Rail Centre's: Exeter

Welcome to the first in (hopefully) an occasional series covering certain UK rail routes and hubs. The "Rail Centre's" series should eventually get linked with a "route survey" series, to give an idea of the look of a route and it's traffic, and some reflection on it's history, this will hopefully let you "virtual railfan" a route travelling between various locations en route.
We have an article on the Exmouth branch and the Exeter to Newton Abbot section of the GWR main line in progress to become the first Route Survey's.
If you have suitable information or photo's to add (especially ones of a historic nature) from this given area, then please feel free to join in.

The city of Exeter is one of the oldest of the UK's cities. It was established as a roman stronghold in 50ad, the Romans built it into a major city and constructed city walls, parts of which survive to this day, to the Romans it was important as the lowest place that the river Exe could be forded safely, this geographical location guaranteed the city's growth and importance through the ages...especially from a transportation viewpoint. More general Exeter history here...

Here's a rail map of Exeter, the GWR route runs North-South through Exeter, following the river Exe valley down towards the sea, the former SR line has to fight it's way down into the valley, using a couple of tunnels. Interestingly both routes used to serve Plymouth, (the SR route has since closed) but at Exeter trains for Plymouth from the two companies could be seen passing each other in opposite directions, as Westbound on the GWR route was geographically south, and on the SR it was geographically north through St David's!


The Bristol & Exeter railway was completed in 1844, and was later to be incorporated into the Great Western Railway (GWR), with which it connected at Bristol, this gave Exeter it's first connection to London.

The London and South Western Railway reached Exeter in 1861, giving Exeter it's second main line to London, the LSWR would become part of the Southern Railway on grouping.

Today's train operators are:

First Great Western:
Operates long distance services From London Paddington to the South West.

Virgin Trains:
Runs long distance services from the North and Midlands to the South West.

Wessex Trains (formerly Wales & West):
Operates the local stopping train services, the Barnstaple and Exmouth branches and "interurban" services to Bristol and South Wales.

South West Trains:
Operates the former SR main line to London Waterloo, some services continue south to Paignton or Plymouth.

EWS:
EWS is the largest non-passenger train operator in the UK, it runs all the mail trains and most freights that pass through Exeter.

Freightliner:
Freightliner is another freight haulier, they have just taken over one traffic flow of Cement to Moorswater in Cornwall.

Connections:
Connecting photo essays are available for:
The Exmouth Branch
Exeter to Newton Abbot

We'll do a rundown of the main locations with some photo's over the following posts.

[ 06. August 2002, 20:52: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

Exeter Central:

We'll make a start with Exeter Central, Central was the LSWR (and then the Southern's) main Exeter station, back in steam days the express trains from London to the south west would be split and merged here to form smaller trains serving the small coastal holiday resorts. Nowadays it is only served by DMU's from South West Trains travelling to London and Wessex train's Exmouth Branch services.

The station platforms are situated in a cut between the prison to the north, and the castle mound to the south, with the city centre beyond that.

This is Exeter Central station, lined up with Queen street at right angles to the tracks and offset slightly to the side.

A South West Trains class 159 arrives in Central from St David's, it is just coming under Queen Street and reaching the top of the steep grade which climbs up through St David's Tunnel. After making it's station stop it will head off towards London Waterloo. The staion buildings are to the left in this picture, the footbridge is above.

Here's a view from the station footbridge with a Wessex trains class 150 unit from Exmouth arriving to head towards St Davids. The spacing between the tracks is due to there having been four tracks here in steam days, the centre tracks were used to release loco's that were bringing in portions of trains via mid-platform crossovers. The top of the castle can be glimpsed in the trees to the right. The station buildings visible here are just offices nowadays, the main entrance building pictured earlier is off scene to the right, lined up with Queen Street behind me.

Here's a view taken at the East end of the station, a Wessex trains class 153 unit is arriving from Exmouth under the new footbridge. The previous footbridge was in poor repair and did not have disabled access.


Additional info 5th August 2002:
There is a really good collection of pictures of Central at the Southern modellers group page on the station. Well recommended!
One note relating to their article, the plans to develop the area of the old goods shed still have not hapenned, and the building survives intact at present.

[ 05. August 2002, 14:10: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

Thank you Martyn, a very nice article! Waiting for the next one now!

