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Warships at Bodmin General


jbg
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Having been given a copy of  “Devon & Cornwall Railfreight” by David Mitchell for Christmas, I was interested to see the photo of D812 at Bodmin General taken in September 1971 on a clay working from Boscarne to Lostwithiel. 
 

I had previously found that Warships may have operated on some of the heavier clay trains from Bodmin from an earlier (1965/66) working timetable but had not seen any photographic evidence until receiving the book. 
 

Does anyone have any other information about these workings and in particular which Warships may have been used?

 

Thanks

 

Jeremy

Edited by jbg
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I've seen a couple of similar photos of 824 Highflyer here, around this period (same livery).

One day in early September 1971 805 Benbow propelled two red bogie rerailing vans all the way down to Wadebridge to rescue D4008 (whether the 08 or its wagons had fallen off is unknown). Presumably running round at Bodmin General had been skipped to save time. I witnessed this passing Polbrock Bridge, near Grogley Halt, as I just happened to be there for a week's youth club camp! A photo of 805 & vans at Bodmin General has come to light in recent years. (If this story sounds familiar you may have read it in Traction magazine's letters pages many years back, where a re-typing error had Benbow heading to Wenford Bridge instead of Wadebridge - a correction appeared in the following issue, but a Warship to Wenford certainly boggles the mind!!)

This book sounds like one to add to my collection too.

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That's the one! Lovely camping weather too. With the loco being on this end this must have been the return working and 805 had just run round, ready to head downhill to Bodmin Road. D4008 followed about 90 minutes later. Exeter-Waterloo headcode up a Cornish backwater?!

A couple of off-topic comments - the Hawksworth coach on the left must have been preserved saddle tank 1363's partner W7372W, one of a pair (the other being W7377W) of former WR Royal Train brake vehicles which only ever carried chocolate/cream livery, first GWR then BR(WR); and D4008 was later renumbered 08840 still in green and AFAIK still fitted with radiator ladders (I didn't notice such things at the time myself but I believe there's a photo in Bradford Barton' s Diesels in Action 5) - blue 08931 (ex-D4161) probably did too, and 08928 (ex-4158) certainly did as a couple of photos can be found on the above-mentioned CRS website, under Long Rock. I can't see the 805 photo there, but I'm a regular viewer and last weekend asked them to post a reminder that last Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the first Peak to Penzance, with my rather cr*p instamatic photo of D151 taken the following day.

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Thanks for the information, at least it seems that Warships were reasonable regular visitors in the early 1970’s. 
 

I thought the book was quite helpful. It gives a general overview of traffic from nationalisation onwards and then looks in more depth at various traffic types including china clay, ball clay, oil, timber, cement and so on. It is a bit biased to the period from the late 1970’s until current traffic but, in my view, is a very useful addition to the library and has certainly answered a few queries I had about freight services in both counties. 
 

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18 minutes ago, Neil Phillips said:

That's the one! Lovely camping weather too. With the loco being on this end this must have been the return working and 805 had just run round, ready to head downhill to Bodmin Road. D4008 followed about 90 minutes later. Exeter-Waterloo headcode up a Cornish backwater?!

A couple of off-topic comments - the Hawksworth coach on the left must have been preserved saddle tank 1363's partner W7372W, one of a pair (the other being W7377W) of former WR Royal Train brake vehicles which only ever carried chocolate/cream livery, first GWR then BR(WR); and D4008 was later renumbered 08840 still in green and AFAIK still fitted with radiator ladders (I didn't notice such things at the time myself but I believe there's a photo in Bradford Barton' s Diesels in Action 5) - blue 08931 (ex-D4161) probably did too, and 08928 (ex-4158) certainly did as a couple of photos can be found on the above-mentioned CRS website, under Long Rock. I can't see the 805 photo there, but I'm a regular viewer and last weekend asked them to post a reminder that last Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the first Peak to Penzance, with my rather cr*p instamatic photo of D151 taken the following day.

 

Those two Hawksworth 'specials were kept in the long carriage shed at Old Oak with strict instructions to be kept shipshape and ready to go at all times. As for 08 840, I'm sure I have a photo of it somewhere in green with the ladders intact, I'll have a look.

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There is always the possibility that within Cornwall the need to keep the required level of Traction and Route familiarity for the drivers meant that all sorts of locomotives could, and did, turn up anywhere.

Even as late as 2003,  the 47 off the Postal had a run up to Goonbarrow in the early afternoon quite often.

Edited by LBRJ
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I'd be interested in seeing a photo of 08840 in green if you can find it, as I have a part-finished model - all I keep finding is 08839 which didn't retain its ladders!

LBRJ, I've always thought that this was the reason why D7029 & D7088 were sent to Laira Aug - Nov 67, the same months that D601/2/4 spent in South Wales. It was an opportunity to maintain local traction familiarity on Hymeks. I saw both working the down Cornish Riviera Express through Truro during that period, but I don't know what else they worked and have no idea if they ventured down any branch lines (but I'd love to know - Hymeks on the clays?!)

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