Okehampton station footbridge roof blown off

[Graham_Muz]

And before anyone gets on the usual high horse of blaming  the Americans for the term 'Train Station' the first recorded use of the term was in the fact within the Times newspaper in 1876!  

Edited January 8 by Graham_Muz

[Mallard60022]

Railway Station.

[Reorte]

As always when "train station" gets brought up I'll ask "When did you last fly from a planeport?"

[Re6/6]

25 minutes ago, Reorte said:

As always when "train station" gets brought up I'll ask "When did you last fly from a planeport?"

....but I've trvelled on a bus from a bus staion..........hat...coat!😜

Edited January 8 by Re6/6

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

As always when "train station" gets brought up I'll ask "When did you last fly from a planeport?"

There's an airport up the Hill from me which no ordinary mortal can fly from - it used to be an Air Station in RAF days !

[Not Jeremy]

18 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

Probably not  (why would NR put something back that serves no useful purpose for fare paying passengers and which is not integral to providing access to platforms 1 / 2).

 

Although I believe the station is listed I don’t think the law compels owners to reinstate things which have been damaged by ‘force mejure’ type events as opposed to deliberate acts of damage (be it deliberately undertaken by the owners or vandalism)

 

Ho hum, as cheerful as ever.

 

Not everything is done by means of law and compulsion you know. For starters the Okehampton route would not have been put back on to the National rail network at all, if your narrow and depressing view of everything was as pervasive and all encompassing as you would have us believe 

 

And if "they" won't put the footbridge roof back, then let's start a campaign or fund to get it replaced! I will most certainly contribute to what would be a very worthwhile project.

 

It will cost peanuts relative to much that is achieved in the world of preservation and I bet the various organisations involved would be highly supportive.

 

You will probably now come up with some mind numbingly negative response to this shockingly positive suggestion, or perhaps not - perhaps you have something positive to contribute?

 

I do hope so, this is what we are aiming for - hardly a new Jerusalem!

[phil-b259]

3 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

 

Ho hum, as cheerful as ever.

 

Not everything is done by means of law and compulsion you know. For starters the Okehampton route would not have been put back on to the National rail network at all, if your narrow and depressing view of everything was as pervasive and all encompassing as you would have us believe 

 

 

In case it has escaped your attention - please remember that Network Rails budget has been slashed by the Government. Given NR have openly said (in their response to the ORRs financial settlement)  that this WILL translate into a progressive decline in infrastructure assets as renewals are deferred, temporary fixes become semi-permeant ones, speed limits are imposed for longer, load limits applied etc then restoring a footbridge (which is apparently not even a NR asset) is not something any sane NR manager would do unless the work was being funded by a third party.

 

You also need to remember the reopening of the Okehampton railway to passengers only came about because it was awarded specific Government funding to upgrade it - NR did NOT have to fund it out of their own budgets (though obviously they assumed responsibility to maintain from their own coffers going forward). NR as a body is effectively there to maintain the status quo - expansion or provision of significant new infrastructure is driven by outside parties (i.e. What the DfT tell it to do).

 

Yes I know that's depressing - but if you worked in the industry an saw what was going on underneath all the PR bull**** bingo being pedalled by NR / the DfT you would understand the future is nowhere near as rosy as they want you believe it is.

 

You should also take note that local authorities (including the one which we are told owns the footbridge) are also facing incredibly budget pleasure with many not that far away from effective bankruptcy and as such they too are similarly looking to conserve every penny and not shell out on things that are not essential.

 

On the flip side there are of course organisations like the Railway Heritage Committee which may be able to pull in funding from several partners to undertake a restoration - but given the times we live in there are going to be a lot of projects hoping to get funding going forward and you cannot escape the fact that in ranking terms this particular footbridge seems an unlikely to be considered the most worthy candidate.

 

3 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

 

 

And if "they" won't put the footbridge roof back, then let's start a campaign or fund to get it replaced!

 

 

Which is I suspect the answer to getting the roof put back on. If pitched and run rightly, such a fundraising drive may even be able to discover ways of getting cash out of local authorities / NR from their 'charitable giving / good causes' budgets....

 

Edited January 8 by phil-b259

[Mike_Walker]

Quite right.  Considering Network Rail is so starved of cash by the government its Wales & Western region can't even afford to maintain the 125mph main lines to a standard to prevent three broken rails in as many weeks then don't expect them to fund something cosmetic like this.

[woodenhead]

9 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

Quite right.  Considering Network Rail is so starved of cash by the government its Wales & Western region can't even afford to maintain the 125mph main lines to a standard to prevent three broken rails in as many weeks then don't expect them to fund something cosmetic like this.

How long before DFT begin to PR a new Intercity 175 railway

[Talltim]

15 hours ago, MartinRS said:

Wikipedia, citing RailAdvent, says, 'The council retains control of the rest of the station (platforms 1 and 2) and is responsible for maintenance of the footbridge'.

Repeating for emphasis

[adb968008]

The roof of the footbridge will be restored when the country is in a position to restore its own roof, but thats been leaking for most of this century.

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Mike_Walker said:

Quite right.  Considering Network Rail is so starved of cash by the government its Wales & Western region can't even afford to maintain the 125mph main lines to a standard to prevent three broken rails in as many weeks then don't expect them to fund something cosmetic like this.

