Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Question: until the facility at BG is up and running, is there anywhere else suitable for road/rail deliveries? I can't see adding road-borne deliveries and departures (however occasional) to activities at Parracombe going down too well locally.

 

I can think of a few lines that do something similar - Swindon and Cricklade terminates at Hayes Knoll but runs occasionally shuttles up to the actual end of the line at South Meadow Lane, equally the K&ESR very occasionally runs past Bodiam to Junction Road. That said, this is only really feasible if the standard operational line extends beyond Killington Lane as well, say to Heddon Hall, as Killington Lane to Parracombe would simply be too long for this to work and the conditions attached to Killington Lane requiring unnecessary concessions

 

Ahead of reopening to Tan-y-Grisiau, the Ffestiniog ran the Gelliwiog Shuttle from Dduallt for a good while. Even had P-P kit to operate it.

Though it involved run-rounds, the Bluebell terminated at a platform-less location, just north of the Sharpthorne Tunnel carriage wash, until the line gained the station at Kingscote. In deference to local sensibilities, the former station at West Hoathly remains 'former'.

 

A while ago I was searching for some details in the IMechE library and in a copy of The Engineer from 1898 in the recent patents section the word frog was used to describe the common crossing. I have always wanted to go back and take a copy to show that frog was not a recent invention. Perhaps someone will find something online...

 

Kingscote on the Bluebell was a temporary terminus; it remained that way for some years.

When the last push on the Northern Extension happened, for a few years there was a mile or so of track running from Kingscote to the south end of the tip. Push / pull trips were run on high days and holidays as far as the track went for a nominal supplement. Passengers couldn't alight, but it served as an additional attraction at galas, and an opportunity to explain the next phase of the extension to those interested. (And also hold them upside down on the way out until the coins fell out of their pockets ...)

(See e.g. https://www.derekhayward.co.uk/BluebellRailway-1/Locomotives/Visiting-Locomotives/20/i-c2PFF3n/A - not my photo).

Tom

 

An image from inside one, when Bluebell was running the shuttle.

 

Isn't 'frog' a long standing American term for a common crossing and if it was a US patent, more than likely to use that term? The argument has less value if it was a British patent, though.

 

That rings true. In my total of 33 years main line service I never heard that horrible word "headshunt" once. It used to appear in the modelling mags, all of which seemed to be edited by Western fans* (CF being a case in point). Sure enough, at Alresford, before we had run a train (or even had one to run) that word appeared as a name for the remains of the line to Winchester. Everywhere I have worked we had Shunt Necks, or just plain Necks, if not given some particular name. Woking Down Yard (No. 1 & No. 2 Neck), Up Yard (Short Block); Chichester (Neck).
I've waited years for a chance to get that one off my chest!!
Pat
*Hence the plethora of GWR West Country branch line models. Cornwall would need to be the size of Ireland to fit them all in!

 

Precisely this, @RailWest . We need to be seen to be acting within the agreed conditions as much as possible, and not look like we're trying to game the system - which is roughly why I'm very wary of the Parracombe extension unless there is a lot of local support.

 

If you read the Construction Plan for the Sec 73 application, you will see that it is proposed that all deliveries to, and removals from, the extension from KL to PE will be done by rail from KL as the railhead advances southwards. The CP states quite specifically of the intention/ need to avoid construction traffic through PE village itself.

 

Well OT I know, but twenty years before the Imberhorne push-pull shuttles, here is the set up in 1990 when the first short section of the Northern Extension opened to Horsted House farm, using a Terrier or a P Class and two Maunsell coaches.

Peter

 

Why do they not produce branch line models of the proper [Southern] railway? Using proper engines! Odd that CF was a [G]WR fan when Peco was based in Seaton which is very much Southern Territory.

 

In the L&B case it's academic though, surely, as if they are proposing to use an existing turntable deck the pivot is already there in the centre. The only difference compared with a turntable would be that the pit doesn't need to be a circle (probably more of a 'bow tie' shape).

I've always known them as 'sector tables' rather than 'sector plates' and I really don't see why they would use a different noun, just because they are prefixed with a different modifier.

 

In CF's defence, he did opine, concerning the woeful performance of WR diesels on the Salisbury - Exeter route, that it would have been better to scrap the Warships and keep the Bullied Pacifics, instead!
Pat

 

On the subject of frogs, I had never seen these horrors as part of permanent trackwork before...
https://www.trains.com/mrr/beginners/ask-trains/ask-mr-flange-bearing-frogs-explained/

 

That could well be the case. It was in the Engineer so a truly British publication.

 

There used to be Bridging rails giving an up and over without using a common crossing.
Newtondale timber siding, on the NYMR, was an example for access to the logging crane siding.
A more recent idea was to provide an on site crossover for On Track machines working in a possession.
http://www.nicsltd.com/products.htm

 

I've seen temporary ones before. What got me about the pic was the honking great scuff accross the railhead. I understood such markings to be the greatest of all sins.

 

Westinghouse obtained a patent for an improved railroad frog in 1868 ref US76365A.

 

Easier and cheaper to replace a length of damaged rail than to replace a heavy awkward purpose made frog unit or of course to remetal the damage until replacement is unavoidable, the scuff is nothing compared to the wear that repetitive typical 4000 ton trains on the main inflict.