DMUs on ex-LSWR Lines

[ikcdab]

Imagine my senario. We have a BR(S) ex-LSWR line somewhere south of Yeovil which is a branch from the Sailsbury to Exeter line. Its 1962 or so and the line has come under WR control. What sort of DMU might be running on it?

I ask this because I very much fancy the Bachmann class 108 in green and would like to run one.

 

Is this prototypical???

[Fat Controller]

Imagine my senario. We have a BR(S) ex-LSWR line somewhere south of Yeovil which is a branch from the Sailsbury to Exeter line. Its 1962 or so and the line has come under WR control. What sort of DMU might be running on it?

I ask this because I very much fancy the Bachmann class 108 in green and would like to run one.

 

Is this prototypical???

At that time, it would be a Gloucester 119 or Swindon 120 Cross-Country, possibly one of the High-Density units (116?) or a Bubble Car. This didn't really change until the 1980s, when all sorts of things headed west.

[chrisf]

When the WR took over west of Salisbury in 1963 the dmus drafted in were a mix of suburban [mostly 116] and Cross-Country sets [mostly 120], to the extent that for a while vehicles were exchanged between the two types of set to provide toilet accommodation in at least one vehicle. Bubble cars were used on the branches before they were shut but there kept being shortages so ex-GW push-pull sets were used to cover.

 

Chris

 

 

Edit: Fat Controller was posting while I was still typing. I type very slowly!

[dmustu]

Class 118 units were delivered new to the western, so would be typical too.

[ikcdab]

Thanks for your advice - i better not buy a Bachmann 108 then.

Maybe Ill go for the Heljan 33 in green instead....

[Oldddudders]

Thanks for your advice - i better not buy a Bachmann 108 then.

Maybe Ill go for the Heljan 33 in green instead....

In your time frame 33s were not very common on the further reaches of the SW Division. They had mopped up the last of steam on the SED, and were moving the same way with the Central, but steam was still pre-eminent until the GW takeover.

[ikcdab]

OK, thanks for that. I may have to stretch history a bit and I had better not tell you what else I am tempted to run!

Thanks again for the post.

[Adam]

It depends on the traffic of course, but - as Chris F points out - the Devon branches seem not to have warranted anything more than a single car (usually Pressed Steel, so what TOPS called a 121, per Lima/Hornby).

 

Adam

[Pennine MC]

Let's split the difference then Something that always shouts 'WR branch' to me are the assorted power twins that ran around in the 60s, formed of the power cars made surplus by the WR policy of ordering maintenance spares on its 'new' orders

[Rivercider]

OK, thanks for that. I may have to stretch history a bit and I had better not tell you what else I am tempted to run!

Thanks again for the post.

 

 

If you are thinking of stretching history a bit , I believe in 1957 the Southern Region announced plans

construct a DEMU depot on the downside at Exmouth Junction, .

So, if the WR did not get their hands on the lines west of Salisbury in 1963

then imagine DEMU sets taking over instead.

 

The Exmouth branch was partially dieselised in July 1963, and, being the busiest branch in the

West Country there were 2 car, 3 car and, at times on Saturdays, 2 x 3 car formations formed from

a variety of cross-country and suburban sets, of the classes listed above.

 

cheers

[Pennine MC]

If you are thinking of stretching history a bit , I believe in 1957 the Southern Region announced plans

construct a DEMU depot on the downside at Exmouth Junction, .

So, if the WR did not get their hands on the lines west of Salisbury in 1963

then imagine DEMU sets taking over instead.

 

 

 

There were certainly SR plans to dieselise the Withered Arm, it's an interesting 'might have been'

 

 

[Etched Pixels]

In your time frame 33s were not very common on the further reaches of the SW Division. They had mopped up the last of steam on the SED, and were moving the same way with the Central, but steam was still pre-eminent until the GW takeover.

 

The withered arm loco photos I've seen post GW takeover seem to feature class 22s rather than 33s. Some spots of the network were then also I believe RA4 which would have prevented much else but shunters, DMU and steam traction on certain trips.

[chrisf]

There were certainly SR plans to dieselise the Withered Arm, it's an interesting 'might have been'

 

 

 

Isn't it just! Does anyone have further details of what the Southern had in mind? I guess the Exmouth branch would have had 3-car Thumpers but what of the lines with through carriages from Waterloo? I can envisage pairs of 2-car sets heading from Okehampton to Padstow and Bude, splitting at Halwill, but other arrangements would have had to be made for the mail, newspaper and luggage vans hooke on the rear of the steam passenger trains.

 

The WR interwove DMU diagrams for the Exmouth branch with Exeter - Kingswear locals and trips to Barnstaple. Somehoiw I doubt whether Thumpers would have worked regularly to Torbay - unless, of course, anyone knows better!

 

Chris

[Rivercider]

I had already remembered my father telling me about abandoned plans for a DEMU depot at Exmouth Jn.

The Exeter & Exmouth Railway by Colin Maggs (Oakwood Press) gives more details.

 

A 20 minute interval service Exeter Central - Exmouth - Budleigh Salterton, requiring a rebuilt

Exton Station with island platform, box, and passing loop is one proposal.

 

Governmeny economy restrictions meant it came to nought (some things never change),

and with the WR take over the rest is history. I later travelled behind the Driver up front on a DMU

on the last day of service from Exmouth to Sidmouth Jn.

 

cheers