Can freight be brought back to Barnstaple?

[red cuillen]

Been reading the interesting thread about 1960s closures, especially the posts about N Devon lines. So I wondered, given the hammering the A roads get north of the A30, and that most of the lorries seem to be agricultural - (mostly fertiliser?) - could the Barnstaple line accept a freight flow. I'm thinking along the lines of what Highland Spring have done on the HML, or else perhaps bring back into use another platform? We go to Torrington a couple of times a year and can't believe the number of juggernauts, especially around N Tawton.

 

[The Planner]

Been reading the interesting thread about 1960s closures, especially the posts about N Devon lines. So I wondered, given the hammering the A roads get north of the A30, and that most of the lorries seem to be agricultural - (mostly fertiliser?) - could the Barnstaple line accept a freight flow. I'm thinking along the lines of what Highland Spring have done on the HML, or else perhaps bring back into use another platform? We go to Torrington a couple of times a year and can't believe the number of juggernauts, especially around N Tawton.

Where is the freight going to/from? You would need a full train of fertiliser going somewhere to make it viable, a few wagons won't cut it and even then would it be a couple of trains a week tops?

 

[zwk500]

The Barnstaple line faces south at Exeter, so any freight flow would either need to run round in Riverside Yard (cost + length limit) or use the line via Axminster (single track, steep gradients). Then once you have the product at a siding/terminal, it will still need to be distributed to farmers and their fields, with presumably a very similar number of lorries. Given the physical geography in that part of the world, lorries are still going to be hammering the roads, just in a different pattern.
The Highland spring flow was feeding into the existing distribution networks of the supermarkets, moving bulk loads of the product from a single source to the central hubs.

 

[Gloster]

And where do you load or unload it? A look at Google maps suggests that all the old yard is now Tesco’s car park: do you buy that back? Or do you try to squeeze it in somewhere on the approach to the station. It might be possible, but would probably require a lot of earthworks and cost a packet: it might be justifiable if there was a long-term, guaranteed contract involved, but not otherwise.

And you have to fit extra trains in the timetable, which could only be done at night. Cue concerned campaign groups showing pictures of 1000-tonne double-headed trains disturbing their sleep. The days of a Class 31 trundling out at the head of a train of clay opens and vanfits on the 03.05 from Riverside are long gone.

 

[30907]

I am sure that @Cowley will confirm that Lapford was the main fertiliser depot, which lasted into Speedlink days with a trip working from Exeter. I think it has been built on?

I also suspect Barnstaple is a bit far north for distribution - Okehampton might be better.

 

[Cowley]

I am sure that @Cowley will confirm that Lapford was the main fertiliser depot, which lasted into Speedlink days with a trip working from Exeter. I think it has been built on?

I also suspect Barnstaple is a bit far north for distribution - Okehampton might be better.

Yes Lapford was the main producer of fertiliser traffic and although the buildings are still there (the old Ambrosia creamery) they’re in different hands now and not rail connected anyway. That traffic used to head to Barnstaple to run around or be made up into longer trains.

Barnstaple also handled cement traffic and I believe animal feed which would account for some of the Polybulks that you’d see in the yard.

 

[Irascible]

Been reading the interesting thread about 1960s closures, especially the posts about N Devon lines. So I wondered, given the hammering the A roads get north of the A30, and that most of the lorries seem to be agricultural - (mostly fertiliser?) - could the Barnstaple line accept a freight flow. I'm thinking along the lines of what Highland Spring have done on the HML, or else perhaps bring back into use another platform? We go to Torrington a couple of times a year and can't believe the number of juggernauts, especially around N Tawton.

The china clay should never have gone to road - unfortunately nobody wanted to fund upgrading the facilities & stock for it.

Barnstaple yard took all sorts in the 80s, the local freight up there was perculiar & quite entertaining. I'm not sure where you'd put a yard now that everything's been built on, though, and with the increased intensity of the passenger service I can't see where there's space for any distribution service. Al the roads to the area are appalling ( parts of the A39 have to be the most comical A-road in the country ) and that includes the A361 link road, but there's no alternative these days. C'est la vie.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Been reading the interesting thread about 1960s closures, especially the posts about N Devon lines. So I wondered, given the hammering the A roads get north of the A30, and that most of the lorries seem to be agricultural - (mostly fertiliser?) - could the Barnstaple line accept a freight flow. I'm thinking along the lines of what Highland Spring have done on the HML, or else perhaps bring back into use another platform? We go to Torrington a couple of times a year and can't believe the number of juggernauts, especially around N Tawton.

North Tawton is home to Gregory's - a large road haulage firm (founded by the son of a railwayman in the 1920s who spotted the business opportunity).
The road from there to Whiddon Down and the A30 is often full of lorries running 'light' to and from the depot.

 

[Ash Bridge]

I am sure that @Cowley will confirm that Lapford was the main fertiliser depot, which lasted into Speedlink days with a trip working from Exeter. I think it has been built on?

I also suspect Barnstaple is a bit far north for distribution - Okehampton might be better.

That sounds like a fair suggestion, I realise that the former goods shed has been used as YHA accommodation for a good while now but most of the area that was Okehampton goods yard appears to still be vacant albeit more resembling a forest nowadays.

 

[Irascible]

That sounds like a fair suggestion, I realise that the former goods shed has been used as YHA accommodation for a good while now but most of the area that was Okehampton goods yard appears to still be vacant albeit more resembling a forest nowadays.

On the other hand the A30 *is* a fairly good road.

 

[Gloster]

That sounds like a fair suggestion, I realise that the former goods shed has been used as YHA accommodation for a good while now but most of the area that was Okehampton goods yard appears to still be vacant albeit more resembling a forest nowadays.

The problem with Okehampton is that the bridge under the railway on the road to the goods yard is only 10’ 3” clearance. You would be better off using the former loco shed area, although this is now used as a car park, or bringing the old military sidings back into use.

 

[BayPaul]

The problem with Okehampton is that the bridge under the railway on the road to the goods yard is only 10’ 3” clearance. You would be better off using the former loco shed area, although this is now used as a car park, or bringing the old military sidings back into use.

The other problem is that any freight arriving at Okehampton Station has to go by truck down a steep hill and through the very centre of town. To me it sounds much better to send it along the A30.

 

[red cuillen]

thanks all, very interesting