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A Run Along The Line (Version 2) and History (Version 2)


Ian J.

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Due to changes in the way I've interpreted landscape and geology, I've modified the line's route, so below is the new Run Along The Line:


"From the large market town of Sayersbridge situated on the north-east bank of the River Stur, the main line to Exeter crosses the river by a low embankment to reach the south-west side where the line to Penmouth diverges to the south. It passes through the wooded area of Cold Holt before emerging onto low rolling arable farming land. Further south it reaches the shallow valley of Bere Dene and its halt, where the Arn Stream tributary starts its descent towards the coast. The line crosses by a small bridge to get to the east side of the vale, which it follows until reaching the station for the two villages of Arnford (East and West on either side of the stream). Afterwards the land starts becoming more hilly as we see the Step Ridge in the distance. The station at Dunstow follows, then the line runs through the old hunting forest of Frith before reaching West Frith Station. Shortly after, the branch to Knightonmore splits away to the east at Frith Junction, while the primary line continues south to Ceorfan, the gap in the Step Ridge where the Arn Stream joins the Freme River for its journey to the English Channel. Weytonwell Village follows on the south side of the Ridge, and then passes the quarry where Weyton Stone is extracted. The line descends the steep bank down to the Freme Inlet and Estuary, passing Stokestone station midway. A mile after the bottom of the bank is Stokeholme Halt where the old pottery wharf has become a yacht marina. The line then curves west over the stone sea wall across the inlet mouth, slowing for the swing bridge in the middle. Onwards the line runs along the Jurassic coastline to the west until it reaches the coastal halt of Sto Sands, situated between the beach and the cliffs, with the small village of Sto in the chine behind. Further west still and we reach the outskirts of the large town of Tynworth as the inland cliffs gently descend to sea level and to the centre of Tynworth. Here the passenger journey used to end and only freight continued, but now passengers can continue west to go past the sizable port of Penmouth, and afterwards reach the terminating halt for the popular tourist destination of the outcrop of land known as 'The Pen', accessed by an artifical causeway on foot.

 

The Branch leaves the primary line at Frith Junction and passes to the north of Step Ridge, the chalk feature that splits the inland fertile land from the rocky coast to its south, first reaching Grange Knowle. Then it carries on to Steepleham Station, the town for which is situated on the Ridge above the line. It then meanders on eastwards to Knightonmore Station where the passenger services terminate. A more recent extension of the line carries on to Arnbrook to provide rail access to the recently established oil well site."

 

The history has been tweaked as well, but is substantially the same as previously:

 

"In 1860, the port of Penmouth was a smallish port on the Wessex coast, with only turnpikes to get goods in from and out to the country. The port commissioners, seeing the 'success' of the London and South Western Railway's routes to the West Country, consulted with the town council of Tynworth and other nearby local landowners on the building of a railway to connect with the nearest main line. The route decided on a connection at Sayersbridge, and construction commenced in 1861. Completion of the route was in 1863, with opening on Monday, 4th of May that year. The line was owned independently by the Sayersbridge and Penmouth Railway Company Limited (the S&PR for short, but known as 'the Sap' colloquially) but was operated by the London & South Western Railway until 1868, when the financial troubles of 1866 finally caught up with the owners and they sold out to the L&SWR.
 
The port of Penmouth and its town of Tynworth flourished once the railway was running, and became quite significant both for trade and population. Most of the route served small village and farming populations, and private landowners, with the only intermediate settlement of any size between Sayersbridge and Tynworth being the split town of East and West Arnford.
 
