Holton Heath 6th - 7th March 2004
On the weekend of March 6th - 7th 2004 just outside Poole at Holton Heath , the up Weymouth - Waterloo "JOINTED" mainline was replaced by 600 foot lengths of Continuous welded rail. The rail had already been delivered earlier on in the week but the weekend saw nine engineering Trains bringing loads such as concrete sleepers,
ballast box wagons about 40 of them in 3 - 4 different train loads and various other wagons to help out in the rail replacement program. The pictures below were shot on the Saturday Morning, (Very early I might add) as well as mid morning, Afternoon and Sunday morning.
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The first two pics. This train was not booked to leave Poole for the possession site until 00:46 Saturday Morning. I got down at Poole Railway Station at Midnight and it was there already with 60038 waiting to take the train onto the possession. It left just before 00:46 with a loud toot on the horn and under RED signals as it was entering from Poole the possession area.
66049 arrives at Poole @ 01:10 in the morning. with a consist of 14 loaded JNA /KWA bogie box open wagon's. This left Poole again with a sharp blast on the horn , Yes at 01:24 in the morning,
A Caib owned JUA aggregate wagon.
YQA Flat wagon with concrete sleepers as a load.
66131, The only loco I actually needed, arrives hot on the heels as the last wagon of 66049's consist was rolling past the signalbox. This train consisted of 5 fully loaded with concrete sleepers YQA wagons, 1 OCA departmental wagon, 1 ZDA wagon and 1 KWA departmental flat car. After a 30 minute break 66015 arrived at Poole at 01:54. At that point I had decided to make this the last one to try and photograph, unfortunately the batteries had ran out (I know I should have had a spare set on me I forgot to take them DOH!!) and I decided to call it a night. It was 2 AM in the morning it was also 1 degree Celsius and I was cold so I headed home. Only to be back later on in the morning.... more like 11:37 in the morning.
2423 (with 2412 at the rear) pulls into the reception sidings at Poole on Saturday morning having just terminated at Poole with a Waterloo to Poole service. As the lines were closed between Poole and Wool all trains from London terminated at Poole and a bus service carried the passengers to Wool for resumption of their Journey.
Also Stabled in Poole Yard was a Plasser & Theurer Mk5 TRAMM in Balfour Beatty livery. It moved off a few days later. These can carry scrap rail, bags of ballast and carry out a host of other duties during a possession. The maximum permissible speed of these units is 40mph. Information courtesy of Glenn Winstanley
The two pics above were taken on Saturday afternoon around 16:55. The train, hauled by 66172 was carrying around 10-12 flat cars full of 60 foot sections of old Rail. I am not to sure where these would end up but for the time being they were scheduled to go to Eastleigh. A total of 4 of the 9 engineering trains were due to pass through Poole during Saturday night. These were hauled by 66066, 66074 and the last one at 2016 was unknown as I was not down there to see it.
66001 At Hamworthy Junction @ 07:30 Sunday morning waiting for the ok to proceed with its Train back to Eastleigh. This picture is used with permission of James Henley.
Finally 66213 at Holton Heath again waiting for clearance to exit the possession site and head for Eastleigh. This picture is used with permission of James Henley.
All Pictures unless otherwise stated on this web site have been photographed and are Copyright of Anthony Henley
and may not be used without prior permission from me.