Rivercider

A couple of days ago me and Mrs Rivercider had an enjoyable walk from Sandford to Cheddar along the route of the Strawberry Line. Just south of Sandford and Banwell station the route is crossed by a public footpath and in the adjacent field is an old van body. I could see no identifying marks, the plywood panelling is partly loose or missing. It looks like a Southern design of van to me. View of the end 22/4/2015 Side view 22/4/2015 View through the van of the inside of the ventilators, 22/4/2015 cheers

Here is another view from a passing train, two peaks and a 47 this time, https://www.flickr.com/photos/54a_south_dock/7791267418/in/photolist-9v5RdA-mNbtAj-rhZKEW-dvn3Zm-5itUHv-cSuhmS-fMyA8C-8mDcnd-cf2meo-8Sqgzj-dPaaGD-8mDcnq-brdM1y-mDHGvD-dSxEqo-dCQ6dy-8R47g1-huaijF-r6JMLr-fGfeYe-djEVi3-n2L4kZ-nRXutK-dgKD5j-hPvxTN-fGwRfd-p6xGJT-oeC8SQ-q37SaV-cUvYcA-rFj6tb-7F1L7b-pKXgS9-g1Xob-7a62E9-9nw28M-nSd2u9-hPv5BT-g64Zsn-q429Pc-dFeuNk-p6xG2k-gfdwgh-7DgrCg-g5Qqjg-e6RwU4-6ob8NB-gfdtqN-9r8CyZ-gdvLbm cheers

Diesel, green or blue for me please cheers

There is this shot on Flickr taken from a passing train, taken in 1978 showing a 25 and several peaks https://www.flickr.com/photos/elmtreephotos/8448283734/in/photolist-qZfUAf-dSxEqo-oH7ckn-5JZv6g-fhYysf-fhJgPZ-pqB2yz-fhJhUg-fhJibH-eZxQQs-eZyegS-eZyfTS-dhifhw-eZxTrG-oem85K-hisi9c-nGcDUe-io1Q14-bDCwWF-cSuhmS-4WBVd6-b4KD9R-gMA8xJ-e1Dqj2-e1DoX6-e1Do6z-oyrg6V-aC2cHB-6ob8NB-aBhd5G-dfVyJP-bKHsuv-q2d8in-oddmTR-aCH34s-gDSYE-izXo2h-4ctBFm-fhJhCr-oLR3uM-fhJhoe-q6gURp-h4pSX5-aDixDb-d936c7-eZmxs2-eZyi1W-eZyhgN-eZyf9b-eZygRo Another different view also probably from a train showing the refuelling point https://www.flickr.com/photos/duckwalk/6306450704/in/photolist-bDCwWF-aC2cHB-dfVyJP-bKHsuv-aBhd5G-qZfUAf-87SuNH-gDSYE-auasod-bozxa9-dRUxmk-fmfpn2-ffVVto-ffVVvu-ffVVuh-7ny4Ko-7Ci6u7-979tbx-oemXyZ-91Ku59-bBPeg2-91W8mM-91WUkr-91LJjM-91vfPp-91PvwY-91Q7tj-91KMiH-91ZdK9-91Z2kG-91yuyJ-91YC4G-91WSDG-91LDHz-91WQ2z-91VGXp-91PoPq-91Pz1W-91P9Wy-91yqJ3-91QQfh-91PCyY-91PTjs-91VLrr-91QRnG-91vf1R-91Q1aJ-91PAc5-91WGc9-91VsPv cheers

Here is another pair of views from Newton Abbot on a summer saturday in the 1980s before the semaphore signals were replaced. Firstly one of the Western Regions named 47s 47510 Fair Rosamund, one of the Old Oak allocated namers, arrives at Newton Abbot with the 08.57 Paddington - Paignton 3/7/82 Looking the other way 50044 Exeter comes into Newton Abbot with a service from Paignton, 3/7/82 cheers

When travelling to the Cheltenham exhibition at the weekend I changed trains at Bristol and had time to take a few photos. Here is the current scene at the east end, with fencing surrounding the work sites The east end of Bristol Temple Meads with the Post Office bridge removed 12/4/2015 And where there is a hole I am always tempted to have a look in The base of one of the postal bridge towers looking down to the subway, 12/4/2015 cheers

Hi Gasky, welcome to RMWeb. I like the shot of the peak on an up Speedlink at St Davids, looking on Flickr 45009 45048 and 45150 are three I can find with a depot sticker, but none of the photos I can find have the distinctive scar or chip seen in the paintwork on your shot, cheers

