Items added on 16th February 2017 Those added most recently come first

Exeter St David's Station with its semaphores in April 1980
Roger Winnen

800404a Its 4th April 1980 the signals are pulled off for us to enter Platform 6 at Exeter St David's, viewed from the front seat of a DMU. Copyright Roger Winnen

800404b The track layout as we enter the station from the west. Copyright Roger Winnen

800404c At the other end of the station we see a Peak stabled in the short siding which once held the banking engines for trains to Exeter Central, a class 47 is seen arriving with an express. Copyright Roger Winnen

800412a A week later on the 12th April 1980 we see an express arriving hauled by a Class 50 from either Paignton or Penzance. The water tank to the right sits on what was an atmospheric pumping station built in the 1840s. Copyright Roger Winnen

800412b 33001 Awaits departure from Platform 3 with a Waterloo bound service. Copyright Roger Winnen

Fred Flintstones Railway
Haytor Tramway - recent discoveries.
Colin Burges

One of the most interesting things to have been uncovered in recent years is the extent of the Haytor Tramway at Ventiford Basin, between Teigngrace and Heathfield on the Moretonhampstead Branch. This was the terminus of the Stover Canal and the tramway, but no one had any idea that the track layout remained beneath the surface; all else beyond where the tramway was buried by the later railway around Granite Siding has gone and it was thought that the section near Pottery Road, Bovey, was the lowest surviving.

Ventiford Basin was in ruins until a few years ago but recent archaeological work by the Stover Canal Society and construction of a neighbouring path as part of the Dartmooor "Granite and Gears" project has transformed the area.

Through M. & S.D.R, G.W.R., B.R. and another ownership, the canal passed to Network Rail as an historical legacy. It leases the dry "waterway" to Teignbridge District Council which sublets it to the society.

Only 24 years after this "stone age" line was built, Daniel Gooch was able to drive a train from Paddington to Exeter and back along the modern railway.

Looking towards Haytor, the line turns left to follow the course of the Moretonhampstead Branch. Copyright Colin Burges

Copyright Colin Burges

A turnout in more detail. It is conjectured that a rudimentary point rail deflected wagon wheels in the facing direction. Copyright Colin Burges

Lookng in the opposite direction the Moretonhampstead Branch is on embankmnt at right. Among those in the know there is always some sadness when a place is opened up & interpreted, but were it not for the building of the shared path the tramway would have remained undiscovered. Copyright Colin Burges

Ventiford Basin, the terminus of the Stover Canal recently dug by the tramway is on the left, the later railway on the right. Copyright Colin Burges

Hoping this won't make your readers yawn. Cheers, Colin
I am sure it won't, many thanks to you for this history revealed.

Bridport branch (4)
John Cornelius

Try finding this location on Google Earth Street View. Compared with this rather barren view in 1974 the site is completely overgrown with trees today. Copyright John Cornelius