Gloucester Railway Triangle

The so called Gloucester Triangle was formed as a consequence of the locating of the stations (Midland and Great Western) on the branch off the main line, towards south Wales which necessitated leaving the Birmingham to Bristol line on the approach from Cheltenham and rejoining it again south of Gloucester. The area in-between thereby forming a triangle. This would involve, in the days of steam, running around the carriages to put the engine in front again, but it would then continue its journey facing the opposite way, so that if it arrived boiler first, it would leave tender first. At one time an arrangement was tried, where an engine would drive effectively up the centre of the triangle to a turntable, so that it could maintain the normal boiler first working.
Nowadays with power cars at both ends, the drivers simply demount from the cab and walk to the other end to continue. Quite a nice day looking at traffic movements and the triangle layout.

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• #gloucester_triangle
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• #gloucester_rail_layout
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