Admiral Halsey
Banned
Great TL so far. Reminds me I need to get my Norfolk and Western sticks with steam TL rebooted.
Alex Richards
Donor
Hmm. I'd say South Wales as a whole seems better off (longer more managed decline of the coal mines, Aber-Carmarthen line, some lines running up into the valleys from the coast), but it sounds like it's essentially a prestige project and connections to England have suffered.
No, just feeling old and grumpy. You're young enough that I basically class the both of you the same.
Random thought but what happened to British Transport Hotels in this timeline? I'm assuming that they were probably mothballed or sold off since they were technically a part of the core business.
That goes to show how skint BR were. I presume BR must have got really short of money to consider that. However, I'm not quite sure about the loading gauge, as the continental one is bigger. The amount of rebuilding required to make them fit, it would be cheaper, easier and more politically viable to build new stock.
Is Network Cymru similar to a region of BR such as Network south east?
Things were very, very tight in the early 1990's.
There would be some potential difficulties with gauge, but the rail buses were quite small as they mainly operated on what was left of the Landesbahnen that the Russians didn't steal in 1945. The West German rail buses used by the UK in the 1950's had no real gauge problems - except for lines like the Burry Port lines. If you look at a VT 2.09 against a modern unit, you'll see how much smaller it is.
Yes, I don't think I'm giving anything away if I said Scotrail is another one.
Sideways
Donor
Thanks. The LEV1 being like this?
This is an interesting TL for me because it's totally outside my area of knowledge, though I'm familiar with a lot of the places so far. Very interesting and informative. Thankyou.
Monday 8th June 2015
Bristol Temple Meads is a very busy station in the mornings, the county formerly known as Avon was one of the second wave of Passenger Transport Executives started in the 1980's along with Cleveland, Southampton/Portsmouth, Lothian and Medway. Different PTE's have had different priorities, but Bristol along with West Yorkshire has spent significantly on Rail and Temple Meads is the centre of it all. As such, it sees 9 million passengers a year, with over a million and a half changing there. Commuter trains flood out to Bath Midland Bridge, on the Avonmouth Outer Loop, the Henbury Loop, to Weston, to Thornbury, to Portishead and in a joint venture with Network Wales to Cardiff Central. Add to this the service to Salisbury down the Wessex Mainline, the trains on the Cross Country route and the Inter City service to London Paddington and you'll see why every one of the 15 platforms is busy.
Of course, there have been a lot of complaints about overcrowding even the purpose built class 157 Super Runners, which are supplemented by some of the original bus seated class 140 Joggers and there is talk of trying to get some 4 coach units for the busiest lines. However, with ongoing talk of electrifying the Great Western mainline beyond Didcot, the PTE has put that idea on hold and as such overcrowding continues. Whilst Avon has now gone, abolished by the Fowler government, the PTE remains and extracts some mirth with its red, blue and white livery and brand name of CUBAMetro.
However, I'm not here to take a trip to Pilning or Mangotsfield, but to get a Cross-Country down to Exeter St Davids. I've partlcularly picked the service I'm getting to get one of the increasingly rare loco-hauled trains rather then the class 155/156 units. The Peaks stopped working this line back in the late 1980's, leaving them to the tender mercies of the ubiquitous class 47 and a variable number of mark 2 coaches. Today, it's a 47 with 6 coaches one of which is a mini-buffet, although it can be up to 10 on a summer Saturday.
They refer to the old LSWR lines west of Exeter as the Withered Arm, but in reality as we head south, it's the ex-GWR lines that have had a lot of the cuts, I settle myself in the mini-buffet coach, where at least I can have some proper tea and toast rather than the instant tea from a trolley. There are only four stops on our trip, which is common for the loco-hauled services, the units stop at a couple more places.
We are checked for signals at Yatton, which used to be a junction station for two lines, both of which had just been shut before the 1964 election. The Clevedon line is long gone, a frequent shuttle bus has replaced it for many years and the alignment has been built on. The Cheddar Valley is mothballed and has been so for a number of years, it briefly had a service during the fuel crisis, but it never attracted the numbers despite the size of Wells. Of course, the lack of railway for Wells from any direction has probably been a key reason why it has become a safe seat for the Liberals.
