North Devon line services in 1980s

[Ramblin Rich]

Kenny*, thanks for that - it seems the late 70s / early 80s would need a whole load of Vanfits! Another pic I remeber seeing (& can't now find) is of a 25 heading across Instow level crossing with what the caption said was 20 Vans from Torrington. Might need more siding space...

 

* assume it's ok to say Kenny- I'm definitely not your parents....

[Rivercider]

Kenny*, thanks for that - it seems the late 70s / early 80s would need a whole load of Vanfits! Another pic I remeber seeing (& can't now find) is of a 25 heading across Instow level crossing with what the caption said was 20 Vans from Torrington. Might need more siding space...

 

* assume it's ok to say Kenny- I'm definitely not your parents....

 

 

No problem there.

Once I had settled into the forum I did not want to remain anonymous, but realised that my former BR/EWS colleagues

would know me as Kevin, whereas others might not.

 

You are correct, you can never have too many vanfits!

 

cheers

[Ramblin Rich]

I've just noticed that Steve Johnson has added a whole new section to the Cyberheritage site with pictures taken by a railway employee (Dave Vinsen). Haven't had chance to digest it all yet but looks to be another useful resource

[Ramblin Rich]

Bingo! Lapford yard with Polybulk & OTAs - that timber stack will never fit in those wagons...!

An older shot with a very dusty 25 and Vanfits in Lapford yard

Evidence of Clayhoods (as well as sheeted opens) from Meeth - I knew thay ran, there was a picture on Ken Baker's site but wanted another image now Fotopic AWOL

How about this - captioned "MGR wagons on trial for clay use" - an HAA & HEA I think in 1977

 

Info in the notes also interesting:

Ferry vans may have carried moulds for Torrington glass?

Re the "mixed" train: 0713 from Barnstaple . This was the return working of the 0300 mails fromExeter . Possibly it was a Saturday in the winter timetable and the second engine is the freight engine. From this distance in time I cannot remember what the workings where and of course they changed from time to time. The formation of the train was (from the Barnstaple end – 6 four wheel vans and two coaches, one being a BCK and the other a second though I cannot recall if it was open or corridor). The 0713 was also shown in the timetable as being mixed. I cannot recall it conveying wagons though I believe it may have conveyed Presflos on occasions.

More:After telling you that the 0713 mails conveyed six four wheeled vans (which is what I definitely remember) I noticed in the shot of the 08 what is obviously a LMR bogie van!

And a nice "special" :The train hauled by a 31 that I have labelled as a boat train is not of course such a train in the conventional sense. The train was provided for the naming ceremony of a boat at Appledore shipbuilders. I believe it was an Ellermans Line ship. The train was composed of first class stock and had catering facilities. I presume it conveyed its patrons to Bideford and they where taken on by road transport

The UKF fertilizers: Shot 576 shows the empty Pallet vans coming back from Lapford. These where conveyed on the Sundays only UKF Fertilisers train from Ince and Elton to Truro and where detached at Exeter . They where then tripped to Lapford on the Monday morning, the engine would then return light from Lapford and would also serve the oil sidings at Tiverton Junction if required. Any engine could turn up on this train, I can remember a Peak on one occasion. The freight did not run to Barnstaple on a Monday in those days. The loaded Pallet vans had too high an RA to run to Barnstaple but I did see a rake of empty ones down there once. A light engine would go down to Lapford on the Monday afternoon to pick up the empties. So seems like the "company" block working was left in Lapford yard to be unloaded, then retrieved later in the day. Doesn't really tally with the other images showing PWAs at Barnstaple having come up from Lapford - either there were additional vans taken as part of the Speedlink services (unlikely?) or the working practise changed...

Edited February 22, 2012 by Ramblin Rich

[bubbles2]

Wow..... thats a real feast of 70s and 80s railway nostalgia.

[TomJ]

Rich

 

If your indicision continues to turn up gems like that website then please, please keep going with some more prevarication!!! That site is fantastic, and the notes from a railwayman are really helpful for getting operations right. The more I look at it the Barnstaple line seems to good to be true - a single track cross country line with shortish loco hauled trains (think you could easily get away with 3 coaches on a model), varied freight, interesting (and sometimes bizzare) operating practices in glorious scenary. What a pity the only bit of my 80s West Country layout I've built is a china clay works. Ho hum, time for a dose of modellers license!

 

As an aside to add variety (jf more were needed) could you re-located Meldon Quarry so the stone trains would run through your imaginary station?

 

Keep finding us more photos.

