bgman Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 May be of interest, caught on my iPhone on 24th April 2017 just as I arrived to catch a train home from Crediton. Loco stock being moved from Okehampton. It was an unexpected arrival so I apologies for the quality of the video as I quickly took my 'phone out to capture it happening. G 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D826 Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 BG man, cracking - do you know where the 33, 47 and 45 were heading to call home ? I'm sitting looking over the Taw Valley towards Abbots Marsh further north up the line right now ! It's truly lovely country. Best regards Matt W 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgman Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 5 minutes ago, D826 said: BG man, cracking - do you know where the 33, 47 and 45 were heading to call home ? I'm sitting looking over the Taw Valley towards Abbots Marsh further north up the line right now ! It's truly lovely country. Best regards Matt W Hi Matt, Thank you, I should have looked into it but never found out where they were heading, plus my train was just about to arrive so it was a quick run across the bridge to catch it ! Enjoy the views it is quite lovely. G Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Hal Nail Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Zomboid said: Was that train due to call anyway? I had the impression that there were very few trains which would actually stop at all stations. Last I knew there were only 3 or 4 opportunities a day to use Portsmouth Arms, for example. We did stop to pick up at a couple that hadn't been mentioned at all, whereas we didn't stop at any of the ones he did flag! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northmoor Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2021 2 hours ago, Zomboid said: Was that train due to call anyway? I had the impression that there were very few trains which would actually stop at all stations. Last I knew there were only 3 or 4 opportunities a day to use Portsmouth Arms, for example. All stations on the branch except Barnstaple itself are in the bottom 20% of stations in terms of usage. There are five stations in the bottom 10% and two are in the bottom 1%. I think the bottom two are only officially served about twice a day each way; it simply isn't worth stopping trains most of the time. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zomboid Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 The only mild surprise there is Crediton, I'd have expected that to be reasonably well used. Though I suppose the town isn't actually all that big. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgman Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 10 minutes ago, Zomboid said: The only mild surprise there is Crediton, I'd have expected that to be reasonably well used. Though I suppose the town isn't actually all that big. I would beg to differ on that point. It currently runs at approx. 21,000 with new housing being built some of which is very close to Crediton Station. That said with a frequent bus service to both Exeter / Barny and a good road link it may suffer slightly. The early trains to Exeter are usually full with commuters, likewise early evening coming home. Weekends are also fairly full with shoppers / sports fans being taken directly into the City centre ( Based upon pre- Covid use ) . I suppose the main bugbear is the fact that the station is a brisk walk from the town centre ( much like Okehampton in some respects ) however the car parking opposite the station is used by both shoppers and commuters either local or further afield. With a large Tesco store in very close proximity the station is also used by country folk for convenient shopping too. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2021 @Coombe Barton any chance of changing the title of the thread as we've gone from 'in administration' to 'reopening soon' 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2021 On 18/10/2021 at 21:37, Northmoor said: Running round is very constraining on train scheduling because there is a minimum time to do a run-round; consider a special visiting multiple branches and which is likely to need 10 minutes (minimum) to run round each time, as it's an unfamiliar operation which the staff are probably not well-practised at every location. The operator might have intended to spend 20 minutes at each terminus (for the loonies to run out to take the same three-quarter view of the loco that they took at all the other termini), so if running late, they cannot really exploit recovery time from the termini. Topping and tailing, the operator can cut the visit short to five minutes and start to make up significant time. Another thing to consider is the driver + Guard are usually entitled to a PNB and a period of rest before taking the train back out. Quite clearly they cannot be doing these if engaged in 'running round' - which then means you need to employ more staff to do the actual running round procedure if you want relatively quick turn round times. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 11 hours ago, Hal Nail said: I'm not sure about all the crossings but trains heading towards Exeter stop short of the Crediton level crossing at the signal box, I assumed to hand the token over given the sign there saying "end of token controlled section" but i was guessing! Obviously therefore trains heading towards Barnstaple have to wait to cross onto the right hand line and collect the token so by default there is a delay over that crossing and when i was there they always opened the barriers in between. In terms of capacity on the Barnstaple route, I did notice last week that they don't announce any of the request stops in the last section towards Barnstaple and I got the impression in both directions that they needed to get a shift on, whereas the first "half" of the route was a bit more leisurely and each stop was flagged in advance. Edited to be more relevant to the point made. As well as Crediton where traincrew have to receive or give