 

Thanks Mike, there's lots more to come on this topic, I have lots of shots to add (some still in the camera!) to show some of the other locations covered on the map at the top, and I think there may be some older pics turning up at some point as well! Stay tuned!

 

Right then, before we head down the hill to St David's, lets do a quick trip up the hill to Exmouth Junction...

These next two shots were taken from the platforms at Central of trains arriving from the East, one is a pair of class 159's from London and the other a class 150 from Exmouth.



Slightly further East, a class 159 unit heads for London, the platforms at Central can be glimpsed in the background.


A short way beyond that is St James Park Halt, a tiny little station served by Exmouth trains it's located next to St James' Park, which is the ground of Exeter City Football club.


Turning round from that location you can see the West portal of Blackboy tunnel, which cuts through the last ridge that separates the Exe valley from the Clyst valley.


From above the Eastern portal you get a panoramic view of Exmouth Junction, the yard to the left sees occasional use for engineering trains, at one point it also housed the main concrete works for the Southern Railway, they were a big pioneer of modular construction methods.
The junction itself is at the right of the picture, the Exmouth branch diverges just before the signal box, which controls all the branch signals plus the Waterloo main line between St James Park and Pinhoe (the next station East)
This location was also home to the main steam shed of the Southern in Exeter, though little evidence of that remains.


You can continue on down the Exmouth Branch in your virtual tour by clicking on this link:
Route Survey series: The Exmouth Branch.

[ 05. August 2002, 16:59: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

Well that's as far East as this posting goes, so lets head back to Central and get ready to go down the hill to St David's, which is the main hub of the Exeter area.

This picture looks West from the Queen St Bridge at Central station, looking down the bank as a class 150 unit comes up it. It's just about to pass over a sprung "Escape Track" switch put in to protect against loose freight wagons running back from Central station, unfortunately Central sees no scheduled freight currently.
The open area of car park to the left of the line and the builders yard to the right were formerly goods yards, there are traces of inset track and other remains around that area.
Just out of sight around the bend is St David's tunnel, where the line ducks under the houses in the distance to emerge out of the ridge above St Davids.


Ok then, next we'll have some pics from St Davids. Hope you're enjoying this virtual tour!

[ 04. August 2002, 08:30: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

Here are some pics from the South end of Exeter St Davids station.

A Wessex trains class 158 unit is arriving from the St Thomas direction into platform 5. It's just crossed over the River Exe, the river and the junction in such close proximity to the platform make this a rather tight track layout here, line speeds are 30mph and under.
(Correction: The Up Main into platform 5 {the one that train is on} actually has a 45mph speed limit, it must have a slightly better alignment from the river bridge. Thanks to Leigh Bowen for this bit of info. )
The lines from Central come off their grade at left and enter platforms 1 and 3. Off scene to the right is Exeter signalling centre, which controls trains between Taunton and Paignton, plus Exeter Central.
The platforms at St Davids are numbered slightly strangely, the most Easterly is a bay (non-through) platform pointing North, this is platform 2. The other side of that is platform 1, which is used mainly for Exmouth and Waterloo trains, plus Westbound mail trains. Opposite that are 3 and 4 as an island, 3 is also used by Exmouth and Waterloo trains, and 4 is the main line Westbound (though all the platforms are bi-directional here). Platforms 5 and 6 are on another island, 5 is the East & Nothbound main line and 6 is used for terminating trains and for North and Eastbound mail trains.

Here Great Western's 43002 heads a Plymouth bound express on platform 4 whilst EWS's 67005 waits to follow from platform 1 with a mail train. The Royal Mail facility is ust off to the right of this picture, which is why southbound mail trains use that platform. Unfortunately mail trains through Exeter are due to finish later in the year as Consignia (Royal Mail) is changing it's distribution patterns.

Looking to the left from where that was taken, a London bound mail train is waiting at platform 6, the rear vehicle visibl here is a PCV, Propelling Control Vehicle, converted from an old MU driving car, which allows the train to safely do a long backup move to reach the London terminal.

Looking further left, there is a small yard adjacent to St Davids, these days it mainly gets used to stable and maintain the Wessex trains MU fleet. The walls of the GWR steam shed have been retained in the current maintainence building.
From left to right are a class 143 unit, (these usually work Bristol local trains, but sometimes work this far south, this one was in a www.visitbristol.co.uk paint scheme) a class 158 in the shed, and a class 150 this side of the shed.

