OK folks, as requested! This post is very much about the mundane railway, there's nothing particularly special about the location (these days, anyhow), it wasn't a particularly nice sunny day (in fact, the opposite), and the trains were certainly nothing special, it's just about the railway going about it's normal everyday business....... Here's an overview of the Exmouth Junction area, from where I was photographing. I was on Mount Pleasant Rd in Exeter, and Rachel works at the health centre which is immediately behind me. Appearing beneath the camera is the railway line coming out of Mount Pleasant tunnel on it's climb out of the Exe river valley. This is former Southern railway territory, and Exmouth Junction used to be a big location for them. It was the site of the concrete works where all their pre-fab concrete structures were built, it was the junction of the Exmouth branch from the London-Plymouth main line (hence Exmouth Junction) and also the location of the Southern's loco shed in Exeter, the Southern used to do loco changes at Exeter, and Exmouth Junction shed was home to many Bullied Pacific loco's. That's all in the past however, here is the location today. Exeter Central is behind us, and we're looking straight up the line towards London, since the 1970's this has been regarded as the secondary route to London, it's been partially singled and now has a basic 2 hourly MU only service. Out of sight a mile or two beyond the curve in the distance is Pinhoe station, the start of the first single track section to Honiton. In the middle distance is the junction itself, with the Exmouth branch diverging off to the right, and the signal box just beyond it. There is a class 150 DMU laying over in the siding opposite the box to free up platform space at Exeter Central. A couple of miles down the Exmouth branch is the passing loop on the branch, at Topsham station. Now you know roughly how the area is laid out, I can show you what happened in those 25 minutes...... [ 14 May 2002, 22:01: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
OK, first train. 5.30pm The Exmouth branch train heads past, the signal has returned to danger behind it (shame, the "feather" would have added to the pic somewhat!), and it's just about to "hang a right" onto the Exmouth branch. It's only signalled as far as Topsham station where it will meet the previous service coming back. This is another class 150 unit, operated by Wessex Trains (formerly Wales & West, without the Wales!)
Second Train..... It didn't take very long for that train to get to Topsham, as the next train through was the train it met there, seen here coming off the branch, note the signal has cleared for the main line, that means..... [ 14 May 2002, 21:42: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
...that a third train is coming.... This is a class 159 unit operated by South West Trains, who run the London Waterloo-Exeter line. This train will arrive in London later this evening, after a rather mediocre (time wise) journey across the south of England. A couple of miles away is it's stop at Pinhoe, where it will meet...
...it's opposite number coming from London. At this point it only has to call at Exeter Central before terminating at Exeter St Davids.
The final movement I photographed was almost exactly 25 minutes after the first one... The empty class 150 that had been waiting in the siding all this time is signalled out behind the train from London, here it's crossing over to the correct line (in the UK left hand running is the norm.) I crossed over the road and met Rachel from work, when I came out again at about 6.05pm the next Exmouth branch train was passing.....an so it starts over again.....! Hope you've enjoyed it, I did warn you that it was the mundane, everyday railway... All the best!
Martyn, I love the photographs, and I have always been keen on Passenger travel and equipment. Thanks for the pictures!
Mundane, maybe, but a fascinating picture-story We spent a full day at Exeter St. David's in about 1963, and now I wish we had taken a ride round to Exmouth, as there were large amounts of locomotives stationed there. Am I correct in remembering that there was a steep grade between St. David's and Central, where bankers were used? The bankers would return to St. Davids coupled in front of a train coming in the other direction. Here is a pic of two of the 0-8-0's just arrived coupled ahead of a Bulleid pacific
Nice pic Alan. It's a very nasty little grade between St David's and Central stations, it's made worse by it starting virtually from the platform end at St Davids, so there was no chance of a train getting a run at it, it's all on a fairly sharp curve, and half of it's in a nice damp tunnel. You can see why they needed banking engines based there! The grade mostly eases just as you come in to Central, although the grade itself continues and I think that's the top of it just beyond the signal box in my pics above. Most trains these days have no problems with it, although a freind of mine has a great bit of video of a steam special that stalled on it a few years back, they had to fetch a freight diesel from Riverside yard to push it up to Central. I don't know if they had forgotten that they needed bankers to get long trains up there with steam power!
I had chance to pop down to Exeter Central yesterday and check out the grade, between St David's and Central it's a whopping 1 in 37 (That's a bit under 3% for you US folks ) according to the gradient post at the top, it's level through Central station, and then climbs again, but more gently. I have a photo I'll post when I get chance (my computer is in shops today due to a lightning strike at the weekend !)
1 in 37! How does that compare with the Licky incline, around the same, I think. I travelled up the Lickey in the sixties, behind a Jubilee, IIRC, and we had a 9F as banker (pusher to you Americans) At the same time, sets of Western Region 94xx 0-6-0PT's were also on banking duties. Great days
My guess is it is 1 foot rise over 37 feet run...multiply that out 3 foot up in 111 feet run and that is about 2.8 % Correct me if I am wrong
Hank, those grades are quite short, only a mile or three The one in Exeter is between two stations in the city, so would not be very long. Licky is about three miles IIRC.
Aha! Finally worked out how to do the UK/US grade calculation... UK = 1 in 37 100 divided by 37 US = 2.70% The one in Exeter is probably a little under a mile long, but the major station at the bottom of it meant that trains couldn't get a run at the grade, it starts basically from the platform end! Neither grade is as much of a problem these days, the one in Exeter now sees almost exclusively MU's, which can handle it with ease, and on the Lickey, Bromsgrove station (at the bottom of the grade) was rebuilt to allow non-stopping passenger trains to reach the bottom of the hill at high speed, and with HST's they can hold that speed up the hill. Freights still need banking on occasion though, although I don't believe they have an assigned banking loco at Bromsgrove any more. Just as in the US, modern developements have seen helper districts disappearing!
OK folks, here's Exeter Central, the top of the grade. A pair of Southwest Trains class 159 units are just pulling out with a London Waterloo bound service. The large space between the through platform lines were runround tracks, trains to the west were split here, and the platforms had intermediate signals & crossovers to allow trains to be divided and joined easily, plus loco's changed and the banking engines that Alan photographed added or removed. You can just see the left hand track "fall away" down the grade just beyond the bridges in this picture, but the next photo shows it better. This is a Wessex trains class 150 arriving at Central, where it will terminate and then run forward to the holding siding at Exmouth Junction (it's possible this is the same working as the unit waiting in my first set of pics) The nearest bridge is the station footbridge, and behind that is Queen Street, the tracks go from 1-in-37 to level practically under this bridge. The car park area beyond used to be carriage sidings.
You know Martin, That line is really busy compared to the Ipswich-Felixstowe branchline. You'll find a train (single unit) every 1hr 15 mins, and that's early in the morning for commuters! The journey is approx 10 mins in the car but on these rusty old puddle jumpers, it'll take you 35 mins!
