Mr Fridge goes to Cornwall and Devon

[Busterfridge]

This is my first attempt at writing a report I hope I can get it right

I have been hankering to go to Cornwall & Devon for a long time, its 40 years since I was last there as a kid and can only remember small bits of it, mostly round Exeter & Axminster, so plans were laid last year and accommodation was sorted out.
We booked a house on Brunel quays in Lostwithiel that overlooked the railway station, the view from the dining area looked right out over the platform, Mrs fridge had surpassed herself in finding this house for us to stay in for the week. Central Cornwall, right next to the station and plenty of good pubs in the town serving decent ale (St Austell tribute was my tipple on this trip), co-op round the corner for supplies, friendly locals, I would recommend this to any one travelling down there.

We packed the car and set off from Cumbria and made the journey down breaking it with overnight stops at Worcester & Glastonbury, which allowed for some photo opportunities, was surprised how untidy and scruffy shrub hill station is, but there was the semaphore signals being used to make up for it, but anyway on to Cornwall,
I'd purchased a 3 in 7 railrover for Cornwall and Devon on the Saturday with the intention of starting my travels on the Monday, so sunday was spent exploring the The Bodmin and Wenford railway, a delightful little set up with some wonderful locomotives and carriages, well worth the visit.

DAY 1 MONDAY 19TH MAY : Was up bright and early and was out on the platform of the station at 07:25 photographing 57605 Totnes Castle which was on the Night Riviera, caught the 08:40 to par (150123) which waited at par and turned into the 09:17 par - Newquay service, the journey past St blazey and the climb up the Luxulyan valley onto Goss moor is brilliant and well worth the trip, stayed on at Newquay for the return trip to par passing through stations with wonderful names like 'Roche' and 'Bugle', a wee wait there for the 11:38 service to Penzance, (150123) a busy train with standing room only, never got a seat until Camborne, should have been a 3/4 car instead of 2, had a few minutes at Penzance enough time to grab a sandwich and a coffee before jumping back on to the same train up to St Erth (more semaphores ), This station is absolutely wonderful the work that has been put into it has been tremendous, gives it real character and looks like how a country station should, then it was onto the lightly filled 4 car train to St Ives (150233/150102), this journey is a real gem, through the cuttings and along the coast to St Ives bay, thankfully it was sunny and the views were brilliant, same train back to St Erth, a small wait then my first hst of week, 43086 and 43130 up to Truro, I think these are underrated trains even at 30 odd years old, the sound of the Valenta engine is brilliant, just a shame they can't use their full speed potential to good use in Cornwall, switched platforms at Truro for the journey to Falmouth (150266), pretty uneventful and not a great deal to see, Falmouth docks station is out of the town but close enough if you want photo's of the boats in the harbour, caught the next train back to Truro (150246), a small wait at Truro then an hst (43075 + 43145) back to Lostwithiel for a well earned steak and a pint or 2 at the end of a busy day

Will continue tomorrow...................

 

[Techniquest]

As a veteran trip report writer, I feel experienced enough to comment that you've done a good job with the trip report Certainly I enjoyed the read, and feel the need to comment on a couple of bits:

Shrub Hill does need doing up, as a bit of a local I cannot disagree. Foregate Street was worse until fairly recently, now NR need to get some work done on Shrub Hill although I confess I'm not sure what I'd do first. Putting in lifts would be a good start, we'll be finally getting them soon in Hereford! Yes we're a bit behind the times in this part of the world...

Long drive down from Cumbria to Cornwall, that's for sure! Did you go via Shrewsbury or Birmingham to Worcester?

You had 150123 often enough in day 1!

It's MTUs in HSTs these days not Valentas

Looking forward to the rest of the trip report

 

[Busterfridge]

Thanks for the comments techniquest, had fun writing it looking forward to writing the rest, have spotted some mistakes already, it was 150243 to penzance We went via Birmingham to Worcester, on the way home we went via bridgnorth but that's all in a later post !
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
DAY 2 TUESDAY 20TH MAY
I had planned this one carefully to go to all the places I wanted to, got up early and was back out photographing the night Riviera at 6:30, I just hope this service remains operational, as its a delight to see a diesel with sleeper coaches, back into the house for a bacon and egg breakfast and to fill my sandwich box for the day,
Realtimetrains said there would be a china clay train to Fowey at 07:30 so I piled into car as I had just seen the 66 go past, shot down the road to golant, I'd wanted to get a photo of a train on the embankment with the boats and sea in the foreground, I waited and waited but nothing appeared so I had to give up and get back to lostwithiel and get sorted for the rest of the day, after rechecking realtimetrains I realised that the 66 had come from Fowey not going to boy did I feel like a pillock !!!!
Because the rail rover doesn't start until 9am and the first eastbound train out of Lostwithiel I can use is 10:49, I drove up to Bodmin Parkway to catch the 09:37 XC service to Glasgow, Bodmin parkway is another example of a well kept station that gets the attention it deserves, while I was waiting the lady out of the tea shop in the old signal box came out and watered all the flowers on the station, including all the hanging baskets, where she had a 'Heath Robinson' device for doing so.

