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Author Topic: King's Special, Wiltshire 1910s? - puzzling track  (Read 929 times)
Marlburian
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« on: February 21, 2023, 15:00:56 »

I've been trying to work out where the line in the foreground protected by the double-arm signal goes? (At first I thought that it was a single line, though there's a suggestion of another track by the signal.I can't see a gap in the crowd or any sign of an underbridge - though it looks as if a road goes under the railway a bit further up. Visually it's almost as if the tracks come to a stop at the embankment. (Spectators crowding onto to the track seem to have been a problem, as it is today.)

The grainy quality of the photo makes me think the King in question may be Edward VII.

I tried TinEye (reverse image search) and found only one card, on the Swindon library website.

Even more challenging perhaps, is the location. My first thought was that it was where the Midland & South Western Junction Railway crossed under the GWR (Great Western Railway) west of Swindon, under either the Gloucester branch or the Chippenham line, but the M&SWJR was single track.

BTW ('by the way') the publisher, William Hooper lost part of his right leg working at a GWR locomotive repair shop, after which, in 1903, he became a professional photographer.

Thoughts?
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Worcester_Passenger
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« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2023, 15:24:11 »

The MSWJR crossed over, not under, the Swindon - Chippenham line at Rushey Platt. The connecting line made a double track junction. Looking at the 1910-ish map at https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.0&lat=51.55382&lon=-1.80979&layers=168&b=1, then that location looks posssible. The signal post is shown in the right place on the map. There's a road underbridge beyond the junction.

I think that one of the connecting line's tracks is visible between the train and the crowd, but the other track is hidden underneath the crowd.
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Marlburian
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« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2023, 15:58:57 »

I did look at the self-same map, but needed you to explain it to me! Thanks. Now I can see one of M&SWJR lines connecting with the GWR (Great Western Railway) to the left of the telegraph pole, but at what appears to be a very acute angle. I guess that Cooper was perched on the M&SWJR embankment to take the photo.
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