Dartmouth Steam Railway General Discusssion

Took a return trip on the manor as been on the standard quite a bit. 5239 light steam on Thursday morning. 160 out I assume getting ready to depart to the NYMR


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Went on the DSR yestersay (16th)

Turned up at Paignton to find Lydnham Manor running, picked up a coffee which want bad and then found my two oldest had settled themselves into the Devon Belle.

As we came over the viaduct just after Greenway Tunnel we had a good view pf Kingswedar Castls steaming down The Dart

Trsin was nicely turned out and as far as I could see many of the staff were young - well younger than me.

I asked the guard who explained that the reason for a maroon coach was that it came from Llangollen and wasnt due for a repaint yet but everyone wanted it repainted.

After aa run round Dartmouth we then sailed up to Totnes on the Kingswear Castle, her onlly call there this year, time for some fascinating conversations with other steamer enthusiasts.

Sadly our train back to Westbury was cancelled, so the first time I have turned left at Cogload for many many years but thats another story.

Certainly the PDR & Kingswear Castle were excellent as always.

 

Any idea what's likely to be rostered this coming weekend (5/6 Oct)? TIA

 

On the Steam Dreams trip Saturday,
Would anyone know whats Rostered to be out at Dartmouth many thanks

 

5239 is in position at Paignton tonight ready for tomorrow

 

4247 has arrived at Churston .

 

Went for a ride yesterday between seeing 5029 out on the mainline and this was my first time at the railway since June 2021.

While the views on the whole haven't changed too much, although I did notice high rise apartments being built at Noss Quay which now hampers the view around Greenway/Maypool Viaduct, the railway seems to be a bit unloved.

I know this railway is commercial, ran for profit and definitely is not a pure heritage railway, which I've never minded, but it seemed in the 2010s things were getting a bit more love, such as the Paignton station rebuild and also more of an effort on the heritage side of things such as the faux Kingswear Signal Box and a simpler more typical chocolate and cream carriage livery.

Various parts of the railway's foliage is overgrown, including on the railway's side of the fence, hampering views from the train. I also thought these could be deemed a fire risk.

Goodrington Sands, Churston and Greenway Halt obviously are no longer open to the public but they are very much still in the public view despite this.

Goodrington started getting some attention paid to it prior to covid, but now it looks a sorry state, the running in board is heavily faded with a heavily graffitied and heavily cannibalised DMU trailer on display in the sidings alongside a rather nicely painted GWR grey livered bogie bolster (assume its DW 100694) which I found a bit bizarre, a gem amongst stones.

Whilst I get it is a working yard, some of the carriages and wagons etc at Churston aren't a very good image to present to the public. The Up platform, which trains stop in to pass on two train days, has Christmas decorations on it leaning up against the workshop wall.

At Greenway the box van-cum-waiting room looks in a bad way, is still kept with it's doors open and the platform is covered in dead leaf fall.

The Train of Lights backdrop in the woods is still present with 'KEEP OUT' signs...

I've always felt Kingswear could be made a bit more presentable, to portray a real destination station feeling upon arrival with it's trainshed but it just seems it is nothing more than something to walk through to get to the ferry pontoon. It could do with a lick of paint.

As a commercial operation, I would think the company would want things as tidy, well presented and upkept as possible to entice people to come back, but it just seemed to me now all that matters is operating the trains and the views will do the rest for them.

Why not spend some effort on covering items in tarpaulins? Maybe build a carriage shed?

Is £23.50 value for money? Probably yes in these times all things considered, but people will feel how is that £23.50 being used to upkeep appearances?

Onto operations, what is the deal at Goodrington these days, the Down train I was on used the Up platform and then Up train I was on went through the Down? We didn't cross any trains. Just the guy at Britannia Crossing having some fun?

Are the barriers at Sands Road no longer operated locally by the train crew? My arrival into Queens Park yesterday did not stop and the guard did not announce that it would either so assume he had prior knowledge of this at the very least. There were some high viz people around so not sure if they operated it?

 

That's why I like the PDSR . It reminds me of BR in the early 1960's. Semi managed dilapidation.