It was good to see this excellent layout at Melksham. Though my memories of Banbury are from the 1980s I enjoyed the modern scene, and the chat about it, so, thanks to all the team cheers

More great memories from that sunny summers day, and I agree about the signalman being busy. In my notes I see I got to Dawlish Warren at 09.35, and walked along via Langstone Cliff, and the sea wall to Dawlish taking photos until 16.55. I arrived on DMU set P464. I think I recorded every train that passed me during that time whether I took a photo or not, possibly apart from HSTs. It may not quite be a complete record but in seven hours 20 minutes I recorded 1 class 33 14 class 45s 17 class 47s 21 class 50s 8 HSTs Note that some of the locos were seen twice, and I dont think there were any DMUs along the sea wall during those hours, there being no pathways for purely local services in those days Thanks for taking the time to scan those pictures and include details, I now have train details for two more of my photos (47374 and 45004) cheers

It was on ITV2 Thursday 2nd April at 8.00pm Reggie and Thunderbirds - No Strings Attached, with Reggie Yates, I quite enjoyed it, as already mentioned a lot of the people involved in the project were already fans, and that showed through. I have not seen the 'new' Thunderbirds yet, cheers

Thanks for posting these photos, and the background information is useful too. I saw 33008 on the way down at Dawlish Warren at 11.24 but never knew the working, and now I do. 33008 Eastleigh departs Dawlish Warren with the 08.36 Cardiff - Paignton, there was a lot of 'flailing' that day as I remember, 30/6/84 cheers

More good memories, that 'last day of June' i was also out with my camera. I saw both 50028 and 47539 while I was on the sea wall at Dawlish but did not get either of them, though I did take about 45 pictures that day. I knew the song straightaway and remembered the artist, though not the title, (at 17 though I would have probably run a mile!) cheers

I am always interested in photos of diesels in Devon, particularly from the 1970s and 1980s, I took quite a few myself in the 1980s, most of the freight photos have already appeared on threads here. Whilst I am looking forward to the next post from East Wivelshire here are a couple of my passenger train photos. Following the theme of pictures already posted, at Totnes and Newton Abbot, here are a couple more views. Firstly a view from the footbridge at Totnes It is fairly early on a Saturday morning in July and one of the numerous Friday overnight holidaymaker services approaches, this one, with 47447 in charge, has come from Edinburgh and is heading for Plymouth, 3/7/82 Later that day I was at Newton Abbot and there was a steady procession of trains heading up and down. 50045 Valiant has restarted the 09.30 Paddington - Paignton away from Newton Abbot as 47240 approaches with the 12.20 Paignton - Manchester Piccadilly. 47240 was a non-boilered slow speed fitted Canton loco that probably spent more time going round the Aberthaw Power Station loop discharging coal trains than working passenger services, so I wonder if there were any loco haulage enthusiasts aboard, 3/7/82 cheers

Well spotted Rich, I was running out of ideas, admittedly from a very short list to start with! I have never been up there, cheers

Last week I walked from Barnstaple to Fremington along the Tarka Trail, as well as various fence posts and other concrete items I found this 'sound whistle' board on the approach to Fremington partly hidden in the bushes cheers

Hi Rob, yes that is the picture I found that gave details of the change of service. To cross check it I looked through my old Locoshed books to see where the 31/4s were allocated. The 1977 book, with WR info correct to November 1976, showed no 31/4s at Bath Road, but I had amended the allocations during the year. 31401, 31414-416, 31419, 31421-424 arrived during 1977 from Finsbury Park and Old Oalk Common. The initial loco hauled service from 1977 was only roughly 2 hourly with WR DMUs working some other odd services as far as Westbury/Salisbury in the gaps. DEMUs worked stoppers from Salisbury-Southampton The DEMUs were always Eastleigh allocated units. In 1977 the sets at Eastleigh were 1101-05, 1110-11, 1121-22, 1124-33. I started on BR at Bristol in July 1977 and don't remember seeing DEMUs very often, though one sometimes turned up covering a failure, normally working straight back. cheers

Class 31/4s took over the Portsmouth - Cardiff services from the May 1977 timetable, for which Bath Road received eight of them in 1977. Class 31/1s had already been working the some of the Weymouth services for a few years by then, cheers

More tanks may have been attached at Exeter, the Hemyock branch closed in 1975, but Chard Junction continued to send milk until around 1980. cheers

I passed Stoneycombe a few times when it was open for rail traffic and remember seeing dogfish hoppers but never a loco. My father, who worked for the WR Civil Engineers, told me that Stoneycombe ballast was not as hard as that from Meldon, and that it was generally only used branch lines, or the main line west of Plymouth. My only photo of Stoneycombe traffic is at Newton Abbot, it is chippings for Taunton Concrete Works loaded in hoppers. I am looking forward to more photos from around Devon, cheers

