Posted a second time due to this website being rolled back:
As many will know, I have had a crap year with the loss of my wife of almost 20 years (known on here as Bertrina Bollockbrains). There is pending legal action regarding that, and right now all is on track for a legal victory. Time has passed and I am now just starting to feel that I should emerge from my self-imposed isolation and restart life. I look forward to meeting you all again soon.
I recently decided to revisit a site very local to myself. It's no epic but convenient for myself.
HISTORY
Copehill Down is a Ministry of Defence training facility near Chitterne on Salisbury Plain. It is a 'FIBUA' (Fighting In Built Up Areas) urban warfare and close quarters battle training centre, where exercises and tests are conducted. The facility was built in 1987 to resemble a German village in Bavaria, to provide troops with a simulated backdrop when training for operations in European theatres including the Cold War, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. More recently a shanty town made up of cargo containers stacked and laid out in rows of tightly packed streets was constructed to provide an additional training area that more closely resembles the Army's operational theatres in Afghanistan and Iraq. Access to Copehill Down is generally restricted, however the facility has been used for airsoft wargaming and by historical reenactment societies, which take part in private reenactments of battles. The site has also featured on the Top Gear programme.
This report is on the simulated train stockyard that lies on one side of the FIBUA village.
REPORT
A plaque informs us of when the train stockyard was built
The stock yard consists of three lines of wagons
The locomotive engine is a Ruston Hornsby 0-6-0DH, works number 466621, constructed in 1961
It is pictured here in May 1991:
Scattered remains of army training in the area, first a smoke screening grenade
and a parachute flare
Finally, I did not spot this until I left... honest guv
Thanks for reading
As many will know, I have had a crap year with the loss of my wife of almost 20 years (known on here as Bertrina Bollockbrains). There is pending legal action regarding that, and right now all is on track for a legal victory. Time has passed and I am now just starting to feel that I should emerge from my self-imposed isolation and restart life. I look forward to meeting you all again soon.
I recently decided to revisit a site very local to myself. It's no epic but convenient for myself.
HISTORY
Copehill Down is a Ministry of Defence training facility near Chitterne on Salisbury Plain. It is a 'FIBUA' (Fighting In Built Up Areas) urban warfare and close quarters battle training centre, where exercises and tests are conducted. The facility was built in 1987 to resemble a German village in Bavaria, to provide troops with a simulated backdrop when training for operations in European theatres including the Cold War, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. More recently a shanty town made up of cargo containers stacked and laid out in rows of tightly packed streets was constructed to provide an additional training area that more closely resembles the Army's operational theatres in Afghanistan and Iraq. Access to Copehill Down is generally restricted, however the facility has been used for airsoft wargaming and by historical reenactment societies, which take part in private reenactments of battles. The site has also featured on the Top Gear programme.
This report is on the simulated train stockyard that lies on one side of the FIBUA village.
REPORT
A plaque informs us of when the train stockyard was built
The stock yard consists of three lines of wagons
The locomotive engine is a Ruston Hornsby 0-6-0DH, works number 466621, constructed in 1961
It is pictured here in May 1991:
Scattered remains of army training in the area, first a smoke screening grenade
and a parachute flare
Finally, I did not spot this until I left... honest guv
Thanks for reading
