We welcome a new contributor to our website - he is Ron Kosys who fortunately for us also took an interest in the Bridport branch taking some fine views to share with us. in addition to two of Bridport which will appear in our branch collection he also sent these views of  Powerstock and Toller.

Westbury
 
Go to maps  http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore
Type in ‘Westbury’ and Select OS Map 25” 1892 – 1905
On the North West side of the station you will find the Iron Works.
Note the sidings and in addition a tramway extending about a mile to the south west, the far end of the tramway passing under the main line into Westbury. The tramway also extends to the north east, one leg passing under the main Westbury – Trowbridge line.
At this time there is no Westbury avoiding line – this wasn’t opened between Fairwood and Heywood Road Junction until 1933.  Note that the current main line east of Westbury is shown as ‘under construction. There is no chord line between Hawkerbridge Junction and Westbury East junction, this wasn’t opened until 1942.
Note the large Minehole Lake.  The open cast mining left the lakes below the Ham known as the mineholes and tunnels for the tramway under Station Road and Hawkeridge Road. How the current boating lake, one time quarry was connected to the Iron Works on the far side of the station is not known.
 
 

Many thanks to John Cornelius and Doug Nicholls for the above pictures. The station which served Toller Poppercorum handled local fruit traffic - it bacame unstaffed in 1966. Toller station was unique in that the entire building was dismantled and moved to Littlehempston on the South Devon Railway.  You'll find pictures of this on  ​http://www.southdevonrailwayassociation.org/London_Group.html#Toller

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.

Hi Keith,  A quick picture off the I phone of 153369 on the Newquay line near Roche. Wonderful clouds above too. 
Kind regards,  Craig  Many thanks to you Craig.

Moretonhampstead April 1965 The last train to reach Moretonhampstead in April 1965; empty open (Hyfit) wagons and an ex LMS Brakevan, almost certainly worked from Hackney Yard by a Newton Abbot based D63xx (cl 22) diesel loco, await loading with scrap materials at the start of the recovery of the line, opened in 1866, back to Bovey Tracey. Moretonhampstead closed to Passengers on 28 Feb 1959 and to Goods on 6 April 1964. Tony Hill
​​I was then 13 and using an old Box brownie camera, but they are historical !
I was brought up on a farm on edge of Dartmoor Nr Chagford and can remember going to Moreton stn with my father a couple of times ( before Passr trains ended in 1959) to collect a Kerry Hill ram which had come down from Welshpool by passenger trains.

The village of Bradpole, once a small village now an extension of Bridport lies about a mile from Bridport towards Maiden Newton. You can find it by using this link http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore and typing in Bridport. try the 6" or 25" maps.

Recently, while researching the branch and looking at Radpole using Google Earth Roger Winnen made a surprising find. Try this - having found the village of Bradpole, look at the South East of this area and in particular  look for Caley Way and its intersection with Trinity Way. now 'zoom in' and you'll find a level crossing gate painted white, its clearly there with its shadow on the ground.  Now, go to 'Street view' and look.  You'll find not only the crossing gate and wicket gates but also a short section of track embedded in the road.  So the Bridport branch still exists albeit only about ten feet of it.  For another link try this ​https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.7430815,-2.7376346,3a,75y,151.27h,74.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfBH_aVGNoweN6c8BmMLpJA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

With a very sincere thanks to John for his continuing support of this website from his 'Treasure Trove' of Gems.  Many thanks indeed John.

​A most interesting article, "The Construction of Railway Bridges Then and Now," by Alan Hayward mentions the construction of Alphin Brook bridge and  can be found at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/1758120613Z.00000000037?src=recsys&   

The author's firm, Cass Hayward, rebuilt River Exe Bridge at St. David's in 1997. This was the last bridge to be rolled in on steel balls.

Now retired, Alan has been a great help to the Friends of Ashburton Station. His suggested method of tunnelling beneath the A38 and bridging the River Dart to enable the reconnection of the historic terminus has been accepted in principle by Highways and Environment agencies.

Cheers, Colin

Tony Hill tells me that the 1967 blockade i.c.w. this bridge was the last occasion trains were planned to be diverted via Tavistock.