up a token from/to the signaller I was also thinking of Salmon Pool Crossing, which is subject to a speed limit. Although there are two single lines at that point I thought that once a train had passed the crossing on one line there was a delay before a train could pass on the other line, though I am not certain of the details. The procedure at Eggesford where the traincrew operate the barriers and also have to access the signalling tokens is also a time consuming procedure, cheers 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Ramblin Rich said: @Coombe Barton any chance of changing the title of the thread as we've gone from 'in administration' to 'reopening soon' Well seeing as the initial posts on the thread are to do with the railway falling into administration, a better title would be something like the one used to discuss the fall & rise of the class 60s. How about "Okehampton Railway, Administration & rebirth" 4 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 not long now keep your eyes on the local news 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium corneliuslundie Posted November 15, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 15, 2021 Is it best to close this thread now, as there is a new one dealing with the re-opening already? Jonathan 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 the VIPs are there today for the opening 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted November 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 17, 2021 Oh now this is confusing! Andy has renamed this thread but there is the other one as well. Is it worth merging them or closing one? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Not Jeremy Posted November 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 17, 2021 Keep 'em both going - it's "double bubble" - what's not to like?! 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claire RJ Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 Having accurately surveyed and built scale models of Okehampton's station buildings, I have studied the history of this particular railway line fairly extensively. I very much doubt if anything will happen with regard to the second platform at Yeoford. That they have done as much as they have towards Okehampton I see very much as an exploratory move with a view to going on in the distant future to connect back up to Bere Alston, which is not going to please my friends who own Bridestowe station very much! 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted November 21, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Claire RJ said: connect back up to Bere Alston, which is not going to please my friends who own Bridestowe station very much! I suspect Bridestowe could be by-passed on a new alignment. Unlike Lydford which is constrained very tightly by the local geography. If we are talking re-purchase of lands then the cost of a new alignment may not be much different. I don't expect intermediate stations to re-open meaning Bridestowe would potentially be re-purchased without much reason. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zomboid Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 Okehampton is an end in itself, being a reasonable sized town with a useable (with a little work) station and existing railway. Getting through Tavistock on the old alignment is going to need a lot of demolition, never mind the various other places en route, and Meldon viaduct reputedly isn't up to much, both of which make any future reconnection pretty far off. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted November 22, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 22, 2021 10 hours ago, Zomboid said: Okehampton is an end in itself, being a reasonable sized town with a useable (with a little work) station and existing railway. Getting through Tavistock on the old alignment is going to need a lot of demolition, never mind the various other places en route, and Meldon viaduct reputedly isn't up to much, both of which make any future reconnection pretty far off. The business case would also be very poor. The amount of traffic between Tavistock, Okehampton and Exeter would be very low. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike_Walker Posted November 22, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 22, 2021 In conjunction with the reopening, a new bus service has been started between Tavistock and Okehampton station via Lydford connecting with the trains. It's run by Dartline in partnership with GWR. It will be interesting to see how well its used. 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 (edited) On 22/11/2021 at 11:46, Mike_Walker said: In conjunction with the reopening, a new bus service has been started between Tavistock and Okehampton station via Lydford connecting with the trains. It's run by Dartline in partnership with GWR. It will be interesting to see how well its used. When I went up to Okehampton on Monday on the 08.34 from Exeter Central there were about 15 passengers, two of them caught the 118 bus. Bus waiting outside the station front. 22/11/2021 Here is the bus departing from Okehampton, 22/11/2021 I hope the bus is well used, I might even have a ride myself one day. Since travelling up on one of the summer Sunday services several years ago I have made many return visits to the town, and we have also had four spring breaks staying in the town. The bus will be useful as part of a walking day out cheers, Edited November 25, 2021 by Rivercider Grammar 6 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 the station car park at Okehampton has not been finished due to dormice 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted November 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 25, 2021 30 minutes ago, ess1uk said: the station car park at Okehampton has not been finished due to dormice There are some things that you just couldn't make up! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 They are quite prevalent apparently 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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