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Post by David Graham's Eighth Pint on Jul 9, 2009 8:20:27 GMT
I went to school in Okehampton and one of my best friends lived right next to the station for a bit. I'm sure they re-opened it recently?
I know where the station is in Halwill too as I played for their football team for a bit.
Getting from the Okehampton area to North Devon is bad enough by car. The A386 is a nasty, windy road. I'm not surprised at all that by train was a bit of a pain.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 9, 2009 12:20:40 GMT
I went to school in Okehampton and one of my best friends lived right next to the station for a bit. I'm sure they re-opened it recently? I know where the station is in Halwill too as I played for their football team for a bit. Getting from the Okehampton area to North Devon is bad enough by car. The A386 is a nasty, windy road. I'm not surprised at all that by train was a bit of a pain. I'm in Taunton at this time but over the weekend I will be putting up pictures of many of the old stations, Okehampton is alive and well, but you will be surprised to see what has happened to Halwill. |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 10, 2009 20:00:15 GMT
I have never been interested in trains, I think when I was young train spotters were considered a bit strange and known as anoraks, but I take the view these days if you love trains then why not. Each to their own. If you have seen the castle thread on here you will know I just love old buildings from History and as I have got older my love for anything bygones has grown and grown. Put me in the middle of a castle ruin and I will close my eyes and imagine I was there all those years ago. It saddens me to see most castles in ruins, but I expect most were destroyed by the likes of Cromwell etc, still even in ruins they are a real reminder of our past. Barton and a few others do seem to like trains and for me it’s not the trains it’s the bits of old lines and stations still around that I take interest in. I have driven through Halwill Junction two times a week for over six years ago and never gave any thought to its name. Then when Barton went to watch Holsworthy play he talked about an old railway bridge he had walked on, I knew it well and can never forget the first time I saw it. It goes over a deep valley and just stops beside the road; it would have gone across the road at one time. There is another wonderful bridge in Holsworthy, I will get a picture of it one day soon, I always wonder if it will one day be knocked down as it goes over the road into the town and only has headroom of 13 foot and three inches, Most large lorries have to go on a detour and many have got stuck under it. All the trains stopped running years ago and Barton has put up a map of some of the stations, today I will put up a few of those stations, there are far to many to do all in one post and anyway I m still looking for some pictures of many of them. I have added a few not on the map but they all once were on some line or other and also I have put up Okehampton Station for David Graham's Eighth Pint It’s strange really driving from Okehampton to Halwill and then onto Okehampton as you see nothing really that ever showed there was once a railway line there. Onto the first pictures I will put on this thread. The viaduct at Holsworthy  Holsworthy station.  Halwill Junction    Halwill in the mid 80's  The platform side  Halwall station as it is today  Ashwater  Ashwater today  Whitstone & Bridgerule today  Bideford today(its not used but it does have trains there)  Torrington before it was done up and turned into a pub  lastly Okehampton as it is today.   |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2009 21:40:47 GMT
Barton and a few others do seem to like trains and for me it’s not the trains it’s the bits of old lines and stations still around that I take interest in. I have driven through Halwill Junction two times a week for over six years ago and never gave any thought to its name. To be honest, Dave, it's the lines, stations and the whole social history of the railways which interests me more than the locos. Great pictures of the Holsworthy area - especially those of Halwill Junction which owes its whole existence to the railways (an event which now seems so improbable). Now take a look at that map I posted where, in the bottom right hand corner, you'll see two parallel railway lines between Lydford and Brentor which head southwards before diverging to form competing routes between Tavistock and Plymouth. That's another railway story for you! |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jul 11, 2009 6:25:12 GMT
To be honest, Dave, it's the lines, stations and the whole social history of the railways which interests me more than the locos.  For me too it's the greater picture and insight into social history and industrial heritage that railways, canals and any other mass transit system represent that is of the greatest interest.................I love tracing the footprint of long gone systems. Mind you, I DO have a collection of magnificent precision scale models of steam locomotives from around the world sadly bunged into a cardboard box somewhere by Bijou as their location on a couple of shelves in the living room right above the PC station were a bloody embarrassment to her!  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2009 8:03:34 GMT