After passing through the abandoned station of Worle, which has been the subject of some discussion about reopening, we see the Weston-super-Mare branch leave to the West, formerly a loop, the southern section has long been mothballed since Weston was reduced to local station service from Bristol. Our first call is at Bridgwater and then quickly after that at Taunton.
Taunton, is a mere shadow of its former self, it used to have nine platforms, now it has four, the majority of London pass straight through on the line in the centre. The east bay is used for the infrequent Yeovil Town service and the 2 hourly Westbury local service, neither make many stops en route, typical of the tertiary routes that survived. The west bay, however, is separated by a fence because this is the territory of the West Somerset Railway. There is no train in either bay.
The West Somerset is a rather usual thing. It is a combination of a preserved railway, the rather odd "community railway" idea of Fowler and still sees occasional BR service. It operates two trains a day using a class 119 DMU with another two "schools" services during term time. The rest of the time it operates a preserved steam service along a section of the line and on summer Saturdays only there are two BR through trains running non-stop from Taunton to Minehead.
From Taunton, it is non-stop to Exeter, the three open stations on the line are either called at by the slower units or by the truncated Exe Valley service. We start the climb up to Wellington, through, the tunnel and down the bank towards Exeter, passing through the remains of Tiverton Junction which had a very controversial closure in 1993. It is supposed to be demolished and replaced by some passing loops.
We growl our way into Exeter St David's about on time, where I have an extended period to wait before proceeding along the Withered Arm, whilst I could head off to Okehampton in about 30 minutes, I don't fancy hanging around that town for two hours, what I do is head off into Exeter for a decent lunch. Having taken a early lunch, I make my way back to Exeter St Davids and have a look around. Exeter St David's is the busiest station in Devon, narrowly beating Plymouth, although Exeter Central is still the termination point for a lot of trains coming in from Seaton, Sidmouth and Exmouth with only one an hour coming into St Davids and usually continuing either to Barnstaple or Tiverton.
Despite everything, much of the Withered Arm has survived, although some parts of it are virtually in suspended animation in the winter. The service waiting for me is slightly unusual in that it consists of a two coach class 142 Jogger coupled to a class 143 Skipper - there is no interconnection between the two, the Skipper is for Padstow, the Jogger is for Bude, they will separate at Okehampton. It isn't the fastest journey in the world, it will take nearly two and half hours to get to Wadebridge. The train is fairly well filled as the Okehampton carries a fair number of passengers each day, needless to say there are no facilities, not even a toilet on this train. We start off by heading up the Tarka line, although only calling at Crediton and head west at Coleford Junction. We pass through the abandoned station of Bow and make a request stop at North Tawton, there is no request to stop at Sampford Courtney on this journey. On calling at Okehampton, the gripper reminds everyone that this is the Padstow and tells us we have a few minutes to go to the loo.
The Bude section sets off first and we have to wait five minutes for it to clear the block section, we will have to follow it all the way to Halwill Junction that was. We do however go over the majestic Melford viaduct before branching off onto a single track line, the line continues south to Tavistock and Plymouth, but the line between Tavistock and Okehampton only has a single Parliamentary service a week, notoriously only on a Saturday and only southbound.
Not that the rest of arm is much better. Hawill Junction is no more, abandoned in the 1970's in favour of services starting and separating at Okehampton. The service to Barnstaple is merely a twice a day schools service taking the children of Hatherleigh to Okehampton or Torrington using an antiquated 1950's railcar. The Bude becomes a Skipper and runs a mere 4 times a day and the Padstow stops at Wadebridge and also uses the railcar a mere once a day. All that remains at Hawill is a passing loop and a signal box.
Today there are a couple of dozen of us, no one uses the two request stops on the way to Launceston which only remain open because of the poor road network in the area, they fail the Castle criteria by some margin. Most of the passengers get off at Launceston, but a few more get on here, the friendly guard reminds people that there is no toilet but there might be time at Camelford. I'm so used to us gliding through request stops that I am surprised that we stop at Egloskerry,but we don't stop at the other request stop before Camelford. Camelford station is particularly pretty and most passengers get off except for a small group of secondary school children. Most of the children turn out to be going to Delabole, where a couple of passengers get on. There is signs of other activity at Delabole, the old sidings have been restored as slate traffic, albeit only once a fortnight has resumed.
