Post-Festive Pot Pourri (3)

Antipodean Adventure Part 1

No 1 son plus wife have enjoyed a trip overseas earlier this month. It was partly work as son was giving a couple of keynote lectures; but the couple took advantage of the business trip expenses to buy a second fare and have a bit of an explore.

Sadly, No 1 son did not seem to be keen oh photographing publis transport, concentrating on the varied city and country scenery available! You can't get the staff, you know!!

But a few pictures formed a useful starter for an fbb blog exploration.

 One of those illustrations was this video.

It shows a freight train (at night, but you may have guessed that!) passing under a footbridge on which stood the brave Mr and Mrs.

This footbridge in fact!

The bridge was frail and ominous signs warned that five persons ONLY should be using it at one time. In addition, the clearance between train and bridge was very small. Also, the train was very noisy indeed. 

'Er indoors was frit!

Here is another picture of said bridge from a nearby "road" for want of a better word.

The sign on the red shed is Moana.

Moana Waialiki is, as we all know, a cartoon character from the Disney stable.

But the footbridge Moana is a community on South Island, New Zealand and a station on the "Midland Line"  (ORANGE).

The line runs from Greymouth to Christchurch and is one of only two routes still open to passengers on the south Island. On the map below only the BLUE lines have a passenger service; GREEN is for freight only.

Anything else is closed or proposed.

Moana lies between Greymouth and Arthurs Pass ...

... the station building is seen above, viewed from the Station House Cafe ...

 

... which looks a good place for grub!

The line is predominantly for freight as in the nighttime train above ...

... but there is one tourist passenger service each way called the TranzAlpine.

In the summer, the consist includes two unglazed standing room only ...

...  observation "wagons".

One of the many highlights of the line is the tunnel through the mountains at Arthurs Pass, also a station en route.

Called the Otira Tunnel ...

... it celebrated its 100th birthday this year.

Wikipedia explains the information given in the video more fully.

A contract to build the tunnel in five years was let to the engineering firm of John McLean and Sons who started at the Otira end in 1908, using the "drill and blast" method. With progress difficult and slow McLeans asked to be relieved from the contract in 1912, and were financially ruined. The government could find no other tenderers, so the work was taken over by the Public Works Department. The breakthrough was on 20 July 1918, but concrete lining took a further three years, and then two more years before the tunnel opened in 1923.

And all the antipodean adventuring twosome could do was stand on a rickety footbridge in the dark!

They were driving in a small camper van and their route took them parallel to the railway tracks over the Arthurs Road Pass.

In case you are wondering about the size of the trains ...

... maybe thinking that New Zealanders must be giant men and women, please note that the tracks are all narrow gauge, more than a foot narrower than standard at 3 feet 6 inches.

Cute?

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Y for "Yellow" Quiz Answers

Rochdale coach company 

Yelloway

Flying Banana at Great

Yarmouth

Yellow buses at

Alexander Northern

Railway signals are NOT amber but

Yellow

Yellow Buses once owned by

R A T P (Paris)

Old Yellow Bee Brand resurrected in

Manchester

Steve Rotherham's Liverpool brand

Metro

Yellow front Blue Line started by

Southern Vectis

Isle of Wight Company    

Westbrook Travel

Yellow coach branded

Western Falcon 

Brighton fruit

Big Lemon

Edie McCredie drove her bus in

Balamory (Tobermory)

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 Next Antipodean blog : Saturday 30th December 

Travelling On Tarka's Train (3)

Journey's End

fbb read the play as part of the "A" Level English course at Northampton Grammar School - but can remember little about it except that the WW1 dugout collapses around the actors at the end of the play. fbb remembers thinking that a collapsing dugout (and rebuilding it for the next performance) would be quite tricky for the play's producer.

Thankfully the fbbs experience of journey's end at Barnstaple threatened no collapse, just a very pleasant lunch in the station caff's garden.

We left our (b)log of the journey at Copplestone, so here, yet again, is the list of possible stops as per the GWR timetable.

Fom Copplestone to Barnstaple, ALL stops are request except Eggesford, which we will get to in due course.

And so to Morchard Road ...

... which is a good 2 1/2 miles from Morchard Bishop. There is an hostelry, The Devonshire Dumpling ...

... once with a much more distinguished pub-like mame ...

... a few cottages and the station just off the main road.

The station buildings are in much better condition than they were (above) in railway ownership ...

... and nature's greenery has improved the experience for the very few passengers requesting a stop.

Lapford ...

... once had a goods yard.

... the hints of which are still there today.

The yard is now home to a "logistics" company.

But with no rail connection, of course.

Eggesford is the last compulsory stop en route, but Eggesford itself is not much more than a hamlet ...

... with an awkward T junction on the roads and a garden centre! Eggesford Barton ...

... and the now-demolished Eggesford House ... 

... were the main reason for station and the somewhat isolated church.

But we see here why the station still exists.

It is the last point at which trains can pass on the single line until the terminus at Barnstaple. The whole signalling process in now electronic using "Tokenless Block Technology". The technical detail is beyond fbb but as his train approached the level crossin there was a strange lavatory chain thingy dangling horizontally from a board ...