Boarded the voyager and found a seat easily, I hate these things, soulless objects, when I was down this neck of the woods 40 years ago, it was all 'peaks' 'westerns' and 'brush 4's' etc, I wish it was so now !
Alighted at Liskeard which is in the process of being renovated and walked across the road to platform 3 which is absolutely magical, kept the way it should be and there waiting for me was bubblecar 153 333 in first great western green and blue, there was only 4 passengers on the train but 4 train staff !!!, I cannot praise this journey enough, the loop out of the station the run down under the viaduct to Coombe junction halt, this station is only stopped at twice a day each way, the train reversed so my seat was switched so I could be facing in the forward direction, the run down the valley is wonderful through the trees beside the stream which soon pans out into the estuary, through little halts like 'St Keyne wishing well halt' 'Sandplace' and 'Causeland', also a couple of stops at the road crossings then into Looe, I could happily have sat all day repeating the journey but I had to get on with the day, so it was back on to the bubblecar for the return journey to Liskeard.

Boarded the 11:08 Manchester xc voyager yuk !, stayed on right through until Totnes, the highlights of this journey was the run through Saltash and onto Brunels wonderful bridge, a wonderful piece of structural engineering, but more of that later, Laira looked empty apart from the odd power car parked up, left the train at Totnes and followed the path to the South Devon Railway, this is another little gem of a preserved railway, unfortunately I didn't have enough time to travel up and down it, i'll save that for a later date, but from what I saw it looks brilliant, took advantage of the fact that 3205 came and went by getting several good photo's, Totnes is an excellent place for photos as there several good vantage points for taking pics on the preserved railway and the mainline, Found a pub in the town to murder another steak, gammon this time !

Boarded the 14:06 hst (43195/43176) back to Plymouth, arriving perfectly in time to catch the 2 car 14:54 to Gunnislake (150101), the first part of this journey is a bit gloomy until the train leaves the mainline at St Budeaux, where it cuts off to the right then immediately dives under the main line then drops down and goes under the 2 bridges, the views from here are fantastic looking up at Brunels masterpiece and the more modern road bridge, the journey then takes you over the Tavy bridge, another fine looking piece of engineering, then at Bere Alston I got out and watched the driver change the points at the reversal so again for the second time that day I changed seats to a forward facing position, Calstock viaduct is magnificent the views both ways up the Tamar valley are fantastic, the train pretty much emptied at Calstock which left about 4 passengers on the train , the climb from Calstock to Gunnislake is brilliant, the train struggled especially the dead stand starts at the road junctions, the views were brilliant, thankfully the weather was brilliant as well, so I went a bit mad with the camera !, I was the only passenger on the first part of the return journey, which was just as good as the outward leg but the train filled up as we got towards Plymouth, jumped platforms there and got the 17:04 to Liskeard 150263, took some more pics around the station then the 17:54 Penzance train (43158/196) to Bodmin to pick up the car, a superb day, highlighting the best that the Cornwall branches have to offer, I would loved to have had more time to explore some of the smaller places but that will have to wait till next time for that !............................part 3 to come !!

 

[Techniquest]

Certainly a wide area covered in one day there! I can't remember much at all of the Gunnislake branch, did that in September 2005 so it's only fair memory isn't too clear now lol.

It is a nice journey to Buckfastleigh, worth doing for sure when you get the chance Looe line is great, agreed. Don't often hear someone call 153s 'bubble cars', usually a term reserved for 121s!

I take it you're enjoying your HST trips, considering they don't go anywhere near Cumbria these days!