There are two other request stops on the way to Wadebridge and I am surprised that both are used, The inaccurately named Port Isaac Road by the remaining schoolchildren and St Kew Highway by a young couple who wish to board and are going to Padstow, Oddly enough, despite what I thought was a leisurely schedule, we get into Wadebridge on time.
There's enough time for a cream tea before getting on the penultimate train of the day. Which is back to the GW main line at Bodmin Road. This is the normal year round method of getting to Wadebridge and Bodmin and in the summer it can run every hour and is usually provided by a Bubble Car. Today is no except, but we have a lengthy wait at Bodmin General as we reverse there and end up slighly late into Bodmin Road which means I miss my connection.
That's not really a problem, I just have to wait for half an hour and instead of a main-line service to Par and changing, I get one of few dmu services along the mainline, a direct Plymouth-Newquay service on a class 117. These were introduced in order provide direct service for Newquay and Falmouth twice a day to Plymouth. They haven't been that popular as they are all-station stoppers, but at least it saves hanging around a bit more. The Newquay line has a number of "essential request halts" that see around 5-6 passengers a day, like with most services, we have a straight run through to Newquay after leaving the Cornish Main Line at Par.
Tomorrow, at least, I will spend most of my time on one train for the first time in this trip.
Bristol Temple Meads is a very busy station in the mornings, the county formerly known as Avon was one of the second wave of Passenger Transport Executives started in the 1980's along with Cleveland, Southampton/Portsmouth, Lothian and Medway. Different PTE's have had different priorities, but Bristol along with West Yorkshire has spent significantly on Rail and Temple Meads is the centre of it all. As such, it sees 9 million passengers a year, with over a million and a half changing there. Commuter trains flood out to Bath Midland Bridge, on the Avonmouth Outer Loop, the Henbury Loop, to Weston, to Thornbury, to Portishead and in a joint venture with Network Wales to Cardiff Central. Add to this the service to Salisbury down the Wessex Mainline, the trains on the Cross Country route and the Inter City service to London Paddington and you'll see why every one of the 15 platforms is busy.
Of course, there have been a lot of complaints about overcrowding even the purpose built class 157 Super Runners, which are supplemented by some of the original bus seated class 140 Joggers and there is talk of trying to get some 4 coach units for the busiest lines. However, with ongoing talk of electrifying the Great Western mainline beyond Didcot, the PTE has put that idea on hold and as such overcrowding continues. Whilst Avon has now gone, abolished by the Fowler government, the PTE remains and extracts some mirth with its red, blue and white livery and brand name of CUBAMetro.
However, I'm not here to take a trip to Pilning or Mangotsfield, but to get a Cross-Country down to Exeter St Davids. I've partlcularly picked the service I'm getting to get one of the increasingly rare loco-hauled trains rather then the class 155/156 units. The Peaks stopped working this line back in the late 1980's, leaving them to the tender mercies of the ubiquitous class 47 and a variable number of mark 2 coaches. Today, it's a 47 with 6 coaches one of which is a mini-buffet, although it can be up to 10 on a summer Saturday.
They refer to the old LSWR lines west of Exeter as the Withered Arm, but in reality as we head south, it's the ex-GWR lines that have had a lot of the cuts, I settle myself in the mini-buffet coach, where at least I can have some proper tea and toast rather than the instant tea from a trolley. There are only four stops on our trip, which is common for the loco-hauled services, the units stop at a couple more places.
We are checked for signals at Yatton, which used to be a junction station for two lines, both of which had just been shut before the 1964 election. The Clevedon line is long gone, a frequent shuttle bus has replaced it for many years and the alignment has been built on. The Cheddar Valley is mothballed and has been so for a number of years, it briefly had a service during the fuel crisis, but it never attracted the numbers despite the size of Wells. Of course, the lack of railway for Wells from any direction has probably been a key reason why it has become a safe seat for the Liberals.
After passing through the abandoned station of Worle, which has been the subject of some discussion about reopening, we see the Weston-super-Mare branch leave to the West, formerly a loop, the southern section has long been mothballed since Weston was reduced to local station service from Bristol. Our first call is at Bridgwater and then quickly after that at Taunton.
