Newton Abbot and Shrewsbury famous "Double Home" duties 1961

I am putting together a project which includes Newton Abbot MPD and its locomotive rosters in 1961 and I am particularly interested in finding out what the locomotive movements were for the famous "Double Home" duties for Newton Abbot and Shrewsbury locomotives whereby each crew and locomotive would work throughout to and from Shrewsbury. The trains involved were the 8am Plymouth to Liverpool and the 9.5am Liverpool to Plymouth each with coaches for Kingswear. My question is this. The down train's Castle was attached at Shrewsbury and did it come off at Newton Abbot for relief engines to take train forward to Plymouth and Kingswear respectively or did the Castle stay on to journeys end, be it Plymouth or Kinsgwear?
Similarly in the northbound direction, was the Castle locomotive attached at Newton Abbot for its long journey to Shrewsbury or did it start at Plymouth or Kingwear? From what I have ready, the Newton Abbot crews were very proud of this unique "Double Home" trip to Shrewsbury followed by a night in the town and return to Devon the following day. If anyone can shed light on these diagrams, I would be grateful. Thanks. Nick

 

Nick, or "naughty nick" as we called you, I don't know the answer to your question but I think I know a man who does. I am contacting him tonight (Thursday) and hopefully he can provide the information.

Long live the "window man", now sadly consigned to history.

 

I spoke a former Stafford Rd. footplateman this morning and he thought that there would have been an engine change at Newton Abbot.
Ray.

 

The Salop castle definitely came off at Newton Abbot and returned back to Shrewsbury the following day. My father was a fireman at Salop having started as a cleaner there in 1944 and during 1951 /52 he worked those double home turns. Salop castles he mentioned which he worked those turns were Earl of Birkenhead, Earl of St Germans and Blenheim. As you say Newton Abbot men worked in the opposite direction. He also told me they worked a double home turn then a rest day followed by another double home turn. He left Salop and moved to Croes Newydd in 53 and stayed there until the shed closed to steam in 67 then to Chester from where he retired in 1992 after 48 years on the footplate.

 

Reveal yourself, young Sir!! Who can "Blackfiver" be? That window ban was the last straw. Yes, I did tend to dominate window positions, and God help anyone who got in my way. Haha! I do go out to see mainline steam when I can down here in Wokingham but do miss those great days and the friendships that grew from them. SO WHO ARE YOU?

 

Wokingham? When I was exiled next town east (Bracknell) in the mid-1980s, the only vaguely interesting workings were race day specials for Ascot. Those were the only trains which were loco hauled (usually 47s), as opposed to the ubiquitous 4VEP / 2HAP units and (wonder of wonders) actually had catering (often two or three red stripes per train), as well as being the only stock which had seen a carriage washer since Bob knows when. Made a nice contrast with the sorry burnt-out carcass which was Ascot's station building back then!

 

Not sure where the "naughty" tag came from but if it was due to the window domination at all costs, then I am honoured to be called "Naughty"!! Still don't know who you are, would be great to know!

 

Thank you for this Dave. On my layout, I run scheduled services in all regions and use the 1961 British Railways Western Region timetable for guidance (I was trainspotting back then and is when I got the "steam" bug as a 14 year old lad. One of the services I run is the "double home" one and northbound, I use a Warship diesel (Bachmann) between Plymouth and Newton Abbot ( from D600, D816.D818, D820, D823, D832, D841 and D867) and then the Castle comes on at Newton Abbot with Kingswear portion added and off to Shrewsbury we go from a Castle stud (Hornby and Hornby Dublo from 4037 South Wales Borderer's, 4080 Powderham Castle, 4089 Donnington Castle, 5012 Berry Polmeroy Castle, 5017 Gloucestershire Regiment, 5018 St Mawes Castle, 5024 Carew Caastle, 5050 Earl of St Germans, 5057 Earl Waldergrave, 5058 Early of Clancarty, 5059 Earl St Aldwyn, 5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 5070 Sir Danial Gooch, 5081 Lockheed Hudson, 5085 Evesham Abbey, 5087 Tintern Abbey, 5096 Bridgwater Castle, 7008 Swansea Castle, 7022 Hereford Castle, 7023 Penrice Castle, and finally, 7029 Clun Castle. Anyone of these Castles can be allocated to the north and southbound "double home" turns and many other trains that transversed the Western Region in 1961.

 

Moved to Berkshire 15 years ago and living in Finchampstead, I am spoilt for choice when it comes to mainline steam. Wokingham, Reading, Twyford and Woking are all within 20 minutes drive. I think the only steam train through Bracknell now and not very often, is the Belmont Pullman when heading off to Bath!! To be honest, there is not much mainline steam about at the moment although Twyford sees most of what is going on!!