't already visited the old maps on the National Library of Scotland's website I strongly recommend doing so.
For example, Gloucester 25-inch  c 1880
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=14&lat=51.85978&lon=-2.24270&layers=178&b=4&marker=51.7651,-2.330434

[Marlburian]

I frequently visit the site recommended by PrestburyRoad - it's a fantastic free resource that includes 25in-to-the-mile maps that can be magnified.

[Marlburian]

What a fascinating pair of maps !!

Thus encouraged, here's a section from the same map (OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) 1inch 1920) of the Bulford and Tidworth branches. A 1904 atlas of railway lines used by the Railway Clearing House shows a projected link–up of the Bulford and Tidworth lines. This never materialised, though on May 13, 1907, Richard Haldane, the Secretary of State for War, admitted in the House of Commons that in bad weather it was preferable to take the "high road" route of eight miles between the two barracks rather the four-mile track connecting them; he noted that the journey by train was 26 miles. A rail connection would have been easy to lay over flat ground, but instead the track was improved.

[Marlburian]

Chisledon Camp railway (to west of "Stream").

The platforms are still there, covered in undergrowth and on private land. The sidings branched off the M & SWJR, the trackbed of which is now a popular Sustrans route.

I've never seen a contemporary image of the branch.