Talk:Groby Junction
Add topicAs you may have seen on the egroup (17/3/15) I've found some stuff as part of the signalling research that may lead to the revision of this article.
a) where does the date of April 1908 come from; is this a bit of emBoydery? The earliest reference I have to hand is July 1909.
b) There are various sets of undated costings and a diagram. The costings make reference to "old wharf about ¼ mile from Glanypwll" and "Penybont Old Wharf for Cwm Bychan sett quarry" - what was the 'old wharf'? The 1850s plans that I can find for the TyG area don't go quite that far up and there's nothing I can find in the 1860s, but there is an amended version of the 1869 plans that shews a siding connection into plot 449. Has anyone heard or seen the phrase 'Penybont Wharf' used for this area?
This is where it starts to get interesting - unlike most intermediate FR sidings there's actually a fair bit of evidence for this one, but the devil is in the detail. Insofar as I can piece the timeline of the evidence together it seems that the following is the order of events.
1. Square Landing present at time of 1869 survey.
2. Drawing with 1909 costings for points seems to indicate a connection facing Up trains. 
3. Drawing on a copy of the 1869 plans seems to indicate a connection facing Down Trains. The A & B seem to be identical to 4).
4) 1913 plan which seems to indicate that everything was all new in 1913.
The 1909 costings would suggest that nothing was actually done and the FRCo only quoted for the points in the main line in both 1909 and 1913. Does anyone else have any information that may be germane, and is it worth considering a revision to the article? I can upload the costings, but they are very dry and undated. Marquis DeCarabas (talk) 11:49, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
Another thing, and this is the real reason at the moment for trying to sort out both here and the siding at Catherine and Jane Consoles is that the costings for both make reference to Electric Staff instruments - patently not at these sidings, but at the ends of the block section (in the case of the 1913 costings for Groby, the ends are mentioned in one of the sets of costings as Tanygrisiau and Glanypwll) The dates for METS installation are 1919 and 1921 not 1913 as Boyd cites. Marquis DeCarabas (talk) 12:01, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
Given the evidence of the following Board Minutes (which does now give me an earlier date, and gives an extra-Boyd source for 1908):
Directors Meeting 23rd April 1908 Mr D.G.Davies applications for siding from his stone quarry near Blaenau Festiniog to junction with Festiniog Railway at Blaenau - agreed to the siding - rates left to Mr Vaughan
Directors Meeting 7th May 1909 Festiniog Granite Company's application for Rates for Macadam - A rate of 0/10d per ton agreed to under a guarantee of 20,000 tons in first two years
Directors Meeting May 23rd 1913 Festiniog Granite Companys application to make a siding in connection with their Stone Quarry - Resolved that the Granite Company be informed that the FRC could not see their way to undertake the construction of the proposed siding, but would be willing to assist them in all ways possible - left to Mr Vaughan to interview the Granite Company and explain matters to them
Directors Meeting 16 December 1913 Junction with the Festiniog Granite Companys siding - Mr Vaughan reported that the points for this junction were in hand & that the Granite Company were making the line to connect
I am now firmly of the opinion that the sidings were not laid at all until 1913, and will shortly amend the text on the main page, unless there are strenuous objections. I will make reference to the 1909 drawing perhaps following the line of an earlier siding. I do have non-Boyd evidence for similar early single-ended sidings at Penrhyn and Tanygrisiau.