Even the keenest advocate of railways would have been hard-pressed to justify a business case for the North Devon & Cornwall Junction Light Railway which ran from Halwill Junction to Torrington. Not only did it not open until the 1920s but many of the stations were awkwardly-placed. Hatherleigh station, for example, was over a mile from the town and by the mid 1930s was only selling 500-600 tickets a year. Even that figure was almost twice the number being sold at Hole (for Black Torrington). To complete the picture here's the route north from Petrockstowe:  On this map you'll see the former line to Ilfracombe as well as the route east to South Molton and eventually through to Taunton (meeting with the north-south Exe valley line in the Bampton/Dulverton area). The route up from Exeter to Barnstaple - still stopping at places such as Eggesford, King's Nympton, Portsmouth Arms, Umberleigh and Chapelton - remains in operation and, nowadays, is marketed as the Tarka Line. It's long-gone but some of us remember the old Ilfracombe line crossing over the Taw at Barnstaple right next to the town's Long Bridge:   |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 11, 2009 9:12:33 GMT
Barton you have answered a question I have wondered about for years, I'm in Barnstaple twice a week these days, but about nine years ago I was there every single day as I worked for a year or two for what was known as White Arrow. I knew every single road name, mind you finding some in Barnstaple is very difficult as so many are named this terrace or that and form part of a street with a completely different name. The old town station is in Castle Street and this street leads on to the stand where the bridge is in your picture and is close to the police station and council offices. Today it is a restaurant and my question was how did the trains get into the station as I know the Tarka line is on the other side of the river. Castle Street was up until the new north bypass was built a traffic nightmare, I sat in jams so often there as you had to go to the stand and then around the roundabout to get over the bridge. I always felt it was mad if you came to the strand from the other direction and wanted to get to Castle Street. You had to get to the strand roundabout and then over the bridge, then carry on to the next roundabout and head back over the bridge turning left at the end of it. A bit of a distance to only get 10 yards further than if you could have driven straight from the strand into Castle Street. That great railway bridge is something I have never seen before as Barnstaple was never a place I went when I was young. The new station as you will know is the end of the line for the Tarka line and sits at the back of the Seven Breathen industrial estate at the bottom of Sticklepath Hill. A hill I will never forget as I was parked at the bottom of it and forgot how high the back of the lorry I was driving was, I came crashing down on the road and very badly injured my ankle's. I was taken by ambulance to Barnstaple hospital and Carol rushed up in Ants car from Paignton to the hospital the only time she has ever had to worry about me for a change  The old town station   The yearly town market was always held by the station, this is around 1930  The old town station in 1975  How it looks today  Barnstaple Junction on the other side of the river    |
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Post by Dave on Jul 11, 2009 14:29:30 GMT
I will add further to this thread Barton some time later and having a look at one map you put up I see that the old Barnstaple station was a though station that went onto Braunton etc.
Did the train run from Ilfacombe all the way to Bideford and beyond? as I would not imagine engines could be turned around at the Barnstaple station.
Barton you may remember we did a thread some time ago and I posted pictures of the old Bideford bridge, not sure what thread that was now, but one thing that came out was that at one time there was talk way back then about putting a railway line on the bridge.
It never happened but I do believe a line was put on it for wartime use, but getting involved with this thread I now see why that proposal was put forward.
Yesterday while in Bideford I asked Mr Prance of Prance hire who has a shop across the road from the market I have put pictures up on here before, just where Bideford station was.
He told me and as I use the old bridge most times to leave Bidford for Barnstaple(unless I need to go th Bideford Tools next to their football ground) I stopped on the other side and walked up and took a look,
As you will know the station is across the river from the town and the line only crosses the river when it leaves Bideford on the way to Torrington. Therefore it would have made sense to have the trains go over the river at Bideford as it would not have had to cross the river again on its route.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2009 19:35:54 GMT
I'm pretty certain the Halwill Junction to Torrington line was self-contained and that trains passing through Hatherleigh did not run as far as Bideford or Barnstaple. By all accounts most of the passengers were dead rabbits! There was also a fair amount of clay traffic from the Petrockstowe area.
