Work in Progress: 13th November

And Now for Something (somewhere) Completely Different…

... but still L&BR business at a closed Southern Railway station.

1.This is Brentor former railway station on the old LSWR route from Exeter-Okehampton-Tavistock-Bere Alston-Plymouth. Brentor old station is between Tavistock and Lydford. An L&B connection here as replica locomotive LYD was named after the river nearby.

The plan today was for all the Thursday Gang volunteers assisted by a few others from Plymouth, Mid and South Devon to all rendezvous at Brentor together with a booked skip lorry to sort and load all the items (especially the heavy awkward signal posts) to be transported for storage in North Devon.

Brentor Station is privately owned and currently up for sale. A previous owner (an L&B Trust member) had accumulated and stored a vast collection of signalling equipment here including a complete lever frame (ex Exmouth Junction) and two lattice and rail signal posts. A deal was done using the L&B’s General Manager's Equipment Fund to purchase these items for future use on our railway.

Please CLICK HERE and make a contribution to the General Manager's Equipment Fund and help allay the cost of these purchases required for the reinstatement of the L&B.

2. Many items had been stored in the old SR concrete sheds. The gang move the equipment to the loading area.

3. Where the signalling equipment is first laid out alongside the skip lorry.

4. The signal posts had been stored on the old cattle loading dock. Some fittings were removed to make transporting them easier.

5. The gang were able enjoy a morning tea/coffee break under the preserved and restored canopy on the former down (Tavistock and Plymouth bound) platform.

6. Brentor station has been well preserved over the years with many original features retained in the SR green livery.

Please note that Brentor Station and the surrounding site is private and any prospective visitors should only visit by appointment with owners and the estate agents.

7. The L&B volunteers enjoy their break on the platform.

Brentor Station stands on the suggested cheaper preferred route of a future reopened railway between Exeter and Plymouth as an alternative to the frequently weather exposed and recently damaged (Feb 2014) route via the Dawlish sea wall. In fact the stormy weather in Devon today had again caused delays to trains due to heavy seas at Dawlish. There was much discussion between all the volunteers topically centering on the obvious sensible option of reopening the line through here one day.

8. The L&B’s own ‘Orange Army’ working today on the old SR route pose for the camera by the surviving up platform shelter at Brentor.

9. The loading of the skip began with a pile of engineering bricks. Your reporter, Nigel (centre), was well pleased as these bricks will be earmarked for further restoration of the platform edging bricks at Chelfham Station.

10. Many hands make light work as the SR Lattice signal post is carefully lifted into the skip.

11. Next to be moved will be the rail built signal post. Andy Foster studies the post as the gang prepares for the lift away from the cattle dock.

12. Don Newnham, Rob Pym and Tony Hill pause for a moment whilst everyone prepares for the final lift into the skip of the rail built signal post.

13. Lunch break time on the platform. The gang look as though they are waiting for a train with Andy checking a railway book with archive pictures of Brentor before the railway here closed.

14. Lindsay Palmer also checks out the original pictures in the book. The trackbed between the platforms was filled in to create a garden area many years ago.

15. After the early lunch the gang carefully loaded all the signalling items into the skip.

16. As the gang await the last few items to stack into the skip, some railway ‘graffiti’ appeared in the dirt at the rear. Warship diesels D838 and D839, we were told, had worked some of the final demolition trains along the Okehampton-Bere Alston route back in 1969.

17. Before the lorry prepared to lift and secure the skip, a suitably correct headboard was placed for the photograph. 8Z68 was the train reporting number for one of those final engineering trains on the route.

We all departed Brentor by 13:30 heading across Devon to reconvene at the L&B’s storage site in North Devon. The skip was unloaded with signal posts and all the other equipment safely stored away ready to be restored and reused in due course.

A special thanks to all the volunteers who helped during the day. Some 18 people had braved the wind and pouring rain to meet at Brentor in order to get the lorry loaded in time.

Words and pictures by Nigel Thompson