Rivercider

That was still the case into the 1980s although by then the CCT had become a GUV. At Westbury 31421 restarts the 16.10 Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth, the GUV was part of the booked formation for the Bristol - Weymouth line, two workings in each direction being formed by this set of stock. 26/4/80 cheers

Do you go on Facebook? The North Devon Railway group has plenty of photos from the 60s 70s and 80s. I know I have seen a photo of a trip conveying a variety of air braked wagons for trial or clearance test. I have not found that picture again yet, but there is a photo dated 12th Nov 1979 of a HAA MGR wagon 354437 and a brake van at Torrington, posted 4th March this year by Rob Dark. The caption says the plan to take the HAA to Marland and Meeth was abandoned due to concerns about clearance at Meeth, and the HAA returned to Exeter on 20th November 1979. Edit - I have found another post by Rob Dark on the FB group from 27th Jan this year. On 13th August 1981 31159 hauled a trip from Barnstaple to Torrington comprising a VIX (BR ferry van), a bogie flat Cargowaggon, and a bogie Cargowaggon van, another BR ferry van and then ordinary clay empties and brake van. cheers

I am not sure if it has been shown before, here is a photo from Flickr by Gordon Edgar. This was the loco at East Yelland Power Station, No.3 a 4-wheeled diesel mechanical 'Simplex' rebuilt in 1939 from WWI 60cm gauge. From Flickr - photo by Gordon Edgar, cheers

We had a short break in North Devon earlier this year, and had another walk along the lovely Tarka Trail which mostly follows the route of the former railway between Braunton and Torrington and beyond. From Instow we took a diversion out along the sea wall, and by chance caught the dredger DEO GLORIA just sailing from the jetty at East Yelland. She had been delivering sea dredged aggregates as there is a large house building project currently under way on the former power station site. DEO GLORIA sails from East Yelland jetty. 30/1/2023 The dredger had been grab discharged with lorries taking aggregate to a stockpile. 30/1/2023 Aggregate being moved from the jetty. 30/1/2023 The aggregate stockpile on the power station site. 30/1/2023 Mrs Rivercider just loved watching all this activity - though we also saw a kingfisher in one of the outlet culverts nearby. cheers

Lines to Torrington by John Nicholas has a lot of detail of the freight traffic. He mentions that during the early period some deliveries were by rail. 'Apparently, the last year when this occurred was 1971 when 14,229 tonnes of coal were delivered by train, in comparison with 325,667 tonnes delivered by ship.' Elsewhere I read that when the East Yelland shunting loco was under repair a Grafton steam crane from Fremington was supplied to do the shunting. The three Grafton cranes at Fremington were withdrawn from service in 1969 and the quay closed to commercial traffic at the same time. cheers

As you say coal to East Yelland was mostly by sea, but there were a couple of spells when coal came by rail, once possibly very early on just as the power station opened. I think there are details in some of my books, now I have to remember which ones! cheers

Two of the stations I know well are Exeter St Davids, and Bristol Temple Meads. St Davids had a station pilot, but that seemed to retreat to the stabling point or a siding behind platform 6 between shunts. There was however a banking engine spur across Red Cow Crossing where engines would wait before banking trains for the Southern route up to Exeter Central. Temple Meads had two pilots, East End and West End. The West End pilot often sat in (parcels) platform 2, or the siding behind that, the East End pilot usually retreated to the High Level sidings between shunts. There were however two loco spurs at the east end of the station, normally used for 'turnover' locos on the Cardiff to Portsmouth services which changed ends there. Edit - CJF often took elements of real locations and condensed them to fit a smaller space. Sometimes his loco spur might represent the truncated remains of another platform or siding that has been reduced to fit. cheers

A couple of weeks ago I bumped into a former colleague (a driver with a FOC) we had a lengthy catch up. He said there has been a decrease in infrastructure work, and expected it to contract even more in the near future, cheers

If you are thinking of the photos of DW150392 at Radyr, then it was a civil engineers vehicle, and B C definitely refers to 'ballast cleaner', cheers

Now I am fully retired I hope to get to a few more exhibitions next year. Ilfracombe is not a show I have previously been to, but should now be in range, so I will look out for that. cheers

I would imagine that there might have been a loco shed if the line was built privately. If the SDJR built or financed the line they would want to save money, so the branch loco is shedded at Radstock. Does the branch passenger service terminate at Binegar, with perhaps the first and last services of the day starting and terminating at Radstock? If you don't want hassle shunting, then the second version makes sense. If you enjoy the challenge of shunting then was there some building or obstruction that meant the only way to connect the private siding was via the bay? Good luck either way cheers

Welcome to RMweb - those models look good. A lot of domestic clay traffic from Cornwall went by coastal shipping and inland waterway, including much of the clay for the Potteries. In 1964 BR made a determined effort to capture more of the clay traffic, and the Stoke-on-Trent Clayliner started running in November 1965. As mentioned above wooden bodied High-fits were used for traffic to the Potteries, Scotland, Kent, and elsewhere. They were later joined by surplus of the end tipping fleet which did not receive the distinctive hoods. The book Freight Train Formations by David Ratcliffe lists wagonload services in 1980 that include wagons to/from Corpach. 7M86 St Blazey-Carlisle 23/9/80 conveyed 2 blocks of 10 for Corpach, 15 were BR High-fits, 4 were end tipper UCVs, one was S38644. 7V30 Carlisle-STJ 23/9/80 conveyed 10 etys ex Corpach. 8 were BR highfits, the other 2 were end tippers. cheers

