Devon and Somerset

Kerching! 

 

Funnily enough I finally got round to properly reading volume 1 last week. 

 

If reading volume 2 prompts thoughts/questions will there be time in the publishing timetable to pass them on for consideration? 

Yes there will. Whilst V3 is written i am looking to source more photos and can add additional comments. The plan is to fit into the Lightmoor publishing timetable when it can. It may not make the end of 2018 but early 2019. this is yet to be determined but i will provide updates when known Freddie

I am pleased to say that Volume 2 of my book covering a description of the line (3 chapters) plus signalling will be available from Lightmoor www.lightmoor.co.uk tomorrow Thursday 7th December. I will be doing a book signing at Minehead Station on 29th December and Bishops Lydeard on 30th December. Martin is right, there will be a volume 3. i am sorry to disappoint all those interested in the operating aspects and recollections, accidents etc but there is so much material and only another volume would do it justice.

Enjoy Volume 2 and Happy Christmas to all. Regards Freddie

Well at Cotford St Luke you are close to the line and can explore its eastern stretches (albeit most now in fields again!). i hope you settle in well in your new home (not far from the site of the annual WSRA Steam Fayre too-perhaps with a chance to ride on the line to Allerford Bridge :-)

One of the good folks on the Lightmoor stand at the NEC today said that Volume 2 is due about this time next year......looking forward to getting stuck into Vol 1....

It is indeed planned to be out in Autumn 2017. Enjoy volume 1. ps Westerns were the best locos ever built (don't tell the Churchward Moguls but they were special too!)

I have long regarded Ian Coleby's 'The Minehead Branch' 2nd edition also from Lightmoor to be the best line history I've read. The comprehensive drawings, plans and photographs are just what a modeller needs. If your volumes are up to the same standard, I'll certainly be buying them.

 

Adrian

Adrian to be on a par with ian's book would be quite acolade. Ian is kindly doing my station track diagrams etc for Volume 2, so those should not disappoint! Happy reading. Freddie

Picked up a copy (BTW its very heavy) at Warley yesterday and had it signed by Freddie Huxtable. I don't think its possible to have a quick flick through, it requires serious reading! Very impressed and though the line is not on my primary interest list I will be spending some very happy hours reading it. I'm pretty sure that its going to become a classic. I will say no more less Captain Kernow accuses me of being Bill Brysonesque for a second time in two weeks!

 

all the best and thanks Freddie!

 

Godfrey

Thank you Godfrey, it was good to meet you! i hope it is well received although i think the Booker Prize may be out of reach! :-) It will be good (i hope) with a warm fire and drink over Xmas. i can indeed confirm that we (Lightmoor and I) hope/plan to get Volume 2 out for autumn 2017. It is written and i am editing/topping -tailing in the next couple of months and sourcing a few more photos. Its also nice to hear from Douglas G-i hope the book re-ignites the modelling spirit and should have some photos you have not seen!  

The book is now definitely available. Freddie will indeed be signing copies on the Lightmoor stand at the NEC on Sunday.

 

Martin

thank you for the "plug" Martin!

(It was my great grandfather.) It occurred 13th December 1879, Morbath to Wiveliscombe. He was only nineteen at the time with his home shed being Yeovil, and still a temporary fireman, being made a 3rd class fireman (ie. goods) in February 1880.

Now, elsewhere and much later in his career (3rd April 1911), he was driving a passenger train to High Wycombe out of Paddington on the down main which when it was passing Subway Junction a ballast train was shunted into it from the Crystal Palace loop, ripping into several coach sides and parting the train. One fatality resulted (Frederick John Palmer). The ballast train crew were at fault, and the junction was subsequently remodelled with catch points and extra signals provided. Sadly, the report while it lists the damaged stock, it does not mention the engine at all (probably because it was undamaged), but I guess it could have been something like a County tank.

thank you for the extra detail-the token story would make a good sound bite in V2. your other story/report shows what a dangerous job railway work was all those years ago and how accidents encouraged/forced changes.

That is a nice story-probably fairly typical of a young employee! Do you have any more stories or information? The book talks about early locos (with photos) and unveils the name of the driver of the first train. V2 will cover locos in more detail along with memories of those who worked the line and an accident (no major injuries) in 1878-i hope you grandfather was not involved in that.

The book is indeed on its way. Thank you to the gentleman i met at Exeter Central for posting this.  Volume 1 has gone to the printers and should be available just before and at Warley. It had to be two volumes because one volume would not do justice to the researched material and the line's trials and tribulations in building it. Just think positively... double the photos (some not published before) and time to save to buy Volume 2!! It is already written so just needs to go through the final processes.