Goodrington - Churston double header or pilot/banking?

[mdvle]

Have read on here that the use of a banker was frequent to get from Torquay to Torre in the steam era, but nothing about assistance being needed elsewhere on the Kingswear line.  But have just seen a picture on Facebook of what is said to be 2 locos taking a train from Goodrington towards Churston in the 1950s.

 

Would this have been necessary, and hence common?  Or maybe just the use of 2 local Newton Abbot branch engines to replace a larger loco (again, how common vs using a larger loco which is usually what is indicated) on the assumption that this wasn't a very long local train?

 

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by mdvle

[melmerby]

It seems to be at least 12 coaches which I would imagine is too much for a single 45XX

 

Look like 70' vehicles which are even heavier than the 57' ones

[MPR]

These look like large prairies to me. It could be a positioning move for one of the locomotives - there were limited paths over the single line section to Kingswear. Load is very heavy for a branch portion and of mainline stock with a full brake at the front, so maybe a holiday relief?

Nice picture though, not seen it before.

[Ray M]

Jeez

that photo brings back some memories.

I used to mess around on those rocks, watching warships going up and down that line.

[melmerby]

10 hours ago, MPR said:

These look like large prairies to me.

Still probably too much load for a singleton.

[The Stationmaster]

The unassisted load for a large prairie from Paignton to Kingswear was 300 tons and that train would have been over the load.  So while it might been a positioning move for the second engine I would say that it is definitely there, on the front of course, to provide assistance.

[eastglosmog]

Just a thought, but is it a posed photograph?  There does not seem to be any smoke and steam as might be expected.  Also the motion of both locomotives seems to be in the same place.

[melmerby]

Just now, eastglosmog said:

Just a thought, but is it a posed photograph?  There does not seem to be any smoke and steam as might be expected.  Also the motion of both locomotives seems to be in the same place.

There is smoke as it's drifting in front of that tree behind loco number 2

It's just that the sky is bleached out somewhat.