Time for a new train line through the south west - train related news

[Oldsmobile-88]

No such luck Al. My love of locomotives began while watching the "spam cans" set light to the embankment grass before disappearing into the tunnel below Howell's Dairy on their way to St Davids. As a boy I vividly remember seeing City of Truro standing at platform 1 at St. David's only to make her acquantance again many years later when on loan at Swindon's Outlet Centre. The Engine currently on loan there is a Hall Class who's name I forget

I recently came across this book in a Swindon charity shop..

Exeter (No. 5) (Rail Centres) - Maggs, Colin G.: 9781901945157 - AbeBooks

Exeter (No. 5) (Rail Centres) by Maggs, Colin G. - ISBN 10: 1901945154 - ISBN 13: 9781901945157 - Book Law Publications - 2005 - Hardcover

www.abebooks.co.uk

That is a good read...I did not realise that St David’s had its own gas production plant(town gas) that was situated near to Red Cow Crossing.It supplied the station,handy with its ample supply of coal for production (from which town gas is made)
It would have also supplied gas for containers in carriages on slow branch lines that were still lit by gas until the late 1950s(a certain speed is reqd to light carriages with electricity : dynamo-battery storage)

I think the gas plant shut in 1962.

 

[Stuffy]

That is a good read...I did not realise that St David’s had its own gas production plant(town gas) that was situated near to Red Cow Crossing.It supplied the station,handy with its ample supply of coal for production (from which town gas is made)
It would have also supplied gas for containers in carriages on slow branch lines that were still lit by gas until the late 1950s(a certain speed is reqd to light carriages with electricity : dynamo-battery storage)

I think the gas plant shut in 1962.

It is a good read, Olds. My memory isn't what it was over the years and while waiting for the sprinter to take me to St Davids, I often wondered if Central had the four lines running through the station's centre but this book confirms it. Also, that's a fine shot take in c1890 of the mixed gauge tracks diverging left and right at Cowley Bridge.

 

[Greyhound]

I often wondered if Central had the four lines running through the station's centre but this book confirms it.

I remember this being the case. The middle two would have been used for non-passenger traffic, e.g. the heavy ballast workings from Meldon Quarry. These trains often needed four engines to get them up the bank from St. David's.

 

[Grecian2K]

I remember this being the case. The middle two would have been used for non-passenger traffic, e.g. the heavy ballast workings from Meldon Quarry. These trains often needed four engines to get them up the bank from St. David's.

They were also used for change locomotives on the services ex Waterloo, en route to or from Exmouth Junction shed. Most express services had a loco change at Central (or "Queen Street" as it was back in the good old days). Certainly for the Merchant Navies that were forbidden on most of the "withered arm" west of Exeter (I'm not sure whether MNs were permitted on teh Pl*mouth route but they were certainly to heavy for the lines to Ilfracombe, Bude and Padstow.

 

[Greyhound]

I'm not sure whether MNs were permitted on teh Pl*mouth route

Too heavy for that one as well. They always came off at Central.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Too heavy for that one as well. They always came off at Central.

Was that because of the Meldon Viaduct ?

 

[Colesman Ballz]

They were also used for change locomotives on the services ex Waterloo, en route to or from Exmouth Junction shed. Most express services had a loco change at Central (or "Queen Street" as it was back in the good old days). Certainly for the Merchant Navies that were forbidden on most of the "withered arm" west of Exeter (I'm not sure whether MNs were permitted on teh Pl*mouth route but they were certainly to heavy for the lines to Ilfracombe, Bude and Padstow.

MNs were not permitted west of Exeter on Southern lines. They were removed at Central and then sent to Exmouth Junction sheds for servicing, coaling and finally turning. As they would always be departing eastwards, photographs of them after disposal on the shed inevitably face that way. The unrebuilt light pacifics ("Spam cans")worked on all main lines west of Exeter, but once rebuilt were restricted to just the Plymouth Line, again due to axle loadings. It applied to other Southern locomotive classes as well. For example when they introduced their Lord Nelson Class they wished to display an example at Devonport during Royal Navy Week. To get it there and back, it had to travel via the GWR main line from Exeter St David's to Plymouth.

 

[Colesman Ballz]

I remember this being the case. The middle two would have been used for non-passenger traffic, e.g. the heavy ballast workings from Meldon Quarry. These trains often needed four engines to get them up the bank from St. David's.

There were special working instructions too. They were not allowed to depart St David's unless they had a clear road signalled all the way up and into the middle road at Central too ! They simply wouldn't have been able to restart again if stopped midway up that incline.

 

[Greyhound]

Was that because of the Meldon Viaduct ?

More to do with the overall construction of the line not permitting such a heavy engine.

 

[Greyhound]

They simply wouldn't have been able to restart again if stopped midway up that incline.

No, not a hope!