Alan Peters
Between 2000 and 2001 the Portishead line was rebuilt with a short spur to Portbury Dock which is now a major port for the import of motor vehicles, the coal facility had a large bank built around to protect the cars from the coal dust, where the railway passed through a short tunnel to the loading area which can be seen in the picture although coal imports have now ceased.
Alan Peters
Leslie Curnow
Steve Martin
A while back, with your help, I posted a request on the CRS site with an enquiry around a mystery hut at St Erth station.
The hut was sited in the goods yard and due to there always being plenty of rolling stock present in the yard, I only had partial glimpses of it in the background of my research photos.
I have been attending Zoom meetings with a group of 2mm fine scale modellers from Durham in the north of England. Quite by chance we were joined by another group member, Dave Dunn, who after a quick search presented me with the attached photo from his personal collection.
The photo is dated July 1957, and we can clearly see the hut in question in the background. The locomotive in the foreground, 4566, was a regular performer at St Erth and it is shunting a container wagon in the bay platform. This container traffic appears to have been regular as I have several other photos featuring the same operation. It would be interesting to know what was loaded or unloaded in this operation.
The mystery of the hut's design is now solved and I'm getting on with building the model.
The hut has a sign under the left window and I'm wondering if it is signage for the company that used the hut or alternatively some other commercial signage?
The details are vague but if any CRS members can shed some light on the sign or memories of the hut's purpose are jogged by the photo they can email me at: [email protected]
Best Regards
Steve
Bryan Gibson
With reference to the first page on the C.R.S. website, there was nothing sinister or disorganised about the “delayed” closure date of the Kingsbridge Branch. The reason for the extra week beyond the end of the Summer 1963 service was because the Western National winter bus schedules were introduced on the following weekend, which included the linking of the 105 Salcombe – Kingsbridge and 106 Kingsbridge – Totnes routes as the 105 throughout, also the deviation of some journeys on the 103 Loddiswell route via Loddiswell Station, and school journeys required between (South) Brent and Totnes on the 128 Plymouth – Torquay route, previously provided by train (8am from Kingsbridge and the 4.15pm from Totnes).
The only printed reference was the attached circular and staff were asked to draw this to the attention of passengers on notice boards. There were no goods trains during that extra week. One of the Kingsbridge signalmen saved his copy for me which was of equal importance to riding on the last train. A friend who lived in South Brent gave me a lift back to home in Kingsbridge.
Hope you are well and keeping clear of Covid-19
Stay safe! Bryan
Ross Griffiths
Hope you're all keeping well!
Please find attached some pics taken today (socially distanced of course) of the impressive redevelopment progress at Saltash station - personally I think it looks stunning. Best wishes, Ross Griffiths
David Ward