Taunton, is a mere shadow of its former self, it used to have nine platforms, now it has four, the majority of London pass straight through on the line in the centre. The east bay is used for the infrequent Yeovil Town service and the 2 hourly Westbury local service, neither make many stops en route, typical of the tertiary routes that survived. The west bay, however, is separated by a fence because this is the territory of the West Somerset Railway. There is no train in either bay.
The West Somerset is a rather usual thing. It is a combination of a preserved railway, the rather odd "community railway" idea of Fowler and still sees occasional BR service. It operates two trains a day using a class 119 DMU with another two "schools" services during term time. The rest of the time it operates a preserved steam service along a section of the line and on summer Saturdays only there are two BR through trains running non-stop from Taunton to Minehead.
From Taunton, it is non-stop to Exeter, the three open stations on the line are either called at by the slower units or by the truncated Exe Valley service. We start the climb up to Wellington, through, the tunnel and down the bank towards Exeter, passing through the remains of Tiverton Junction which had a very controversial closure in 1993. It is supposed to be demolished and replaced by some passing loops.
We growl our way into Exeter St David's about on time, where I have an extended period to wait before proceeding along the Withered Arm, whilst I could head off to Okehampton in about 30 minutes, I don't fancy hanging around that town for two hours, what I do is head off into Exeter for a decent lunch. Having taken a early lunch, I make my way back to Exeter St Davids and have a look around. Exeter St David's is the busiest station in Devon, narrowly beating Plymouth, although Exeter Central is still the termination point for a lot of trains coming in from Seaton, Sidmouth and Exmouth with only one an hour coming into St Davids and usually continuing either to Barnstaple or Tiverton.
Despite everything, much of the Withered Arm has survived, although some parts of it are virtually in suspended animation in the winter. The service waiting for me is slightly unusual in that it consists of a two coach class 142 Jogger coupled to a class 143 Skipper - there is no interconnection between the two, the Skipper is for Padstow, the Jogger is for Bude, they will separate at Okehampton. It isn't the fastest journey in the world, it will take nearly two and half hours to get to Wadebridge. The train is fairly well filled as the Okehampton carries a fair number of passengers each day, needless to say there are no facilities, not even a toilet on this train. We start off by heading up the Tarka line, although only calling at Crediton and head west at Coleford Junction. We pass through the abandoned station of Bow and make a request stop at North Tawton, there is no request to stop at Sampford Courtney on this journey. On calling at Okehampton, the gripper reminds everyone that this is the Padstow and tells us we have a few minutes to go to the loo.
The Bude section sets off first and we have to wait five minutes for it to clear the block section, we will have to follow it all the way to Halwill Junction that was. We do however go over the majestic Melford viaduct before branching off onto a single track line, the line continues south to Tavistock and Plymouth, but the line between Tavistock and Okehampton only has a single Parliamentary service a week, notoriously only on a Saturday and only southbound.
Not that the rest of arm is much better. Hawill Junction is no more, abandoned in the 1970's in favour of services starting and separating at Okehampton. The service to Barnstaple is merely a twice a day schools service taking the children of Hatherleigh to Okehampton or Torrington using an antiquated 1950's railcar. The Bude becomes a Skipper and runs a mere 4 times a day and the Padstow stops at Wadebridge and also uses the railcar a mere once a day. All that remains at Hawill is a passing loop and a signal box.
Today there are a couple of dozen of us, no one uses the two request stops on the way to Launceston which only remain open because of the poor road network in the area, they fail the Castle criteria by some margin. Most of the passengers get off at Launceston, but a few more get on here, the friendly guard reminds people that there is no toilet but there might be time at Camelford. I'm so used to us gliding through request stops that I am surprised that we stop at Egloskerry,but we don't stop at the other request stop before Camelford. Camelford station is particularly pretty and most passengers get off except for a small group of secondary school children. Most of the children turn out to be going to Delabole, where a couple of passengers get on. There is signs of other activity at Delabole, the old sidings have been restored as slate traffic, albeit only once a fortnight has resumed.
There are two other request stops on the way to Wadebridge and I am surprised that both are used, The inaccurately named Port Isaac Road by the remaining schoolchildren and St Kew Highway by a young couple who wish to board and are going to Padstow, Oddly enough, despite what I thought was a leisurely schedule, we get into Wadebridge on time.