The earthworks of the line were for most of its length built with double track in mind, but as a cost saving measure many of the bridges were single track only, and of somewhat light construction. The plan had been to replace these once the prominence of the port increased, but with the 1866 financial crisis and the ensuing buyout by the L&SWR in 1868 and an insufficient improvement in traffic, these were never upgraded to double and the line has stayed single for its entire life. It was always mainly a freight line, but its passenger service was adequate to the modest local needs. No direct trains to London were ever run regularly, although occasionally attempts were made to do so, particularly in the 1950s when post-war holidays could be taken and visits to Sto Sands were popular. The line survived the Beeching cuts of 1963/4 due to its freight usage, but with the construction of a dual carriageway direct to Penmouth in the late 60s, the freight disappeared from the line and the remaining passenger usage was simply not enough to keep it running. In 1974 the line was closed, despite an inevitable campaign to retain it.
 
The campaign to keep it open morphed into a preservation movement, and enough support was gained to prevent the wholesale selling off of the trackbed. From that point on the S&PR Preservation Society managed to slowly reopen the line, with the only track formation obstacles being a few private residence ingresses and the removal of a number of the lightweight bridges. These had been in a poor state and had been dismantled for safety. The opportunity was taken to replace them with double track bridges as each one was arrived at during the 22 years it took to get from Tynworth to Sayersbridge. This meant that by 1996 the line's infrastructure was finally capable of double track throughout, something the line had never achieved while in national ownership. The line was still single track but it became feasible to put in a second line if traffic levels demanded it. After privatisation of the national network in the early 1990s and the reconnection with the national network in 1996, the prospect of commercial freight using the line raised its head. One of the first private freight arrangements was an extension of the branch line to Arnbrook for rail access to the oil well there. An arrangement for regular stone traffic from Weytonwell Quarry was started in 2000, to be followed by some occasional traffic of exports and imports of bulk freight to and from the port. This has allowed the line to improve its infrastructure to allow running speeds of 50 mph when non-heritage services are running. The heritage services use stock not now considered safe enough for such speed, so they are still restricted to the 25 mph limit. A commercial passenger service for commuting has been proposed that will use modern stock and only run in the mornings and evenings, but this would mean the heritage services would have to be stopped slightly earlier on such days. With the freight traffic, consideration for doubling the line has been given, but the freight movements as at time of writing are not thought sufficient to do so and there is no benefit to the heritage operation to implement a second track throughout.
 
Additional to the loss of some of the bridges after closure, a number of the stations were demolished along with most of the original railway buildings such as goods sheds and signal boxes. These have been replaced either with imported non-S&P originals from various locations around the country, or new builds where no suitable pre-existing replacements could be sourced.  
 
The colours of the buildings of the original S&PR were dark blue and cream. The stock was the same, with locomotives in plain dark blue, but these were repainted in L&SWR colours after the sale to that company. In SR days the station colours changed to green and cream. The preservation movement became a limited company in the early 2000s, with a rebranding exercise giving the operation the name 'Wessex Rail'. Some of the locomotives and stock have been repainted in Prussian Blue with double gold lining, the livery having been 'borrowed' from the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The buildings have taken the original S&P dark blue and cream.
 
The line now flourishes in three ways: firstly, it's a heritage line running steam and diesel trains for visitors; secondly, it has commercial freight traffic adding a useful cashflow; thirdly, and not lastly, it will likely run a scheduled service between Tynworth and Sayersbridge using a couple of leased 'modern' units for commuters."

 

Next I'm going to work out what would be the best places for the 'vignettes' that could be constructed to show different aspects of the line. There are of course the stations:

 

Primary Line: Sayersbridge, Cold Holt, Bere Dene, Arnford, Dunstow, West Frith, Weytonwell, Stokestone, Stokeholme, Sto Sands, Tynworth, Penmouth (for The Pen)
Branch: Grange Knowle, Steepleham, Knightonmore

 

Apart from the stations themselves, I have some ideas for others already:

 

Sayersbridge Embankment

Frith Junction

Arnbrook Oil Depot

Arnbrook Clay Pit

Ceorfan Viaduct

Weytonwell Quarry

Stoke Sea Wall Swing Bridge

 

I'm thinking of having MoD land somewhere, but I don't know which station would be its railhead as I haven't planned that far ahead yet.

 

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