Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Ahead of the Members' Day next weekend (11 Nov 2023), I thought it may be helpful to compile a list of questions so that those who can't attend can at least have their questions posed and answered.

Please message me and I can give you the Google Docs link; I'll publish all of the questions on Thursday, 9 November - this is only designed to ensure that those who can't attend get a chance to ask their questions.

 

With very many thanks to all who have contributed, we have collected many more questions for the Trust and CIC Boards than I had expected - more than 60, in fact.

Some are quite detailed, and it is clearly impractical to expect to get through these 60-plus those from the floor on the day, so I have sent them to the Trustees and the CIC Board Members tonight, asking if they could answer these in writing, which I will then disseminate to those who have expressed an interest.

For those who are able to go, I hope that the Service of Remembrance is solemn and that if I cannot make it, the Members' Day is a great success.

With very many thanks to all,

Toby

 

Noted on the L&BR website today, another change in the timings....

"...The members' forum will be held as usual in the Music Room at Woolhanger Manor on Saturday 11 November. Doors open at 10.45 am. The two-minute silence for Remembrance Day will be observed at 11.00am and proceedings will begin at 11.30..."

 

Some great news from the Trust. Thank you and well done to all those involved in this project:

https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/news/view/a-signal-box-for-blackmoor

 

But - cross posting from exmoor-ng...

As has already been pointed out to the Trustees, there is simply no way that this box will be suitable to re-use at Blackmoor for the future operational railway. It will be far too small to accommodate all the equipment and levers needed to sustain the likely future operations, unless there has been a drastic reduction in the existing scheme for Blackmoor, the Depot and future services over the whole line.

A much better - and more practical - proposal would be to restore it as a Museum exhibit as set it up as a 'basic' signal-box, which can be used to demonstrate the basic functions of L&BR signalling without the need for visitors to 'intrude' on the proposed new 'operational' box. Quite how the previous owner would view that remains to be seen.

Although previously thought to be the box from Pilton, I see now that it is considered to be the box from Barnstaple Town. It's a pity that the report does not explain how they came to that decision.

 

That might have been me on Facebook where I mentioned my speculation that it is the Barnstaple Town box, largely because pictures taken in August 1936 by the late RK Cope show that this box still had it's finials then, whereas Pilton box had lost them. The Umberleigh box still had it's finials when I surveyed it in 1995 - through the generosity of Mr and Mrs Drummond, the them owners, for the drawings that appeared in 'Measured and Drawn' (helped by the original drawings turning up) . The box was in poor condition then, and these items have since been removed. Pictures taken by Colin Pealling in May 1988 and by me in 1995 are below. People may have been tempted to think it is Pilton box by the fact that the back and (then) both ends of the Umberleigh box had shiplap, but it had clearly been altered even by the time me and Colin saw it (50 years and more after it moved there), and as can be seen in the picture the windowsills still existed. So I think the window at the back which faced the Ilfracombe line, and the ends have been replaced by ship-lap sometime in the past. The window now in the end (visible in the modern picture on the L & B Trust website) has been put in since I measured it.

 

"can't do right for doing wrong" is an old expression that comes to mind given the attitude of some of the "supporters" of this railway.

 

Let's be clear on one thing - I am absolutely delighted that the Trust has acquired this relic form the railway's past.

But sadly, this is not the first time that 'ideas' have been turned into 'plans' without consultation with all the necessary stakeholders, yet lessons appear not (yet) to have been learnt.

 

Perhaps a timely reminder of the Members Forum tomorrow - perhaps a question that could be raised at the meeting. It would be a shame, having recovered the box, if it were altered beyond recognition to make it suitable for operational use on the new railway.

 

Not really. If you state that you’re going to use a very small cabin for what is very likely to be a fairly significant job then you can expect to get flack. I am afraid it is symptomatic of a board that doesn’t really know what it is doing. How much better would it have been to say “we have secured this artefact which we will stabilise and protect and initially display at Blackmoor. A number of options for its future use are being considered”, if you really want to you could add “ the trust would like to see it fulfil an operational role on the railway”. Now if there is a plan to use at Blackmoor for example by employing a miniature lever frame or a panel, why not share that?

 

Maybe you should enquire about the two original Howard vans that were saved by the trust.... Flat packed and stored at Chelfham under a tarpaulin for years until all they were good for was being used as patterns, God knows where they are stored now, if they even survived, I had a lot of negotiation with the previous, previous owner of the signal cabin because he was ready to use it for firewood just to spite someone involved with the railway trust but managed to deter him from doing so, after that owner had sold the property i also visited the new owner at the time, August 2020, between lockdowns to explain that his 'garden shed' was something special and not to 'scrap' it for something new, he knew nothing about the importance of the building so obviously the trust weren't keeping an eye on things back then

 

Wasn't there also an open wagon that was 'rescued' but hasn't been heard of since then?

 

A cynic might suggest that this is something akin to the proverbial dead cat, a bit of 'good news' rushed out just in time to grab the headlines for the Members' Forum today.

As has been pointed out here and elsewhere, sadly the Trust does not have good track-record of conserving assets that it has acquired over the years, let alone doing forward planning with all the relevant stakeholders as to what should be done with them.

One might argue that there is a precedent in (say) the Gartell Rly acquiring the old SB hut from Wyke and re-using it at Pinesway Junction, in the process almost doubling the length of the structure. But the Wyke box was a fairly common style of L&SWR ground-level hut, unlike the rarity of L&BR structures, and - despite their location - the GR is not attempting to replicate S&DJR signalling, whereas it is hoped that future L&BR signalling, albeit adapted to modern requirements, will be recognisably in keeping with its heritage origins.

 

I also understand that a 4wheeled van body had been found in a back garden of Barnstaple, I wonder if that is still about.

 

Not sure to what you are referring in the context of Powderham ? On the other hand, Exminster could be added to that list.

 

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say on the whole, on one hand you put down people who have concerns about the trusts record on preserving things,,, or not then on the other you're saying your not bothered about it as all preservation railways have let things rot, so maybe the signal box should have been left where it was

 

you could very well be correct, I've never heard about one, will have to do some digging

 

taken August 2020