To conclude this short thread of my freight photos from the London Division in the 1980s here are two more from Acton. Acton was important for inter-regional traffic to and from the Eastern, Midland and Southern Regions, and later, the new Anglia Region. Hither Greens 33060 departs the yard with a short vacuum braked formation for the Southern Region, any clues what the headcode KI means? 1/4/83 Edit - the train is 6O67 13.15 MWFO Acton to New Cross Gate - thanks to SED Freightman. And finally, to bring the curtain down as it were, a trip from almost as far east as it is possible to get a freight move on the Western Region 31321, a Toton loco, approaches Acton with a local trip from Westbourne Park, it is too far away to make out the contents of what appear to be three grampus wagons, would they have been used to clear rubbish thrown onto railway property? 11/4/83 Thanks for all the feedback and additional information, I have learned a bit as I have been working my way through the photos. I will in due course start another thread for the Cardiff Division, cheers

I have just a few more photos to post from the Acton area, these were taken in April 1983 from the platforms at Acton Main Line. I remember the railman on duty in the ticket office had a word with me as each time I crossed the footbridge to get a different shot he thought I had just got off another train and was fraudulently travelling to and fro. Though why anyone would make repeated journies to and from Acton on a DMU is anyones guess! (I had a pass anyway) First up a Freightliner service heading west, I presume this would have been something like a Ripple Lane to Southampton Maritime working? 47361, a Thornaby loco, heads west on the down relief, 11/4/83 Next a shot previously posted on another thread. 47124 calls at Acton Main Line with a down stopping service as Slim Jim 33211 passes with empty clay Polybulks off the train ferry at Dover for St Blazey, 11/4/83 Looking the other way we can see the east end of Acton Yard. The roads that survived the major rationalisation here were the ones nearest the running lines, and have since been largely used for stone traffic from the Mendips.. In 1983 on that day stone traffic was also in evidence, Bath Roads 47059 is on an inter-regional stone working from the Mendips, the MSVs are in TOPS pool no. 7609 if anyone knows where that set worked to, 11/4/83 cheers

It is going to be tricky to get exactly right, but that does look better cheers

This photo at Swindon? https://www.flickr.com/photos/12a_kingmoor_klickr/6217151138/in/photolist-atowr1-aiP2uv-8SnfL8-9J67zJ-5QnzTT-emUYPq-pJf8rr-pPPSud-d4tUnC-ehnf7D-nJMG3S-fUvGNN-aFCpRX-9bm6ZS-99JHVS-4JdgDq-8Rqnng-7FV39J-aFisYN-apTYx5-emSknN-emSjMu-8usDm2-9LZ5rE-d4wdam-anzsTf-aprGpX-auVBBb-gYd6wC-e6qyn8-4kPo2X-6qQosB-fMid6t-4vaZZs-rxg3XE-6Ww2L3-mGwXQv-9c9Egg-9g8XVg-6qP3HV-4ou96i-9WwhAG-9uEMsf-93LQKt-4puqvs-pjZaE5-8gRTJU-7gFNDj-d4R3zW-qYF9F2 I also remember my dad taking me into the South Devon shed at Exeter St Davids where there were some withdrawn or stored 22s and Warships though I dont know which ones. In my spotting book I have no record of seeing either 801 or 802. cheers

Here is a spotters view of Bath Road Depot in Bristol taken from Platform 12. Most locos visitng the depot required fuel, and would go into the Daily Daily Shed which is in the 3 road shed in the middle of the shot. A Xams would also be undertaken here, which if I recall correctly would take about an hour. After fuel the locos would return to traffic or be shunted into the stabling roads on the left of the shot, behind the brake van. Locos booked for more extensive Xams from B upwards, which took more time, or for other repair, would go into the main shed on the right. The tall shed on the left contained a crane with a higher lift and was, I think, called the Workshop, and here more extensive work was carried out,. e Bath Road Depot 15/1/82 cheers

The same thing still applied In 1975 but by then of course the Exeter area local trips were covered by Lairas 25s. Exeter Trip 1 (Laira 92 loco diag) and Exeter Trip 4 (Laira 95 loco diag) were multied to work the 20.10 Exeter St Davids - Newton Abbot after separately working freight trips during the day. But as in the previous class 22 era none of the Laira class 25s seem to have much (any?) diagrammed work east of Hemyock or Chard Junction, cheers