Bridport Branch - Last Day 1975

[Nicktuk159]

I've just posted the pictures that I took of the 'Last Rites' being performed on the Maiden Newton - Bridport Branch 3rd May 1975 at My fotopic.net

 

Some examples appear below to pique your interest (hopefully).

 

Nick

['CHARD]

Love the cars parked outside - Toller is it? A pair of Austin 1100s, Avenger, Opel Rekord?, Fiat 500? and Simca 1300...

Awesome, thanks for the pics, very evocative indeed.

[spamcan61]

Yeah great stuff!

 

I think it's a Fiat 126 ( the 500's sucessor) and yeah,looks like an Opel Rekord, didn't see many of those around even them.

[The Stationmaster]

A great shame the branch didn't load like that every day

 

Odd to relate but the busiest 'station' (in terms of number of passengers joining) on the branch on the branch wasn't even a station but a level crossing (Loders) where quite a lot of folk, including mums with pushchairs etc, joined the train to go into Bridport for their shopping. Alas I don't think they got much of a look in on the last day.

 

A shame too that you haven't got a pic of me putting the wreath on the front of the last (booked passenger) train from Maiden Newton before it set off down the branch although I know quite a few folk captured it on film.

 

The last ever 'train' movement on the branch took place during the following week when the ACE from Yeovil and I went down with a motorised PW trolley and trailers recovering all the notices (except running in boards) plus whatever else we could find with me in possession of all the station keys - I think there must have been around 50 keys of various ages and sizes for what amounted to no more than a couple of dozen remaining locks And 'they' actually paid me to do that B)

 

PS you weren't the bloke who gave the traincrew that bottle of vodka were you?

[westernglory]

Great shots Nick.

 

Do you know which D10xx is featured at Paddington and again at Westbury please ?

 

Thanks

 

Steve

[Adam]

Love the cars parked outside - Toller is it? A pair of Austin 1100s, Avenger, Opel Rekord?, Fiat 500? and Simca 1300...

Awesome, thanks for the pics, very evocative indeed.

 

Nope, not Toller, but Bridport itself. Not remotely interested in the cars, but the state of the infrastructure (very much 'steam era', but with a lot less track - and paint) is what I associate with BR in the '70s - not that I was there, too young, too young - and the reason I'm glad I wasn't! They're nice photos, but aren't they rather low-res' scans?

 

Adam

[Nicktuk159]

They're nice photos, but aren't they rather low-res' scans?

 

Adam

 

Sorry about that - still very much on a learning curve regarding scanning slides ... any suggestions as to what dpi I should be scanning them at would be appreciated.

 

Regarding the vodka question above - as a footplateman myself I wouldn't have dreamt of offering them drink outside of the local BRSA but anyway at that age if I had a bottle of vodka it would have been empty by that hour of the clock

 

I think the 'thousand' was 'Western Queen' from squinting at the slides ...when I locate my diaries I'll check.

 

Nick

[dmustu]

Thats a cracking set of pictures. Does anybody know how much of the trackbed is left, or has it vanished completly?

[Nicktuk159]

Thats a cracking set of pictures. Does anybody know how much of the trackbed is left, or has it vanished completly?

 

There was an article on the Bridport Branch in Railways Illustrated February 2010 that should answer this question.

[spamcan61]

Sorry about that - still very much on a learning curve regarding scanning slides ... any suggestions as to what dpi I should be scanning them at would be appreciated.

 

Nick

 

Thanks very much for taking the time to scan and post the images Nick, I particularly like images like yours showing the buildings and the people as well as the trains.

 

In terms of scanning resolution,in this day and age when hard drives are big and cheap then I'd scan at the maximum optical resolution of the scanner. It's very easy to make a low resolution copy of a high resolution scan, but very tricky to do the opposite.

 

My usual reference for guidance on scanning is this site:-

 

http://www.scantips.com/

 

Don't forget to back up all your scans regularly to CD/DVD/HDD!

[Adam]

Thats a cracking set of pictures. Does anybody know how much of the trackbed is left, or has it vanished completly?

