Dawish Warren and starcross

[Guest 34008Padstow]

evening chaps. a few years ago i remember there been an article in railway modeller with a track plan of dawlis warren. ive searched everywhere for my copy but i cant find it. does anyone know where i could obtain a trackplan for this station.

[Fat Controller]

evening chaps. a few years ago i remember there been an article in railway modeller with a track plan of dawlis warren. ive searched everywhere for my copy but i cant find it. does anyone know where i could obtain a trackplan for this station.

'An Historical Survey of Selected Great Western Stations- Volume 2' by R H Clark has a scale drawing, shewing the track layout and also a signalling diagram. It would appear to be a little limited for anything apart from watching trains go by, as the yard consists of two sidings, with a cattle dock and end-loading dock.

[Coombe Barton]

Depends what you want. Dawlish Warren in its later form has operating potential for holding local trains while passing expresses get the road. The scenery is pretty flat and sandy.

 

Dawlish, the town station, is a double track station with a goods yard on the up side with a couple of sidings and a double slip in the goods yard throat. There's potential for passing and stopping trains and a loco shunting the yard. If viewed from the sea there's the town as a backdrop. Quite an interesting variety of levels as well, with a tunnel to the south, an underpass, there footbridges and plenty of scope for trains of various types.

 

Would need plenty of stock, though.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

More intrested in it from a modern point of view

[Coombe Barton]

Then I suggest Google Earth - just looked and it's double track with long loops. The sidings are still there, but can't see how they're connected to the main line. (Dawlish Warren, that is)

[Fat Controller]

Then I suggest Google Earth - just looked and it's double track with long loops. The sidings are still there, but can't see how they're connected to the main line. (Dawlish Warren, that is)

According to Quail, the sidings aren't connected to the main line any longer. Was this one of the locations that had camping coaches? If so, the vestigal sidings may have been to house them.

[Coombe Barton]

According to Quail, the sidings aren't connected to the main line any longer. Was this one of the locations that had camping coaches? If so, the vestigal sidings may have been to house them.

 

On Google Earth, there's a photo taken from the southern footbridge showing coaches in the sidings.

[D826]

On Google Earth, there's a photo taken from the southern footbridge showing coaches in the sidings.

 

The sidings were still connected to the up loop in the 70's, when the BR Staff association coaches were in a fetching range of light blues and yellows. (there's a good image on page 50 and 52 of Stratwood's wonderful Seventies Spotting Days around the Western Region.

 

I seem to recall seeing a picture in one of the railway publications of the early 80's showing some of the coaches being towed away by a 31.

 

Current coaches are chocalate and cream - no idea whether they were taken to the Warren by rail or whether they were taken in by road.

 

web site for Brunel Camping Park

 

http://www.dawlishwarren.info/railwaycarriages.php

 

Funnily enough, my wife seems less than keen for our family to sample the delights of the camping coaches - When I were a nipper, I used to spend hours on the footbridge, (the original station one, since gone) gazing through the spectacle of the home signal there, watching the trains go by. Dawlish was paradise then - get very miffed by the absence of freight, and variety of freight there now.

 

regards

 

Matt W

[The Stationmaster]

On Google Earth, there's a photo taken from the southern footbridge showing coaches in the sidings.

 

And here's one I took earlier (end of June 2005). The siding connection was removed about the time of Exeter MAS (if not earlier) I believe and as far as I know the camping coaches are still there although their external condition is somewhat worse than when they were put there in the 1980s.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

Could anyone please explain the crossover, is it in use still.

[Pannier Tank]

Could anyone please explain the crossover, is it in use still.

 

 

That's for single line working when the seas a bit rough!

[Guest 34008Padstow]

Just been looking on fotopic at dawlish warren and it appears that one of the coaches is an inspection saloon, and they are all on some very rusty looking track, so in regards to an earlier post i would imagine that they were delivered by rail.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

Is the signal box at dawlish warren still operational?

[Pannier Tank]

Is the signal box at dawlish warren still operational?

 

 

No, that went with the Exeter PSB Re-signalling.

[The Stationmaster]

Just been looking on fotopic at dawlish warren and it appears that one of the coaches is an inspection saloon, and they are all on some very rusty looking track, so in regards to an earlier post i would imagine that they were delivered by rail.

 

I think they went in just before the 'box was closed. I think they were refitted at Cathays - sometime around the mid-1980s if memory serves me well.

Dawlish Warren 'box closed 15 Novr 1986.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

cheers mike. judging by the looks of the box i assume its in use as some kind of office for network rail?EDIT: just been looking through my dawlish sea wall book and the new box was built in 2007 and theres a piece about an old building burning down. was this the old box?

[Guest 34008Padstow]

Furthermore to the camp coaches http://rollingstock.fotopic.net/c1572693_1.html

[D6975]

I was on holiday down Exmouth a couple of weeks ago and paid a visit to the Warren. The camping coaches are still there and in use, an inspection saloon and a collection of assorted modified mk 1s. The saloon is nearest to the station.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

cheers buddy

 

It's not necessary to make a post just saying 'thank you' every time. We have the 'thank poster' button already which you seem to be using as well anyway.

 

See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/7059-chaff-and-the-thank-poster-button/

[The Stationmaster]

cheers mike. judging by the looks of the box i assume its in use as some kind of office for network rail?EDIT: just been looking through my dawlish sea wall book and the new box was built in 2007 and theres a piece about an old building burning down. was this the old box?

 

 

This view shows the Down platform fairly completely (sorry I've nothing of the Up side). Is thr building you are referring to the one near the crossing over the railway? It is something for the attendant when that crossing is manned as far as I can tell.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

Its on the upside, looks like a signal box but im not entirely sure what it is. great pic btw

[The Stationmaster]

Its on the upside, looks like a signal box but im not entirely sure what it is. great pic btw

Can't answer that one I'm sorry. The (1911 -1986) signalbox was at the Exeter

end of the Down platform and there were originally timber buildings on both platforms of the 1912 station plus some sort of tin shed (possibly a parcels office?) on the Up side.

[Captain Kernow]

Greetings - the 'signalbox' on the Up Platform is actually a privately-built and owned holiday home, possibly even available to rent, if you know the owner (which I don't). It isn't and never has been intended as a signalbox. The original box was on the down side, and as Stationmaster advises, was closed and demolished when MAS was introduced in 1986 - 87.

 

The layout at Dawlish Warren, modern day, is essentially two through lines, with passenger loops (and platforms) either side, but they are not the same length as each other, IIRC the up loop is longer.

 

The crossover is still very much operational and is worked from Exeter Panel. It is (as shown in Stationmaster's photo) a facing crossover and there is a corresponding trailing crossover 4 miles away at Teignmouth. This gives access to/from the Up (Reversible) line between these two places, effectively allowing Down trains to run over the Up line between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth. This is, as mentioned, used in a controlled manner at times of rough seas, in accordance with a laid down operational protocol, or is used for planned engineering works, or in the event that a down train has failed on the Down line in the section.

 

There are no connections to the camping coaches and no prospect of same, if they are ever moved/sold, it will have to be by road.

[Guest 34008Padstow]

That makes sense about the box now. this may sound like a stupid question but how are both platforms accesed by passengers. is it from the bridge at the far end of the signals?

[Glorious NSE]

That makes sense about the box now. this may sound like a stupid question but how are both platforms accesed by passengers. is it from the bridge at the far end of the signals?

 

On the Up side there is a road behind the platform, on the Down side there is a path down to the road (Beach Road) that goes under the railway line to access Dawlish Warren.

 

Both show up on the Google aeriel photo's