Many thanks for the reminder Martin - it looks very promising.
John Cornelius
Mike Morant
Trainspotting - Live Morning Keith, This mini series starts tonight at 20.00 on BBC4 - three instalments presented by Peter Snow, starting at Didcot Railway Centre. http://entertainment.ie/tv-highlight/Trainspotting-Live/382866.htm Regards, Martin Many thanks for the reminder Martin - it looks very promising. Langport West Flooded 3 John Cornelius 5525 and its train sails out of Langport West towards Yeovil on the 29th October 1960. Copyright John Cornelius. The signalman can just be seen in his nice dry box, one wonders if the gentleman seen wading his way back to 'terra firma' is a pilotman. One hopes he kept his feet missing all the 'trip hazards' en route. John wisely stays on the platform. The flatness of the area in this direction is evident. Another 'nautical' photograph tomorrow. Ilfracombe Bank 2 Mike Morant The Devon Belle on its way up the bank. An undated picture. The 'Devon Belle' was timed to leave Ilfracombe at 12.00 arriving at Waterloo five and a half hours later. Although officially a non-stop run, a stop was made at Wilton to change locos. From the crest on the side of the loco it looks like a Battle of Britain class engine that will be adding 31,000 pounds of 'shove' to the back of the train. 'Cynthia' is the name of thePullman coach alongside us. Courtesy Mike Morant Collection. 160709_S_BR_BB_Devon_Belle_Ilfracombe_banker_DKJ Goodrington Today Trevor Tremethick As can be seen from those superb and historical pictures from John Cornelius and Mike Morant also not forgetting Mike Roach and Sid Sponheimer there is something about black and white but its rare to see monochrome these days. Hi Keith Don't know if you will want this. Barbara and I had our annual 'Fish & Chips and Torbay Express' visit to Goodrington today. Sadly, no sun (on the train at least) and no steam even though it had been smoking nicely as it came up! I had to put it into Black & White to tone down those awful turquoise flumes used by the kiddiwinkies at the beach. How they ever got planning permission for those in an area of such beauty I'll never know. Anyway, most of the photos taken in steam days were B & W! Best wishes from Barbara and to you and Valerie from us both. Cheers, Trevor. Many thanks Trevor. Road over rail bridge at Saveock The work is extensive and will involve the removal of the carriageway and existing bridge deck; the diversion of utility services; upgrades to the bridge’s structure; the installation of the new deck; and the reconstruction of the carriageway. To carry out these upgrades, the bridge will be temporarily closed from Monday, 27 June 2016 to Friday, 14 October 2016. During this time, a sign-posted diversion route, agreed with Cornwall Council, will be in place. Try this link for a picture of the bridge :- http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/truro-residents-to-benefit-from-saveock-bridge-upgrade-as-part-of-railway-improvements Langport West Flooded 2 John Cornelius We are most fortunate that John Cornelius was at Langport West at the time of the floods and extremely fortunate that through the generosity of John we are able to show you these instances in history captured by his camera. Two more in this sequence to follow. Many thanks John. Remember Ilfracombe Bank 1 Mike Morant It's just two years after World War Two and here we see the 'Devon Belle' climbing the 1 in 36 bank out of Ilfracombe with most appropreiately by 21C117 'Ilfracombe' at the head. This loco was then very new being built in December 1945 and served for just 19 years before being withdrawn in October 1964. The date of this picture is 20th June 1947. Courtesy of the Mike Morant Collection 160709_S_SR_21C117_Ilfracombe_20-6-47_Devon_Belle_DKJ Highly Recommended Padstow station and area. Further to the query raised below Darren Kitson has advised me of a website listed below concerning Padstow station throughout is history. The site is extremely detailed and illustrated with excellent maps and photographs. Wait no longer, click on it and you'll be delighted and amazed. Hi Keith, The updated Disused Stations Padstow section is now live: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/padstow/index.shtml. Martin James was the author of the original page. I researched and wrote the majority of the image captions and Nick Catford put it all together. Regards, Darren Kitson Padstow Branch demolition Darren Kitson Hi Keith, I do quite a lot of work for Nick Catford's Disused Stations website. We are currently working on updating the Padstow pages and I have been doing research in connection with this. The photograph below appears on your website, with a question regarding the train at the platform and I may be able to help. The train on the left is entering, not at, the platform and this is the reason for the blur in the foreground. It is a single-unit DMU, as it that stabled on the loop. Behind the railcar on the loop are some more vehicles; I cannot identify them but may be the stock for used for the school train. I suspect the photograph was taken on a Saturday when, during the summer, a service from Wadebridge arrived at Padstow during the afternoon (one timetable shows it arriving 2.14pm) with another from Bodmin North arriving twenty minutes later. Regulations would have required the 2.14pm arrival to clear the platform, thus this will be the railcar stabled on the loop. Return workings are a little unclear; there was a 2.52pm departure for Bodmin North followed by a 3.13pm departure for Wadebridge which appears to have continued, for some odd reason, as a separate service to Bodmin Road although this may have been a separate train. What is unclear is that both departures from Padstow ran every weekday so apart from on Saturdays there must have been some empty stock working or two railcars coupled together in the Down direction Monday - Friday. I must stress that the above is just my conclusion and is not confirmed evidence. Nonetheless I might help to answer the question with the photograph on your website. While I am here, so to speak, I have been trying to determine details of the demolition (or track lifting) train on the Padstow branch, assuming a train was used and the work wasn't done using road vehicles and plant. Would you be able to throw any light on this? Thanks and regards, Darren Kitson. Can anybody answer Darrens question please. Langport flooded John Cornelius Langport West was situated on the 'flood plain' of the River Yeo which quite frequently bursts its banks and crippled road and rail transport in the area. Recently the local roads were rendered impassible and the Cogload to Bristol line closed for many days. Here at Langport West Prarie 5554 dips than its toes The crew anxiously watch on as do several spectators on the platform. Is that the top of a ground signal for the crossover just pooking its head above water, and is it still alight? 29th October 1960 This waterside picture courtesy of John Cornelius Copyright Mike Morant visits BR South Devon This is the last of the current series of Michael Morants Collection, I sincerely hope that there are more to come, in the meantime many many thanks to Mike for the privilege of viewing many of is vast collection of pictures of railway items. Visit his site for more samples of varied collection of views of Transport , train, bus, lorry and boat not only UK but much further afield.
Langport West John Cornelius 4591 stands at Langport West with a service from Yeovil on the 12th May 1964 Copyright John Cornelius Note:- The 12th May 1964 was a Tuesday. Looking in front of the locomotive one can see three people, one already on the crossing despite the signal being 'off'. Being double track north of here there could have been another train approaching. The people look young, probably school children and probably used the board crossing every day to avoid the climb over the footbridge, the station exit was via the main buildings on this platform. Tomorrow we look at Langport West during some exceptionally wet weather. Mike Morant visits
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