... followed by a compulsory stop board with push button.

This the driver pressed to operate the level crossing. A white light called the train into the platform where the driver alighted and unlocked a little cabin ...

... waved cheerily at the arrival from Barnstaple ...

... went into his little box and did exciting electronic things, locked up and off the fbbs trundled.

fbb thinks, once the control of the Exeter signalman is left behind, there are no signalling staff for the Barnstaple line; just stuff controlled from a series of big tin boxes and tall aerials.

And so to Kings Nympton (map, bottom left) ...

... which is even further from its village (map top right).

It is a bit of a craze at the moment. First Bus buys Ensign; GoAhead buys Dartline and Pulhams, AND NOW ...

Stagecoach buys People's Bus

Peoples Bus, started in 2001, operates tendered and school services in the Merseyside Area. The 23 strong fleet seems well cared for in an attractive livery traditionally applied ...

... no swirls, diagonals or huge blobs. It is very refreshing and almost timeless.

The take-over will be from July 9th when operations will transfer to Liverpool's Gillmoss depot..

Over the years, Stagecoach has generally rid itself of schools work and school day commitments, so this seems an odd move to make.

Perhaps the reality will emerge in due course.

Is this the beginnings of a trend of snaffling up oddments just to add volume to an existing business? It comes at a time when all the major groups are cutting or withdrawing their less remunerative services. So why add more of the stuff you have just been dumping?

Maybe fbb is missing something.

 Next Tarka Line blog : Thursday 22nd June 

Travelling On Tarka's Train (2)

How It Is/Was With GWR

Before January 1947, two private railway companies sped westwards from London. By far the biggest was the Great Western and on the above map it showed its routes in red. The thinner black lines were "connecting" services. 

But if you were the Southern Railway, your view was slightly different.

Southern ran trains on the thick black lines and there were a few "connecting" services which were Great Western operated. At Exeter St Davids the two companies met briefly with the Southern crossing over from east to west of the GWR main line.

The SR "Spam Can" (left) will be making for the North Devon holiday resorts whilst the GWR loco will be hurrying off to London town.

Here is another "Spam Can" approaching Exeter at Cowley Bridge junction.

At the same location a GWR express arrives from London.

The location gained a notoriety until a few years ago in suffering from repeated flooding ...

... now de-risked with considerable concrete culvert construction.

Nowadays, all we see juncting at Cowley Bridge is a selection of Exeter's finest (?) DMUs operated by First Rail.

The first station en route to Barnstaple, but served only by Okehampton trains, is Newton St Cyres,

The station actually is at Sweetham about 4/5 of a mile away from the village after which the station is named.

At almost all these stops, he station house is preserved but now in private hands. Newton St Cyres did once have quite a luxurious waiting hut ...

... but now a simple and utilitarian bus shelter is all that is provided.

Next is the first stop served by all trains, Crediton. The station is on the edge of the modern community ...

... so it was good to hear the guard announce buses from outside the station to the town. Stagecoach 5B is the main service to call.

You could have a long wait!

Now that Crediton gets two trains each hour, there must be a case for a proper service from station to town.

The Exeter bound platform is largely unchanged ...

... but the northbound line(s) have lost their original buildings.

But two tracks remain.

A reminder of the train timetable before pressing on.

Next we visit Yeoford.

Just one platform remains at this next request stop. In blue diesel days there were two platforms, two tracks and two rudimentary shelters and signs of a third platform.

Now there is just one platform and not much else!

All trains stop at the Metropolis of Copplestone.

... which has a bit more to offer. There is a shop ...

... now a well-stocked branch of "Central Stores".

And it has its "cross" which isn't a cross.

This 10th century boundary stone marks the meeting place of 3 parishes, Crediton Hamlets, Down St. Mary and Colebrooke. The name Copplestone derives from "Copelan" after the stone. It was first mentioned in a charter of 947 and may have been put up as memorial to Bishop Putta. He was murdered in 906 travelling between Bishop's Taunton and Crediton.Anglo-Saxon decoration of this high quality is very rare in the South West.

The station retains much of its rural character ...

... but with only one platform now pleasantly adorned with some volunteer gardening.

Some will bemoan the lack of big trains to London but this delightful line is a great survivor and passenger numbers continue to grow.

Tomorrow, we will complete the tour; to include a "compulsory" stop with an electronic purpose and one of the least served stations in the UK.

Should you feel a desire to explore, there is a book of walks ...

... published in 2013 but still available on line.

To be concluded.

Snippet

This is a DAF Curtainside 2800 in Eddie Stobart livery. It is produced by Oxford Diecast.

Various dealers have them on sale at about £26. But, yesterday, Hatton's "pre-owned" listing offers the same model at £17.

Not worthy of a blog comment?

Maybe not, BUT at 2030 last evening the web site was offering 102 (one hundred and two) copies of this model, all supposedly pre-owned and just £17 each.

Who would "collect" 102 copies of the same model?

Memories of Victor Meldrew's garden gnomes. With apologies for the asperity!

 Next Tarka Line blog : Wednesday 21st June