 

Around Bridport I think the trackbed has mostly been obliterated (part is the formation of a road though I can't remember the precise details). Between there and Maiden Newton, however, I would think that it's mostly intact, but not generally accessible, not that I've actually been to look. For completeness, West Bay station is still there and the building from Toller serves as part of the Totnes terminus of the South Devon Railway.

 

http://www.southdevonrailway.org/London_Group.html

 

Adam

[spamcan61]

Just had a quick recce. via Google Earth, some parts of the line a quite tricky to trace, some quite easy - the route of the line through Toller shows up pretty well for example

[Phill Dyson (onslaught832)]

Just had a quick recce. via Google Earth, some parts of the line a quite tricky to trace, some quite easy - the route of the line through Toller shows up pretty well for example

 

Toller station building is now re-erected Totnes on the South Devon Railway

 

Some old film of the Bridport branch in 1975 here : http://www.youtube.c...u/3/oweahx9kgfA

[melmoth]

There has been some talk recently of using the trackbed from Maiden Newton to Bradpole as a cycle path - most of it is still there.

 

Bridport station site now has a supermarket on it and the formation from there to the roundabout by the Crown Inn (Bothenhampton) is now part of the town bypass. The road to Abbotsbury has also taken over part of the trackbed for a short distance to a point where there used to be a road overbridge. From here to West Bay the trackbed is in use as a foot/cycle path.

[dmustu]

I had always imagined that the Bridport branch would have made a good preserved railway, but I guess this will never happen, although using the route from Maiden Newton as a cycle path should make for a pleasant afternoon bike ride!

[Guest oldlugger]

[andy stroud]

That's a really lovely film. I had a look around the remains of the branch last week and interestingly, the short section of track set into the roadway that formed Loders crossing is still in situ. There is also what I think is a replica crossing gate, but the rails themselves look old and  original. Lots of bridges are still in place and at Toller station there is original  spiked iron railings together with a couple of metal posts to which signs were once attached. I wasn't sure exactly what they were when I first saw them, it was only when I got home and looked at pictures of the station in the 1970's that I was able to see them, just where I had.

 

Mike The StationMaster, That's a nice story about your trip down the branch after closure. I really like things like that. I wonder if at the time, seeing the 'dead' branch still there and laid out before you, did you think at all perhaps the line might still be saved in some way?  You say that yours was the final train on the line and that's a nice thought but the book on the branch does claim that a class 25 made it all the way down to Bridport in the Autumn of that year, and several pictures of an 08 on the branch exit, albeit on tracklifting trains.

 

I like stories of trains operating over closed lines. An interesting example being the Ilfracombe branch that closed in October 1970. Some very nice colour pictures exist of a class 25 making its way down the weed infested branch with an inspection saloon in 1975, nearly five years later, and not long before tracklifting.

Edited May 19, 2013 by andy stroud

[Andy Kirkham]

Thank you for these pictures and the video.

 

The main thought that they provoke is to wonder why the Bridport line lasted as long as it did. This is just the sort of branch that I would have expected to have been closed around 1963.

 

I also can't help feeling it was a shame that Toller station wasn't designated by the full name of the place: Toller Porcorum.

[Andy Kirkham]

And I guess this might be a good opportunity to post my own pictures of Maiden Newton from about the same time:

 

 

 

 

[lapford34102]

The main thought that they provoke is to wonder why the Bridport line lasted as long as it did

 

 

 

It took a long time to sort out satisfactory alternative bus transport.

 

Stu

[The Stationmaster]

That's a really lovely film. I had a look around the remains of the branch last week and interestingly, the short section of track set into the roadway that formed Loders crossing is still in situ. There is also what I think is a replica crossing gate, but the rails themselves look old and  original. Lots of bridges are still in place and at Toller station there is original  spiked iron railings together with a couple of metal posts to which signs were once attached. I wasn't sure exactly what they were when I first saw them, it was only when I got home and looked at pictures of the station in the 1970's that I was able to see them, just where I had.

