Staff Training at Truro with the IET
Nick Kiszczuk
Nick Kiszczuk
180522 IET 800029 stops at Truro for staff training on the loading with ramps for wheelchair passengers etc. Copyright Nick Kiszczuk
Newham Branch
Memories of a near miss.
Neil Phillips
Memories of a near miss.
Neil Phillips
Phil Hadley’s recent video of a walk along the remains of the Newham branch is very interesting for somebody like myself who can remember it when it was operational. I nearly choked on my tea when my photo of D6322 at Calenick Level Crossing popped up – my first-ever photo of a diesel locomotive and taken 50 years ago on 4th June! I have walked the line a few times in the past myself while it was still in use, usually while pushing my bike towards Penwithers Junction from this level crossing as it was on my cycling route from home to Truro. I never saw a train while doing this, and I don’t recall ever expecting one! I was aware of the line’s existence at a young age as the primary school I attended was located up the hill on the opposite side of Calenick Creek (and still is, only much enlarged since then). My years there - 1958 to 1964 – neatly covered the transition from steam to diesel traction, but whereas the presence of steam trains was very obvious the diesels sneaked past unnoticed. These were not necessarily always Class 22s – while Truro had a Class 08 yard pilot this could also be employed on the branch, as confirmed by the sighting of D4009 crossing the Arch Hill bridge over the A390 on its way back to Truro one morning in 1967.
The 1971 Truro area remodelling involved a simplification of the signalling and during the dismantling of the signals at Penwithers Junction a lamp got away from the workmen and ended up at the foot of the embankment where the Newham branch joined the Falmouth line. I found it lying there and still have it. I also recovered a cast iron sign from a long-abandoned occupation crossing gate not far from Penwithers Junction – since there was no sign of such a crossing on the line itself and little trace of a matching gate on the opposite side I felt it was fair game! Carrying that back along the line to Calenick flattened the saddle bag on my bike, but I got it home and 46 years later I still have that too, showing signs of restoration started in 1978 but never completed. One day…… Shortly after commencing his return walk along the trackbed Phil pauses to look at a gate post with an empty hinge attached – could this be the remains of the gate my sign was attached to? Decades of uncontrolled vegetation make it difficult to be sure but it’s on the right side of the line at around the right location…..
Having already owned up to the unauthorised use of a ganger’s trolley for a last trip along the line just before the rails were torn up, I have one other embarrassing story connected with a now track-less Calenick Level Crossing a few months later. During a visit to Truro station in late June 1972 a typical Cornish drizzle set in. I must have been expecting it as I was wearing a coat (wet Junes are nothing new!) This concerned me a little because whilst there my bike’s rear brake cable failed, so I made a mental note on the return journey to stop short of the top of the hill leading down to the level crossing and walk down. Unfortunately I misjudged the Cornish drizzle’s effect on my remaining brake and sailed over the top too quickly to get off. Rapidly gaining speed down the hill panic got a grip as I realised that using only the front brake would end in disaster and the stone wall at a sharp right in Calenick beyond the level crossing was likely to prove even worse for my sense of wellbeing! There was only one course of action – having cleared the level crossing in a blur (and not in continuous contact with the road) I steered left into a patch of stinging nettles and prayed for sufficient retardation to avoid a wipe-out! Luckily this worked, after a fashion – I hit a hidden rock, bike and rider parted company in mid-air and I landed on my back in the nettles a few yards short of the stone wall! Partly thanks to wearing that coat I suffered only a few bruises and stings but my bike was not so fortunate with a collapsed front wheel and severely bent pedal. Thankfully there were no witnesses to this near-catastrophe and I’ve rarely mentioned it to anybody……….!!
Neil Phillips Thanks for the memory and we're so glad you survived.
For Phil Hadleys video click here Newham Branch Line Pt 1
The 1971 Truro area remodelling involved a simplification of the signalling and during the dismantling of the signals at Penwithers Junction a lamp got away from the workmen and ended up at the foot of the embankment where the Newham branch joined the Falmouth line. I found it lying there and still have it. I also recovered a cast iron sign from a long-abandoned occupation crossing gate not far from Penwithers Junction – since there was no sign of such a crossing on the line itself and little trace of a matching gate on the opposite side I felt it was fair game! Carrying that back along the line to Calenick flattened the saddle bag on my bike, but I got it home and 46 years later I still have that too, showing signs of restoration started in 1978 but never completed. One day…… Shortly after commencing his return walk along the trackbed Phil pauses to look at a gate post with an empty hinge attached – could this be the remains of the gate my sign was attached to? Decades of uncontrolled vegetation make it difficult to be sure but it’s on the right side of the line at around the right location…..
Having already owned up to the unauthorised use of a ganger’s trolley for a last trip along the line just before the rails were torn up, I have one other embarrassing story connected with a now track-less Calenick Level Crossing a few months later. During a visit to Truro station in late June 1972 a typical Cornish drizzle set in. I must have been expecting it as I was wearing a coat (wet Junes are nothing new!) This concerned me a little because whilst there my bike’s rear brake cable failed, so I made a mental note on the return journey to stop short of the top of the hill leading down to the level crossing and walk down. Unfortunately I misjudged the Cornish drizzle’s effect on my remaining brake and sailed over the top too quickly to get off. Rapidly gaining speed down the hill panic got a grip as I realised that using only the front brake would end in disaster and the stone wall at a sharp right in Calenick beyond the level crossing was likely to prove even worse for my sense of wellbeing! There was only one course of action – having cleared the level crossing in a blur (and not in continuous contact with the road) I steered left into a patch of stinging nettles and prayed for sufficient retardation to avoid a wipe-out! Luckily this worked, after a fashion – I hit a hidden rock, bike and rider parted company in mid-air and I landed on my back in the nettles a few yards short of the stone wall! Partly thanks to wearing that coat I suffered only a few bruises and stings but my bike was not so fortunate with a collapsed front wheel and severely bent pedal. Thankfully there were no witnesses to this near-catastrophe and I’ve rarely mentioned it to anybody……….!!
Neil Phillips Thanks for the memory and we're so glad you survived.
For Phil Hadleys video click here Newham Branch Line Pt 1
D6322 at Calenick (Newham branch) 4th June 1968 Copyright Neil Phillips
The Newham Artifacts. Picture received 22nd May 2018 - with many thanks to Neil Phillips - Copyright.
Kingskerswell
Ron Kosys
Ron Kosys
31462+31402 clatter over jointed track at Kingskerswell with the 09.33 Saturdays only Stockport to Paignton 30th September 1989. Copyright Ron Kosys
Southampton
John Cornelius
John Cornelius
Copyright John Cornelius