 

[Busterfridge]

To me a 153 is a modern day bubble car !!!
Loving the hsts, your right we don't get any up here unfortunately,
There's more to come on the gunnislake branch (are you a mindreader techniquest ?)
Hopefully i'll get part 3 & 4 written tonight when I get in from work

 

[Techniquest]

To me a 153 is a modern day bubble car !!!
Loving the hsts, your right we don't get any up here unfortunately,

Ahhh, fair enough! More familiar with Dog Box and Tin Rocket as nicknames for the 153s

Still, you've got some decently noisy stuff up in Cumbria at least. 37, 68s, 150s, 156s etc...

There's more to come on the gunnislake branch (are you a mindreader techniquest ?)
Hopefully i'll get part 3 & 4 written tonight when I get in from work

You did mention Gunnislake in the previous instalment

Looking forward to the rest of the write-up

 

[Kite159]

Gunnislake is beautiful, although must be one of the slowest lines around, 46 minutes to do 14 miles.

So you had one of the First Great London Midland 153s, amazing vehicles

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Falmouth Docks is ideally placed for accessing the river area with the Maritime museum on one side and then the opposite side brings you to the bay area with Pendennis Castle nearby and the coastal road with very good quality hotels and apartments and two beach areas.

 

[Busterfridge]

DAY 3

A change of plan today, sat the previous night juggling train times so I can do everything I want on my last day using the rover ticket, Drove up to bodmin again and boarded the 10:03 Paddington train (43196/43086), alighted at Plymouth and returned to the terminus platform to catch the 10:54 back to gunnislake !!, broke a golden rule here about doing things again, but I had to I couldn't resist!, the run was the same as the previous day and just as enjoyable, but I won't repeat myself with the details. arrived back at Plymouth on time at 12:30 and was looking forward to one of the highlights of the week, joined the 12:56 departure to Paddington, heading for Exeter.
The previous weeks I had been watching with interest the rebuilding of the sea wall at Dawlish on the Dawlish beach cam and wanted to see it first hand, my original plan was to walk the sea wall from Dawlish warren to Dawlish but that wasn't going to happen as the path along the wall edge was shut to the general public and access along the beach itself had been stopped (and the tide was in)! so my view of it was going to be restricted to looking out of the window from an hst :roll: The journey was a good one, I'd felt all along that the hsts were restricted, but after we left newton abbott the driver opened up with the throttle and the train really got going, I'm not sure what the speed restriction is along the sea wall but I felt that we were doing about 80 !! arrived in Exeter on time, what a shock I got, the last time I was here you could stand at the platform end and watch the trains struggle up the hill to Exeter central, one of my most vivid memories was watching a Saturdays only 2x6 hastings demu slip on the hill, but now new buildings have killed the view !, Did'nt have too long for a good look round, but it has changed alot in 40 years (including the colas 70 that came in), caught the next hst back and positioned myself next to the door so i could get some good 'out the window' shots at dawlish, passed a '150' in the loop at dawlish warren then set off down the wall, hung out of the window and reeled of a whole load of pics which turned out to be excellent (have added a few to this post), on arrival in plymouth i wandered the station looking for photo oppotunities and 2 08 shunters came in with a coach, asked the driver why ? and replied they had turned it via the triangle at laira and were taking it back. caught the next train to bodmin to pick upthe car and hunt out another steak !!. it had been a good few days, the next time i do it i'm going to get a 5/14 railrover so i can cover more and spend more time at some of the places i went to, but overall it was an excellent adventure. there will be another post to add as on the journey home we stayed at bridgnorth and i got to spend a little time on the severn valley line, many thanks for reading and commenting on this its been fun, i'm already planning the next trip, anglia beware i'm hunting your trains, steaks and ale !!! :rolleyes

 

[Techniquest]

Anglia is definitely worth a visit, I recently re-visited after a long time since my last one. Feel free to peruse my trip report on it, which can be found in this section of the forum on the "Techniquest's Sticky Digits Chasing" thread

Why the re-visit to Gunnislake? I don't remember it being THAT good!

The run along the Dawlish Sea Wall is always enjoyable, especially in good weather. Even better in First Class! It's not 80mph along the wall, think the approaches to it are around 60mph with the sea wall section nearer 45 from memory. Could well have changed since the re-build of course!

Going up the hill to Central is not that much fun even on an HST I'm afraid! Did that years back on diversions and I daresay it would have been better with Valentas but meh!

You could do a Ride Cornwall next time to cover everything west of Plymouth, £10 a day which has to be a bargain in anyone's eyes! Plenty of advice on rangers and rovers available here if you need it

Looking forward to seeing how you found the SVR