There's enough time for a cream tea before getting on the penultimate train of the day. Which is back to the GW main line at Bodmin Road. This is the normal year round method of getting to Wadebridge and Bodmin and in the summer it can run every hour and is usually provided by a Bubble Car. Today is no except, but we have a lengthy wait at Bodmin General as we reverse there and end up slighly late into Bodmin Road which means I miss my connection.
That's not really a problem, I just have to wait for half an hour and instead of a main-line service to Par and changing, I get one of few dmu services along the mainline, a direct Plymouth-Newquay service on a class 117. These were introduced in order provide direct service for Newquay and Falmouth twice a day to Plymouth. They haven't been that popular as they are all-station stoppers, but at least it saves hanging around a bit more. The Newquay line has a number of "essential request halts" that see around 5-6 passengers a day, like with most services, we have a straight run through to Newquay after leaving the Cornish Main Line at Par.
Tomorrow, at least, I will spend most of my time on one train for the first time in this trip.
Alex Richards
Donor
Interesting, particularly after the discussion we had about some of these lines up at Doncaster.
Also, am I right in thinking there's been an administrative reform that's brought in more Recliffe-Maud ideas there?
Also, am I right in thinking there's been an administrative reform that's brought in more Recliffe-Maud ideas there?
It's amazing how many lines persisted with schools services in very rural area.
No, just some new PTE's.
Great update - I was hoping Cornwall might be covered. Nice to see the line to Padstow is still open.
Are there still passenger services on the Fowey branch from Lostwithiel or is it just clay traffic as today? (I'm modelling the Fowey branch in N at the moment which is why I ask)
Are there still passenger services on the Fowey branch from Lostwithiel or is it just clay traffic as today? (I'm modelling the Fowey branch in N at the moment which is why I ask)
Sideways
Donor
Great update. I'm really enjoying using this timeline to learn about something I don't know about.
157 Sprinter (I'm guessing this was built and the super runner is based on it?)
The 140 might be something like this
Interesting to see two trains that were never mass-produced developed on and in common use, unless these models are significantly different.
The 119 is, I'm guessing, probably the most similar to OTL's, as its the oldest
Looking forward to seeing how this goes.
157 Sprinter (I'm guessing this was built and the super runner is based on it?)
The 140 might be something like this
Interesting to see two trains that were never mass-produced developed on and in common use, unless these models are significantly different.
The 119 is, I'm guessing, probably the most similar to OTL's, as its the oldest
Looking forward to seeing how this goes.
I'm loving this. Nothing in it has disuaded me from the view that Beeching was the greatest civil servant of the post-war era. It's one thing to recognise a serious structural problem; it's another to develop the right solutions and then - particularly in the public sector - to implement them.
The nostalgic in me is rather hoping that Deltics are still running the East Coast Main Line though.
The nostalgic in me is rather hoping that Deltics are still running the East Coast Main Line though.
I second the desire for Deltics. The knock-on effect of this 'creaking BR' (we've all read stories of surviving USSRs, GDRs and even Third Reichs that are coming apart at the seams - it takes a lot more to weave a compelling narrative around the same fate befalling British Rail!) on main line services is going to be interesting, in the Chinese sense. One wonders if InterCity is even in the lexicon.
Only just caught up with this, Iain. A really good read - I particularly like, as others do, the mildly butterflied rolling stock and locos still knocking about, or in some cases leaving the drawing board where they did not.
To make the predictable 'what about teh area i'm from' point, I wonder about the fate of the Woodside and South Croydon Railway. It actually survived Beeching IOTL but only staggered on until 1983, and much of its role is now carried out by Tramlink. The state of the rail network suggests things like Tramlink could have gone one of two ways - either not remotely likely to happen, as there are a lot more little lines fulfilling the roles light rail has stepped in to fill, or actually the opposite - BR can't take the strain, so there's more than OTL [Simon screams forever]. I suspect the former is more likely. Our hero is apparently 'pottering around the railway network' so maybe he'll make it to London at some point. I suspect he'll have to at least pass through. (I was going to demand you save Euston, but the POD - unless you get creative - is ever so slightly too late.)
Anyway, do crack on - this is excellent stuff, even for someone who can only claim to be a rank amateur gricer. I remain convinced that the various implied horror stories in our narrator's experience of the current rolling stock is all a build-up to an epilogue in which he expresses his approval of a comfortable, modern new design known as the 'Parry People Mover'...
