Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

With staff controlled sliding doors short platforms are not a problem as door operations can be selective. As I said in an earlier post short platforms would need to be risk assessed and any necessary measures put in place. This could be as simple as only allowing passengers for that station to ride in (say) the first three coaches.

 

As many keep saying The Blackmoor Co will be a separate entity therefore any profit made wont be going to the railway apart from repaying any loan the L&BR Trust are making as mentioned at the members forum, also buying the OSHI is no low financial investment and it would seem doesn't include the land needed for the running line and new station which apparently is a separate purchase, As for getting back to Blackmoor well that seems to be more and more of a pipe dream as the days go by, we would be lucky to see any movement on that in the next 5+ years

 

I do think that we sometimes concentrate on the problems of going forward and forget about the progress that has been made and will, I'm sure, continue to be made.
If we think about how the L & B was closed and dismembered in 1935. Then it lay completely dormant for the next 50 odd years. Now there are trains running at Woody Bay, nearly half the track bed is in safe hands, virtually all the stations are preserved or in use. That is a tribute to so many people over the past few years....and that progress will continue. Not as fast as we may wish, and with bumps along the way, but with the support of many thousands of people world-wide, it is happening, the L&B is being reborn!

 

At least as the line has to be completely rebuilt, including stations, in some cases, extending the platforms, to accommodate 6 coach and a loco, shouldn't be that more work than just re building as it was, and putting signals in suitable places is easier when doing it from scratch, same with building platforms, at least narrow gauge are lower than standard gauge, so footings might not have to be so great, Like many others, i find the multitude of organisations bewildering, this can only lead to strife if things are allowed to get out of hand, just look at what happened over the hill, you certainly don't want similar problems appearing on your railway,
Land purchase and track bed clearance, followed by the physical rebuilding of the railway, Should be one operation, running a railway, is something very different, similar to how the KESR, and RVR operate, the RVR, deal with buying the track bad, do the preparation, but if any active operation is required, its the KESR, supply the trained crews and other staff.

 

I can understand that sentiment, but realistically no heritage railway can survive and progress simply by resting on the laurels of its past achievements.

 

A 1905 Barnstaple newspaper commented: 'The recent additions to the seats on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway are much appreciated, making as they do the journey much more comfortable.'

Presumably this comment refers to cushions of some kind. A man I worked with in the 60s remembered red cushions in use on the line in the 30s, and the late Percy Howell had one of these. They were one and three quarters of an inch deep and extended across the 5ft 6in of a third class compartment. It was covered in LSWR moquette, similar to the replica covering in Bluebell Railway carriages, although whether they were recoverings of the 1905 versions or replacements is not clear. My drawing based on this cushion which came with a provenance of being ex L & B is on p55 of Measured and Drawn.

 

I will add a +1 for seat cushions. I brought my wife along on an Italian rail tour on the fully authentic '100 doors' carriages. After 5 hours on bare wooden slats she said never again on any train unless there is padding on the seats.
I did point out the over the years she has gained some additional padding and insulation but that answer went down like a lead balloon.

 

You were a brave man making that comment.

 

Lets hope Charles Summers and team read the posts on this site. We can go too far with the Victorian experience. Thank you for the tip in the meantime. Maybe take a cushion for the padded wife while I wallow in nostalgia.

 

Some years ago the S&DRT ran a shuttle service at Minehead during one of the WSR Galas using their Peckett and their then recently restored S&DJR First Class Coach 4. I took a ride in this for the experience. The first thing which struck me was how soft and deep the cushions were - I reckoned about 4" . The second thing was - having merely travelled out to station limits and back - how uncomfortable even that short ride was on a 6-wheeled chassis. I wouldn't have wanted to travel even just as far as Dunster and back, let alone all the way from Bath to Wimborne :-(

 

Just for context this is the interior of the coach in question. The preservationist in me marveled at the level of restoration, the husband in me had to keep the peace. 5 hours was a bit of a struggle. These coaches were in normal service in Italy until the late 70's and on some suburban routes as extras until the end of the 80's.

 

For a while we had a Belgian K1 third class coach with wooden seats at the SSN as a supporters' coach. I found it surprisingly comfortable. Like in the Italian picture, the rear was sculpted to fit the curve of your back, it felt almost good for you to sit in it. I did take cushions the first time, but found them unnecessary after a while, despite spending 12 or more hours in them on a long run. It was a bogie vehicle though, that matters.

 

Just reading some of the earlier posts, I thought if it impossible to get a four coach run round loop in at Parracombe, perhaps installing a three coach run round loop, with a small headshunt at the bottom of the loop could be looked at? At the least, it would remove the need to shunt release in low season.

Additionally, where precisely does the land boundary for site purchased by the L&B lie? Is it at the old SR shelter, or is the small field past it part of the site purchased

 

That idea has been looked at and AIUI a detailed proposal was submitted to the Trustees, but it has been rejected.

 

As far as I know the small field is within the land boundary and includes more than in your picture.

 

The site boundary can be gleaned from the plan for the Sec 73 application and shown in the latest Newsletter 78.

 

The L&BR owns the trackbed from Churchtown Bridge (Bridge 65) through the site of "The Bungalow", and then across the small section of trackbed acquired by the purchase of "Ivy Cottage" in 2017. Hence the current land boundary butts-up to the land owned by Court Farm.

 

When the restored Coach 7 first entered service at Woody Bay, I remember suggesting that cushions could be made to improve the comfort, and was told that they had indeed existed in service pre-1935, and that there were plans to provide them again. They are probably about due now...

 

A map showing the land that came with Ivy Cottage is in Magazine 112.

 

Fortuitously in 1908 the L & B Company bought Rooks Gate Cottage when it came up for auction, otherwise there would not be so much land in the area now apparently acquired. to the south of the trackbed. Robert Ralph who rented the cottage (No 72 on the deposited plan accompanying the L & BR Bill in 1894/5, shown here) found the railway diverting the road trebled the distance he had to walk and was eventually taken to Court in 1903 for trespass. In 1912 the cottage was declared unfit for habitation 4 years later and closed. An illustration of what appears to have been the cottage still standing after the concrete hut had replaced the wooden one in about 1928 can be seen in the photograph of the halt in the booklet published in 2004 called 'Parracombe and the Heddon Valley, an unfinished history'. It appears that the linhay shown here as No 76 which was demolished after the line closed was already in the Company's possession in 1908 and used as a store or advertised for rent at different times.