A Nod To Brent - a friendly thread, filled with frivolity, cream teas and pasties. Longing for the happy days in the South Hams 1947.

[gwrrob]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bgman]

Very nice Rob.

 

Erm..... will you be having a diesel running weekend at Christmas on Brent ?

 

P.Endon

[Limpley Stoker]

 

 

It’s amazing what Rob can rustle up from a piece of old tinfoil.

[Mikkel]

Good stuff Rob. And that bulging mid section is so broad gauge ;-)

[Worsdell forever]

Put Fox bogies on it, paint it Crimson Lake (proper NER not that poor imitation the midland used) and pop it behind one of these...

 

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/north-eastern-railway-1500v-dc-bobo-electric-locomotive-number-8-on-picture-id138599334?k=6&m=138599334&s=612x612&w=0&h=eN5BEU8J5EgqKnNNYg8njguaRx073_jpntIhkkqewhc=

[The Fatadder]

Very nice Rob.

 

Erm..... will you be having a diesel running weekend at Christmas on Brent ?

 

P.Endon

Sounds a good idea

 

Great Western Trains HSTs, a Virgin XC 47 on a set of mk2s, Regional Railways DMUs and a pair of 37s on China clay on its way up country.

 

Sadly most of mine is P4 or I would have a crack at it on my Brent.

 

I keep thinking a rather good might have been layout would be a model of Brent circa 1998 assuming that the South Devon Railway had got the Kingsbridge branch rather than the Ashburton. If I ever build another modern exhibition layout after Wheal Imogen I may well do it....

[Clearwater]

Polzeath?

We were at Mawgam Porth. Route to Cornwall was A303 then A30 which really feels like your following the Bulleids to the coast. To go via the South Devon, we used the A38 which, again to state the obvious, follows the GWR route. Has given the holiday a pleasing symmetry,

 

Lovely trip on the South Devon Railway. As we pulled into the car park, my wife said "we've been here before. I thought you said we hadn't" I hastily clarified that I meant my sons had not visited.... Smaller chap got the idea of hanging out of windows as well! He's looking a bit displeased in the pic below as he'd just been hooshed with steam. He later liked being on the footbridge as the train passed under.

 

If everyone behaves, its Pendon tomorrow!

 

David

 

[Limpley Stoker]

What if the funding for Bulleid’s D16/2 diesel was found for production in 1947, and it was sent through Brent for driver training........

[brianusa]

We were at Mawgam Porth. Route to Cornwall was A303 then A30 which really feels like your following the Bulleids to the coast. To go via the South Devon, we used the A38 which, again to state the obvious, follows the GWR route. Has given the holiday a pleasing symmetry,

 

Lovely trip on the South Devon Railway. As we pulled into the car park, my wife said "we've been here before. I thought you said we hadn't" I hastily clarified that I meant my sons had not visited.... Smaller chap got the idea of hanging out of windows as well! He's looking a bit displeased in the pic below as he'd just been hooshed with steam. He later liked being on the footbridge as the train passed under.

 

If everyone behaves, its Pendon tomorrow!

 

David

 

 

Its amazing what wives remember when you thought they had forgotten!

 

Brian.

[Taz]

Wives never forget anything....

 

Ever....

[Coach bogie]

clearwater

 

Pendon is excellent at the moment with the upstairs fully working. I have been twice in a fortnight it is that good, last to leave on both trips.

 

Whilst in the area, Chinnor is worth a look.

 

Below is Newton Abbot's 5526 being prepared for the pickup goods to Brent and Kingsbridge.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Edited August 18, 2018 by Coach bogie

[gwrrob]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ian]

Wives never forget anything....

 

Ever....

 

Except when it is to their advantage.

[Clearwater]

clearwaterPendon is excellent at the moment with the upstairs fully working. I have been twice in a fortnight it is that good, last to leave on both trips.Whilst in the area, Chinnor is worth a look.Below is Newton Abbot's 5526 being prepared for the pickup goods to Brent and Kingsbridge.IMG_1670.JPGMike Wiltshire

Thanks Mike - good to hear. There was minor disappointment expressed by the sole female member of the party this morning when I mentioned it only opens at 11am...I think a trip to another railway site may stretch the elastic too far!

 

Aren’t many of the coaches from David Geen’s kits?

 

David

[Captain Kernow]

I keep thinking a rather good might have been layout would be a model of Brent circa 1998 assuming that the South Devon Railway had got the Kingsbridge branch rather than the Ashburton. If I ever build another modern exhibition layout after Wheal Imogen I may well do it....

I've often wondered about that and what it would have looked like.

 

My own conclusion is that the main line station would still have closed in 1964 and almost certainly demolished.

 

What I suspect you would have been left with is a ground frame connection to the main line, if you were lucky, with a halt type platform built on the outskirts of the village, where there is perhaps a little more room (maybe where some new housing was built recently). I suspect the main centre of operations would have been at Kingsbridge or elsewhere on the branch. 

 

There would almost certainly have been no service up to Brent in the early years and it's entirely possible that during the time that the top part of the branch wasn't open to heritage operations, that a combination of local politics and lobbying would have caused the A38 dual carriageway to severe the line exactly where it does so now.

 

Given that the-then Dart Valley Railway management didn't absolutely have to cave in to the road lobby at the time (according to a local and informed source I know), then it's just as likely that the motivations to allow the Buckfastleigh to Ashburton section to be given up, could equally have applied to the Avonwick to Brent section. Don't forget, that if the main line station had already closed, with no prospect (at the time) of it ever reopening, then there would have been no particular lure to run steam trains right into Brent.

