A small collection of the last working colliery in the Somerset coalfield, probably just a couple of years before its closure.

Views of the Salisbury to Exeter ex LONDON & SOUTH WESTERN Railway Main line and its various branch lines from the 1960's to the 1990's

The Isle of Wight in the latter days of steam plus the odd electric view from the 1970's

Lines inherited from the GREAT WESTERN railway in Devon concentrating on the old branch lines, mostly now deceased.

THis collection covers the lines inherited from the GWR in CORNWALL back in steam days

This collection covers the ex SOUTHERN railway routes in the 1950's and 1960's west of Exeter most of which have now gone.

Selected extracts from the GWR Service Timetables covering passenger and goods services Section 6 Ashburton Jc to Penzance commencing 22 Sept 1930. The main line section comprises some 75 pages and is really to large to re-produce. However it is intended to put most if not all the branches on the gallery in due course.

On our trips to Cornwall in the early 1990's we invariably stopped for a break at Exeter and were fortunate to catch a few Class 50's and 33's on the Waterloo services before Class 47 and eventually 159 railcars monopolised the service. Various other localities were visited as we passed through and there are (or will be) images from Dawlish, Okehampton, Cowley Bridge and a few other spots. Once again images marked with an s are scanned from slides and the quality is not up to those scanned from prints.

After an absence of 5 years I made a short visit to Cornwall in June to see how things had changed. The stations certainly appear to be cleaner, some re-built and there has been some track re-laying. Railcars however are decrepit the previous fanchisee having appeared to have run them into the ground. The 153's in particular need re-furbishing and the advertising liveries should be done away with particularly as none of the units were working the appropriate branch. 158's are in a mis-match of liveries with 158750 in trans pennine branding! The HST's soldier on but the hideous First group livery does nothing for them. The smartest train is the sleeper still in the superb green Great Western livery.
Freight is struggling, there appear to be only 2 scheduled CDA trips to Fowey and when I was there only the Goonbarrow trip worked. There is one trip from Parkandillack to St Blazey and usually one long distance working. Even the 'silver bullets' for Irvine are suffering, the mts on Tuesday only had 4 tanks with the train filled out by tigers from Cliffe Vale.
The Moorswater workings are even worse, usually only one working per week instead of two and last week the sole weekly train on thursday ran in only one section powered by on hire DRS 66407.
There are plans to build a rubbished fired Power station and a ready mix site in the county which would have to be rail served but the present state of affairs is depressing.
To finish on a bright note the Bodmin & Wenford railway has come a long way since 5 years ago and is well worth a visit.

This collection covers the rest of Cornwalls railway system during the 1990's. Again images prefixed with an s are scanned from slides.

PAR is the best place for train watching in Cornwall. Back in the 90's it was even better with freight trips for the various China Clay facilities working to and from St Blazey yard. Some of these required reversing at Par. Mail trains were serviced at St Blazey involving ecs workings to and from Plymouth and Penzance.
Clay worked through en route to Carne Point and the various long distance freights 2-3 per day worked along east from St Blazey. Some freight variety was added by vans from Bodmin Road, Fuel Oil for Ponsandine and St Blazey Occasionally block loads into St Blazey yard of pipes, waste containers etc could be seen. Finally all the local railcars bedded down for the night at the Depot.
Once again views with an s at the beginning are from slides and therefore the scanning is not as good as from prints.

This gallery and another to cover Par provide expanded coverage of the area in the 1990's. St Blazey is the main MPD in Cornwall and at that time maintained its own stud of Class 37's to cover local china clay workings and some of the longer distance jobs. Class 47 appeared either on parcels or sometimes freight and class 60 had started to appear on the Irvine and Potteries wkgs. Finally a note on the images, if an s appears at the start of the title this denotes it has been scanned from a slide and consequently isn't up to the same quality as those scanned from prints. (The opposite way round to the old days!)
I have increased the file size to give better quality for anyone wishing to puirchase prints from fotopic.

Westbury in the early 1990's was a busy place for freight, especially stone as although the 59's had arrived the era of the 'big train' hadn't quite dawned, 60's were just appearing on the scene and 50's requiring attention often turned up from the Salisbury direction. As the years passed the depot closed and the 33's and 50's went. However 58's began to turn up in ever increasing numbers together with 66's. The 59's were repainted (the original ARC livery was the best ever worn by the 59/66 body type!). Sit back and enjoy; if you want a permanent record then purchase a print!

Lostwithiel is an ancient town at the navigable limit of the River Fowey estruary. It is also the junction for the branch to Carne Point the main China Clay shipping port.

Liskeard is the first major town on the Cornish main line from Plymouth and is also the junction for the branch to Looe. Although no freight facilities remained at Liskeard station, on the Looe branch a line continued from the reversing halt at Coombe Junc to Moorswater. In the early 90's this was the site of an English China Clay Co works proccessing clay piped from a pit up on Bodmin Moor. The steep climb up to the main line meant that loads had to be tripped in 2 sections per train up the serpentine connecting link. This works later closed but after a couple of years was developed as the Blue Circle cement terminal for Cornwall. Freight traffic therefore returned and twice a week vans and PCA's journey down the link. Trains are again worked in 2 sections but this is either due to weight restrictions over the Royal Albert Bridge, or the severity of the grades in Devon over Dainton etc. Originally worked by EWS traffic is now in the hands of Freightliner.
In June 2006 traffic was very sparse sometimes only one section a week running and is now confined to PCA's