 

Mike The StationMaster, That's a nice story about your trip down the branch after closure. I really like things like that. I wonder if at the time, seeing the 'dead' branch still there and laid out before you, did you think at all perhaps the line might still be saved in some way?  You say that yours was the final train on the line and that's a nice thought but the book on the branch does claim that a class 25 made it all the way down to Bridport in the Autumn of that year, and several pictures of an 08 on the branch exit, albeit on tracklifting trains.

 

I like stories of trains operating over closed lines. An interesting example being the Ilfracombe branch that closed in October 1970. Some very nice colour pictures exist of a class 25 making its way down the weed infested branch with an inspection saloon in 1975, nearly five years later, and not long before tracklifting.

I'm fairly sure our trolley was the last 'train' to cover the branch from end to end and back again.  recovery was done in bits & pieces according to what I understood and some of it was done from the Bridport end I believe because of the extremely difficult road access.  The latter of course was - as Stu noted above - the reason why the line lasted so long as it was nigh impossible to create a parallel 'bus service due to the road network (much of it narrow lanes) in the area.

 

The branch had a character all of its own, even in its latter 'basic railway' days but I think it would have been something of a non-runner for a preservation scheme.  Firstly there seemed to be little local interest in that sort of thing and secondly it was in many respects a bit off the beaten track notwithstanding the resort of Weymouth being not too far away.  It would also have posed immediate operating difficulties for anyone aiming to introduce a steam worked service due to the very great difficulty of creating some sort of run round or reversal facility at Maiden Newton _ I don't think BR would have been very keen to see the old reversing siding reintroduced!  But it was a very picturesque line and a lovely ride on a sunny day.

[flyingsignalman]

It took a long time to sort out satisfactory alternative bus transport.

 

Stu

 

Staying in Weymouth on a Golden Rail holiday I travelled over the branch on the Friday before it closed.

I have some photos I've been meaning to scan, seeing this thread will make me get around to doing them!

On the Monday (I think) after the branch closed there was a photo and a headline in the local newspaper (Dorset Evening Echo rings a bell) of about half a dozen passengers queuing for the replacement bus which was an Bedford OB. The headline read something like "Old bus starts new service".

[flyingsignalman]

As I wrote yesterday I went, with my parents, on the branch on the Friday, guessing that the Saturday would be very busy.

The train was a single unit and was bursting at the seams!

Arriving at Bridport I took a few photos before walking to West Bay.

 

The unit in the station.

 

Heading off towards West Bay, on the left can be seen the old goods home signal post; if I remember correctly it was a concrete post which is most probably why it was left standing.

 

Turning around and looking back to the station.

 

I followed the line to the site of East Street station where the line had been made into a road. Continuing along the road, until it left the railway formation, there was a cutting that had been filled in but the bridge over it had not been buried.

Looking north to the filled-in cutting and Bridport station.

 

Eventually I reached West Bay station.

 

Retracing my steps, I arrived back at Bridport to find the train was now a three car DMU.

 

As I had some time before the train left I took a few photos of the road side of the station.

 

The goods shed.

 

The station frontage.

 

The weigh office.

 

I was able to get photos of Toller station as there was now room to breathe on the train!

 

A couple at Maiden Newton.

The running in board.

 

Looking north from the footbridge.

 

Our train back to Weymouth.

 

Working on the railway, as a Messenger in Birkenhead Central, I was able to apply for a free ticket and to get it dated for the last day (they were normally dated 3 months from the application date). The Guard made sure it was "nipped" and at Weymouth the staff were allowing passengers to keep their Bridport line tickets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[roundhouse]

Some superb photos there.

 

We used to go to Bridport with our parents when the line was still open but unfortunately we went by car. how I would love to have travelled on this line now.

 

Ian

[Fenway Park]

Brings back happy memories of my last day visit. One of my friends had a holiday cottage in Seatown near Chideock. As we all worked for a brewery I managed to persuade them that a trip on the train could be combined with a visit to several pubs. We ended up in the Devenish pub in Maiden Newton at lunchtime before our return to Bridport.

A shame it closed.