Transport

Okay well, yes I suppose you could say I am a train-spotter! I enjoy travel in many forms, especially driving (Not that I get the chance at the moment). But the main thing I like looking at is preserved railways and the remnants of the railways that Beeching¹ and others closed. One such line is the former line from Exeter to Plymouth via Oakhampton. Originally built by the Plymouth, Devonport & South Western Junction Railway (absorbed into the Southern Railway at Grouping in 1922) The line has been lifted between Meldon Quarry and Bere Alston. Some pictures of the lines associated with this closed route will be included in the gallery of photographs.

 

I have taken rides on three preserved railways so far, the Bluebell, the Kent & East Sussex and the Sittingbourne & Kemsley. Photographs from these lines are also included in the Gallery. Time and finances keep me from the others I would like to try, the Severn, the Dart Valley, North York Moors, Watercress and several others, but as I get to them, so the pictures will appear and reviews of the line and rolling stock will be added.

 

¹  Richard, later Lord Beeching, was the chairman of the British Railways Board (A nationalized industry) in the early sixties. The Government of the day (the Conservatives under Harold McMillan) gave him the job of cost-cutting the railways.  This was done, piecemeal, by shutting down the branch lines that didn't carry the same sort of traffic that the mainlines carried, little realizing, I believe, that he was cutting off the tributaries of his 'river'.  The only good thing to come out of all these closures is the many preservation railways that have re-utilized the disused track bed to run steam trains along. 

 

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