IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Gipsy Lane, SWINDON, SN2 8YY

The line at the right of the various lines was once the point at which The Swindon & Highworth Light Railway left the main line to the small town of Highworth. It was never very successful and was in fact taken over by the Great Western Railway before it ever ran any trains of its own http://www.highworth.freeuk.com/history.htm The rails still exist into the former Rover Group plant (now BMW MINI body plant) as up until certainly the 1990s trains from Rover ran down the line to the Longbridge plant in Birmingham carrying car body panels. The lower part of the line is still in use by the nearby EMR scrap metal company to ship out processed scrap metal. The building just to the right of the line is on the site of a signal box. The viewpoint is the footbridge over the railway from Stratton Road to Gipsy Lane.

This is a view north across the footbridge with the offices of EMR scrap metal company visible in the background. The bridge is soon to be taken down as part of a project to electrify the railway.

The bridge has to come down soon as part of the electrification of the railway project.

These are the steps down from the footbridge on the Gipsy Lane side. The bridge is to be taken down at some point in the near future as part of the electrification project underway on the railway. It's too low to allow the overhead power lines to pass beneath. The gutter at the side is to make it easier to transport push-bikes over the bridge.

At right are the steps seen here Image The bridge will be taken down soon as part of the electrification project underway on the railway.

The disused Great Western Railways (GWR) Highworth branch line is seen here from the hump-backed bridge joining Gipsy Lane and Bridge End Road. To the left can be seen the Biffa Waste Services depot.

The footbridge is being built as a replacement for the existing footbridge http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4172155 which has to go as it is too low for the overhead electrical cables that will later be installed as part of the upgrading of the Paddington to the West railway. In the background is the BMW MINI body plant, which was one of the few parts of the Rover Group deemed worth keeping by the Germans after they gave up trying to make money out of it in 2000.