 

Just as the current WSR management will tell you that the existing Bishops Lydeard to Minehead operation is generally financially successful, it is questionable whether the 'Primrose Line' management would have been able to afford the cost of maintaining a fully operational main line connection, especially in the BR and early privatisation era.

[bgman]

I have been working into the "WEE" hours

 

 

P.Iddle

 

 

[Captain Kernow]

I have been working into the "WEE" hours

 

fullsizeoutput_17b0.jpeg

 

P.Iddle

Ah, those look like examples of the mighty 'Zambezi' urinal!

[Clearwater]

CK

 

I guess the current SDR provides evidence as well given the Totnes station is not part of the mainline station but a walk away. The reality is that most, as did we, visitors arrive by car and a short diversion off the A38 is actually incredibly convenient. If we’d had more time, we’d have spent time at the attractions Owls, Otters etc at either end of the line,visited Buckfast Abbey etc.

 

A good counter example to the rail access point is the Strathspey Railway. Edward and I went at the start of August. He wanted to go on the sleeper train and a bit of research suggested Aviemore would be the ideal place to go to. Cross platform access meant no need for taxis, buses etc and an enjoyable journey. An Swindon built Mogul as motive power too!

 

On Kingsbridge, and I’ve never been, does it get much tourism? In particular, i was wondering given it shares its name with the City in the Kne Follett historical novels whether it’s a particular stop off for American tourists. Obviously those books were all in the future when the decision was taken over preservation.

 

David

[Captain Kernow]

On Kingsbridge, and I’ve never been, does it get much tourism? In particular, i was wondering given it shares its name with the City in the Kne Follett historical novels whether it’s a particular stop off for American tourists. Obviously those books were all in the future when the decision was taken over preservation.

 

I'd say that Kingsbridge gets it's fair share of tourists, but probably nothing like the honey pot that is Dartmouth, but it's a very pleasant little town nonetheless. It's also the nearest town to that centre of second homes and large SUVs, that is Salcombe.

 

Going back to the question of Brent and the Kingsbridge line, I do think we have to put ourselves in the mind set of the 1960s, when railway preservation was not the much bigger business and tourist attraction that it is today, with lines like the SDR, P&DSR and WSR no doubt contributing literally millions of pounds to the local economy.

 

Back then, the road lobby was king and the notion of preserved steam railways was widely dismissed as 'puffer nutters playing trains', with little or nothing to offer the wider public, who much preferred the 'white heat of technology' (aka a Vauxhall Viva or Ford Cortina).

 

I believe that it's much more likely that the scenario I postulated above would have come to pass, with the steam railway faced with a significant bill in the 21st century to pay for a new bridge over the A38 dual carriageway and possibly new bits of formation into Brent.

 

Even the old trackbed just outside the village has now been partially rescinded by the new housing I described above.

 

The only possible glimmer of hope, had the A38 not breached the formation, may have been in terms of the politics of local transport policy in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Let's say that the formation had remained intact to Brent, albeit not generally used and perhaps even with no track on it but 'safeguarded'. When the decision was made to build a new station at Ivybridge (eventually opened in 1994 but on a new site right on the eastern edge of the town), perhaps the decision may have gone in favour of Brent instead, had the joint carrot of a station in the centre of the village plus a 'Smallbrook Jct-style basic halt/interchange with the steam railway been put forward?

[Limpley Stoker]

I have been working into the "WEE" hours

 

fullsizeoutput_17b0.jpeg

 

P.Iddle

Urine with the ‘ in crowd’

[Stubby47]

I'm not sure I could really justify one on Tinner's Forge.

[Clearwater]

I have been working into the "WEE" hours

 

fullsizeoutput_17b0.jpeg

 

P.Iddle

Bet You can’t make that in a wee-ly small scale

[Coach bogie]

Thanks Mike - good to hear. There was minor disappointment expressed by the sole female member of the party this morning when I mentioned it only opens at 11am...I think a trip to another railway site may stretch the elastic too far!

 

Aren’t many of the coaches from David Geen’s kits?

 

David

DG kits do feature, though many pre-date the DG range by many years using the likes of Mallard/Blacksmith, BSL, Westward, Hammond etc. When David announced his intentions, Pendon future proofed their coach requirements and put in a bulk order of DG kits.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[bgman]

Bet You can’t make that in a wee-ly small scale

 

I probably could but I'd end up gettin' bogged down 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by bgman

[The Fatadder]

I've often wondered about that and what it would have looked like.

 

My own conclusion is that the main line station would still have closed in 1964 and almost certainly demolished.

.

My thoughts were along the same line regarding demolition of the station, eventually being replaced on the down platform with a replica.

 

In my mind the goods shed would have formed the railways northern base, with the majority of their facilities at Kingsbridge. The Mainline connection would have been removed, with the branch running straight into the platform (and slips replaced with normal turnouts to the runaround loop. The cattle dock and furthest siding becoming the car park.

 

The up platform would be modernised with a bus shelter, added when reopened in the early 90s in place of Ivybridge.

 

An intrgrated timetable between the Primrose Line and GWT/Wales & West should see a loco and 4 coaches arrive around the same time as stopping trains on the main.

 

All in all a very tempting project. Maybe one day.....