I take your point absoltely Mike but could those broken rails have been avoided if NR had been bright enough to put speeds on as soon as the basic cause was plain to see even from a train window.   I fully appreciate that a novice flying down from Aberdeen tp Bristol would be unlikely to see them but I would have hoped that someone in NR actually travels by train with their eyes open (although I do wonder about that).

 

But I can accept that if they had been picked up in time to avoid rail breaks then judging by the way NR 'fixed' one of the sites on the Up Main near West Drayton it mght have been as much down to lack of money as it was to lack of understanding of what is happening to the sub-formation and how ro deal with it.

 

Alas those of us living in the Thames Valley have seen it all before and know how it was fixed that time round.  And why it should not not have developed in recently relaid track this time round.  Is a job not done properly in the first place (e.g relaying at Slough West Up Main) down to incompetence, lack of knowledge/experience, or lack of money, when the additional cost would have been peanuts at a time when the financial screw was not being tightened?

[adb968008]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I take your point absoltely Mike but could those broken rails have been avoided if NR had been bright enough to put speeds on as soon as the basic cause was plain to see even from a train window.   I fully appreciate that a novice flying down from Aberdeen tp Bristol would be unlikely to see them but I would have hoped that someone in NR actually travels by train with their eyes open (although I do wonder about that).

 

But I can accept that if they had been picked up in time to avoid rail breaks then judging by the way NR 'fixed' one of the sites on the Up Main near West Drayton it mght have been as much down to lack of money as it was to lack of understanding of what is happening to the sub-formation and how ro deal with it.

 

Alas those of us living in the Thames Valley have seen it all before and know how it was fixed that time round.  And why it should not not have developed in recently relaid track this time round.  Is a job not done properly in the first place (e.g relaying at Slough West Up Main) down to incompetence, lack of knowledge/experience, or lack of money, when the additional cost would have been peanuts at a time when the financial screw was not being tightened?

Isnt this what the plethora of Network rail test trains, and various camera fitted LE moves etc are supposed to detect ?

[The Stationmaster]

39 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Isnt this what the plethora of Network rail test trains, and various camera fitted LE moves etc are supposed to detect ?

If they run.  Not much use if they don't cover a route at least once a week - which in this case means two return journeys between Didcot and Paddington.   (Swindon would be even better than Didcot and it only needs one return journey thence to Didcot.),

 

But stagff travelling to/from work or on duty/n business can be just as useful if they know what to look for or they understand what the are feeling when a train hits the bad spots.  But I wonder how many NR senior, or indeed any, staff regularly commute by trains or even travel on one at all; and if they do can they be bothered to look out of the window?

[AY Mod]

Back to bridges and wind.

[Kylestrome]

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

... and wind.

 

Quite! 😁

[KingEdwardII]

Perhaps they should hand over rebuilding of the bridge to one of the preservation groups. They have done magnificent jobs on footbridge reconstruction in numerous locations. Broadway on the GWSR is a great example.

 

Yours, Mike.

[Rivercider]

32 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

Perhaps they should hand over rebuilding of the bridge to one of the preservation groups. They have done magnificent jobs on footbridge reconstruction in numerous locations. Broadway on the GWSR is a great example.

 

Yours, Mike.

The Dartmoor Railway Association are still involved at Okehampton Station, there are some details of the incident on their website.

Okehampton station is therefore something of a hybrid station, part National Rail, part heritage.  Platforms 1 and 2 are currently closed, with no access to the museum rooms.  Since the footbridge is the link from platform 3 where the DRA have their shop in the main station building I suspect replacement of the roof is more likely to happen than might be the case in many other locations.

 

cheers

[Wickham Green too]

A footbridge without a roof is still a footbridge ........... or are other structural issues suspected perhaps ?

[Rivercider]

42 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

A footbridge without a roof is still a footbridge ........... or are other structural issues suspected perhaps ?

I don't know about any other structural issues with the footbridge.

I agree that a footbridge without a roof still does the job, but to some extent Okehampton Station

is a destination in its own right.

On the main platform 3 is the Bulleid Buffet, and the DRA have their shop. The former ticket office has been retained as a heritage display.

Over the footbridge on platform 1/2 is the DRA museum. Also the former goods shed is now in use as a Youth Hostel.

The station itself is the starting point for a number of walks, and cyclists use it to and from the Granite Way. Hence I think there is more chance that the footbridge roof will be restored in some form.

 

cheers

[Wickham Green too]

Presumably not too many youths requiring hostelling at this time of year anyway !

[phil-b259]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

Presumably not too many youths requiring hostelling at this time of year anyway !

Given the youth hostel is in the former goods shed and goods sheds require some form of road access from a public highway then the lack of a footbridge is hardly important in the overall scheme of things.

[Rivercider]

1 hour ago, phil-b259 said:

Given the youth hostel is in the former goods shed and goods sheds require some form of road access from a public highway then the lack of a footbridge is hardly important in the overall scheme of things.

There is separate road access to the Youth Hostel under the line at the east end of the station, so I agree that lack of a footbridge is not the end of the world.

The station could also function quite well enough without the buffet, shop, restored booking office, and museum. The presence of those things does however make visiting Okehampton a more pleasant experience, I do hope the footbridge can be restored.

 

cheers