 

 

[Clay Country]

That's a fantastic find Rich. I've been studying the North Devon line for some time now and I've never seen pictures of Scottish Distillers polybulks on the branch (and certainly not MGR wagons!).

[Ramblin Rich]

Keith - yes, I'd seen the Grainflow wagons on "the other bit" of Cyberheritage - but the Distillers one seems wonderfully out of place! Those air-braked hoppers were presumably being demonstrated to persuade the clay pit owners to invest in new stock - as we know, that came to nothing...

Tom - the variety is what's swung me away for the china clay setting I'd originally planned. As you say, short loco-hauled passenger trains & mixture of freight flows really hits the mark. Ok, the freight train numbers are limited, but the majority of china clay plants could really only justify 1 or 2 trains daily - if that (Carbis Wharf - one wagon a month!).

As a long-term scheme (if i ever have the time & money) I've thought of an amalgam of Crediton & Lapford - keeping the freight interest of Lapford, with the Meldon quarry traffic too. Or am I being too greedy?

More interest - a Siphon G for newspaper traffic with what looks like a ETH connection?

And my nomination for "prettiest freight train picture"

[Glorious NSE]

Whilst it's true there isn't oodles of freight traffic the variety somewhat makes up for it - for the AB era you have:

 

Steel

Clay

Timber

Grain

Fertiliser

Cement

 

And the first couple of those could potentially use a variety of wagon types. But you probably won't want to be running a train of more than 4 or 5 wagons anyhow, so even if you ran a cycle of: Freight - DMU - DMU Substitute - And then back to Freight etc - it would be a while before you ended up with the same (or even similar) consist.

 

'Nuther freight thought, when did the power station between Barnstaple and Bideford shut? Even if (I presume) coal came by sea it might require the occasional tank of fuel to prime it?

[Rivercider]

East Yelland Power Station opended 1955 and closed 1984.

As you correctly say was coal fired, supplied from South Wales by sea.

 

cheers

[eastwestdivide]

Going back to 08 shunters at Barnstaple, my 1979 ICRS Shunter Duties book only lists Meldon quarry pilot (a "continuous" duty), Exeter area and Newton Abbot area duties for the NA shunters. The 1981 issue doesn't list Barnstaple either.

[Fat Controller]

That building at Lapford is a rather wonderful construction, looking like something out of 'Mittel Europ'- was it originally an abatoir, as I believe there was somewhere in North Devon that used to despatch meat in containers?

[Adam]

That building at Lapford is a rather wonderful construction, looking like something out of 'Mittel Europ'- was it originally an abatoir, as I believe there was somewhere in North Devon that used to despatch meat in containers?

 

Possibly, there was certainly one at Halwill, and as you say, it does look right...

 

Adam

[Ramblin Rich]

More discussion - very satisfying!

@ Martyn - absolutely, that's the attaction in my mind - short but varied looking freights + short passenger / NPCCS + DMUs

@ "eastwest" - I feel convinced that the 08 left Barnstaple early 70s - all the pictures from 1980 onwards only show 25s, 31s or 33s in the yard.

@ Brian + Adam - as I understood, it was a creamery at Lapford which despatched milk tanks until the mid 70s, which was then adapted to warehouse use for the UKF fertilizer traffic. Don't know if that's the building actually in the picture, although there's definitely a loading dock under that canopy. I do remember there being a reference to an abbatoir existing in the arch of the road bridge at Lapford (the one on the left in the pic of the 25 linked above) - can't have been very nice having that at the end of the platform!

[eastwestdivide]

More interest - a Siphon G for newspaper traffic with what looks like a ETH connection?

There was a whole bunch of those back then - you'd see them making their way back to London from the westcountry during the day in pretty long trains. The 1978 RCTS coaching stock book lists 116 Siphon G's left, of which 34 were dual heat newspaper vans. Presumably heated for the overnight sorters who travelled in them?

[The Stationmaster]

There was a whole bunch of those back then - you'd see them making their way back to London from the westcountry during the day in pretty long trains. The 1978 RCTS coaching stock book lists 116 Siphon G's left, of which 34 were dual heat newspaper vans. Presumably heated for the overnight sorters who travelled in them?

 

Indeed they were - the packers were not very happy if they had to work in the cold although their job always struck me as pretty arduous.

[Rivercider]

That building at Lapford is a rather wonderful construction, looking like something out of 'Mittel Europ'- was it originally an abatoir, as I believe there was somewhere in North Devon that used to despatch meat in containers?

 

There was a slaughterhouse at Eggesford north of the station on the upside, served by a long siding.

The yard there closed in 1965.