That's why I like the

 

I was on the charter and my impression of the line matched yours. In particular, I can't understand why they don't stop at Goodrington and Churston. The station at Goodrington is right next to the UK's largest water park, surely it has the potential to be well patronised. I'm sure there are many heritage railways that would be very grateful to have such a popular attraction literally right on their doorstep.

 

As much as I agree Goodrington looks very sad these days (I opened my last video I filmed there in August 2023 with the scenes from the bridge above the station which hasn’t changed from when the station was last locked up to passengers in (2019?)) I guess they feel not many will many will travel from Kingswear/Dartmouth to do the water park or take the short journey from Paignton to get off there. Hopefully one day someone will take it on as a project. When I first visited and travelled in 2004 we did get off there on the way back and do the beach before getting back on the train!

 

You're falling into the enthusiast pipe dream that people will wish to travel by train to visit another tourist attraction not run by the railway.

Paignton to Goodrington is about 5 minutes by car. If you wanted to visit the water park, why would you stop in Paignton, pay for parking etc, wait to catch a train, pay for the train, take a journey alongside what is mostly sidings, when you could just go direct to Goodrington at a time of your own choosing?

The P&DSR seems to be well set up to manage a whole day out within the company's own resources: you can design pretty much any itinerary you like combining trains, ferries and boat trips, all for one price and the effort of making one booking. I can't see there is any advantage to the company (and I can think of one pretty significant disadvantage) in marketing the railway as a park and ride from Paignton to some other attraction, nor can I see that it would make a particularly attractive "add on" for anyone to combine the two.

Tom

 

I couldn't imagine a Paignton-Goodrington park and ride ever working but I'm slightly surprised that there wasn't a benefit in keeping Goodrington open just because the train going right past the beach and water park is such a great advert for the line and with multiple car parks close by, Goodrington seemed a very obvious starting point for people's journeys if the train had caught their attention while they were on the beach or at the water park. Even if they weren't going straight from beach to train but seeing it had put the idea of a trip on a different day in their mind, the logic of having a station right there where the train was most visible to a big tourist market seemed like an advantage (I know Queens Park station isn't that far away, but it is a bit of a difference).

But I trust this line's cost/benefit calculations given the sort of business it is, and I don't think I ever had to queue to buy a ticket at Goodrington booking office on days it was open, so I have to assume the number of walk-ups there was never big. Similarly the business case for Greenway and the tie-up with the house etc there can't have added up long term - even though I thought that often looked pretty successful during my many, many visits to the line in the 2010s.

Personally, selfishly, I really, really miss the intermediate stations. I absolutely love this line and couldn't care less about names on coaches or locos - I'm there for the combination of scenery + fantastic noisy climbs. I often used to start a journey from Churston so my last run of the day was uphill on the way back (for the same reason I've started many WSR days from Crowcombe or Washford or Mid-Hants days from Medstead - it's more fun to end the day on a thrashy note than with a downhill trundle!). Or I'd get off on Greenway or Churston then walk off to various photo locations. Plus those uphill standing starts from Goodrington and Greenway were fantastic.

I'd definitely take more trips on the DSR if the intermediate stations were open again as it just gives me a few more interesting options for my day. But I don't imagine for a second that there are enough people who think like that to justify what I guess is a significant additional cost/hassle of having the intermediate stations and disrupting the end-to-end journeys + largely pre-booking business model the line now uses. What I am more surprised about (and I haven't yet been there this year to see for myself) is allowing those stations to get shabby as that feels like a lack of care/attention to detail that I wouldn't have expected. Even if they're not being used by passengers, I would've imagined the management would want enough done to keep them presentable.

 

Beautifully blunt way of saying what I used a lot more words to say! I'm pretty sure in the 2010s the railway website encouraged people coming by car not train to go to Goodrington as the car parking was better than Paignton (which is definitely true).

But... if that had actually worked, the station would have been busier and would still be open now surely?

I guess Paignton works for the Round Robin trips with the bus right there + there's all the secondary spend opportunity with the shop and cafe whereas Goodrington was always sparse even when open.