EPW038819 ENGLAND (1932). The Engine Repair Shed and Feltham Marshalling Yard on the Windsor Line (Southern Railway) at Hounslow Heath and the Graf Zeppelin (D-LZ127) moored at Hanworth Aerodrome (London Air Park), Hanworth, from the north-east, 1932

I lived in Viola Avenue Feltham 1951-1958 and can recall the sound of shunting in the hump yard all night. The sound carried several miles in the quiet of the night but living little more than a mile away I could hear the engine sounds in addition to the wagon buffers striking each other down the hump. My grandmother's sister was married to a railwayman who worked at Feltham and he took me to visit the yard and engine shed in 1952. I can recall wagons rolling down the hump and shunters hanging on to their poles as they braked individual wagons. To be honest the engine shed was more interesting aged - as I was 5 - but of all my memories it's the sounds of night shunting that lives on in my mind. I went back to the yard circa 1961 but it was already clearly in decline. The traffic was way down and the night sounds much reduced. I moved to near Winchester in 1958 and can recall the sound of Bulleid pacifics pulling their trains on the nearby main line. There is little as evocative as a steam whistle at night.

This NOT the Staines West branch railway, and the "engine repair shed" should probably be better referred to as the "locomotive power depot" at Feltham Marshalling Yard.

Thanks for all the comments on this one. We'll get the caption for this amended and the revised record will appear here in due course. Appreciate all the feedback.



Thanks,

Angharad

Britain from Above Cataloguer

London's Railways from the Air Ian Allen and Aerofilms 2006 ISBN (10) 0 7110 3144 4 has a description for this photograph on page 97 as shown.

"The Engine Repair Shed on the Staines West Branch Railway"

How did this get in the title? As commented, it's Feltham MPD on the Southern Railway's line to Windsor (and Staines and beyond, but not 'Staines West'. The Staines West branch was on the Great Western, from West Drayton.

I suggest that this one is given a revised title to read Feltham Locomotive Depot and Marshalling Yard, Southern Railway and the Graf Zeppelin then continue as above. This is nowhere near Staines West.