 

cheers

[Pennine MC]

Yelland PS has always struck me as a fascinating 'might have been' as a traffic source, it did have rail access.

 

...I'd seen the Grainflow wagons on "the other bit" of Cyberheritage - but the Distillers one seems wonderfully out of place!

 

Without running upstairs to check, ISTR the DCL ones and the Grainflows were operated as a common fleet after a certain point.

 

Cracking site, though but

[Glorious NSE]

Yelland PS has always struck me as a fascinating 'might have been' as a traffic source, it did have rail access.

 

All you need is the coaster accidentally demolishing the dock one foggy night and a temporary rail flow might be the obvious temporary stand-in?

[Fat Controller]

All you need is the coaster accidentally demolishing the dock one foggy night and a temporary rail flow might be the obvious temporary stand-in?

Or HMS Troutbridge heading up-river...

'Starboard Lookout here- Leading Seaman Golstein chatting..'

'Everybody down..'

'Oops' Lovable Leslie didn't notice that'

[bubbles2]

I'm puzzled by this picture.

 

http://www.cyber-her...20P%20Arms.html

 

The last wagon, next to the brake appears to be raifreight red livery but surely the picture must pre-date rail-freight red with a class 25 at the head. So what date did rail-freight red come into use and when did the class 25s leave the west-country?

[Pennine MC]

The last wagon, next to the brake appears to be raifreight red livery

 

It is, it's a very new-looking SPA

 

but surely the picture must pre-date rail-freight red with a class 25 at the head.

 

Nope

 

So what date did rail-freight red come into use and when did the class 25s leave the west-country?

 

IIRC the SPAs appeared in 1979, the 25s went up country sometime in 1980. So it is a fairly narrow window.

[bubbles2]

Thanks for the reply Pennine, as you say a narrow window and not a combination of wagon livery/ loco that I recall seeing before.

[Ramblin Rich]

Good find Bubbles - seems to be sheeted open "clayliners" and Vanfits with the SPAs behind, mainly vac brakes with the SPAs running unfitted so a brake van needed too. All adds to the variety of possible trains & it's what attracts me to the line in comparison to china clay in Cornwall. Need to sell off all my CDAs and buy a mix of other wagons now....!

Thanks too Ian - useful timing info.

A few of the other dates I've identified. I've always aimed for post-1976 to avoid needing headcodes (which would almost always be incorrect). After then, we have:

Torrington milk trains running until 1978

25s lasting until 1980

Torrington fertilizer traffic in Vanfits around the same time

Ball clay traffic from Meeth until 1982

Speedlink / Barnstaple goods until 1987

Lapford UKF / Kemira trains until 1993

Haven't figured yet when loco hauled passenger & parcels traffic lasted until - but then there was the infamous DMU substitution era with 50s on scabby Mk1s (or hauled failed DMUs) in the early 90s.

[Rivercider]

Haven't figured yet when loco hauled passenger & parcels traffic lasted until - but then there was the infamous DMU substitution era with 50s on scabby Mk1s (or hauled failed DMUs) in the early 90s.

 

 

Rich I have WTT Section PC dated 14th May 1984 - 12th May 1985, to give a little more info on loco-hauled workings.

 

The following services are of interest, others are formed of DMUs.

 

Down Mon - Fri

3C60 03.00 St. Davids - Barnstaple (due 04.32) Mail. Timing load D525 VB

1C07 04.05 St. Davids - Barnstaple (due 05.07) Passenger and News. Timing load D1(T) DMU authorised to convey tail traffic.

2B78 15.00 St. Davids - Barnstaple (due 15.55) Timing load D350 VB.

 

Up Mon - Fri

2B67 07.10 Barnstaple - St. Davids (due 08.21) Timing Load D350 VB

2C21 16.07 Barnstaple - St. Davids (due 17.25) Timing load D350 VB

2B87 20.55 Barnstaple - St. Davids (due 21.57). Comment 'mail' but shown as DMU but with no 'D1(T)' entry to authorise tail traffic.

 

2B67 the 07.10 departure is presumably the descendant of the 'Mixed' service, and returns the vans received off 3C60 and 1C07.

Of course modellers licence would enable you to run tail traffic on 2B87 up in the evening for variety.

 

Saturday early morning is similar, but in the summer service until 29th September there are a total of 6 loco-hauled services

and 5 DMU services over the route each way

Sunday service until 30th September all 3 services are shown as D350 timing loads each way.

.

That is the latest WTT I have.

 

 

(The timing load D350 means Diesel Traction and load 350 tonnes on which the trains timing is based)

cheers

Edited April 14, 2011 by Rivercider