Many thanks to, Colin, for this most interesting contribution.  

The rail system in the Radstock area was extremely complicated with both the GW and the S & D serving the town.  If you click below you will find a very useful map.  Search for Radstock and select the 25" to the mile map option.
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore

​*   Don't forget this coming Saturday   *
    Our speaker for this month - we welcome.
         John Saville
                        Fleet Manager West for GWR
      Maintaining the Great Western fleet​
The speakers are John Saville, Fleet Manager West, Great Western Railway and his colleague Jim Humphries. They will provide a detailed look at how the GWR fleet of trains, especially the "West" units that provide our local services in the south west, are maintained and prepared for service at the two main depots for these trains, Exeter and St Phillip's Marsh, Bristol. These trains are quite elderly and very intensively worked covering both long distance routes such as Cardiff to Brighton and local services on branches in Devon and Cornwall. Keeping them in good condition and ensuring that they are ready for service every day, with often only limited time overnight to carry out necessary maintenance, is a significant challenge. Our speakers will tell us how it's done.
​Saturday 11th February 2017 at 18.30 in the Wesley Memorial Hall Redruth   For further details click here

​Good morning all,
During 2011, and 2012 I was a Depot Operations Manager for Network Rail.
My duties included checking Weekend Engineering Trains were all formed up correctly.....a hard life but someone had to do it!
My Cornwall connection - Great, Great, Great uncles were born in Antony when the Railways were being built. We 3 brothers moved up to London and worked on the PWay and Signalling, the other brother went over the Tamar and joined the Navy.
I had 36 years in British Rail, Railtrack, Network Rail and Balfour Beatty. and I still undertake some passenger counting surveys.
​I have a passion for Railway photography and I loved the Westerns.
                   Many thanks or your story and pictures.

 A different kind of tank!
Nigel Tregoning

Looking at the website recently, I noticed something interesting in the colour picture of Cashmores yard on the St Ives page.  If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, you can see at least two (possibly four) Churchill tanks, which would have dated from around 1941-1945, being in service up to 1952.  So that means they would have been there for some years. ​  

​It is possible they are some other type of tank, but this is my best guess.  The number of wheels is correct, the tool boxes on the side are in the same place and the turret shape is very close.  I guess these may have changed slightly with each variant.  So what does this little snippet tell us?  Nothing life changing, but it does illustrate how the world of business has changed.  Preservation was not big on the agenda in 1964, so was this a visionary who was hoping to sell them on as museum pieces?  Or maybe the need to turn a quick buck on his investment was not an issue, where as today he'd buy it one week and sell the scrap metal to a recycling plant the next.  In other words, tanks today, fridge freezers tomorrow!  
        Many thanks Nigel for your interest, research and comment.

​Hi Keith At least 6 Churchill tanks of various types in that picture and maybe 7? The rear of another off to the left. These are actually a mix of the tank version with a 6 Pdr gun and what look like the AVRE, armoured engineer, assault gun – recovery vehicle. All the weapons of course have either been removed or the gun barrel cut off. This line up in 1964 would make sense as the tank went out of service in the 50’s after being replaced by the Centurion tank. Specialist vehicles would have stayed in service longer and gradually be replaced as they wore out and as spares ran out. One of them in the foreground looks complete, even with the pioneer tools of spades, shovels crowbars etc still strapped to the hull...The Churchill had a bewildering variety of marks and upgrades which are completely beyond the scope of a railway page! John Root
                     Many thanks for your observations John.  I think with that we'll have to leave the subject, after all, we're really about railway 'tanks' as opposed to military tanks.

Hi Keith
 They are Churchills (on enlargement possibly 6 with the nearer 2 having the turret removed).  The shape of the turret indicates they are probably MkVII (the MkVIICS had a similar turret but few were made).  They may have been hauled off one of the Cornwall/Devon military training areas (after use as targets) though their condition would indicate dry firing (blank ammo) targets
Carry on the good work, everybody
 Regards Dave Critchlow  (Scottish Borders)
                                Many thanks David - well spotted.