As has been mentioned before it was commonplace for one depot (or department) to disparage another. It is a human trait, and also occurs within many organisations, where each department thinks itself better than others. My last place of work, the night shift and the day shift each thought they were better than the other. For example the rivalry between the LSWR/SR depot at Exmouth Junction, and the GWR/WR depot at Exeter St Davids was legendary. In my time as a traincrew roster clerk I heard plenty of comments made about 'other' depots. My dad as WR civil engineers wagon supervisor spent many years chasing lost and delayed wagons. He visited all the WR carriage and wagon depots, and in turn had Cathays point out to him poor repairs by Reading, Reading point out poor repairs by Exmouth Junction, Exmouth Junction point out poor repairs by Barton Hill, etc etc. When I worked in Bristol I several times heard mention that the Southern was just a tram system, whereas the Southern prided themselves that their timekeeping was better than the WR who could not possibly run such an intense service, cheers

A couple of years ago I was in my late mums seafront flat at Weston and watched a car that had got stuck in the mud become submerged by the tide. Once the tide was high enough the car floated for almost half an hour before gradually sinking. To my surprise the hazard lights started flashing some time after the car became partially submerged - like the car was asking to be saved! cheers

I like the look of this layout a lot. My own layout of a fictional location has a small depot where one would probably never have existed, but like most of us on here I have many more locos than would be required. In many railway towns where two (or more) companies once existed there was duplication of facilities, with consequently more than one loco shed in town. I can think of a few examples where once the smaller shed was closed some basic facilities remained. As well as the yard pilot loco another couple of locos could be outbased here to carry out local freight transfer and trip work to the sorting sidings at the main line. The signal box may exist because at one time the place was busier, perhaps there was a local passenger service here, the station later closed and the site used by the expanded goods depot. Meanwhile the shunt neck is the truncated remains of another short goods only branch that formerly served a couple of private sidings at that end of town. And then there is rule 1! cheers

I like what you have done there, I always enjoy urban goods layouts. I won't propose how to signal it as I am no expert, but it might help to know a bit more about the layout. It would help to know which company originally built the line and how it was originally signalled, I am assuming it is set in Crewe, would that make it former LNWR/LMS? Also how do you operate the layout, I assume arrivals and departures are from the uppermost two lines? The signalling would need to prevent conflicting moves, principally for movements arriving and departing. For example you would need a ground signal to prevent a move from the uppermost shunt neck when a train is arriving or departing the yard. I would assume the lower half of the yard would be all hand points, with no signalling required, cheers

We have been house hunting in Dawlish and Teignmouth. One property we really liked (near Bridge House the Railway Convalescent Home) would have been at the top of a cutting if that route was chosen! cheers

Quite often that would be the case, though sometimes there could be a lot of transferrable skills. Someone I know moved from one company to another, his early induction period was somewhat shambolic. He had to go through the full induction process, even though he already signed almost all of the routes, and some of the traction. He later returned to the original company... cheers

That looks useful. I do not have children - or a cat, I do have a problem with dust as no doubt many of us do. As Ivor Cutler observed ' dust holds no grudges and once removed will always return...' cheers

D1058 was one of the Westerns I saw at Swindon in November 1978. D1058 Western Nobleman in Swindon scrap yard, with diesel brake tender B96409? on the next road, 12/11/78 cheers

Was there not a plan for Foster Yeoman to take about five Westerns? There was a row of Westerns at Swindon Works, some of them were sheeted over, I took a few instamatic snaps of them. I am just off to work, so cannot remember exact details. cheers

This an interesting idea. In a parallel universe a Brixham solicitor was able to commence the Brixham Railway a little earlier. The promotors also had the foresight to ensure a facing connection onto the branch at Churston, rather than a trailing connection. Thus the time wasting connection at Churston was done away with and a regular service operated to and from a west facing bay platform at Torquay. This provided a useful commuter service connecting Torquay, Paignton, Goodrington, and Brixham. To this day Brixham is served hourly, one of the two hourly services from Exmouth terminates there, cheers

As already mentioned it was great to see this at Taunton at the weekend (overall an excellent show I thought). The scenery is lovely, and the harbour area will complement it nicely. I liked the gorse. As I mentioned on Sunday my Gran reckoned it is time for kissing when the gorse is in bloom, (she was a Devon lass, born on Dartmoor), cheers

Hi Wayne. It was good to see Poynton Sneer again yesterday in Cardiff, I enjoyed the chat - and it was a good day out cheers

Are you aware of the Railway Studies collection at Newton Abbot Library? Members of the Friends of the Railway Studies Collection have been archiving railway pictures, they might be interested. I have recently joined the Friends group, and have attended several very interesting railway talks at Newton Abbot Library, cheers