A Virgin Voyager unit calls at Platform 5 with a Birmingham bound train, these units will soon take over the majority of the Virgin Crosscountry network from the class 47's and HST's currently in use.

[ 06. August 2002, 21:16: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

<font color="336633">This is an excelent series of posts Martyn

I dont know that much about our own railways so its all news to me, look forward to the next addition </font>

 

Nice pics Alan, those should contrast nicely with my next batch, which all came from the North end of St Davids.

Interesting how the platforms were used differently then, as trains from the Southern could get to more platforms than nowadays, now they can only access the nearest two through tracks to the main entrance (platforms 1 and 3) Some elements of the track layout and the semaphore signalling hung around for quite a while, finally dissapearing in a large re-signalling project in the mid 80's, where Exeter power signal box gradually took over Taunton to Paignton, which sadly finished off hundreds of impressive semaphores

OK here's the first of the next batch...

This is EWS's 66010 heading south through Platform 5 with a single empty clay slurry tank returning to Cornwall, the freights through here aren't usually quite this lightly loaded! This train will have just left Riverside yard.
Note the crossing watchman to the right of the train on Red Cow Crossing. Red cow is named for the Red Cow Inn which is next to one end, and is fairly rare in having a crossing watchman staffing it through most of the day, the road gates are controlled by the signalling system but he can wave pedestrians across, there is often a longer than usual delay here as most trains are approaching fairly slowly (and slowing down) or stopped at the platforms, and multiple trains often cross when the gates are down.


Looking back south towwards the station, a Great Western HST set is in Platform 4, the rear power car is in the new First group paint scheme, which is being nicknamed "barbie" (and worse) by drivers due to the pink stripe!
The towers are for the lifts that used to be for parcels access to the platform, but now provide disabled access, the mail now accesses platform 6 on paved crossings at the south end of the platforms.


Turning back North, here is a Virgin HST set arriving from the north into platform 4. The signallers have used the lowering of the gates to move a Southwest Trains class 159 into the stabling sidings north of the station at the same time, minimising road delays.
SWT and Wessex use a couple of holding sidings to the north of St Davids on the other side of the main line to Riverside yard for holding empty trains laying over between runs.


[ 06. August 2002, 21:18: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

On platform 6 a Bristol bound mail train calls behind EWS's 67007. The 67's are 125mph loco's built in Spain powered by EMD 710 engines.
The warehouse on the right partially burnt down last year, the section seen here was undamaged, but the north end of the wooden structure was destroyed.


Here's a view looking the other way, the blue temporary fencing on the left was where the wooden warehouse ended.
This freight comprises loaded tanks of clay slurry from Cornwall headed by another class 66, it's arrived and been brought to a stand in platform 5 and has just been given the shunt signal to enter Riverside yard. The shunt signal is two white lights next to the red light on the gantry, with RY (for Riverside Yard) displayed in the light box above it (sorry that doesn't come out well on the scan)


My final pic tonight is a London Paddington bound loco hauled service pausing at Platform 5 behind First Great Western's 47816. It is expected that FGW will be able to replace loco hauled services (except for the overnight sleeper) with surplus HST sets by the end of the summer, so 47816 is on borrowed time.

 

The old track layout seems to have been much more restricting in terms of speed, though maybe less restricting in terms of flexibility.

The old river bridge and junction with the southern lines, with the associated horde of curved diamond crossovers must have been a real pain, so todays simplified layout must have improved things somewhat, even if Waterloo & Exmouth trains can only access two platforms.

If anyone is interested in the signalling around Exeter, try these two links:
http://www.psbellamy.com/work.html
http://www.psbellamy.com/exeter.html
These are from a chap who works in the Exeter signalling centre, and has also worked at Exmouth Junction amongst other places. Plenty of interesting pics to let you know what the panels look like. Well reccomended!

[ 06. August 2002, 21:27: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

Lets travel south from St Davids for a little bit, immediately after the Waterloo line diverges at the south end of the platforms at St Davids, the main line crosses two bridges in close succession, the first crosses the River Exe, on a steel bridge, the second crosses the parallel flood channel on a concrete bridge, as seen in these two pics:

A Great Western HST set crosses, St Davids and the river Exe are off to the right in these pics.


Special trains are pretty common through Exeter, here a pair of ex GWR Hall class 4-6-0's cross the flood channel heading for Penzance.


[ 09. August 2002, 16:49: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]