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Ron’s travels this time are to the West Country, just about entering the land of the pasty.  Some interesting railway pictures are to come but we’ll start with his starting point, Barnstaple.

To get there, he passed through Yeovil Junction…..

And Exeter St. David’s (pictures from several visits below.)

Ron also visited the smaller Exeter Central station.  I find all those missing tracks rather depressing.

And so, once again, to Barnstaple.  Nice West Country holiday weather, too!

The second set of pictures mainly show two engineers trains passing through Redhill.  One is headed by two Mainline liveried 73’s, the other an interesting double header with a 33 and a 73.

And to close, some hoppers in the sidings.  All sorts of interesting wagons were dropped here on occasion, to be collected by a train on one of the other lines out of Redhill.

It is sobering to think that I took these photos 30 years ago.  And since then many, if not most, of the buildings in the background have been demolished and rebuilt.  Redhill has become a bit like the child who was asked whether he liked living in Hong Kong.  “Yes, but I wish they’d finish building it.”

We moved to Redhill from Camberwell in 1986, and in those days Redhill station was a far more interesting place than it is now.  These pictures were taken in 1990, when I would take the train-mad Michael (age 4) to the station on Saturday morning for an hour or so to watch the trains go by.

Even the Gatwick to Reading DMU’s were fairly interesting!

The best spot of any visit was a 47 in Mainline Intercity livery.  These ran round their train when operating the Brighton to (I think) Newcastle service.  I think this is what is happening here, but with the loco named ‘Royal Mail’, it may be a mail or parcels train!  I always thought that this livery suited the 47’s very well indeed.

Other liveries were available.   A Railfreight Distribution 47 distributing a single wagon southwards.

Another good spot was a handsome red Rail Express Systems loco.

A plain blue 47 shunts parcel stock into the sidings now removed for ‘Platform 0’.

Class 33’s were also regulars.  One is seen above and below in the rather unflattering general grey livery.  Even Network SouthEast toothpaste looked better than this!

Also common were Class 73 electro-diesels.  Here are two again in general grey.  Somewhere I must have pictures of them in their pomp – in Gatwick Express livery.  In the background is a rake of oil tankers, pulled out of the oil distribution depot siding to the south between Earlswood and Redhill.  This facility is now long gone, but the pipework for unloading tankers can still be seen by the track.

Looking at these pictures, apart from the buildings having changed in the background, the big difference is the lack of buddleia and trees that now block this view from the car park. 

Also missing from these pictures (I’m sure I’ve got some shots somewhere) are Class 37’s on the weekly coal train and placing tankers in the siding south of the station.  Plus the interesting selection of EMU’s, including the excellent ‘Jaffa cake’ livery, and MLV’s in Jaffa and also Post Office red running into the mail siding at Redhill.

Simon sent me some good photos of his weekend in a Toad (brake van or caboose to our overseas readers) last weekend…..

A few photos of our stay in a Toad at Northiam last weekend, including a spiffing meal on the Wealden Pullman in an SR boat train diner on Sunday.  The Toad brake wheel seems to have been repurposed as a table.

Good to see Mile’s plaque again.

A few more pictures….

A 4-LAV at Hassocks, near Brighton.

Redhill in 1985….

A few years earlier, an EPB enters Redhill…

Snow at St Helier station and overgrown track on the Lehigh Valley…

And now for the wagons.  Just a photo-dump, really.  Engineers wagons are often an interesting breed, sometimes being old rolling stock, like the ex-SR brake van, and sometimes rebuild, like the Rudd on old hopper wagon chassis.

A Seacow..

Not to be confused with a Sealion!

A Salmon….

Not to be confused with a Brill…

And an unidentified species!

A very shiny Rudd.  New or recently maintained, as it will soon be as dented and rusty as the others!

A Dace…

A Crab….

And a Seal…

A Bass…

Don’t tell them your name, Pike!

A veritable shoal of open wagons….

An interesting one, a Squid.  Is it really this colour, or has all the paint dropped off?

And finally a Flatrol (otherwise known as a Lowmac?)

You could have a lot of fun modelling all of these.  A fair bit of scratch building needed, I suspect.   We’ll move onto the Redhill pictures next.