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Ilfracombe GWR stock


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Thanks again.

 

The slips are interesting. I always have trouble discerning from Bradshaw which are through trains and which are connections, but some of the through services from Paddington are definitely slips at Taunton. There is also what I think is a through train from Bristol, possibly even Liverpool (although that may be a connection).

 

Yes, mid-20s, with all sorts of fascinating antiques from both SR and GWR ....... if ever I’m reborn with an infinity of skill, time, and space.

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22 hours ago, bécasse said:

I always assumed that OOC made up the sets for departures from Paddington by rolling dice. Most trains certainly looked as if they had been made up in a random fashion.

I thought it was a GWR rule that you couldn't have two of the same next to each other except on Named Expresses or B-sets

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19 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Thanks again.

 

The slips are interesting. I always have trouble discerning from Bradshaw which are through trains and which are connections, but some of the through services from Paddington are definitely slips at Taunton. There is also what I think is a through train from Bristol, possibly even Liverpool (although that may be a connection).

 

Yes, mid-20s, with all sorts of fascinating antiques from both SR and GWR ....... if ever I’m reborn with an infinity of skill, time, and space.

 

Yes, although the Barnstaple Town project is trying to build up stock for the c.1907-1914 period, this is one line that I think is at least as varied and interesting during Grouping as it was pre-Grouping.

 

For those used to the idea of Bulleid air-smoothed pacifics hauling ACE portions down to Ilfracombe, the pre-Grouping period will seem restrictive and quaint, but a variety of Adams types in Drummond livery with the L&B on the opposite platform face appeals to me. Then again, with the period 1925-1935, arguably you get the best of both worlds.  

 

Checking the Ilfracombe turntable point, originally it was a very modest 40'. By my period of interest it has been replaced by Oakhampton's 42' table (1895).  It's a busy station, of course, enlarged in the '90s with 5 carriage sidings by 1902, suggesting a good volume of traffic through Barnstaple Town, and plenty of SW and GW coaches were in evidence at Ilfracombe.

 

According to Nicolas & Reeve's book on the North Devon, it was the advent of N Class Moguls on Exeter-Ilfracombe services in 1925 that necessitated a larger table*.  Thus, I see the new 65' turn table as facilitating through services, both SR and GW. The text discusses through coaches and then comments "As business built up there were more through services and at peak periods whole trains ran .... exclusively to Ilfracombe".

 

The text also refers to the commencement of through working of GW locomotives to Ilfracombe in 1925, although GW trains were also worked by SR locos. Bulldogs seem often to have been employed, one glorious picture showing Launceston given banking assistance by an M7. So a GW train with both a GW and a SR loco.  What could be better?

 

Returning, if I may, to my pet project, Barnstaple Town, the late '20s-c.1930 allow for that variety and interest in trains from the mainline companies that you describe, but the L&B interest is also retained.  It has been in the back of my mind to have a "second period" for the layout, covering this, though the focus is on the earlier period for now.    

 

*The book contains a wonderful plate of a SR N Class Mogul heading a train of GW clerestories. Your point in a nutshell.

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