I stand to be corrected but neither do I think there were direct trains from Bideford/Torrington to Ilfracombe. To travel this route would have meant a change at Barnstaple Junction.
Barnstaple Junction - the station that remains open and is now known as Barnstaple - was the town's first station opening as early as 1854. The Town station (initially called Barnstaple Quay) didn't follow until the opening of the bridge and Ilfracombe line in 1874.
I'm assuming services ran up from Exeter and split at Barnstaple Junction for either Ilfracombe or Torrington. I'm not sure if this was always the case for local "stoppers" but certainly trains down from Waterloo had through carriages for both branches with un-coupling happening at Barnstaple Junction.
Looking at an OS map, the lie of the land made for an easier route up the Torridge valley by keeping the track on the east side of the river at Bideford.
The earlier thread about Bideford - probably from around January or February - mentions the entirely separate, short-lived line between Bideford and Westward Ho! which had a terminus on the quayside at Bideford.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 11, 2009 20:23:57 GMT
Thanks Barton, i will change the caption I put on the Barnstaple Junction picture, not knowing I just thought when the town station was closed the other was opened to keep the Taka line running, still seems strange to have two stations so close together, even more so if all the trains set off from Barnstaple Junction.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 12, 2009 16:03:51 GMT
My last contribution of the thread Barton for a while as I hand it back to you to add anything you may want too. here are some more of the old stations shown on both the maps you have put up, some are North Cornwall stations but the lines from North Devon went to them. Ashworth Station  Egloskerry Station 1  Egloskerry Station 2  Hatherleigh Station  Tower Hill Station  Otterham Station 1  Otterham Station 2  Otterham Station 3  Tremmer Station  Petrockstow  Port Isaac Station  Launceston Station 1  Launceston Station 2  Launceston Station 3  Camelford Station 1  Camelford Station 2  Camelford Station 3  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2009 19:06:32 GMT
Brilliant pictures, Dave. Otterham in North Cornwall was one of the highest stations in the South West at over 800 feet above sea level. Also you can still travel over part of the line between Launceston and Egloskerry on the narrow guage Launceston Steam Railway: www.launcestonsr.co.uk The train most associated with these lines was the Atlantic Coast Express which ran down from Waterloo with through carriages to places such as Seaton, Sidmouth, Exmouth, Plymouth, Ilfracombe, Torrington, Bude and Padstow. More about this service at www.atlantic-highway.co.uk/Special-Interest/Atlantic-Coast-Express/Default.aspApparently each coach was either decoupled from the train at the appropriate stop or detached - in motion - as a slip coach. To clarify how this worked, here's the Wiki definition of a slip coach: passenger rolling stock that is uncoupled from an express train while the train is in motion, then slowed by a guard in the coach using a hand brake, bringing it to a stop at the next station. The coach was thus said to be slipped from its train. This allowed passengers to alight at an intermediate station without the main train having to stop, thus improving the journey time of the main train. Well, what do you know? |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jul 12, 2009 19:29:41 GMT
................passenger rolling stock that is uncoupled from an express train while the train is in motion, then slowed by a guard in the coach using a hand brake, bringing it to a stop at the next station. The coach was thus said to be slipped from its train. This allowed passengers to alight at an intermediate station without the main train having to stop, thus improving the journey time of the main train. [/i] Well, what do you know?[/quote] Do it too early and I could see the coach rolling back all the way to the last stop!  I once caught a train that was destined for Moscow from Rotterdam that was using the same method.....................if you wanted the Russian capital but sat in the last carriage you would have to make do with Amsterdam! |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 13, 2009 19:29:08 GMT
Just wanted to add one last picture for now Barton. I think this is such a great picture and shows a Devon railway at its very best and one that is still running steam trains.  |
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