Where are you on the transport network?
- Thread starter danny la rouge
- Start date
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
M4, westbound, Reading. In the pissing rain. I am not the driver.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
The roof is listed. DB in a frenzy as they want to build a shopping centre.
Looks like Plattling. Change here for heavy drinking at Bierfest and the Czech Republic.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I believe you are exactly correct, yes.
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
Bit late, but yes!
neonwilderness
What would Badgers do?
Byker. Typically I just missed a Metro 
davesgcr
Reading books
Probably more trains through there these days - the difference is it was a key point where the old Southern Railway (different to the Great Western at Exeter St Davids) - messed around with making up trains , breaking them down - and attaching fresh engines etc (in steam days) - hence the track spacing etc which in the past allowed for all this work. Back in the day - there were flower beds and trees in that dead space.......
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Interesting. I’m waiting here again and am taking a look around. It’s got very long platforms but I suppose there’d have been services working through a lot further west than they do now
davesgcr
Reading books
Yes - North Devon and Cornwall. Achingly trendy places like Padstow etc.....served by the Atlantic Coast Express from Waterloo - a long train of about 12+ coaches with dining cars etc. Annihilated by service cuts from the 1960's - leaving just a service to Barnstaple. Very heavy traffics at one time . Pretty much all in 4x4 now. (Southern also served many seaside places east of Exeter with the same traffics) -
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Is that what they called the "withered arm"?
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
and have a gratuitous photo of a real locomotive (and a couple of GWR intruders) at exeter central
and of bromley north station which is a mini version of the station building
broadly speaking, yes
and of bromley north station which is a mini version of the station building
broadly speaking, yes
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
So also a Dawlish avoiding route? Such shortsighted decisions taken
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
and have a gratuitous photo of a real locomotive (and a couple of GWR intruders) at exeter central
and of bromley north station which is a mini version of the station building
broadly speaking, yes
Blimey Bromley North, takes me back to hanging round Bromley in the 90s as a kid. I must take a proper look at the central station frontage when I’m next there
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
Yes, I remember the days of 33s, 47s and 50s on long trains with 08s shunting the goods yard or passing through on the trip workings that served the many industrial sidings around the city, but looking back there were big gaps in the Waterloo line timetable and a lot of the Exmouth trains terminated in the bay platform there and sat there. None of the half-hourly service through to Paignton there is now.
I read when the Barnstaple line went hourly a few years ago that it now has the most frequent service in its history*. Add in the recent addition of Okehampton trains too and the signaller at Crediton is busier than ever.
* Obviously a few variables there. No freight. No competition from the Taunton route anymore and nothing coming in from the Ilfracombe and Bideford directions. But still...
EDIT: Also seemed like a good excuse to post one of my shots from Central. Looking down the hill in early 1984. I think the shunter had been to Newcourt MOD sidings and is waiting for a Waterloo train to pass it.
Last edited:
davesgcr
Reading books
Yes - a book of that name by one T W Roche,,,,,
There's an idea to re-open from Plymouth to Tavistock and maybe one day onto Okehampton which would provide an alternative if it kicks off again at that there Dawlish with all the climate change malarkey.
Closing the "Withered Arm" was also largely an act of spite when the routes were transferred to BR Western Region.
Closing the "Withered Arm" was also largely an act of spite when the routes were transferred to BR Western Region.
Last edited:
davesgcr
Reading books
A bit more complicated than that - yes -a rift between what were termed green badge (Southern staff) , and brown badge staff (Western Region) ,but the truth is that Beeching and before planned massive cuts to the West Country (and the rest of the country) as matters changed. The late and great Gerry Fiennes, one the very best railwaymen ever as General Manager at Paddington ( ex LNER so no baggage about the West Country) , worked incredibly hard to repurpose the railway down there and way was / could have been "nothing west of Plymouth" , saw the Penzance end saved and great efforts to modernise what freight that was - largely china clay to Fowey ,but he developed long distance clay to Stoke on Trent / Sittingbourne and elsewhere (nicked from coastal shipping) ,even a Freigthtliner service and much more. Local services were "modernised" with diesels and cost cutting done. (frankly - some of the far west lines were built in the mind 1920-s and never, ever , made any money and never would) - so by working away with what we could not call stakeholders and staff, much more was saved.
Salisbury to Exeter was for the chop ,but he largely got that saved - albeit with a 2 hourly service and diesels , and was built back later, as this view of "one line only , and only some of way to the West" - was rescinded.
Remember , much was seasonal traffic and the ever present car took so much away from the 1950's - it was very hard , especially for the very proud Southern railway cadre who saw much of their life work changed in the 1960's and beyond (for example the loss of Exeter Central as a Divisional Office and all that went with that , but I do not think it was really malicious desperate times needed pragmatic action.
I have nothing but respect from those in BR who worked in the area , or were brought up in the area , but there were very positive comments on the pride and quality of the Green Badge staff - of all grades.
That comes from a hopeless advocate of Wales and the best bits of the Great Western ! (If only Fiennes had spent more of his valuable time within South Wales - most of that had to go in the harsh times - but a few valuable bits could have been when saved - but he saved (amongst many , many things) - or developed the national Inter City concept etc.......talking to people who in their youth met him , they were all in awe of his seniority , but relaxed with his sound humitarianism , practical and commercial sense etc etc ....he always said a railway manager needed "a sense of time , a sense of money and a sense of humour"- I have used many of his quotes in many lectures and meetings over the years.
Thank you for your patience ........(PS - always had / have a very sort spot for the Southern - particularly the Southern Electric !)
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
The Southern Railway (previously London + South Western Railway)'s architect James Robb Scott was fairly versatile.
He was responsible for the Victory Arch at Waterloo, the generation of buildings that included Bromley North, Exeter Central and Hastings (which the bloody awful Railtrack decided to demolish rather than maintain properly)
Then the high art deco stations like Surbiton and Richmond, then the more restrained (and cheap) just pre-war generation like the Chessington branch.
