The Budleigh Salterton Railway’s colourful past
Budleigh
Salterton railway station in action. The branch line between Exmouth and Sidmouth Junction closed in 1967 after 70 years
Can
anyone tell me who owns the copyright for this fine colour photo of Budleigh
Salterton railway station which I’ve just bought?
My fellow-trustees at Fairlynch voted me the job
of reprinting a cha
However our excellent printer Ben Noyes at Copyrite in Exmouth quoted a good
price for an all-colour production, so I’m on the hunt for as many suitable
images as possible.
Wikipedia
provided this drawing of what it describes as a “US-style railroad truck
with journal bearings in journal boxes.” Lots more railway terms that I’ve
never heard of.
I’ve
never considered myself to be a trainspotter. I’m pretty ignorant about bogies,
angle cocks, decapods and all the other things that the true railway nerd lives
for.
But
with the new edition of the railway booklet in mind, my friend Annie and I
decided to visit Agatha Christie’s former home, Greenway, near Paignton. You
can get there by ferry across the River Dart from Dittisham – locals call it
Ditsham – but we decided to go by train.
By real train of course. We took the
diesel from Exmouth to Paignton, and there was the magnificent steam locomotive ‘Dinmore Manor’
no 7820, pictured above, waiting to take us to Churston Station, from where a
shuttle bus delivers you to Greenway.
One of the carriages was even named after my daughter Emily
Useful Wikipedia tells me that it’s a British
Railways locomotive, part of the Manor Class. It is one of nine locomotives
preserved from the class, which originally numbered 30. It’s named after the
ancient 12th century Knights Hospitaller preceptory Dinmore Manor in
Herefordshire, and was built by British Railways in 1950. It was withdrawn from
service in 1965 and moved to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Vale of
Glamorgan, South Wales…
There’s a lot more information there, which I expect
the anoraks know off by heart, but Wikipedia didn’t tell me that the locomotive
has been lent this year until September to the Dartmouth Steam Railway and
River Boat Company.
The train trip was great. Too short, but I’m
looking forward to meeting more steam locomotives in the future.
I thinking I’m going to be regularly blogging
about the old railway in the months ahead.
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