Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

It's almost as if they'd been reading this thread!

 

Could anyone please clarify which of the many variants of (what I assume is) Baguley/Baguley-Price valve gear is fitted to 'Isaac'?

Watching some recent YouTube clips, it occured to me that passenger numbers at Woody Bay must, by now, have exceeded the total handled throughout the old line's final 12 years under Southern management.

Some fantastic images of the first five car trains in 84 years, though I don't know how many more carriages the present Killington Lane loop can cope with. Hopefully, with developments in the Blackmoor direstion, that won't be a issue for too much longer in any event!

 

Interestingly, none posted here as yet!

 

There are plenty on the L&B Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lyntonandbarnstaple/ and there will soon be plenty on the L&B website. In the meantime, here is one by Daryl Hutchinson of LYN, LEW and a five-coach train approaching Woody Bay:

 

Will this be enough to be going on with? (It's by one 'Steamjammer')
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...BMAB6BAgGEAQ&usg=AOvVaw0NQ7vT6rDs8XR6LvkfVxAx

 

The KL loop was extended last year specifically in anticipation of Carriage No. 5.

 

Gala pictures from Saturday are now on the L&B website: https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/story/gala-photos-1-saturday

More to follow shortly!

 

Bridge 54, Barnstaple abutment. What a superb piece of work- I wouldn't like to guess where the original ends, and the new begins:

(John Barton)

 

How many carriages was typical on the original line?

 

Winter or summer?

 

Around this time of the year, once the summer timetable had finished and the tourists gone home, a typical train would be 2-3 carriages plus a few vans/ coal wagons.
I'm going down to Exmoor in a few weeks. Despite being a member for quite a while now, I've never actually had the opportunity to visit the railway, and perversely I always wanted to be there for the first time in the autumn. If it's sunny that will be great, but a grey, windy, sequestered day will for some reason be even better, perhaps, to capture a fleeting mood of the old line, when the holidaymakers had gone home, and Exmoor returned to its own again, just oil-lit farms and the regular sound of the train, beating its way through the squalls rolling in off the Bristol Channel.
SO looking forward to it!

 

IIRC, The Manning Wardles would normally haul up to 4 carriages, LYN could manage 5. Any more would require double-heading. Carriage 17 - a composite brake - was added to the fleet to allow all-class single-carriage working.

 

The original Manning Wardles were certainly normally loaded to four of the original carriages and LYN on the normally declared weights though as a 2-4-2 having only
two coupled axles instead of three had surprisingly nearly the same adhesive weight as the 2-6-2s. Interested that the Baldwin was rated an extra carriage.

The specification to which the new and distinctly heavier LYN has been built was to haul six carriages to the same timings - ie half as much again.
With five rebuilt and replica carriages and a bogie van it should be possible it should now be possible to do a useful practical check on how doable this is.

I do think the full replica train is a remarkable achievement and a sixth is under construction. (I would have thought that there was a case for two more after that to provide one carriage always available to cover any shortfall in the basic set and one as a maintenance spare for anything that would not be instant - rehanging a couple of doors,
revarnishing, touching up the paintwork or a full repaint, changing the bogies, etc. - no difficulty about a stitch in time.)

 

I gather that the Manning Wardles were not some of the more outstanding Narrow Gauge loco's

 

Indeed although not quite in the skin and rice pudding category - can do better certainly sums them up - of course many 'improvements' have been incorporated in the new build @ the FR - are these (and any more) planned on the future new builds?


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The idea is to have a fleet of 8 carriages by the time the extension is open. This allows two 4-carriage trains in each direction. Van 23 will be fitted to work as a brake van to have a spare brake in case of failure of a brake carriage. I think the next carriage planned for rebuilding is no.1 which also adds another brake.

 

AIUI, as well as No.1, certain parts of Nos.3&4 and 9&10 survive, which I'm guessing are those intended to produce the 8 car total, additional to the existing five superb reconstructions.

With surviving No.2 (substantially intact, unrestored at the NRM) and No.15 (in service as FR No.14), that's actually pretty amazing for a fleet laid off 84 years ago.

I must admit (despite being eternally grateful to the NRM that it was saved for posterity) to occasionally wondering whether No.2 is actually still in the most appropriate location, I mean, what with certain other recent de-accessionings .....

 

I used to think that, too. But in reality, so much of that original material would have to be replaced, probably just the frame, roofboards and floorboards would be re-useable. It would be a timber reclamation exercise, probably much more difficult than the current "rebuilds" have been, plus so much of the past would be lost forever.
As it is, we can look at no.2 as a time capsule, and smell the past. It's a tangible link, much more valuable as a source for research, IMHO.
However, if ever a secure, climate controlled location could be found to display it at the rebuilt railway, then yes, definitely!

 

I would not like to generalize, even if I had any expertise. As an example, I understand that Isle of Wight Railway No. 10 as restored, has around 60 to 70% original body framework whereas No. 21, now being rebuilt, has only about 15% re-useable. Superficially, both vehicles were in a far worse state than your No. 2.

 

Borrowing "Russell" from the W.H.H.R. might be illuminating. If she goes as well as her close (but not that close) Sierra Leone relatives like "85", there would be some ghostly red faces in Leeds.