This is an excellent read, Iain - I like the thought that's gone into this, especially the variant names for the unPacers and the CUBAMetro livery.
I note that there's apparently wires to Didcot ITTL (which seems an odd place to stop, unless they carry on to Oxford/were intended for freight), but none north of Liverpool & Manchester on the WCML. I can only imagine those services must be interesting in the most Chinese of senses; what's hauling them? Do we even get the Class 86 ITTL?
I wonder where your all-lines rover takes you next.
I note that there's apparently wires to Didcot ITTL (which seems an odd place to stop, unless they carry on to Oxford/were intended for freight), but none north of Liverpool & Manchester on the WCML. I can only imagine those services must be interesting in the most Chinese of senses; what's hauling them? Do we even get the Class 86 ITTL?
I wonder where your all-lines rover takes you next.
Devvy
Donor
Just poking my head in here. Same comments as the rest; excellent story. Personal narrative stories are something I always struggle with, so very pleasant to read (I always get bogged down in specifics of network maps, rolling stock, speeds and track layouts!).
Generally (deep breath) I'd agree with you. BR needed shock therapy and a cull of a lot of lines. I'd argue he went overboard and closed too many, but he was a roads man (and therefore saw things from that point of view), there was significant political interference and I think it was still better then leaving BR as it was.
I think Ian mentioned Intercity a while ago about Crosscountry trains. At work at the moment, but I'm sure it's popped up. The Intercity brand predates Beeching anyhow.
I'm presuming that wires to Didcot (from the GWML point of view) means the Thames Valley commuter lines (Paddington to Oxford/Newbury/Basingstoke) are electrified in some combination, which seems reasonable if what was in OTL the NSE region is some form of PTE (Ian mentioned about more PTEs); PTE would help fund commuter electrification rather then main line electrification.
For the WCML, the line up to Crewe was funded for electrification pre-Beeching as part of the 1950s Modernisation Plan, along with the BR Class 86 (or AL6 pre-TOPS), so the C86 should be safe. The route from Crewe to Scotland was a later addition in 1970s for efficiency (as then no need to change loco, faster times, and more efficient/cheaper operations). If the WCML to Scotland isn't electrified, then I'd presume the ECML wouldn't be; the WCML would have a much better ROI for the remaining line electrification - unless major resignalling occurs on the ECML to allow far faster trains to operate when electrified (can't see that happening here!).
Please continue
Generally (deep breath) I'd agree with you. BR needed shock therapy and a cull of a lot of lines. I'd argue he went overboard and closed too many, but he was a roads man (and therefore saw things from that point of view), there was significant political interference and I think it was still better then leaving BR as it was.
I think Ian mentioned Intercity a while ago about Crosscountry trains. At work at the moment, but I'm sure it's popped up. The Intercity brand predates Beeching anyhow.
I'm presuming that wires to Didcot (from the GWML point of view) means the Thames Valley commuter lines (Paddington to Oxford/Newbury/Basingstoke) are electrified in some combination, which seems reasonable if what was in OTL the NSE region is some form of PTE (Ian mentioned about more PTEs); PTE would help fund commuter electrification rather then main line electrification.
For the WCML, the line up to Crewe was funded for electrification pre-Beeching as part of the 1950s Modernisation Plan, along with the BR Class 86 (or AL6 pre-TOPS), so the C86 should be safe. The route from Crewe to Scotland was a later addition in 1970s for efficiency (as then no need to change loco, faster times, and more efficient/cheaper operations). If the WCML to Scotland isn't electrified, then I'd presume the ECML wouldn't be; the WCML would have a much better ROI for the remaining line electrification - unless major resignalling occurs on the ECML to allow far faster trains to operate when electrified (can't see that happening here!).
Please continue
A lot of Beeching was needed, you've seen how many of the saved lines are struggling, although a couple of updates time we will meet some that are doing very nicely.
The ECML electrification only extends to Peterborough, there are no HST's, a new "Class 5" loco has only just been ordered, so I guess there might be a few Deltics left.
It is, at least until 1990s. Plus as our resident train man Devvy mentioned it was about pre-Beeching.
*Twitch*